How scary are yellow ballads? The more you watch this comedy, the more poignant it becomes

Han Lu, who was made up of yellow rumors in "Keep You Safe".

Dare to put the anti-yellow rumor on the screen, "Keep You Safe" deserves more attention.

But what is even more "thought-provoking and terrifying" is that the story in the film is still playing out in reality.

When Dapeng started filming "Keep You Safe" in 2021, I am afraid that I could not have imagined that this movie would be withdrawn twice in the future, and it could catch up with several social hot events.

People still remember the pink-haired girl being raped online, and in the past two days, "Soochow University reported a boy's P picture to create a girl's yellow rumor" has appeared on the hot search again.

Some netizens commented: "This is the reality version of "Keep You Safe". ”

"Keep You Safe" Douban score.

In this deserted March period, a movie with a mediocre-sounding name may not easily attract audiences to the theater for it. What's so attractive about that?

This is a story born of rumors. Wei Ping'an (Dapeng), a down-and-out middle-aged man, is a cemetery salesman, and his customer Han Lu (Song Qian) was rumored to be a sitting woman after his death, suffered online violence, and was even almost dug up by graves.

The fluttering rumors converge into heavy online violence, but the film deliberately cracks this heaviness through comedy elements. Since Han Lu has no relatives to help her defend her rights, Wei Pingan chooses to fight for her, iron-hearted to find the source of the rumors and give the world the truth. Along the way, a lot of funny little things happened.

But when we walk out of the theater and see the hot search for women's yellow rumors, who can laugh at it?

Is it enough to ask the truth to deal with yellow rumors?

Everyone hates rumors, has believed them, or may have been trapped by them. As an ordinary person, he also wants to be brave when he sees the road, but hesitates to save his life.

The male protagonist Wei Pingan is "nosy" and always holds grievances for others. The ex-husband of a friend's wife harassed the couple, he couldn't stand it, accidentally kicked the other party infertility, and went to jail for five years.

After being released from prison, he made a living by selling cemeteries live, and he still has a warm heart. When he learned that his deceased client, Han Lu, had been rejected by relatives of the neighbors of the cemetery because of yellow rumors, his first reaction was to refuse.

Before Han Lu died, he said to Wei Pingan: "I will ask you for things in the future." /"Keep You Safe"

"To say that people are not good, you have to have proof, right?" In order to keep his promise to Han Lu, Wei Pingan vowed to find the source of the rumor and persuade the other party not to move the grave.

He asked questions one by one, from the pet store salesperson to the business executives who chatted at the dinner, and then found a "well-spoken" online post, even if he was burdened with the doubts of many people, he had to chase to another city to ask the truth.

Those who were questioned by Wei Pingan often had surprisingly consistent attitudes: "I listened to so-and-so." "It's just a melon, why is it so rigorous?"

Topics related to sex always stimulate people's voyeurism. In the spread of yellow rumors, everyone seems innocent, but in the name of judging morality, they carry out immoral rumors.

Rumors spread in the shadows. /Figureworm Creative

Wei Pingan himself was also subjected to pornographic rumors and online violence, which also created a lot of jokes.

His past deeds first became "slept with brothers and daughters-in-law, and beat brothers", and then became "slept brothers and beat brothers and daughters-in-law".

His behavior of complaining about Han Lu was interpreted as: "He is Bo eyeballs." "She's your client?" You're her 'customer', right? ”

Even, the matter became big, offended the leaders of the cemetery, and he also faced the risk of losing his job.

The film sets a second line, that is, how Wei Pingan's daughter Wei Motong faces the choice of clarifying misunderstandings and self-preservation for her classmates, and raises the question more clearly: If you may have to pay a terrible price for standing up, then should you do it?

Wei Moping wanted to clarify the rumors for his classmates, but was threatened by the rumor-mongers. /"Keep You Safe"

The father-daughter answer is: "Do what you feel is right." ”

Some of the plot is designed a little deliberately, but the echoes everywhere make people feel that the story is just trying to preserve a certain tenderness. At the end of the film, Han Lu booked the "666 gift flower" he wanted most to Wei Pingan in advance, and thanked him for his kindness in the dark, which became the biggest tear point in the film.

Perhaps, rather than exposing the darkness of human nature, the creator of the story wants to believe that there are good people in the world, and good people should have good rewards.

Source: "Keep You Safe" trailer

The comedic elements in the film, as well as the restrained performance of malice, dissipate the heaviness of the story as much as possible, but it also fails to make a deep discussion of the mechanism of rumor-mongering.

Is it enough to ask the truth, especially yellow rumors? "Keep You Safe" has not been exempt from the evaluation of "a taste of the end".

Yellow rumors, where does the destructive power come from?

The inspiration for the movie was the rumor of Hangzhou women's express delivery in 2020, but it hit a series of hot spots when it was released. This only shows how common it is for women to be made into yellow rumors.

Some voices criticizing "Keep You Safe" believe that Han Lu herself is not really tainted, she was rumored, then simply and directly repay her innocence, and the film did not dig deep into why she was made yellow rumors.

In "Sex Education", the heroine was made up by him just because she refused a boy's pursuit.

Admittedly, it is more common in life that there are always details in the victims of rumors that do not meet mainstream expectations, and thus become targets.

It may be dyed pink hair, or it may be wearing cooler clothing, as long as it is not "perfect", the victim and the person defending the victim will face more complex situations.

The film seems to have deliberately left a stain on the male protagonist. Wei Pingan has a previous conviction, is divorced, and has "informal" green hair. Because of his relationship with Han Lu, people suspected that he had a venereal disease, and he deliberately kissed the male chairman who believed in this matter, which was very funny.

Wei Pingan and male chairman. /"Keep You Safe"

From "Pancake Man" to "Keep You Safe", Dapeng's progress is visible to the naked eye.

In 2015, Dapeng's first film "Pancake Man" won 1.15 billion at the box office, but the loose plot stuffed with guest stars and jokes only received a Douban score of 5.8 points.

"Pancake Man" stills

"Sewing Machine Band" is much more mature than its predecessor, but the keywords of "dream" and "feelings" have not touched everyone.

In 2017, Dapeng tried the reality literary film "Auspicious Ruyi" for the first time, focusing the camera on his relatives. The second half's highly experimental deconstruction of the first half is impressive, one has to think about where the boundary between art and reality lies.

By the time of "Keep You Safe", the Douban score was 7.9 points, and the box office exceeded 300 million in 8 days of release, so much so that Dapeng laughed at himself in an interview with Chinanews.com that "the box office is growing backwards, and the reputation is growing."

But just by daring to put the anti-yellow rumors on the screen, "Keep You Safe" deserves more attention.

Dapeng still focuses on the little people, but no longer revolves around the "counterattack" or autobiographical expression, but integrates social issues, and the little people are motivated by a simple sense of justice, which makes the audience resonate with the story more broadly.

"Keep You Safe" trailer

There is not a single yellow joke related to the female body in the film, which is rare in a group of comedies full of vulgar and greasy jokes.

All the jokes related to sex are placed on the male characters. Even Starling, who can say two or three hundred dirty words, has not said a single dirty word related to women. As a film that refutes pornographic rumors for women, it can be said to show full sincerity and respect.

However, it is also a reminder to reflect: Why is it only when women are contaminated with sexual "stains" that it has devastating effects?

Even for a woman like Han Lu who is "perfect" in line with the public's perception, it is too scary for others to make up a sentence that can ruin her reputation.

Wei Ruyi's famous line played by Li Xueqin: "When you say that a woman is a lady sitting on the platform, whether she is or not, she is already there." /"Keep You Safe"

In Zhihu, a girl who underwent minor surgery for an ovarian cyst once asked: "Why is my mother determined not to let others know about this?" The answers I got were almost all because I was afraid that others would spread rumors about "gynecological diseases", "inability to give birth", "disorderly behavior", etc., and people's words were really fearful.

In the final analysis, the root cause of the impact of yellow rumors is the harsh requirements for thousands of years that have only targeted women's chastity, and the prejudice and discrimination against the so-called "unvirginized women" and "dust women".

Perhaps, the fundamental way to crack the yellow rumor is to break the backward concept of female chastity.

When so-called chastity is no longer the only criterion that determines the value of a woman, when people no longer try to judge whether a woman is a "saint" or a "bitch", when society no longer demands the perfection of the victim, then the yellow rumor loses its offensive power.

Don't look at women with colored glasses. /Figureworm Creative

"Keep You Safe" ends at this point: Even if Han Lu is a woman sitting on the stage, so what? As Wei Pingan said: "The people who bury us here are not allowed to have moral flaws? ”

Of course, if the object of online violence is really "flawed", it is another story worth telling. Instead of expecting a "Keep You Safe" to tell it through, we should expect more movies that are as sincere as it.

Although "Keep You Safe" is not a masterpiece, it is not a hit, but it is very sincere. It does not discuss the issue deeply, but the story is complete enough, and justice is done without preaching, just throwing the problem to the audience.

And the audience immersed in the theater for two hours, can be touched inside, then the purpose of the film may have been achieved.

Change is happening. /Weibo screenshot