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Text | Qing Shi Yaohua
Editor|Qing Shi Yaohua
«——[·Preface·] ——»
The transformation from "pure author" to "fusion of author and genre" presented in the film creation trajectory of director Diao Yinan, also concentrates on the creative situation of Chinese authors and directors since the new century.
In the past two decades of film creation, Diao Yinan's obsession with film noir, erotic elements and crime narrative has made him always give way to the expression space of the author's style in the transformation of film expression.
It can be said that trying to provide new inspiration and elements for genre films may not be his purpose, but using genre elements or media to complete his author's expression is his "channel" for exploring film expression.
In narrative art, the dualistic opposition structure is presented through the opposition of the relationship between the characters in the play, which is reflected in the irreconcilable antagonistic relationship between the protagonist of the story and other characters, and focuses on the display of the antagonistic relationship, which is embodied in absolute good and bad, good and evil.
This relatively single setting of opposites greatly limits the richness and ambiguity of the film's text, and even if the storyline is set up with ups and downs, it still cannot escape the eternal ending of "good triumphs over evil" in the end.
In Diao Yinan's works, although it has the contradictory attributes of police and bandit confrontation that crime films have, it transcends the inherent binary mode of opposition.
The "good and evil" and "black and white" at the poles of the binary opposition structure are partially dissolved, thus leading the audience's thinking to this more complex and inexplicable depth that hides multiple aspects of complex human nature.
Xiao Jian in "Uniform" is a tailor who takes care of his father who is sick in bed, and after wearing the uniform to gain power and status, he deliberately retaliates against the factory doorman, cheat the fine and takes it to his father to see a doctor, etc. all erupt on Xiao Jian.
In "Night Train", Wu Hongyan performs her duties but attracts Li Jun's revenge, and the opposition between good and evil gradually dissolves under the effect of emotional resonance between the two sides.
In "Daylight Fireworks", "Detective" Zhang Zili and criminal Wu Zhizhen not only have an antagonistic relationship between justice and evil, but also have a subtle feeling that is separated from good and evil.
Zhang Zili betrayed Wu Zhizhen's feelings for him in order to return to the center of the system, and Wu Zhizhen killed people because of sexual violence, such a contradictory complex reflects the complexity and impulse of human nature.
In "The Party at the Southern Station", the criminal Zhou Zenong and the swimmer, Liu Aiai, are also enemies and friends, and Zhou Zenong's attitude towards Liu Aiai has been wandering in "trust and suspicion".
When Zhou Zenong determined that he was "betrayed", the film showed him pursuing Liu Ai'ai in a two-minute length, but then rescued Liu Ai'ai when she was violated.
In this plot paragraph, the police's arrest of Zhou Zenong is greatly weakened, but the complex and hidden emotional relationship replaces the causal logic of the incident itself, so that the overall blackness and fatalism of the film are constantly exaggerated.
Director Diao Yinan does not prefer to describe the everyday, decorative warm life, but prefers the cruel and hard things in life.
In the extreme state of reality, the re-adaptation of binary opposites allows the story to show the polysemy of the intersection of good and evil.
Those judgments between "right and wrong" or "right and wrong" are not a matter of choosing the path to the left or right.
Instead, in the current social situation, in the face of the pressure of life, should not pursue their inner demands.
«——[·Localization transformation of black type characters.] ——»
In the context of globalization, the principles that must be adhered to maintain cultural diversity in various countries have produced localization while resisting cultural globalization, and there is also localization in the process, discussing how to use foreign cultures for local cultures and express local cultures through effective integration.
In the film creation of director Diao Yinan, by realizing the Western structure and the integration of Eastern content, the creation has perfectly completed a localized practice.
Director Diao Yinan's focus on the complex and ambiguous performance of human nature in modern society, "black" and "crime" have become his most handy genres to explore the multifaceted and possibilities of human nature.
The "cold and hard male detective" and "sinister femme fatale" in the classic Hollywood noir film are localized to make it more oriental and characteristic of local Chinese characters.
The first is about the "cold and hard male detective", a film noir character, which Liao Fan played in "Daylight Fireworks".
But Liao Fan's identity here is not a Western private investigator, but a police and security guard in the traditional Chinese sense.
As a product of ideology, the police are also a living individual living in society, and the conflict between the system and human nature carried by identity will be more obvious, and with the transformation of the fate of the characters and the pessimistic clutch, the sense of fate that the characters cannot escape can be highlighted in the context of social transformation.
This change not only conforms to the requirements of mainstream ideology, but also expresses the existential characters of film noir.
It is not difficult to see that Diao Yinan's requirements for the shaping of "detective" characters in film creation have two points:
On the one hand, there must be the frustration and loneliness of the protagonist in film noir, which has the spiritual connotation of the characters in film noir.
On the other hand, the character image should be a character with local cultural recognition, and at the same time conform to the mainstream ideology of the local region.
Daylight Fireworks finds a good balance in the black temperament of the characters and finds a balance between these two points.
In addition, it is about the screen image of the heroine Wu Zhizhen "femme fatale", for which Diao Yinan also made localized changes to it.
Wu Zhizhen's film is different from the initiative, sinister and cunning of the "femme fatale" in Western film noir.
Instead, it is always in a relatively passive position in the development of events, which makes people sympathize and make people feel warm.
She was blackmailed into sex because she unintentionally washed a piece of Piqing's inability to pay, and her forbearance at the bottom allowed her to get the step by step of Piqing's owner, which in turn led the tower to enter the road of crime.
Looking back at the plot development of Zhang Zili and Wu Zhizhen, the source of power for Zhang Zili, who is in the initiative in behavior, is not only the desire for the system, but also the "cold" beauty of Wu Zhizhen.
As Diao Yinan's most successful genre creation so far, "Daylight Fireworks" provides a valuable narrative starting point and a reference for constructing characters.
The differentiation and partial dissolution on the basis of stereotyped characters precisely completes Director Diao Yinan's exploration of the warmth and complexity of social human nature.
«——[Realistic Philosophy under Type Coding.] ——»
From independent creation to market-oriented creation, "crime" has always been the original driving force for advancing the story in Diao Yinan's films, and occupies more and more form and visual space in the four works.
As a collection of contradictions and the manifestation of commercial types, criminal plot is not only a creative method to express the theme of inner adventure and redemption of human nature, but also an external feature of the commercial transformation of film works.
Crime itself as a method is not the human impulse behind the crime that director Diao Yinan is most concerned about, and the crime is precisely the important reference, which shows the identity anxiety of the characters in the state of existence of nothingness and drifting.
The identity anxiety of the characters in Diao Yinan's works is mainly reflected in the fact that by reproducing the real survival situation and complex spiritual space of some individuals or groups in the society full of anxiety and confusion, it highlights the confusion of individuals about their own identity under the transformation of the social life environment.
In terms of external performance, the real life and spiritual space of the characters often form a certain degree of separation. Xiao Jian in "Uniform" is undoubtedly at the bottom of society as a tailor.
But what makes him confused about his identity is not only his personal disapproval of his identity as a tailor, but also the disidentification of his low-level identity in society under the period of social transition.
And the social status and dignity he gained by accidentally wearing a police uniform made him feel that he had social recognition, which caused a resistance to his identity as a tailor.
The tailor and the policeman, the real and the false, form the character's inner confusion about identity. The bailiff Wu Hongyan in "Night Train" is different from Xiaojian, and her anxiety about herself stems from the identity of her own system.
As an individual, Wu Hongyan is submerged in the collective order, suppressing the individual's inner emotions and passion for life.
The opposite household used Wu Hongyan as a government employee to report the neighbor's woman's misconduct, and Wu Hongyan chose to turn a blind eye, perhaps because the woman was a primitive impulse that implied part of her heart, or because of her own resistance to her identity in life.
and her deliberate concealment of institutional identity when talking to people on the bus are shown outside the constraints of the system, and her struggle and avoidance of subject identity.
The character of Li Jun in the film fully reflects the individual criminal impulses caused by the change of the social environment, the restructuring of enterprises, and the anxious and confused life status of people at the bottom make them wander their social identity.
In the two works of commercial transformation "Daylight Fireworks" and "The Party at the Southern Station", the blessing film in the genre expresses the identity anxiety of the characters at the bottom of social reality more obscure.
«——[·Epilogue.]——»
The nameless stones scattered around in "Daylight Fireworks" are a powerful interpretation of the identity crisis brought about by the invisible violence of society, and the unknown and dangerous revealed by the criminal elements. It further enhances the anxious atmosphere of the film.
After Zhang Zili left his police status, his social status declined, and his life became muddy without his sense of identity.
What prompted him to embark on the road of solving the case again is still the return of institutional identity, and the self-identity of people in the current society comes from the confirmation of individual identity and value, and after losing social identity, the ambiguity of individual self-identity has led to a huge change in life conditions.
Compared with Zhang Zili, who has lost his institutional identity to returning to his institutional identity, the character of Zhou Zenong in "The Party at the Southern Station" is a process of finding his own identity in self-redemption.
The whole film weakens the difference between institutional identity and the bottom characters in social survival, and focuses on the transformation of group identity and individual identity.
The competition and competition for "territory" among members of car theft gangs who have been operating underground is that in this group, car theft technology and territorial awareness are common identity rules.
Zhou Zenong's identity threat in the group and the loss of group identity caused by the manslaughter of police officers made his life almost nothing, and he was in the stage of identity loss.
And the bounty after his identity is converted into a wanted criminal makes him valuable as an individual, so that he can find a channel of identity with a clear pursuit from wandering, and this identity is a valuable and meaningful person.
Therefore, director Diao Yinan does not simply want to provide the audience with a crime story, but to provide the audience with a sensitive touch of the world, so as to feel the environment and characters in it.
The attention to the social changes behind the crime and the anxious and confused life conditions of the characters at the bottom constitute the realistic expression of director Diao Yinan's creation.
«——[References] ——»
[1] Li Ruonan. Author's expression under type pattern[D].Liaoning Normal University,2020.
[2] Ye Hui. On the symbiosis of "genre" and "author" in Du Qifeng's film[D].Zhejiang University,2007.
- Wei Mengyuan. The indigenous transplantation of film noir[D].Northwestern University,2018.