"I just wanted to stand and earn money" - "Let the Bullets Fly" characters and dark line analysis
Written in the present: First of all, on the issue of over-parsing, "Let the Bullets Fly" Jiang Wen asked seven screenwriters to write for three years, and we have reason to believe that he did not just want to create a commercial comedy where bullies and bandits fought. From "Devil" and "Sunshine", we can see that Jiang Wen's ambition is different from other directors, which is a film with political and historical reflection, and these satires and allegories are implicitly expressed by Jiang Wen in the language of the film.
"Master, high! County Chief, hard! Mr. Huang is tall and hard! (Analysis of the Big Three)
Huang Silang: Big landlords and the comprador class, old revolution.
About Shiro's identity: In the film, Shiro holds a collector's version of the mine "1910, made in US", saying that there are only two such precious mines in the southern country, and the first is the first sound of the Xinhai Revolution (1911). Such a precious xinhai revolution sister mine is not what a gentleman should have, so he should also be an old revolution during the Xinhai Revolution, and he is also an important member of the revolution. But after the revolution, he was transformed into a landlord and bully who dominated goose city.
It is obvious that Shiro is a big landlord, but his other identity should still be that of a comprador class in the service of imperialism. As the spokesman of imperialism in the south, he represents the interests of imperialism. It is mentioned in the film that Shiro was mainly engaged in the business of selling tobacco in the southern country, probably importing opium and other drugs into China for the Western powers (opium did not completely disappear before the founding of New China, but existed in a more covert way), and then like two major families, he bought and sold Zhuangding to America to build railways, earning dollal.
What is reflected is that the Beiyang warlords headed by Yuan Shikai defected to imperialism and became lackeys.
About the relationship with Mako twenty years ago:
My point is that they met when they were studying in Japan.
At the banquet, Shiro gave Mazi a short knife to make Mako his own intermediary, but Mazi reminded Shiro that the long knife was for the wrong person, and the short knife was used to cut the abdomen. (Cutting the abdomen is the glorious way of committing suicide in Japanese Bushido, but when a knife is stabbed into the stomach, the person will not die instantly, not dead or alive, it is very painful, so there will be friends or trusted courtiers behind him as their own intermediary, after cutting the abdomen, the wrong person immediately makes up a knife, cuts off his head, and ends his pain.) It is a great honor to be the wrong person. ）
And this knowledge may not be known to many people now, and in the more closed Beiyang period, Mako, who said this at once, was obviously in deep contact with Japanese culture, and it is speculated that he studied in Japan with General Cai Yi (general Songpa's matter will be mentioned in detail below).
(It should also be noted that Japan broke free from the shackles of feudalism through the Meiji Restoration and became one of the world's great powers.) At that time, many people with lofty ideals in old China believed that China in the feudal system should learn from its own advanced points similar to japan in the past in order to save the survival of the people, so studying in Japan at that time was also regarded as a symbol of seeking change and advocating revolution, which also reflected the thought and pursuit of Mazi. At the same time, this is why among the many international students under Yuan Shikai, only those who have not studied in Japan have studied in Japan. ）
About Shiro's ending: This question movie tidbits give us the answer, the person who dressed up as the master of the tail was Shiro, and Shiro was not dead. It is also hinted at the beginning of the film that after the success of the revolution, When Mazi and Shiro sat in a chair and talked, Shilang was wearing red clothes, while When the tower was bombed, Shiro was wearing purple clothes, so it is very likely that Shiro's other stand-in was killed by the explosion, and the real Shiro took the last letter of appointment to Pudong to become the county magistrate, and the third elder and others became the new "Huang Silang".
The revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still have to work hard.
But the betrayal and dispersion of brothers, the enemy is still not destroyed, what is the meaning of the revolution? What exactly is it for that you have spent your life pursuing?
The last person who saw the back of the car was still slowly setting up a horse to keep up.
Because as a revolutionary, Mazi's ideal and mission is revolution, but if there is no revolutionary goal, his own existence will have no meaning.
Asako firmly believes that "Internacionale must be realized."
About the hat that Shiro finally threw:
When Mazi first took office, Huang Shilang gave Mazi a dismount and received Mazi with a hat. But the end: "On the day I entered the city, if I personally went to pick you up, instead of asking Hu Wan to go over and make trouble for you, would the result be different?" "That's not the best, I have better at home, turn around and give it to you." In the battle of wits between the two, Mako exchanged four lives for Shiro's five generations of family business, and Shiro was still very unwilling, and finally he threw out a top hat (courtesy) and regretted it.
Here I have to talk about Brother Fa, in the face of the role of Huang Laoye, a very evil decent person, the interpretation of a rich gentleman bully who has left a foreign culture and taste can be said to be the biggest highlight among the actors.
About Shiro and Mazi winning and losing: Mazi won, because he killed the stand-in symbolizing the feudal totem, in order to mobilize the masses to attack the Huangjia Diaolou and bury Shiro's five generations of family business; Shiro won, killing people, he cursed Mazi's heart, his beloved woman, brothers who had been side by side for many years finally betrayed him, and he was alone on the road of revolution.
About Shiro's name: A classic film with depth, in which the names of the characters are very elaborate. In the original work, Huang Laoye was not called Huang Silang, but was changed to Huang Silang in the movie. The speculation is based on the traditional Chinese "scholar farmers, industrialists and merchants", the merchants are old, and this name sounds like the name of a large landlord::>_<::.
Master Tang: A professional liar who wanders in the gray area of the law. It also reflects the common phenomenon of the immorality of the literati at that time, when the literati were selfish and stubborn, their ambitions were no longer to serve the country, and the survival of the country was in danger. The hairstyle emitted by the master's cape should be the image of the braid just cut off, but like the squires and other people, the braids on the head are cut, but the braids in the heart are not cut.
About Lao Tang's death: After the fake Mazi confessed everything, the master was afraid that his undercover identity would leak out and wanted to run away under the pretext of his wife's death, but the fake mazi was also afraid that the master would go back to Goose City to tell the confession, so he shouted to the east, but suddenly remembered the treasured mines planted in the east, but unfortunately it was too late, and the shrewd master of the first generation eventually became a victim of this revolution.
In the end, I wanted to tell Mazi about the two files, one was that the second brother died because he had informed; the other was that Hua Jie was undercover.
(About the horse-drawn train: The story of the bully and the bandit was started by such a magical train, but this seemingly strange scene did exist at that time, when the first railway built in China, the Tangxu Railway, was pulled by donkeys and horses in the first year, and changed to locomotive dragging the following year.) But 40 years later, in 1920, this reflected a kind of semi-industrial absurdity, the product of the impact of the new industrial revolution with the old feudal ideas. In such a train powered by a horse train, there was a bureaucratic class such as Master Tang, and the protection of these bureaucrats was the iron-blooded Eighteen-Star Team, which symbolized the victory of the Wuchang Uprising.
This is the surprise after seeing the movie four or five times, the real "Master Tang" played by Feng Xiaogang secretly kissed his wife when Ma Bond turned back, and Jiang Wenqi's heart was reprehensible.
The absurd scenes of the film using horse-drawn trains and priests knocking on wooden fish remind us that the spring wind of revolution has blown into the land of China, but the idea of democracy is far from reaching the point of penetrating the hearts of the people. ）
Zhang Mazi: Revolutionary of idealism and romanticism.
About Jiang Wen's photographic language: I think there are two paragraphs in the whole film with the most classic shots and the most brilliant skills: the first is the funeral of the sixth son, which is filmed from the perspective of the sleeping old sixth, in order to highlight everyone's language and facial expressions, very exquisite, it should be noted that at this time, there have been differences within the revolutionary team on whether to go or stay, and the contradictions have gradually deepened.
The second is the most wonderful "Hongmen Banquet" in the film, where the three major movie emperors play at the same table and give the audience a three-mouth comedy. We can see from the tidbits that in order to better capture the language and demeanor of the actors, the three cameras are located directly above the table and automatically rotate, imitating the round table that rotates during eating. The most wonderful, and what I admire most about Jiang Wen is that the shooting uses the rhythm of moving-stopping-moving to create and echo the atmosphere. "Hongmen Banquet" began to move the camera faster, and the death of Shop Xiao'er made the atmosphere suddenly tense, and the camera no longer turned quickly, but gave each actor a close-up of the face to set off the solemn atmosphere; and when it came to Zhang Mazi in Goose City, the camera directly paused, when Shiro said "In... It's not there...", The master answered, "Old Master Huang's words are still quite mysterious (laughs)", the atmosphere began to become lively again, and the "cross-talk" officially began; when Shiro talked about his relationship with Mazi twenty years ago, the camera stopped again, and the three people were pregnant with ghost fetuses, and Shiro's chest was full of confidence, Mazi's confusion and Master's uneasiness were all vividly portrayed.
"Big Brother, You Know Me" (Analysis of the Personality and Ending of the Six Brothers)
Elder Two: A revolutionary with a firm revolutionary stand. In many of the hot fight scenes in the film, the second eldest did not appear, but he was the most trusted and loyal one of Asako. The more important tasks (digging up and burying corpses, bluestone ridge to meet large troops) will be entrusted to him.
About the death of the second eldest:
(1) "Big brother, you know me, if I shoot, it should be her husband lying on the table (everyone laughs)." ”
The second eldest is gay, and he likes the third who rides a bicycle with him in Shanghai, so Hua Jie's seduction to him is ineffective.
(2) Every time when the money is divided, the other brothers have been shaken, thinking of taking the money and flying high, but the second brother has never, he may not have any desire for money, and may also be loyal to the big brother far more than the desire for money.
(3) When Mazi tells the third elder in the film that he sent the second elder to Qingshiling to meet the large troops, Master Tang crouched on the ground and eavesdropped, and the master who had long colluded with Huang Silang was probably the culprit in the death of the second elder. Moreover, when attacked by the fake Mazi, the master calmly got off his horse to dodge, and could already skillfully use the password whistle to disrupt the Mazi team. After the attack, only the second elder died, and the seventh elder was slightly injured, which further shows that there has been an undercover within the revolutionary team, and Zhang Mazi, who only cares about the revolution and does not consider his own interests, will eventually be rejected.
The second brother is neither greedy for money nor lustful, but only wants to follow the eldest brother to complete the revolutionary ideal. So in the end, after the brothers were bribed, the death of the only second brother who was still firmly on the side of Mazi was not surprising.
Mazi later heard the third elder say that he was going to marry Sister Hua for the second brother, and Mazi said: "The second brother, the second brother...", and the third elder said: "Big brother, I am the third elder.". In fact, what Mazi wants to say is the second oldest, your death is too wrong. Will the brothers who were born and died together not know that the second brother is gay? Mazi has long known that he is alone on the road of revolution.
Elder Four: A revolutionary whose means are resolute but whose will is not strong.
"Big brother, you know me, if it wasn't I would have someone alive to sue."
("Big brother, you know me" this paragraph basically reflects the personality of each brother, and also paves the way for the later plot.) ）
Old Five: The peasant class that is forced to participate in the revolution because of its livelihood. The fifth is the eldest of the seven brothers, but he is still a virgin, and there is a gap between his honest image and that of a bandit. Therefore, it should be desperate peasants who participate in the revolution in order to make a living, but the short-sightedness of consciousness makes them quickly fall under the temptation of money and turn to Huang Silang. (After getting the money from the two major families, the brothers all said that they would take the money and leave, and what the brothers really wanted was money, but What Mazi wanted was the life of Ge Huang Shilang, which also implied that the brothers were later bribed by Shiro and had no choice but to end)
Old Six: A simple revolutionary. One is one, two is two, eat a bowl of powder, give a bowl of money. Such a character also caused him to eventually die of the cunning of the enemy.
About the death of Liuzi: The strong expression of thoughts or feelings in the film often needs the death of an important person to sublimate, just as in "Django" to express the strong resistance to black slavery by borrowing Dr. Schultz to refuse to shake hands and die, Liuzi's death reflects the numbness, cowardice and selfishness of the people at that time, who like to join in the fun (the people of Goose City especially like to join in the fun), but after the accident, they avoid it, just wanting to avoid being involved. At that time, the people had not yet awakened, and they were filled with the darkness of human life.
"..., but I saw only the backs of a bunch of people; the necks were very long, like many ducks, pinched by invisible hands, and lifted upwards."
Xiao Er, a shop selling cold powder, was also oppressed by violence and eventually became one of the murderers of The Sixth Son.
But the death of the sixth son also strengthened the determination of the Mazi revolution, and in the face of cunning enemies, there was only one way to go.
Old Seven: Revolutionary literati who do not stand firm. Glasses were not popularized in 1920, and the not-so-cheap price and a fashion trend made glasses also regarded as a symbol of the literati at that time, and the old seven with glasses Sven wen looked like a revolutionary literati who abandoned his pen at that time. Although he has always been on the side of Mazi, after the brothers were bribed, the old seventh who rode the tiger also showed his weak and submissive side, and followed the brothers to Shanghai to become the new ruler.
When the last farewell, Old Seven asked Mazi if she liked Sister Hua, and secretly said a word to Mazi, Mazi's expression was intriguing, and What Old Seven said should be "Sister Hua is undercover".
"I heard you, each of you has a special skill"
"You, you're about to become a little phoenix fairy" (Flower Sister character analysis)
Sister Hua: An important member of Huang Silang's hand, a key figure in the disintegration of the revolutionary team.
About who was the "Little Phoenix": Xiao Fengxian was a famous prostitute and a chivalrous prostitute who was famous at that time. He helped Cai Yi escape from Yuan Shikai's men, indirectly promoting the second revolution, and there are various popular version of the folk story about Cai Yi (General Songpo mentioned by Mazi) and Xiao Fengxian. Therefore, Shiro's repeated mention of "Little Phoenix" is to remind Hua Jie not to betray herself to help those revolutionaries.
About the two diamonds that connect the dark lines:
There is a saying that the prostitute that Sister Hua made for the second and third elders was the two diamonds, and Shiro's expression was also very satisfied when he saw the inside of the box, which meant that he said to Shiro that the second and third elders had been done.
So according to this statement, the direction of the diamond is: Shiro - Mazi - Shiye - Mazi - Shiye -- Shiye's wife (all of them are a fraud gang, and in the end the diamond is still in the hands of Shiye) - ("I shouldn't give away your diamonds") The second and third - Flower Sister - Shilang - fake Mazi
But there are two points that cannot be explained by this statement: the box of the Shaanxi accent woman and the box in the hands of the fake Mazi are exactly the same square box, while the flower sister handed to Shilang is a round box, and the square box held by the fake Mazi in the hand of the fake Mazi when Shilang talks with the fake Mazi is obviously different from the color of the square box of the Shaanxi accent woman, this assumption cannot explain why the box will go to the hands of the fake Mazi, this is one of them; the fake Mazi said under the coercion of the real Mazi that the box was snatched from the hands of the master's wife and the "son" of the master, and he has always stressed" Can you say it for another life?" Fake Mazi has begun to panic, and he may die without having to block his own life to help Shi Ye this uncontrollable factor round this lie, just like Shi Ye told Ma Zi before he died that he lied to him in two files, the last person in the film will confide in the truth before he dies (real death), otherwise the whole movie full of lies is no one can understand, this assumption can not explain why Fake MaZi still tells lies before he dies, this is the second.
These two points are enough to make this hypothesis self-defeating, so about the two diamonds, the bright line is the dark line, and the diamond is the circulation route: Shilang - Mazi - Shiye - Mazi - Shaanxi Accent Woman - Fake Mazi
About chasing the stand-in for three days and three nights: "He ran I chased, he ran I chased, he chased back"
"When he runs, I block, when he runs, I block, and he blocks back."
After chasing for three days and three nights, I finally chased the stand-in back, do you believe it?
Besides, how did the stand-in tied to the barbed wire escape?
Irrationality in films is often a hint at the character's fantasies and dreams or other hidden events.
"Who wins, who they support"
In these three days, the flower sister and the third elder who colluded with Shiro were probably really weighing the pros and cons of handing over the stand-in, and waiting and seeing who would win in the end, Shiro and Mako.
Another unreasonable place is the sudden departure of the brothers, I believe that everyone who sees this place will feel deeply abrupt, since he has won the victory of the revolution, and he is the big brother who has followed for many years, why should he suddenly leave for a different place? I think the first is guilt, guilt for betraying the big brother for money, and it is not clear whether the big brother has found out that there will be danger in staying; and most of them who have embarked on the road of revolution are forced by life (when they divide the money, they unanimously agree with the seventh son, and even if they take the money, they repay the revenge of the six sons), what they really want is still a rich and status life, not for "TMD fairness". So Mazi was angry—the death of the sixth son, the second eldest, the master, the lady, the betrayal of his brothers, and the infernal affairs of Sister Hua made him really angry. Therefore, he had a good feeling for Hua Jie, and pointed a gun at Hua Jie, but because he remembered his old feelings (and it was useless to kill Hua Jie), MaZi still restrained himself and gave the gun to Hua Jie by the way.
The sentence "Old two, old two..." also reflects his helplessness, and Mazi was cursed.
"Coming out of the Lecture Hall, I have followed General Songpo" (Cai Yi character analysis)
Cai Yi is a famous democratic revolutionary. It played an important role during the Xinhai Revolution, and after four years of Xinhai, he also actively participated in the uprising of the Patriotic Army against Yuan's claim to the emperor and the defense of the democratic republican form of government. Zhang Mazi served as his pistol captain when he was seventeen years old, and according to Cai E's stay in Japan in 1899 and Mazi's experience in Japan, Mazi is likely to be a juvenile bodyguard of the same age when Cai Yi studied in Japan.
(It is worth mentioning that cai yi was not named at that time, how could he study in Japan?)
The popular folk saying is that Yuan Shikai funded it.
"At the beginning, when Cai Yi left Changsha, Hunan Province to go to Japan to join Liang Qichao, he only had two cents borrowed on his body, and it was Yuan Shikai's generous loan of a thousand oceans that enabled Cai Yi to successfully cross the east." —— "A Hundred Years of Hunan People"
"When he went to Japan to study in 1899, he was shy, and Yuan Shikai gave him a thousand oceans, so that he could successfully complete his studies." - "Idiom Allusions and Psychological Counseling")
The old revolution funded Cai Yi to study in Japan (1899-1904), and confirmed the fate of Mako and Shiro in Japan twenty years ago (1920 is 20 years forward, exactly 1900).
Cai Yi's appearance is really short, Mazi has been taken by a sentence, maybe Jiang Wen does not want others to investigate too deeply here. Shi Ye's "I was seventeen years old that year, and she was seventeen years old..." made the audience laugh and also diverted the topic of "General Songpa".
But existence is meaningful, and the appearance of Cai Yi emphasizes the position of Mazi, who is actually a man of lofty ideals who pursues democracy and advocates revolution, and it is really unavoidable that he fell into the grass after the death of the general.
"I have nine ways to kill him!" Nine! Listen to my thunder! (Character analysis of Wu Zhichong)
Wu Zhichong: The collection of Wu Song, Lu Zhishen, and Lin Chong, representatives of local grass and city ruffians, and the last wave of people in the late Qing Dynasty.
A problematic point: the Wuju people say in the film that "Lao Tzu was a Martial Artist appointed by the Emperor in the Thirty-first Year of Guangxu (1905)," and 1905 was the last year of the existence of the imperial examination system in China.
After the Opium War, in various imperial insult wars, the basic qualities and military thinking of the martial arts people have long been unable to keep up with the times. However, the conformist Qing government announced the abolition of the system of martial arts in the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu (1901).
I don't know whether it was the self-bragging of the martial artists or a small mistake by the screenwriter.
An interesting place: after the stand-in was killed, the wuju people immediately integrated into the crowd and were the first to rush into the tower, and met Hu Qian, a housekeeper who also wanted to blend in with the masses, and beat Hu Qian to the side by lifting the ape arm. How flattering the two had been in front of Old Master Huang before, but when the revolution was successful, they rushed to take the lead in the charge, lest they fall.
A controversial place: "I have nine ways to kill him!" Nine! Listen to my thunder! ", the Wuju people should have already thought of a way to kill Shiro, that is, to blow up the tower (thunder), the other eight as a backup, but did not want to be shot by Shiro's head, so the end of the Wuju people still died at the hands of his former master, but the explosives have also been placed, and finally he did kill Shiro (stand-in, as explained above).
Personally, I think that the task of Shiro's new stand-in is to pass on the illusion that he has died to Zhang Mazi, to fake the truth, and the real Mazi is waiting for the opportunity to run, but he accidentally bumped into the Wuju people, and killed the Wuju people at the same time was killed by the explosives that had been placed, because it is basically impossible for someone to die for Shiro's dignity for money, which is a more reasonable explanation.
Write at the end ("Fair, fair, also TMD is fair"):
After MaZi beat the head of the martial arts sect, the people who had originally watched the liveliness went out and knelt down and shouted to the Qingtian Grand Master, and Jiang Wen shot, "Don't kneel!" ”。 But when he finished saying the three things he wanted to do in Goose City, the people still knelt down and shouted at the Qingtian Grand Master.
The people of that era had long given up hope under the oppression of long-term violence, numb to the point that they could no longer dream, perhaps it did not matter who the ruler was, the replacement of the county magistrate was nothing more than the oppression of the new power or the emergence of temporary justice, and the shouting of "Qingtian Grand Master" was only afraid of new violence, not the sense of resistance to the power. Revolution has taken place, and the advanced culture and ideas of the West have advanced into the Chinese mainland, but the people have not really accepted these advanced ideas to break free from the feudal shackles, and the civic consciousness has not yet awakened. Just like Lu Xun's description, the fear of violence and the servility of kneeling when he sees people go deep into his bones, and the braids on his head are cut, but the braids in his heart cannot be cut.
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