Author: Ann Ruosu
In the summer of 2018, under the attack of many domestic youth romance films and foreign science fiction action films, the post-80s rookie director Xin Yukun fought out with a "Burst of Silence".
Five years ago, Xin Yukun's low-cost debut "Labyrinth of Hearts" sensationalized the Chinese film industry as soon as it was shot, becoming the dark horse of the domestic film of that year.
With this film, he quickly became one of the top 250 clubs of Douban movies and the top 5 newcomer directors with the highest scores in Chinese films.
This time, Xin Yukun did not disappoint us, with a Douban score of 8.3.
The aesthetics of extreme violence, hormonal explosions, toughness, blackness, multiple metaphors...
These cool labels are hard to describe the shock that "Violent Silence" brought to me.
alert! alert! The following text is dangerous for spoilers!
The story takes place in the northern countryside.
Villager Zhang Baomin accidentally saved the daughter of lawyer Xu Wenjie who was kidnapped by the mine owner Chang Wannian in the process of searching for his son, but his son, who did not want to disappear, was inextricably linked to the two people.
The workers, the intellectuals, the capitalists, three people in three different strata, fought a fateful struggle on a desolate land.
Zhang Baomin is a typical low-level figure.
He was strong and hot-tempered, and when he was young, he became dumb because he broke his tongue in a fight, and he never liked to talk again.
In the village, he was an outlier, a lonely beast.
The government acquired land, and the villagers signed agreements, but he was unwilling.
The villagers scolded him for obstructing the village's financial road, and he was not moved; the owner of the mutton shop persuaded him, and he lost his hand and poked the blind man's eyes.
Zhang Baomin carries a stubbornness that does not accept defeat, but he is also a mute.
For those who have no say, violence is the only weapon he can use.
Zhang Baomin is a strong man.
He went to the meeting with a single knife, and the company that made a big fuss about Chang Wannian did not fall behind, and he was not afraid to face the threat of Chang Wannian's bow and arrow.
However, he is also a weakling.
Faced with the loss of his son Leizi, he was helpless, unable to call out his son's name, and could only rely on a pair of legs to frantically search for it.
Even if he saved the daughter of lawyer Xu Wenjie, this simple and unpretentious kindness still could not be exchanged for a trace of Xu Wenjie's conscience.
This is a completely tragic figure.
Chang Wannian, played by Jiang Wu, is a rich man who lives extremely luxuriously.
He is a master of the mall, and a demon who lifts an ashtray to kill people without blinking an eye when he is angry, but he can also become a great benevolent person who donates to poor students.
In the film, there is one passage that is impressive.
At the lamb feast, Chang Wannian wore suits and leather shoes, curly hair was exquisite and elegant; the box was brightly decorated, every brick tile was showing off "Lao Tzu has money", the elegant Mozart Serenade in G major seemed out of place; the lamb slicer was running fast, the bones and metal rubbed, making a harsh noise; on the table, the lamb slices piled up into hills, extremely extravagant.
Chang Wannian slowly and methodically put the lamb in his mouth, chewed it in a big mouth, and said leisurely to his opponent who was crying for forgiveness: "The habit of eating vegetarian is not good, and sheep are also vegetarian." ”
The image of viciousness, viciousness, greed, and violence immediately appeared.
The most playful character in the film is lawyer Xu Wenjie.
He is the representative of the refined egoists in society.
In the movie, his heart is wavering and tortured, and he has good intentions in his heart, but in order to protect himself, he has to choose to do things against his heart.
In order to pay half a million yuan, he chose to help the mine owner Chang Wannian to perjury, but the money was to treat his wife's illness, although in the end he failed to save her life.
Later, he felt uneasy and refused to cooperate with Chang Wannian, but his daughter was kidnapped by Chang Wannian.
Xu Wenjie's shock and hesitation in front of the mine reveal his contradictory inner world.
On the one hand, he covered up the crime of manslaughtering Zhang Baomin's son Leizi for Chang Wanmin, and he was terrified.
On the other hand, the victim, Zhang Baomin, has been struggling to save his daughter.
Guilt, gratitude, fear, selfishness, fighting in his heart.
Selfish psychology wins.
After successfully rescuing his daughter, Xu Wenjie chose to protect himself, and he concealed the crimes he and Chang Wannian committed.
At the same time, Zhang Baomin was standing on the top of the mountain, and the mountain in front of him collapsed violently, and all the truth was buried.
Zhang Baomin's wife held the lamb and cried bitterly in the wind and sand, while the fierce, brave, and fearless Zhang Baomin could only silently leave a tear in the face of fate and the trickery of power.
"Bursting into Silence" uses a variety of imagery, not completely realistic, but after watching it, it still makes people feel a deep sense of powerlessness about reality.
The name "Zhang Lei", the paperweight on Chang Wannian's desk, the hill where mutton is piled up, and the cracked mountain peak all reflect the pyramid-shaped social class.
Zhang Baomin is just a microcosm of thousands of people at the bottom.
According to statistics, at the end of 2017, there were 30.46 million rural poor people in China.
From countless news reports, we can get a glimpse of their current situation:
They are struggling at the bottom of society, just living, they have exhausted all their strength, the class is gradually solidifying, the door to the upper society is slowly closing, with a lonely courage, how to fight with the "Chang Wannian"?
Xin Yukun, the director of "Bursting Into Silence", cleverly combines "sound" and "silence", and the upper class has "sound" in chewing delicious food; the lower class cannot make a cry of suffering; the middle class suffers from the pull of "interests" and "conscience", but most of them lose their voices like the lawyer Xu Wenjie.
The only truth that comes out is a small child in an Ultraman mask, which is a huge irony of social reality.
It is worth mentioning that the director intends to guide the audience to pay attention to more realistic topics:
In the village next to the mine, well water is becoming more and more difficult to drink, reflecting the contradiction between resource extraction and water pollution;
Xu Wenjie and Chang Wannian are complicit, and the village cadres are respectful to Chang Wannian and his gang, which is a conspiracy between the upper class and the middle class;
The owner of the mutton shop, who was blinded by Zhang Baomin, finally helped Zhang Baomin, but Xu Wenjie, who should have regarded Zhang Baomin as a savior, chose silence.
Good and evil, many times there is no clear line, perhaps only between a thought.
Bursting into silence and sound, this movie deserves our careful consideration.