Stills from the movie "How to Fly" Information picture
●Liu Hailing
Editor's Note
Since its release in September, the film "How to Fly", co-produced by Sui and Macao, has attracted attention from all walks of life in society. The work takes the life story of the protagonist He Yixiang, a native of Macao, as the starting point, reflects the social development and changes of Macao over the past 20 years since its return to the motherland, and shows the increasing sense of ownership and home and country feelings of the Macao people. At the same time, Macao's urban landscape of blending East and West, blending old and new, and profound and unique cultural heritage also add color to the film. Focusing on the film's theme ideas and image language characteristics, Liu Hailing, vice president of the Guangdong Film Industry Association and director of the Creative Writing Research Center of the Chinese College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, wrote a detailed analysis of the film review.
In addition, this issue of The Literary and Art Review also includes the curatorial experience of Wang Shaoqiang, director of the Guangdong Museum of Art, on the exhibition "Entertaining Things: Guan Liang's Style History Research" recently exhibited at the museum, which is one of the exhibition projects of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's 2021 National Art Museum Collection Exhibition Season, showing the artistic resume of the famous Guangdong painter Guan Liang and the historical context of the development of his style. As well as a book review by young writer and book critic Huang Yunyan on the essay collection "Distant Sunflower Land" by writer Li Juan, please pay attention to it.
Most of the mainland audiences' on-screen perceptions of Macao come from commercial films shot in Hong Kong and the mainland, such as "Haojiang Storm", "Dragon Play Phoenix", and "A-Ma Is a City". In these films, dramatic characters and plots such as gamblers and gangsters, and drunken gambling fans have impressed many viewers. Therefore, the ongoing release of "Why Fly" (co-produced by Director: Chen Shangshi, Guangzhou Sanxitang Animation Production Co., Ltd., co-sponsored by Macao Online Media and the Federation of Macao Neighborhood Associations) has become a "clear stream" of Macao stories on the screen, recording the social changes in Macao and the living conditions of ordinary Macao people with plain images, preserving spatial memory about the city, and building a spiritual home for contemporary Macao people.
First, reproduce the living conditions of ordinary people with plain lenses
The story told in "Why Fly" is not complicated, and the film shows the male protagonist Ho Yixiang's ordinary experience as an ordinary Macau native from the eve of the return of Macau in 1999 to the present.
Different from the current movies with grand scenes, digital special effects, and sensational performances, this film adopts real-life shooting, and the setting, costumes, makeup, performances, editing, sound, etc., all follow the principle of introverted and plain lens language. Film aesthetician Balaz said that all aesthetics and technical techniques are actually subordinated to the director's attitude towards reality. The new generation of director Chen Shangshi introduced the original intention of shooting this film: to restore a Macao dramatized by commercial images, so that the audience can see the real Macao and the real life of ordinary people.
The film takes the development and changes of Macao in the 20 years since the return of Macao as the background, telling the life experience of the local youth of Macao Xiang xiang's family, marriage and workplace: when she was a teenager, her mother left Taiwan, leaving a mental trauma; after graduating from university, she stayed in Macao for her lovers to teach, but was ridiculed by students for obsessively exploring the meaning of painting and ignoring the "practicality" of art; and then experienced the impact of SARS and the financial crisis, changed to a casino dealer in order to make quick money, and neglected to take care of the family... The film is a spiritual exploration within the framework of He Yixiang's personal life experience, starting from the dilemma of "going to Taiwan" and "staying in Macau". Many scenes in the film are filmed in a small and enclosed indoor space, and the limitations of small-cost production are just in line with the internal context of the story, and the forced small home, the simple classroom, and the dim casino are easier to lead the audience into the inner world of the characters. He Yixiang, who was struggling to make money, carefully interpreted one of Gauguin's paintings: "Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? In fact, he is even more questioning his own identity and finding his spiritual home. From dilemma to identity anxiety, lost values, until finally the husband and wife break the mirror and reunite, He Yixiang's life trajectory and ideological and emotional changes can be said to reflect the mental journey that many Macao people have experienced together in the past 20 years.
2. Reshape Macao's quaint and quiet urban space landscape
We remember Macau as a modern building with different shapes and luxuries, crisscrossed with nostalgic traditional streets and alleys, reflecting each other, forming a unique urban landscape. However, the film only chooses a modern building to appear in, that is, the Macau TV Tower overlooking the water and sky in the distance. Most of the exteriors are derived from old buildings and old streets and alleys in Macau, such as the quaint and solemn St. Paul's Cathedral, the yellow and white Ho Tung Library, the warm yellow Love Lane, the tree-shadowed Po Tsai House, the Macanese-inhabited Po Well, the first Western-style building, the Gangding Theatre, the restored traditional Chinese style Cheng Family House... Even the casino when He Yixiang and his wife Chengmei were the dealers was presented in a dim local environment, thus strengthening the urban space landscape of Macau's quaint, quiet and Western combination.
Sociologist David Popno said: "Culture is a system of values and meanings that society or some people recognize together, including the material entities that concretize these values and systems of meaning. Undoubtedly, the spatial style of urban images represents the conscious pursuit of the true spirit of Macao: it is a simple and introverted city that has removed glitz and charm, a city with a long history and diverse temperament, carrying the love of the hero and heroine, engraving the spiritual imprint of the ancestors of the fathers, and reverberating the young and clear voices of the younger generations.
Third, use the consummation of ethical affection to symbolize the inheritance of family and country feelings
In the film, the protagonist starts with paintings by Gauguin or Van Gogh representing symbols of Western culture, and sends out the question "Where do we come from?" Who are we? Where are we going? The soul asked, echoing through the ancient Western-style building complex. This meaningful shot symbolizes the identity dilemmas that Macanese generally encountered after the end of more than 100 years of colonial history. "How far do you have to go to find home?" Get rid of anxiety to find meaning, get out of the predicament to find belonging, and the choreographer represents the strong identification and spiritual belonging of Macao people to the motherland and nation through the value orientation identified by He Yixiang's life choices.
The first is the return of the teaching profession. Although the gaming industry is legal in Macau, on the balance of traditional Chinese morality, "valuing righteousness over profit" and "noble righteousness and low profit" are for "morality". He Yixiang eventually refused the opportunity to get a promotion and salary increase in the casino, chose to return to school, and continued to teach and educate people with a new educational concept, which is an intriguing career choice.
The second is the ethical significance of the return of the mother. The film's footage repeatedly flashbacks into He Yixiang's traumatic childhood memories, and his mother is both a "wanderer" who has wandered away from home and a "perpetrator" who abandons her husband and abandons her son. After 20 years, my mother settled in Macao, which not only means that the "deceased" returns, but also means that the "home" that lacks ethical affection has finally been completed, and the metaphorical function of "home-country isomorphism" can be fully reflected here.
In addition, there is the symbol of "inheritance" in the Zheng Family House. Zheng Family House is an ancient building covering an area of 4,000 square meters, mainly In Chinese style, chinese and Western, and is the ancestral house of Zheng Guanying, a famous thinker in modern China. Zheng Guanying put forward a series of political propositions in the "Dangerous Words of the Prosperous World": "If you want to get rid of the outside world, you must urgently strengthen yourself; if you want to strengthen yourself, you must first get rich, you must first revitalize industry and commerce; you must first pay attention to schools, quickly establish a constitution, respect morality, and improve politics." He Yixiang took his son to tour the Zheng Family House, and the father and son took over to tell the history of the Zheng Family House, which contains the meaning of cultural identity and blood inheritance.
And in the "illusion wall" of green bricks and white walls, this is the starting point of the love between He Yixiang and his wife Chengmei Qingmei Bamboo Horse. At the end of the film, He Yixiang, who found self-worth, and Cheng Mei, who changed to a community volunteer, returned to her hometown. This is both a reawakening of the love between the two and a hint of both parties' approval and appreciation of each other's values.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Chinese civilization has lasted for thousands of years and has its own unique value system. China's excellent traditional culture has become the gene of the Chinese nation, rooted in the heart of the Chinese, and subtly affecting the way of thinking and behavior of Chinese. Taking "blood" as the link, "ethics" as the norm, and "benevolence" as the core, stressing benevolence, valuing the people, keeping good faith, advocating justice, maintaining harmony, and seeking common ground, is the spiritual pursuit, spiritual characteristics and spiritual context of Chinese culture. As a movie, "Why Fly" may still be less vivid in the plot and the language of the camera is not skilled enough, but in terms of content themes, it has its own unique and profound ideological value: if there is no inheritance of Chinese blood and the support of the spirit of traditional Chinese culture, how can Macao "fly" today?
Film is the art of creating a screen story through light and shadow, outlining the spiritual map of the human world. With the official launch of the construction of hengqin Guangdong-Macao in-depth cooperation zone, the Guangdong-Macao film and television industry urgently needs to strengthen exchanges and cooperation through various channels, which will surely inject new vitality into the cultural development of Lingnan and the humanistic co-construction of the Greater Bay Area. "Why Fly" has given us that confidence.
(The author is the vice president of Guangdong Film Industry Association, and the director of the Creative Writing Research Center of Chinese College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)