"Keep You Safe" is really amazing.
In addition to Stephen Chow's works, it was the first time that a movie could move me with a "tragicomedy style".
There is no doubt that the post-80s director Dapeng is trying to "inherit" Xingye's comedy films, and already has a little "feeling": deconstructing the world from the most simple (child's) perspective, and violently breaking through all the fig leaf of adults.
Wei Pingan's character resembles A Xing, and the ending Easter egg and the scene of Han Lu buying Coke in childhood are also obvious homages to "Kung Fu".
Perhaps the film language of "Keep You Safe" is not as pure as Xing Ye, but the joy and sorrow of the little people he portrays also deeply stung me.
Wei Pingan: The meaning of his insistence is not understood by living people
Wei Pingan, a downtrodden middle-aged man. Occupation: Live streaming cemetery seller.
Family relationship: There is a beautiful ex-wife, a sensible daughter, but they have followed others, the happy man, call him "senior".
The reason why he mixed up so badly was because Wei Pingan was imprisoned for 5 years. The reason why he spent five years in prison was because he made his good brother Qi rich. After being released from prison, Wei Pingan could not find a job, so he could only sell the cemetery with his brother.
Wei Pingan is "nothing", but many details in the film lay the groundwork for his "extraordinary" (which is also similar to Ah Xing):
Nostalgia - he drove an old Mercedes, which was the "war fruit" of his business before he went to prison. With the nickname of "Broken-tailed Tiger in Ji'an" and driving a big run, he speculated that before he was imprisoned, he was also a well-known figure in Ji'an.
Stubbornness - his daughter's violin concert was late and was not allowed in, he climbed the drain pipe and climbed to the second floor.
What a line - his hut is quite broken, but it hangs the pennant of the cemetery sales champion.
Nosy - in the era of "live broadcasting", people who could still beat people and go to prison for their brothers were almost extinct.
It is precisely because of these characteristics that when "digging a customer's grave" happens to him, Wei Pingan will say "disagree".
The customer's name is Han Lu, a beautiful white-collar worker in Shenzhen, and her brain tumor died. After his death, he donated 1.38 million yuan to the welfare home, because it was too hot, and was "sat on the stage" by rumors that rubbed traffic.
It was just a rumor, but it angered Han Lu's ex-boyfriend's sister - this boyfriend also died, his grave is in 305, Han Lu loves him deeply, so he bought 306 "next door".
Hearing that his brother's ex-girlfriend once sat on the stage, the eldest sister angrily asked to dig the grave - on the grounds that the "sitting on the platform" had broken the family feng shui, threatening the grave to remove Han Lu's grave.
Han Lu has no relatives and no reason, and among the living people he knows, only Wei Pingan.
Wei Pingan believes that customers should not be dug up because they have moral flaws. In addition, Wei Ping'an judged that the fact of "sitting on the stage" was false based on the impression of selling tombs, so he asked Sister 305 to give him 4 days and began the road of "thousands of miles to refute rumors".
It's really a rumor-mongering mouth, refuting rumors and running off legs.
From the owner of the pet shop to the one who handed out flyers, from the chairman of the group to the gangster in the Internet café, from Ji'an to Inner Mongolia, Wei Pingan broke his leg.
But the terrible fact that "everyone can talk nonsense without being responsible" makes it more and more difficult for a more genuine person like Wei Pingan to let go.
Once a person like him is more real, ten cows will not be able to pull back.
As a result, the legend of "the green-haired male temple grabbed the ashes, and the cemetery brother refuted rumors".
The "Wei Pingan" created by Dapeng is brutal, rough and true. His brute, coarse, and true set off the meticulousness, numbness, and follow-up of others.
For example, her sister Wei Ruyi said, "What is the use of you refuting this rumor?" When everyone said that Han Lu was sitting on the stage, it didn't matter whether she really sat on the stage or not. ”
For example, an Internet celebrity analyzed that his monastery grabbed ashes in order to "grab traffic" and "black and red".
For example, the chairman thinks that he helps Han Lu because he and Han Lu have a leg.
For example, Lao Qi asked him: Since there is really no family, then we dug it for her, who can know? What are you doing here
Wei Pingan played half his life to refute the rumors, but what stung was that everyone felt that the truth was not important.
In this world, being a "true and kind person" is often more difficult than ascending to heaven.
The meaning of Wei Pingan's insistence, in addition to his daughter, and the dead Han Lu who sent him 666 fireworks... Living people do not understand.
Qi Zhifu: The "wise man" in reality, people have a conscience
From "Dicky Man", "Pancake Man" to "Sewing Machine Band", Dapeng has been trying to tell "little character stories", which has made him more and more experienced in character shaping, and his character is closer and closer to reality.
Qi Zhifu is a small person with a "strong sense of reality".
Lao Qi married a second-married wife, and his wife's ex-husband came to the house every day to make trouble, eat and drink, get drunk and let him memorize the "Master Departure Table", and let a "representative" sleep with him... So, Lao Qi slept with his wife and ex-husband a total of sixteen times [covering his face].
For the seventeenth time, the good brother Wei Pingan stood up for his brother and beat up his "ex-husband", so he went to prison.
That's why Qi Zhifu, as Wei Pingan's leader, whispered to him - he really owed this brother.
Qi Zhifu is very intimidating, but he has his "way of survival", that is, forbearance.
The wife's ex-husband came to make trouble, although the face was damaged, but endure it to win the wife's heart. In the unit, he endured until his superiors entered the soil, and he became a manager ... Therefore, Lao Qi is also a smart person.
Of course, Qi Zhifu also has a conscience.
Wei Ping'an went to the monastery to grab the urn, but was stopped, and it was Lao Qi who knocked the man unconscious and asked Wei Ping'an to run quickly - although he could not understand why Wei Ping'an was always a "hero", but at the critical moment, he could achieve "unconditional support".
All the starting points of Lao Qi are to "survive", which is the real survival of small people and weak people in reality.
When watching "Kung Fu" that year, some people analyzed that "Little Fat" and A Xing were one person.
When Xiao Fat and A Xing went to the Pig Cage City Walled City to look for trouble, Xiao Fat represented the one who was kind in nature, clear and stupid.
In "Keep You Safe", Lao Qi's existence is similar to Xiao Chuan - Qi Zhifu is Wei Pingan's other self in reality, and he has compromised with reality.
Because of Lao Qi's existence, Wei Pingan could survive in reality. Because there is a compromise half, the other half can become a hero.
Wei Grinding: A person's kindness is a person's wound facing the world
Wei Motong is Wei Pingan's daughter, a little girl who obediently lives with her mother and stepfather, but deeply loves, adores, and understands her own father.
Wei Motong and Wei Pingan encountered something "testing humanity" at the same time - she witnessed a school bully planting a classmate, she wanted to help that classmate, but was threatened: if she said it, the "ugly thing" of her birthmark on half of her leg would be known to the whole school.
Before Wei Mo made up his mind, the conversation with his father was really wonderful:
Daughter: "What will happen if you don't help Han Lu?" ”
Dad: "I don't think I'm good." ”
Daughter: "Me too, I feel bad. ”
Dad: "Although I hope you are well, I can't bear it..."
The father and daughter encouraged each other: "The blade of the sword is sharpened" and "The fragrance of plum blossoms comes from the bitter cold". The same values, the same heart, although you can't live together, but it is also the most beautiful father-daughter relationship in the world!
Wei Motong was retaliated against for coming forward, and school bullies blocked her toilet and recorded videos, exposing her legs covered with birthmarks.
The video of Wei Motong grabbing her hair, tying her hands, and humiliating her bare calves is poking — if she hadn't chosen to be "kind" and save that classmate's reputation, she wouldn't have been hurt.
Whether adults or children, as long as a person is kind, she is destined to face the world's harm to her.
But the next Wei Motong's reaction is the reason why I like Dapeng movies - small people can be bullied, but they will never fall down easily. When Wei Pingan saw the video and went crazy, his daughter told him:
"We are not wrong, I have no regrets."
Wei Motong, who never wore a skirt, cut off his trouser legs: "Tomorrow, I'll go to school like this." ”
She is strong enough to tell her dad that although she paid the price, she also got the results she wanted:
"This time, the school will take this matter seriously."
After suffering such a big blow, she still has the ability to think independently and wisely, she said:
"Do what you feel is right."
Wei Motong found this little actor very well. Wang Shengdi, this young actor who has played "Life Events", "My Sister" and "Hidden Corner", played Wei Mo's strength of "growing up in an instant" vividly.
"Keep You Safe" is based on Qingqi, it tells the story of "a dead man who is raped by the Internet, almost digging a grave, and is saved by a living person who has not yet lost his conscience". It is said that director Dapeng and screenwriter Su Biao were inspired by a news in 2022 (a girl was photographed and made a rumor when she picked up the courier).
The film puts "Internet violence" and "school violence" together, mirrors each other, deeply excavates the "weakness of human nature" behind it, and uses exaggeration, metaphor and other methods to express his views firmly - behind the Internet violence is collective unconscious bullying, the amplification of ugliness and distortion of human nature, more people must sober up, seek truth and be pragmatic, and take responsibility and bear the consequences for their words and deeds.
Unlike some brainless comedies in recent years, "Keep You Safe" has a good story that is larger than comedy. Dapeng had a tough attitude and made a masculine, direct, and sharp statement about the incident, and it was by no means a disease-free moan. It is also moving, sunny, and arguably one of the few films in recent years that can "sting the audience with pure humanity and moving the audience with humanity" - in the film, if you have been stung by reality 10 times, you have been warmed by "little people" 11 times.
Although Wei Ping'an was poor, the "cheerleaders" behind him grew stronger and stronger: Qi Zhifu, Wei Motong, Wei Ruyi, Han Lu, and Feng Zong, who was later impressed by Wei Pingan. Even Wei Pingan's ex-wife, and his ex-wife's current husband, silently remembered his good in their hearts - if a "little person" could live like Wei Pingan, he would also become a "big man".