IT Times reporter Sun Yonghui
In director Guan Hu's films, animals can often be seen, and he is good at connecting and integrating animals and characters to reveal the theme of the story, such as the cow in "Bullfight", the ostrich running on the street in "Lao Pao'er", and the white horse in "Eight Hundred". He is allegorical to animals, portrays human nature, and celebrates life.
The recently released "Dog Formation" has created a story of redemption between a man and an animal, and the animal protagonist in the film is mainly a dog, but also takes the opportunity to use metaphors through tigers, wolves, snakes and other animals. The plot mainly tells the story of Lang Yonghui (played by Peng Yuyan), nicknamed "Erlang", who was imprisoned for ten years for manslaughter and returned to his hometown after being released on parole, but in the face of prejudice, discussion and a disjointed social environment, he does not know how to start a new life. After being at a loss, Erlang was forced to join the dog catching team for his livelihood and saved a stray dog, and he also gained the courage to go on the road again in getting along with the black dog, and one person and one dog regained their lives in mutual redemption.
The film won the best film in the "Un Certain Regard" unit at the 77th Cannes International Film Festival, however, the film's word-of-mouth is polarized, some viewers complain that "the plot is unclear", which is a bit far-fetched, and some people think that as a literary film, the actors' acting skills are online, the theme is profound, and it is worth recalling. On the whole, the slots and highlights of the film coexist.
The mutual redemption of man and dog
In the wind and sand, a minibus drove on the road to Chixia Town, the endless Gobi Desert and the tumbleweed swaying with the wind gave people a sense of desolation. A herd of wild dogs rushed down the slope and ran in all directions, forming a "dog formation". Under the "attack" of the wind and sand, the shuttle bus had a rollover accident in order to hide from the dog. The beginning of the film creates an image of a silent male protagonist. On the shuttle, a passenger lost 1,000 yuan, asked other passengers one by one if they saw it, when asked Erlang, he was silent to deny it, in the face of the passenger's suspicion and questioning, he carried his bag and just walked forward. Back in town, when the noodle shop owner, the police, and others talk to him, Jiro responds by shaking his head, nodding his head, and other simple body movements.
The story is set in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the development of the small town of Chixia, a town in the northwest that is economically underdeveloped and full of stray dogs. Jiro, a former celebrity in town, was imprisoned for manslaughter a decade ago by the nephew of a snake farmer who also ran a roast lamb shop. On the whole, the plot clues can be summarized into two, one of which is that Erlang catches the dog - releases the dog - saves the dog - protects the dog; Second, the relationship between Erlang and Hu Butcher went from a fierce conflict to a relaxation.
After returning to his hometown after being released on parole, Erlang found that foreign objects and people around him had changed, and he became a "marginal person".
In order to establish the overall order of the town, the town set up a patrol team managed by Uncle Yao (played by Jia Zhangke), whose main job is to catch dogs, and Erlang also joined in for a living. The black dog is their main "wanted criminal", with a bounty of up to 1,000 yuan. It hides in an abandoned building, and its encounter with Jiro begins with a convenient corner of the wall, when it smells Jiro's urine, the black dog looks for the smell from the building cave and pees again in a convenient location for Jiro. The role of the dog peeing in a certain area is to mark and convey information, and the ingenuity of this plot is that the black dog actually treats Jiro as "one of the kind". In the follow-up capture, Jiro also used his own urine as bait to attract the black dog to appear.
At first, the black dog has a fierce attitude towards Erlang, and also bites him in multiple places, and the change in relationship and emotional "warming" comes from the rescue in a sandstorm and the 10-day quarantine. Because Jiro released the dogs captured by the patrol team without permission, Uncle Yao decided to change his job from capturing to transporting. On the way to transport the black dog to the rescue center, the sandstorm overturned the truck, and the black dog trapped in the dog cage fell to the ground with the wind, screaming and screaming in the wind and sand. Seeing this, Jiro carried him back to the damaged car, one person and one dog, snuggled up to each other, but the black dog suspected of carrying the rabies virus bit Jiro again. Later, with the help of the song and dance troupe, Erlang and Black Dog returned to the town and started a life of common isolation. It was also during this interdependent scene that their relationship gradually improved, and Jiro decided to adopt a black dog and embarked on the road of mutual redemption.
Another contradiction in the film occurs between Erlang and Hu Butcher, and the relationship between the two goes from Hu Butcher's desire to make Erlang pay for his life to mutual assistance and ease. Because Hu Butcher was bitten by a poisonous snake he raised, Erlang risked his life to save him, regardless of his previous suspicions. Since then, their relationship has changed.
At the end of the film, the black dog leaves due to an accident, and Jiro rides a motorcycle and takes his child to start again, which is the continuation of the black dog's life. On the open mountain road, a person, a dog, and a motorcycle form a harmonious picture.
Acting online but not high attendance
Regarding the discussion of literary films, the last hotly discussed film may be "The Mistake by the River" starring Zhu Yilong, which set off a wave of discussion as soon as it was released, with a cumulative box office of 300 million. In contrast, "Dog Formation" has not yet attracted a lot of attention. In the three days since the release, the reporter of "IT Times" noticed that the number of films in the theater is small, and the number of screenings where the reporter is located is less than 10 people watching.
Walking out of the theater, some audiences are a little unclear about some of the plots, so as a literary film, there are actually more metaphors and special designs of the creators. For example, Grape (played by Tong Liya), one of the actors of the song and dance troupe, and Erlang have this picture: Grape and Erlang drank and talked after they met, and then, Grape asked Erlang if he was willing to marry her. The audience's question is that the film spends less space on the relationship between Grape and Erlang, and the question that Grape is so close is a bit abrupt, and the plot substitution is also a bit far-fetched. In fact, the plot is intended to show the longing for stability of the indefinite grapes. For another example, a poem from the 1947 Soviet film "The Country Teacher" appears several times in the film, implying the theme of the road again: "Walk forward with your chest up, the sky trees and sandbanks, the rugged road, let us hold hands tightly......" If you don't understand the theme of the film, it is difficult to understand the director's special design.
But it is undeniable that the actors of the film are acting online and shape a profound theme. In addition to Peng Yuyan, the film also brings together well-known actors such as Jia Zhangke, Tong Liya, Yuan Hong, and Zhou You.
At the end of the film, two lines of subtitles come into view, one of which is "dedicated to those who are on the road again"; Second, "I would like to commemorate my father with this film. "On the road again" is the theme of the story: after Erlang was released from prison, he became a "friend" with a wanted black dog, and the redeemed Erlang rode a motorcycle, carrying the offspring of the black dog to an unknown distance, and was always on the road; The captive tigers in the zoo were finally freed and walked "leisurely" around the town; Chixia Town is also on the road, and order, public security, and economy are constantly developing; The off-screen director is also on the way.
In an interview, Guan Hu expressed his creative thoughts: "Everyone will feel a kind of power in this movie, and in fact, it is the same for me." When I made this film, I also wanted to start anew, not to stay in my comfort zone, not to stay in that array. Hope that life will change, that the animality in the body will be evoked, and that our dreams will always be on the way. In the process of growing up, each of us is gradually dusting, losing that courage, and wanting to be stable, and movies have a reminder function. ”
What is a formation? The patrol team in the film has this line when catching dogs: "Follow our formation." "Herds of wild dogs also have their own formations. If you want to hit the road again, you need to "break the formation", not only to break the dog formation, but also to break the human formation. Perhaps, only in this way can we regain the original intention and the courage to start again.