Wen | cry beans
The film "Under the Bridge" appeared in 1984, which was a hopeful era. Although the rhythm of the film is soothing and soft, it is full of vitality everywhere. Gong Xue contributed the best performance of her career, playing Qin Nan as introverted, reserved, stoic and kind. The beauty of Gong Xue is like a flood of autumn water, the waves are not alarming, and the clouds are always light and the wind is light.
Gong Xue
The film opens with a hustle and bustle of the streets and alleys, and Qin Nan hurried home with two fritters and a cup of soy milk. In the alley where she passed, an old lady with a bamboo pole to dry clothes, an old grandmother with a fan fanning a smoking briquette stove, a mother with a spice spoon to feed her children, two young people reading books on the street, a middle-aged woman knitting sweaters, a woman with a bag ready to go to work, a neighborhood with a vegetable basket to buy vegetables...
Stills from "Under the Bridge"
Clothes rails hung on either side of the house or on the walls, freshly washed clothes and sheets hung, mops were placed by the outdoor sink, woven baskets hung from the windows, and flower pots were placed outside the windows. In a long shot of just over a dozen seconds, a strong breath of life came to the face. The director only used this one shot to explain Qin Nan's living environment, and quickly narrowed the distance between the audience and the image.
After entering the house, Qin Nan put down the breakfast, but the left hand casually took the apron from the top of the hanger, shook it around the body, and then went to the pool to wash vegetables, cut vegetables, scoop rice, push the sewing machine, use the fire chopsticks to clip the honeycomb coal, and then wipe his hands with the apron, take the money to the father, untie the apron to help the father get dressed and buttoned, and then push the sewing machine into the alley to prepare for the stall work.
The camera accurately dispatches to show Qin Nan's series of actions, and the details of each life that we are unaware of are captured by the camera, like a jitter apron, honeycomb coal, and wiping hands with an apron, these unconscious actions present an indescribable beauty under the camera.
Gao Zhihua, a young car repairer, was played by Zhang Tielin, who was not yet a bearded and staring "Emperor Amma", with red lips and white teeth, and a "beauty mole" between his eyebrows. One scene is when he puts the leaking bike tube into the water, finds the bubble-filled leak, glances up unconsciously, and then unscrews the air core.
This "glance" action is very lifelike, we may not have noticed, when we find the problem of a thing, when we start the next move, we will indeed unconsciously look away, but the line of sight does not catch anything, just subconsciously "wandering".
In another scene, Gao Zhihua's friend Xiao Jian came to him and entrusted him with the clothing materials for Qin Nan and asked her to make a shirt for her sister Xiao Yun. During this period, Zhihua put a dirty box on Xiao Jian's tricycle, and then wiped the oil stains on his hands several times with his hands on the clothes, and then opened the buckle of the watch chain with his right hand and closed it again.
If you had come from that era, you would be very familiar with these two actions of Zhihua. Wiping the oil stains with the placket and subconsciously repeatedly turning the watch snap on and off are too life-threatening. A good film is not to let go of any inconspicuous details of life, to restore the visual unconscious beauty of the audience's daily life.
There is also a scene where the female postman brings a letter from Zhihua's sister, Zhihua is repairing the car, his hands are oily, he has to hold the letter with his mouth, and then wipe his hands on the chest of the clothes a few times again, and then open the letter to read.
The design is also very grounded, and the postman did not choose to send a letter on other occasions, but happened to be when Zhihua's hands were dirty. This can be said to be a coincidence, or it can be said not to be a coincidence, because the letter can come at any time. The letter from this inappropriate scenario is more real and convincing.
At the end of the film, Zhihua and Qin Nan sit across the table, and Zhihua says, "Anyway, I understand, and you understand." Qin Nan smiled and lay on the table, rubbing his head back and forth on his arm twice, and his teeth biting his lower lip slightly. The mood of happiness and joy overflowed into words, and the haze that hung over Qin Nan's heart finally dissipated. The film also ends in her slowly raising her head and looking at Zhihua with affection.
The reason why this film has become a classic is inseparable from director Bai Shen's keen observation of life, and he seamlessly embeds these details of life into the entire narrative, and the fireworks conveyed by the images are fascinating and understandable.