If you think about it, I may have experienced a special moment in the cinema.
Both familiar and unfamiliar.
Both sincere and absurd.
It's corny and poetic.
It makes people laugh so much that they want to scold neuropathy, but they also make people laugh so much that they try to think about life.
And all this is thanks to the "Space Exploration Editorial Department".
Produced by Guo Fan Studio.
Director Kong Dashan of "Legal Future Tense".
At present, Douban is stable at 8.4 - better than 96% of sci-fi films, better than 97% of comedy films, and better than 100% of domestic theatrical films this year (tied for first place with "The Wandering Earth 2").
The movie has been released for more than a week, during this time, some pictures of the movie continue to flash in my mind, so that every time I think about one more layer, there is one more layer of doubts, so we found director Kong Dashan and screenwriter + starring Wang Yitong, and chatted for an hour about this "earthy" sci-fi film.
It's a question answer.
It is also a precise footnote to every ambiguous moment.
They make me feel.
Fortunately, there is still such a group of people in Chinese movies.
01
No target movie found
As usual, let's talk about what kind of movie this is.
If there is one word to describe the style of the film, I think it is - absurd.
This is a documentary, newsre-documentary-style film about a group of modern people looking for aliens.
As its English name: "Journey to the West".
Put a few posters to feel this weird style
Modern? Alien?
In today's rapid development of science and technology, the story itself has some absurdity of dislocation.
Not only that.
The movie is jaw-dropping from beginning to end.
For example, it is obviously a science fiction film.
But the cost is extremely low (only 3 professional actors).
So much so that the starring Arya was very panicked when she first entered the group, saying that she was afraid that she was deceived.
Tripods, tripods do not
Rocker arm, rocker arm does not
Lights, lights no
Your group will not run at any time?
The male protagonist Yang Haoyu relayed in an interview|Chinese film report
So where is science fiction?
Kong Dashan said:
"In the current film market environment, there are no stars, no big scenes, big special effects, and the top companies in China go to make a movie like this, and I think this thing itself is very sci-fi."
Well, it's obviously sophistry, but it somehow makes people feel that it really makes sense.
And the movie itself is even more absurd.
For example, it is obviously a current story, but you look at the main props of the sci-fi setting in the movie:
This alien signal receiver resembles a whisk.
This somewhat rusty aluminum "signal pot".
Where is the slightest shadow of "science fiction"?
Not to mention the plot in the movie.
There is a detail in it.
The actor Tang Zhijun (played by Yang Haoyu) had to spend 520 yuan to buy a silicone alien's leg bone, just because he thought he might be a "destined person".
But look at this "merit box", will you really not take a look at "Lord of Destruction"?
But.
You may not believe it when you say it.
These absurdities are very real in our real lives.
For example, that "signal pot".
Friends who are a little older can recognize at a glance that it is simply the "realism" of "qigong fever".
In those years, countless people had such a "pot" on their heads.
The realistic prototype of the signal pot: an advanced qigong intensive training course on Miaofeng Mountain in Beijing in 93
For example, the "alien remains".
Many years ago there was such a news:
A man in Shandong Province claimed that his freezer stored aliens, and was later detained for five days for the crime of intentionally disturbing public order.
The so-called absurdity is actually just a reality that we laugh it off.
That's exactly what happened.
Kong Dashan's "bad taste" is paired with events that are both true and false, like a dreamlike space.
Let the film exude a unique, difficult to classify temperament.
It has a shimmering humor, but it is always a certain sad aftertaste.
And this.
That's why we're fascinated.
(The following content involves spoilers, friends who have not yet gone to the theater to see it, you can come back after watching the film; It is recommended to select the seat in the back row in the middle to effectively prevent stun)
02
Tang Zhijun: A certain part of us
Of course, we first talked about Tang Zhijun, the male protagonist of the movie.
This is an "eccentric" person.
It is also a part of "we", a projection of this world.
Tang Zhijun was the editor of Space Exploration, a science fiction magazine in the era of "UFO fever" 30 years ago.
Inspired by the magazine "UFO Exploration" from the 1980s
In front of the reporter's interview camera that year, he was full of spirit, recounting the idea of finding an alien civilization: the earth is just a grain of sand on the fingertips in the vast universe.
30 years later.
The gears of time ran over, and Don experienced divorce, the loss of his daughter, and the decline of the editorial office (so poor that he couldn't even pay the heating bill).
Old Tang became a relic of that era.
Do you have a moment when your ideals are dying?
It's okay to be weighed down by reality.
Abandoned by the times.
We often make some sighs such as "time is not with me", and become outcasts in a certain field at a certain time.
But Tang Zhijun is different.
In addition to his more messy hair, stubborn beard, and the ruin left by time from head to toe, Don is still the one who sticks to his dream of finding outer space.
In Kong Dashan's words, it is "a very paranoid logic for understanding the world."
He remains a firm believer in space exploration.
And romanticize everything and put it into its own logical framework:
This is not an ordinary snowflake spot.
This is the afterglow of the universe at its birth
He would also make the most absurd association in a serious way: My TV is broken, this is a problem with the universe.
Help me check if the NASA official website has any emergencies to be released
It cannot be ruled out that it is a confluence of two galaxies
Led me to this TV now... overload
What's more.
He abandoned almost all emotional thinking.
Because emotions are always easy to bring harm to people.
Kong Dashan said:
"He eats the noodles, but he won't say how the noodles are. Because in his logic, this is a bowl of carbohydrates, a mixture of some vitamins and nutrients, he will not say that this thing is green vegetable egg noodles. ”
Why?
Because for "human desire", he has always strictly adhered to the principle of "non-essential and not implemented":
"In addition to the nutrients that must be ingested, human beings eat the rest of the food is a waste, and all sexual desire other than reproduction is a disease."
He lives only to find aliens and ask about the meaning of human beings and the existence of the universe.
What came to mind?
That's right, Don Quixote of the Great War on Windmills.
It's just that Lao Tang is riding a donkey and waving a carrot pole, which looks particularly clumsy and funny.
And Old Tang is clinging to unrealistic dreams and is downtrodden for this.
Doesn't he know his embarrassment?
Maybe he knew, but he wasn't willing to face it.
A detail.
Old Don in the editorial office, when he was chanting his "doctrine" of discovering cosmic problems from the television, his voice was repeatedly interrupted by the incongruous "Friendship Lasts Forever" in the music training class next door.
But in this position that belongs to him, he can choose to get up and close the window tightly to protect his voice (the world).
Draw a border with the whole world.
Kong Dashan said:
"He's just a misfit. So when he is still saying his paranoid theories in a very awkward context, he is bound to suffer something that puts himself in a very embarrassing situation. ”
Thereupon.
An "ordinary person" like him, who is out of step with the real world, naturally becomes a joke in the eyes of outsiders, and this tragedy also gives him a certain fatalistic absurdity.
It's like a spacesuit scene in a movie.
In order to sponsor the magazine, Don was forced to wear his precious spacesuit for many years, and was stuck in it and could not get out.
In this way, he was extremely embarrassed to usher in the first "weightless" moment of his life.
And when the firefighters carried the chainsaw, cut off the helmet and rescued Don, the applause and cheers of the onlookers also made this moment show the violence of drilling.
A person who is obsessed with certainty (confirmation of the existence of aliens), that is, controllability.
On the next road, it constantly encountered "loss of control".
03
Shu Dao is not difficult, but so what?
So movies, like "Don Quixote", will it be a deconstruction of science fiction?
As we said at the beginning:
This is a "Into Science" movie?
You know, the program "Into Science", in addition to curiosity, on the other hand, is actually constantly dissolving our awe of alien civilizations.
But obviously.
Kong Dashan is not here.
He spent most of his time telling some "miracles" that seemed ironic, but thoughtful but clear.
For example, Sun Yitong (played by Wang Yitong) met by Old Tang.
He has a "signal pot" on his head, claiming to be able to contact aliens, and his mission is to help aliens get a stone.
Looks like a psychopath?
But you listen to him read poetry.
You will also think that he is an otherworldly person.
Just like the actor Wang Yitong explained:
"He is completely unrelated to the world, a figure who jumps out of the three realms and is not in the five elements."
For example, the carrier of the alien device: the sparrow.
At first glance, it is also a weird fantasy.
But as Kong Dashan said:
"The use of the image of a sparrow is inherently ambiguous, especially poetic."
It reminds us of the term "animism."
Yes.
The director here looks at Don and those around him with an "affirmative" attitude.
Although they are out of place for this era.
A huge gulf has arisen between their unrealistic ideals and reality.
But not everyone who is left behind can be abandoned.
No matter how many times they were disillusioned, they never ran away.
They are people who don't look back.
Why?
One premise is that the movie designs a similar dilemma for everyone.
They are all frustrated and have chosen different ways of facing or escaping reality.
The widowed old Tang is obsessed with finding aliens, the sober Sister Qin decides to accompany the old Tang to "seek dreams", the stuttering lonely weatherman is addicted to paralyzing himself with alcohol, and the depressed girl who has lost her father volunteers to join the team (reorganizing the family).
So what does the "search for aliens" mean for them?
On the surface, it is a kind of "thinking".
Science and technology continue to advance, Shu Dao is no longer difficult, human beings sweep away the once mysterious unarrived realm one by one, is the meaning of human existence really solved?
But in the bones is a kind of "sustenance".
It is not so much "believe" in civil science as "surrender".
Only in this way can Old Tang continue to live after his daughter's death.
As Kong Dashan said: "In fact, it is the same as the meaning of religion to people." ”
Don just wants to believe that if he rushes forward, there will be aliens, there are answers, he doesn't want to stop, he doesn't want to look back.
Hence the end of the "journey to the west".
Old Tang chose to run to the end in the chaos of the solution, in the southwest depths of "clouds and mountains", until the last primitive cave.
At this moment, he has no companions, no tents, no backpacks, and in the continuous peeling, he finally reached the edge of the answer.
Swarms of sparrows rushed him down, and a whirlwind passed, and they picked up Sun Yitong.
Old Don watched all this stunned, and finally, he witnessed the existence of alien civilizations with his own eyes.
But.
At this time, the camera looks at his expression, and he laughs.
Shu Dao is no longer difficult, but so what?
Aliens found, but so what?
Life remains the same, and nothing will change.
04
Journey to the West to take the "Book of Poetry"
To be honest, during the chat, Uncle Meat and the main creator discussed many detailed issues.
For example, why the movie has two blank spaces.
Tang Zhijun did not finish his words twice, one was inaudible on the train, and another was the recitation poem at the end that was not spoken.
Kong Dashan explained that this was to create an embarrassing situation for him to be out of place:
"The train part is an externalization of his situation, he is a person who does not fit in, and the end is because you can't remember that poem, because you write any verse at that moment, he can't carry that feeling."
For example, why the movie has such a soundtrack.
The painting style is stained with the earthy flavor of the mountain village, but it is accompanied by a large number of classical soundtracks.
Kong Dashan explained that this is due to the music he listened to when he wrote the script, and emphasized:
"I accept a lot of bad reviews, for example, it's like saying that the two of us are uneducated, saying that the theme of this film is vulgar, or the plot is thin, I can accept it, but the only thing I can't accept is that my musical taste in this movie is not good." Yes, just this one comment, I will make me think, then you look for reasons in yourself. ”
For example, the meaning of the sun - when Sun Yitong talks about a total solar eclipse, there is a design that he first closes his eyes and then opens his eyes to see.
Wang Yitong explained that this is actually a metaphor:
"In our design, the miracle, the process by which that miracle happens, it is invisible and unknowable. So we used an analogy that you can't look directly at the sun because you're going to get hurt. ”
Even the concept of the male protagonist.
He believes that as long as the existence of alien civilizations can be proved, the gap between people, and the war will disappear.
Wang Yitong also gave us the "answer":
"That's a particularly simple idea. Because as it is written in "The Three-Body Problem", if you find that there are three-body people, then what kind of faction and party may the earthlings become? It will also split. So maybe we're just overestimating outward expansion. To some extent, we should pay more attention to each other and value each other's connection. I think that may have more immediate value in our lives. ”
But what impressed Uncle Meat the most was the explanation at the end of the film.
The last 8 minutes of the movie are Don's participation in his nephew's wedding.
The obvious difference from before is.
He gained the ability to write poetry.
(Yes, this is almost the only thing you can get from the entire "journey to the west" and seeing an alien civilization.) ）
Why poetry?
Kong Dashan said:
"Because he was such a person from an absolute rationality, something in his heart began to soften. He returns to part of humanity, because humanity is a combination of reason and sensibility. ”
This sentence actually made me think a lot.
For example, social Darwinism, such as the law of the jungle, which was popular many years ago, these theories that claim to have insight into the laws of man tell us that rationality is the only purpose of living to the end.
But purely rational people.
Will there really be a "brave new world"?
Just like Kong Dashan picked two books to give to the old Tang actor Yang Haoyu at that time, one is Zhou Guoping's "Nietzsche: At the Turning Point of the Century", and the other is Shi Tiesheng's "Broken Pen of Sickness".
"That is the support of Tang Zhijun's spiritual core. Nietzsche is Tang Zhijun in the first 110 minutes of the movie, compared to Tang Zhijun in the last 8 minutes, that is, the Tang Zhijun after awakening in the cave. ”
Both are indispensable.
So at the end of the film, he wrote a poem for his daughter.
Under the warm afterglow of the setting sun, he held the poem in his hand, and finally ushered in the first "big explosion of his heart", and he couldn't cry.
It's just that.
In such a glorious shot, it seems bright and warm, and I always feel a sense of sadness.
Why?
Perhaps the answer lies in "Donkey and Carrot" throughout the film.
In the original parable.
Donkeys are fools who are played by carrots and desires.
Actually, why laugh at it as silly and pathetic?
Each of us, perhaps, needs such a carrot helplessly.
- Where are we going to fly?
-I'm going to go to the dock later to get the whole number of fries.
-You misunderstood me man, I'm talking about our ultimate goal in this life. At the end of the day, what is living for?
-In order to go to the dock for later, the whole point of fries.
We have also long understood such jokes
Worker of the day: Buster cold noodles