No matter how Jackie Chan and Dragon and Tiger martial artists, no one's downhill path is difficult

"Martyr in his twilight years, strong heart" is very appropriate for Jackie Chan, although he is getting older, he still maintains a stable frequency of films, and people can always see him in the trailer of the new film. He said that everyone hopes to see him, he will always have the motivation to shoot, but on the other hand, why not himself who can't give up his film career?

The new film "Dragon Horse Spirit" was released on April 7, Jackie Chan's birthday, the film tells the story of a dragon and tiger warrior who was thrown to the edge by the tide of the times, but due to the high similarity with his personal career and the strong personal color that belongs to Jackie Chan, this film still seems to be a microcosm of his own life and an affectionate look back on the past glory years.

Before the movie started, Jackie Chan's old injury recurred. In order not to affect others, he ignored the doctor's objections and entered the crew under the guise of closure. However, due to the intense action, it was originally able to manage the amount of half a year, and it was used up in 20 days. He knew it was an overdraft and was even mentally prepared, "This may be the last hit." ”

This sentence is very similar to his description of the profession of dragon and tiger martial artist - "there is no tomorrow today".

There is no tomorrow today, so treat each day as if it were the last day;

There is no tomorrow today, so make one less film, and treat each one as the last.

Some people say, it's 2023, who wants to watch Jackie Chan?

But not everyone thinks so, especially those "old guys" who also feel that they are a little out of step with the times, everyone watches Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan movies, as if watching intangible cultural heritage, it is his seemingly outdated things - fist-to-flesh fights, funny bridges that are no longer novel... Shining with the brilliance of the old times, it can instantly pull people back to the time when they were in their prime or youthful ignorance.

For Jackie Chan, film is the carrier of his dignity and glory, and it is also a dream factory that allows him to fully express himself and make up for his realistic regrets, where the lonely can wear medals, the broken can become complete, and those that are not seen and difficult to repair can be fulfilled.

The loneliness and stubbornness of the dragon and tiger martial artist

"Dragon and Tiger Martial Master" comes from Cantonese opera, referring to a martial artist who specializes in martial arts. It's a faceless profession and a high-risk profession that plays with your life. In the film industry, dragon and tiger warriors are mainly responsible for the stand-in work of action scenes, jumping off buildings, falling tables, hitting walls, common meals, dislocations, fractures, burns, commonplace.

All spirits are the product of material, and behind the bravery and strength is actually the helplessness of a group of rough people forced to make a living, the rudimentary props, the lack of protective measures, the limitations of shooting techniques and the universal values that do not take people seriously.

To put it bluntly, if you don't play with your life, you won't eat, and if you do it, you can not only get money, but also get respect and praise, be bold enough, and do your actions beautifully enough, others can obey you. In the film, the sentence that Lao Luo, played by Jackie Chan, threw to his wife when he left home - "Hundreds of brothers are waiting for me to start working!" "It seems to be expressing that you can't help yourself, but in fact, you also show a sense of pride.

In short, the limitations of the times and the difficulty of life jointly contribute to the high risk of dragon and tiger martial artists, but at the same time, it also stimulates the energy of people themselves and amplifies the sense of strength of individuals. The process of challenging the limits of the dragon and tiger warriors again and again is also the process of expanding the boundaries and reaching the peak experience again and again, although it is unavoidable, but it can also be enjoyed. Moreover, it was their "don't want to die" that forged the glory of Hong Kong action films in the 80s and 90s to a certain extent.

But the wheel of the times rolls forward, and when it wants to abandon anyone, it doesn't even say hello, even if you are a former hero. For example, Kodak produced the best film in the world until the day of bankruptcy, but it had to go bankrupt.

From the movie, we can see the many dilemmas faced by the dragon and tiger warriors:

First of all, life and body are the capital of everything, and this profession can be injured and lost at any time. As described in the film, this profession is three things, starting - jumping - going to the hospital.

Once you can't get up, no one will use you anymore, your career will hit rock bottom, and you will become a burden to your family.

Secondly, the development of science and technology and the improvement of protection measures have gradually eliminated the necessity of the existence of dragon and tiger martial artists.

In short, the times do not need them to work hard, they can only turn around with a wound and a blow of past glory. All these "progresses" are of course protecting life and making people more noble, but they have also gradually lowered the threshold of action scenes and dissolved the majesty and sacredness of this work - since safety measures can be in place, since difficult actions can be replaced by post-visual effects, then basically anyone can come up and compare, who is still rare in your "life"?

From the perspective of the parties involved, such changes and gaps are very cruel. When your efforts do not drive productivity efficiently and are no longer needed by the market, you become worthless; When the source of your glory and charm becomes an "old antique" that falls one meter thick, you also become an old dog who can't play new tricks.

Lao Luo in the film is such an "old dog", fading his former glory, he is just a poor and rude uncle. Letting go of the past and accepting the ordinary is the first hurdle that the former dragon and tiger martial artist needs to cross.

The second hurdle lies in whether we can keep pace with the times and connect with new things.

There is a very interesting plot in the film, Wu Jing's Yuanwei invites Lao Luo to appear in a scene of the new film to complete a tribute to his predecessors and dragon and tiger martial artists.

This shows that reality is not a desert, if you really want to use your previous achievements and accumulated contacts to keep up with the times and improve your life by the way, it is not impossible, the key depends on whether you can pass the hurdle in your heart.

Lao Luo obviously belongs to the stubborn type, resisting visual effects at the beginning, if not for the safety of Ai Ma Chitu, he would probably have desperately jumped once, and after entanglement, he only chose to give up, and failed to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show his face.

This choice looks dumb. Is it bad to make money lightly? But Lao Luo will feel that once he fake jumping, it is a betrayal of the past and a perfunctory attitude to the audience.

This stubbornness is actually quite understandable. For example, if one day, artificial intelligence can do this kind of thing by writing articles, will I let artificial intelligence help me complete 780% of the creation for the sake of so-called practical interests?

Probably yes, but not easily compromise without a struggle.

To be honest, it is not easy to code thousands of words, you have to choose topics, check information, write outlines, use words and sentences, do nothing, and sit at the desk for at least three hours, during which I don't know how many brain cells will die. But because of this, once it is done, it is the culmination of my heart and ability, it is a link between me and the reader, and I feel that my thinking has left a mark on the world and has been echoed.

And if the most difficult part is done by others now, even if the amount of reading is extremely high, even if I can win any award, I will feel like cheating, after all, most of the links are done by AI, how much does it have to do with me?

The more you invest, the more fulfilled and grounded you will become, and the closer you will be connected to the people and things in this world.

Just like the dragon and tiger martial artist, he has experienced the difficulty and pleasure of real collision, and it is naturally difficult to accept the self who looks at the camera for a while, because for him it means a discount in the sense of value and power, unless he can find his new value betting point in the process.

Isn't Jackie Chan, who is more successful than Lao Luo in the film, so stubborn? He once said in an interview that even if there is a good support for filming action scenes now, "what I can play and do, I will still do it myself, because I still like to do action."

Presumably, as long as he is still doing this, he will feel that he is still young and energetic, and he has not lost his signboard, and he can still get amazed eyes, even if not as much as before. So he has been filming and has not been retiring, not necessarily because the audience can't let go, but because he can't bear it.

When the absent father tries to make up for it

Dragon and Tiger Martial Master dedicates not only his youth and health to action movies, but also the time spent with his family. So when you get old and your career collapses, the debt you owed when you were young becomes a debt that cannot be repaid.

So we see that the first half of the film basically revolves around Lao Luo and his daughter.

In the past, the husband and father who had not been at home for a long time and failed to do a good job have led to a very stiff relationship between father and daughter, and if it were not for the lawsuit, I am afraid that there would be no opportunity for reconciliation between father and daughter.

And the reality must be more cruel, if you don't believe it, please see Jackie Chan, once valued brothers and careers more than women and children, not less lingering in Vanity Fair, and when the second half of his life came, the growth state of the two children became the best proof of his failure as a father.

Can it be made up? To what extent has it made up? Anyway, it should be less than one-tenth of the film. Not to mention mutual recognition and mutual help, it may be a luxury to even calm down and chat once.

Therefore, the part of the father-daughter relationship in the film is very idealistic, not fully expressing "hard work but not enough, brilliant but unlucky", you can interpret the rationality of your lack of family, so as to successfully seek the understanding of your daughter. As a father, you can't just ask her to see you, her absences, hurts, and depressions need to be seen. It is not to portray your daughter as an angel to dilute the pathos of her childhood.

In this way, the daughter Xiaobao played by Liu Haocun in the film is very similar to the tool person who sets off Lao Luo's heroic aura and promotes Lao Luo's self-growth, she is smart and strong, can memorize the legal provisions, can help her father solve work disputes, can instantly digest childhood grievances and become her father's little cotton jacket... She was perfect not like a wounded child, or rather, she had to be a perfect child in order to become a ray of light in Lao Luo's later life.

This may be Lao Luo's blessing, but it is definitely Jackie Chan's daydream.

Life cannot be perfect, and if something is missed or owed, it is difficult to make up for it. Moreover, Jackie Chan, who has always had a stable position and is known as the big brother, does not intend to spend too much effort to compensate.

Why did Lao Luo start self-reflection and compensate his daughter?

On the one hand, when people are old and physically exhausted, physical weakness will make people's inner feelings of vulnerability explode, and the demand for fame and fortune will suddenly fail to be accompanied by relatives and friends; On the other hand, he is a down-and-out uncle, just the eldest brother of two people, unsuccessful at all, has no social resources, and is even chased for debts, and his failure and loneliness make him have to find a harbor for comfort.

All in all, he has no capital to squander, and what he dismissed when he was young has now become his lifesaver, so a sense of guilt surfaces, and asking for forgiveness and compensation for his daughter has become an inescapable subject. And this road is much more difficult than what is presented in the movie.

Therefore, the life that the real dragon and tiger martial artists have to face should be much bleaker than the movie, and the incomprehension of relatives and the alienation of children will always exist. It is said that there is a mid-life crisis, but when people reach their twilight years, there will only be more chicken feathers in life. In the dead of night, you can only complain to a horse, which is the epitome of old age life - come alone, go alone, life goes to the second half, and you must learn to adapt to loneliness.

brief summary

As of press time, the Douban score of "Dragon Horse Spirit" is 6.7, which is relatively fair, the film is not so amazing, but it is quite sincere, and the audience can learn about a lost job and some real mentality of marginalized people, such as stubbornness, loneliness, helplessness that cannot make up for regret...

Compared with Lao Luo, Jackie Chan is already a trendsetter of the times, and in 2017 he won the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, becoming the youngest winner of this award, but that is ultimately a recognition of the glory of the past, and now it is not his era, even if he tries so hard to catch up with time, there will always be a day when he can't run.

There is a saying in the film: "It's easy to jump down, it's hard to go down." This is the subject that every successful person, every aging person, every lucky person who has stood on the cusp of the wind must face, going down, from the center to the edge, from lively to lonely, requires some twists and turns, needs some entanglement, and requires greater courage than "jumping down". Fortunately, it may not be a long night, but it may be another village.

Author: Miss Bovary

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