时光撰稿人 | simon
Feel the light and shadow life in the movie.
At the 60th Golden Horse Awards, there was a film called "Old Fox", which defeated "Removing the Three Evils of Zhou" (hereinafter referred to as "Zhou") in all aspects. also had 7 nominations, "Old Fox" won 4 awards including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor in one go, while "Zhou" only won the Best Action Design Award. In terms of popularity and box office, "Zhou Place" is definitely the king. But in terms of connotation, "Old Fox" can be said to be a surprise work of this year's Chinese films, let's talk about it today. The Old Fox
Golden Horse crew
To be honest, the attention of "Old Fox" is not high. The lack of publicity, coupled with the low-key behavior of the creators, has led netizens to feel like opening a blind box. First of all, let's introduce the heroes behind the film. The director of this film is called Xiao Yaquan, born in the 60s, the output is not much, the quality is high, and it has been improving. He is a filmmaker who takes the film festival/award route and is quite favored by the Golden Horse Awards.
In 1994, the short film "Countdown Contract" was shortlisted for the Golden Horse International Film Festival, in 1998, he served as the assistant director of "Flower of the Sea", which won the Golden Horse Jury Prize, and in 2010, the director's work "The 36th Story" was shortlisted for two Golden Horse nominations;
In 2023, the director's work "Old Fox" won 4 Golden Horse awards.
It can be said that his artistic life has gradually been enriched with the encouragement and recognition of the Golden Horse Awards.
Xiao Yaquan's works are mostly modern themes. "Destiny Chase" depicts the alternative lives of urban men and women, "The 36th Story" focuses on the interesting story of café entrepreneurship, and "Van Bowel" depicts the kinship between two generations. The confusion, emotional needs, and mental state of modern people's lives are the creative themes he pays attention to, and "Old Fox" also continues this characteristic. It is worth mentioning that in addition to the director, there are also two Golden Horse players in the starring lineup - Liu Guanting + Chen Muyi.
Liu Guanting once won the Golden Horse Supporting Actor for "The Sun Shines", this time playing a young father who works in a hotel. Chen Muyi played the role of the old fox, the soul of the film, and won the Golden Horse Supporting Actor with his outstanding performance. The two leading actors, like the director, belong to the low-key and connotative genre, and their works are more famous than themselves. Perhaps it is also for this reason that "Old Fox" has a sense of steadiness, and it doesn't look impetuous at all.
Poor dads vs. rich dads
Taiwanese movies like to look at the adult world from the perspective of children. For example, "One by One" and "The Fourth Picture" all use children's perspectives. The creator uses children's most direct and real reactions to shred the lies of adults about family, marriage, and life. This way of creation creates a sense of dislocation and contrast, which is sincere and moving. "The Old Fox" also uses this creative technique. However, its focus is larger, and it wants to talk about the era of soaring housing prices, changing stock markets, and capital tycoons.
The time background of the film, set in 1990. The actor Liao Jie (played by Bai Runyin) is an 11-year-old child who lives with his father (played by Liu Guanting). The father and son are careful and know how to use the faucet, which can prevent the water meter from turning, and how to turn on the water heater to save the most. The father works in a hotel and packs hotel meals for his children every night. In his spare time, he also worked as a tailor to subsidize his family. Even the child's hair was cut by the father. It can be said that this frugal father and son are the group portraits of migrant families.
The imagination of the migrant workers for the future is simple and practical - the house. His father told Liao Jie that if he waited for another 3 years, he would be able to save enough money to buy a house and open a barber shop, and bid farewell to the days of "urging rent and looking at people's faces".
The idea of buying a house has become the driving force for the small family to move forward. Unexpectedly, within half a year, prices and housing prices rose wildly. The film's real and brutal themes begin to surface. In 1990, it was the era of national stock speculation, and Taiwan's stock market soared all the way and collapsed rapidly in a short period of time. The common people wanted to get rich with it, but in the end it became the hardest hit area.
Liao, who is only 11 years old, cannot comprehend these changes. He only saw that some people got rich in the era of stock speculation. He realized that if he had money, he could buy a house, and his life would get better and better. So he asked his father, "Some people make money by trading in stocks, why don't you speculate in stocks?" and even because of his father's indifference, he began to sulk. At this time, the soul character Old Fox appeared, who was the landlord of the Liao Jie family. One day, the depressed Liao Jie met the old fox.
The old fox lives in a mansion, drives a luxury car, has many properties, and is strong. Those classmates who bullied Liao Jie, when they saw him get into the old fox's car, they didn't dare to let it go. Liao Jie was once again amazed at the power of money, and said enviously: "I want to be like you." ”
As the plot progresses to this point, the audience will find that the director uses a child's perspective to put the story into a comparative model of "poor dad and rich dad". But the film did not fall out of fashion, but first created a cool feeling, and then revealed the dark side.
When the old fox heard this, Liao Jie also wanted to become a "strong man" like himself. So, three secrets of success were taught: drink ice water, close your eyes, and silently say "my". The core of the secret is to tell Liao Jie to know how to use inequality to create inequality, and to quit compassion. Liao Jie really did this, and it didn't take long for a series of conflicts to break out with his father. He began to look down on his father's frugal habits, and was angry at why his father didn't take action and raided the murderous house.
The director uses Liao Jie's innocent perspective to connect the poor father with the rich father, and then asks questions to everyone. Is it wrong to do anything without money? This question of class anxiety seems to be a child's innocent question, but in fact it has trapped many people's lives. Happily, the film does not make peace with the mud on this issue, but tries to awaken people's conscience.
The reason why the humanistic care film impresses Time Jun the most is the director's humanistic care. The old fox taught Liao Jie that if you want to be respected, you have to become rich, and if you want to be rich, you have to become an indifferent and ruthless person. And Liao Jie's father taught himself by word and deed that as long as you treat the world well, the world will return the same kindness.
What does the director want to express by this comparison? Many of the so-called strong thinking is a discourse woven by capital. They promise you a rich future, and then they ask you to be obedient, involuted, indifferent, and the strong, so as to more logically squeeze labor and personal time. Behind the beautiful thinking of the strong, there are logical loopholes - social structural problems and resource allocation problems. For example, the stock market bubble flashed in the film, as well as the skyrocketing prices and housing prices. These are obsessed with the common people, and in the end they pay a heavy price.
When these deep-seated problems are presented one by one. You will find that there is no absolute strong thinking in the world, and it turns out that people with empathy can also pick up the burden. And the so-called strong may not be happy and perfect in life. Like the old fox, he used to be a man with low self-esteem and compassion. After giving up his humanity, although he made money, his son did not agree with him and cut off contact with him. To put it bluntly, the old fox has emotional loopholes that carry out a lifetime. The reason why the old fox is so close to Liao Jie is, to a certain extent, an emotional sustenance. He took a fancy to a blank piece of paper and wanted to train him to be a little fox, and by the way, to fill in his emotional shortcomings. But Liao Jie told him that people also need to care about the feelings of others.
After getting along with the old fox, Liao Jie finally empathized with his father's choice. And then realized that my father's compassion and kindness were not cowardice, but the light of humanity. The ending of the film is handled concisely and powerfully. When Liao Jie grew up, he became the one who built a house, also known as the "old fox". But the meaning of this "old fox" is not the same. Liao Jie used his own experience to tell people that even in an unequal society, they can still choose to be kind. At this point, the film completes the narrative closed loop. The time node of the film is of great practical significance. At present, young people are facing all kinds of academic anxiety, job anxiety, and class anxiety. At this time, "Old Fox" stood up to reassure young people and told them that when you understand the truth of life and see the complexity of the world, you must not become a cold shell. Treat the world with kindness as much as possible, so as to know the world but not the world, and be smooth and naïve. -END-
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