Shortlisted for the best actor and actress of this year's Golden Horse Awards, "Narrow Road Dust" directed by Lin Sen, the plot describes the epidemic sweeping Hong Kong in early 2020, the economy is suspended, and immigration is surging. Narrow brother (Zhang Jicong) is restrained and down-to-earth, takes care of his mother alone, and runs a small cleaning company; Candy is young and smart, raising his seven-year-old daughter Xiaozhu alone, and working everywhere to make a living. In a difficult and chaotic year, the two met, worked hard to run a business together, and ignited their hopes for the future because of each other. However, an unintentional mistake turned everything that was hard work into nothing...
The author is fortunate to be the first to watch "Narrow Road Dust" at the Golden Horse Film Festival, which is undoubtedly happy, for me he is not only a film that reflects the epidemic era, but also a movie that tells that no matter how bad the world is, no matter how cold people's hearts are, we can still maintain goodwill. In the film, Brother Narrow covers up and forgives Candy again and again, and others may not think that he is worth it, but the movie also takes us to see the difficulty of life from another angle, and the possibility of Candy's attempt to get better. Narrow Brother's mother wants to use an electric pot to steam the mask to reuse, a pair of parents on the road saw that the child's mask fell on the ground and was dirty and threw it away for a new one, the film occasionally mentioned that someone can go abroad to emigrate, but Narrow Brother and Candy can only sit in a sad city, the irony of the two comparisons is about to come out, and it also opens Narrow Brother's compassion for Candy.
Candy, who returned to work, is not only active and diligent, but also temporarily broke off her previous habit of stealing, but her daughter's greedy play eventually led to the collapse of Narrow Brother's company, which she did not expect. The film chooses to insert a major twist when Brother Narrow wants to confess to Candy, which not only makes the two stunned, but also slightly stunned the audience. What is stunned is not that the director abruptly interrupts the possible romantic scene (regardless of Candy's answer being yes or no) and moves the plot in a depressing direction, but that Candy can explain it later, but chooses to apologize only with sorry.
Remember that when Candy was questioned by Brother Narrow for stealing a guest's mask, she still said with a straight face:
"Don't you have to raise children, don't you have to live?"
But this time the use of fake detergent caused Brother Narrow to go to court, she knew that she was unreasonable, of course, she was unreasonable to make any rebuttal for herself, she didn't want to go in a good direction (picked up the gold watch and wanted to hide it and then return it to the owner), and there were other stains, causing Brother Narrow to be disappointed and look down on herself, so she no longer made any clarifications, and did not want Brother Narrow to give herself a second chance because of sympathy or love.
Until Brother Narrow accidentally met Candy, who was working at an Internet café with Xiaozhu, he finally found the truth at that time, the misunderstanding was released, and the two could finally move forward again! At this time, Brother Narrow's lines to Candy are undoubtedly quite powerful and touching:
"We are all a speck of dust, maybe God can't see it, but it doesn't matter, we can see each other!"
Using the dust as a metaphor for the two is undoubtedly appropriate, the narrow brother who lost his mother, and Candy, who lives alone with his daughter, worked hard to settle down in a corner of the city, struggling to earn money but was finally consumed by reality, but because the two sides saw each other, or the narrow brother understood the difficulties of Candy's life and had a heart to go up, or Candy comforted the pain of the loss of the narrow brother, the emotion of foaming at each other and supporting each other has gone beyond the simple love of men and women, and echoes the lines of another movie "Lucky is Me":
"Isn't being a man mean that you help me, I help you?!"
In the process of the two helping each other, the film arrives in a non-didactic tone and a non-sensational narrative, telling the story of small people in this era of the big epidemic with clear layers and touching people's hearts. The male and female protagonists Zhang Jicong and Yuan Lilin, who were shortlisted for the Golden Horse Award for the first time, indeed showed excellent tacit understanding and solid performance skills, and they were well deserved. Initially considered by the director to be not confident enough, Yuan Lilin, who was a little nervous, the director tried to put her nervous personality into the movie, coupled with Yuan's thorough thinking about the role itself, but gradually saw her progress and dedication. In the film, we see that her performance is like eating sugar cane, fierce and soft, can be collected and released, and the queen of being shortlisted for the Golden Horse Film is the best affirmation. (Today's headline: Film critics Mtalk)
The actor Zhang Jicong used to be known for his comedy performances of licorice characters, but "Narrow Road Dust" really lets us see a different Zhang Jicong, people often say that a good actor always meets a good role in his life, and the narrow brother in the film is undoubtedly the role that makes Zhang Jicong shine! He not only has to act very well, joy and anger, sadness to receive, but also to interpret the dark tide under the calm and waveless surface, Zhang Jicong through his own acting skills, let us from sympathy, empathy to respect and admiration for the role, no matter from the actor's own breakthrough, fit with the role and leading the opponent into the play, he is worthy of a Golden Horse actor throne! I sincerely hope that the Golden Horse Award film on 11/19, Cong Ge can win the gold successfully! Text/Pursuit