Author: Jiu Gua Wishing you joy and success, thank you for reading!
What kind of era is this? This is a floating city, Lou Ye used his own way to build a floating city of fans, using the group distortion under the lens to let the audience feel the illusion and exaggeration of reality. - "The Mystery of the Floating City"
The movie "The Mystery of the Floating City" is adapted from the 2009 hot post "See How I Clean Up the Mean Boy Xiaosan" by Tianya Netizen "Watching the Moon Leave", the film is played by Lou Ye "royal actor" Qin Hao as the male protagonist Qiao Yongzhao, "literary and art film goddess" Hao Lei plays the female protagonist Lu Jie, and "gold medal supporting role" Zu Feng plays the male second policeman, and Zhu Yawen plays the only Qin Feng who is the most persistent about the car accident murder in the whole film.
The film tells the urban emotional incident involving the bizarre car accident of a girl involved in an extramarital affair, and this film explores the topic of why men cheat, but do the audiences who have seen the film really think that it is just like this?
The answer is no.
Lou Ye is one of the most popular representatives of China's sixth generation of directors who like to use shaky shots. He is accustomed to using the lens to bring the audience a feeling of "dizziness", so that the audience is in a state of "dizziness" to feel the "good" and "evil" of human nature, and most of his films are full of gloom, obscurity and sensitivity. He always uses a narrative style and shooting method with great personal style characteristics to express his deep concern for the pathology of real society.
The film begins with a scene of several "rich second generation" crazy racing in a heavy rain. A girl named Mosquito died on this day of heavy rain, and after some investigation by the police, it was ostensibly a murder caused by a traffic accident of the "second generation of the rich". The family of the "rich second generation" is everywhere, and the last murder case is so private, and the mother of the mosquito, who can only have to accept the "bribe" of real estate and compensation, chooses to be silent.
Why do girl mosquitoes appear in the heavy rain? And why is a single person standing in the middle of the road in a trance? And how did the blow wounds on the body before death come about? A series of suspense was pre-edited by the director, just to let the audience focus on finding answers in the subsequent plot with questions and curiosity!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > contrasting "paradoxical" dual family</h1>
After the suspenseful beginning, with the switching of the camera, what appears in front of the audience is a warm family of three. A happy man who makes the audience look more successful, surrounded by a gentle and beautiful wife, and a lovely daughter, should be the love that many viewers hope for. However, when this man leaves the home, does the state he shows sting the audience's heart?
Qiao Yongzhao (Qin Hao), who walks out of the cozy little home, is a sick "patient" with a strong "X addiction", who will constantly look for different girls and enjoy the happy feeling of venting. However, that's not all he is, and beyond his warm family, there is a hidden family.
A woman named Sanqi (Qi Xi) willingly gave birth to a son for him, she didn't care whether Qiao Yongzhao had money or status, she just wanted Qiao Yongzhao to be able to accompany their mother and son in this way. Such an emotional single out seems to be like our fantasy love, but in the movie, this is also a kind of "pathology".
Qiao Yongzhao in the original warm family, has always been a considerate, show a great sense of responsibility to his wife and daughter "model man", his outward performance of "infidelity" and hidden family does not seem to make him feel the slightest sense of suffering in his heart. When his wife Lu Jie (Hao Lei) is uncomfortable, his thoughtful words make the audience feel that he does not seem to be mixed with a hint of hypocrisy, and he is sincere with his wife.
When he appears in the hidden family, he takes on another state, he can punch and kick Sanqi unscrupulously in a small space, and then vent his "beast, desire" on Sanqi's scarred body. At this time, Qiao Yongzhao was like a sadist, and Sanqi showed a habitual masochistic tendency, when Qiao Yongzhao "cried bitterly" and hugged Sanqi and pleaded: Let's not see her (Lu Jie) again, okay? Listening to his sad words and looking at Sanqi's distressed expression, he seemed to feel that these two people were bitter people, a couple with deep feelings of "common suffering".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the emptiness under desire causes everyone to be a "murderer."</h1>
Qiao Yongzhao, who has a dual identity, has always been in his own world, balancing various situations, (through the later plot, we know that the company is Lu Jie's, and Qiao Yongzhao's middle-class identity is also realized through Lu Jie) However, people's desires are not permanently firm and restrained. The person who broke this "balance" state was a bit of a surprise, and Sanqi, who was originally the most cowardly and masochistic, took the initiative to break Qiao Yongzhao's "false balance".
Sanqi originally only hoped to use Lu Jie's hand to drive away the other women around Qiao Yongzhao, but she could not imagine that in addition to exposing herself, she also accidentally "joined forces" with Lu Jie to cause the accidental death of the girl's mosquito.
For Lu Jie, Sanqi's exposure, as well as Sanqi and Qiao Yongzhao's illegitimate children, are the root causes of her desire for a better life for her family and herself to collapse. It is precisely because of this that we can see Lu Jie's indifference and selfishness through her surprising calmness.
After learning that her husband had cheated on her, Lu Jie made the decision to track mosquitoes, and this scene was just the prelude to the car accident at the beginning of the movie. Lu Jie tracked the mosquito, and the curious Sanqi followed Lu Jie, and an unexpected scene appeared in the rainy woods, and Lu Jie, who was occupied by anger and hatred, picked up the stones on the ground and chased the mosquitoes. And the "whistleblower" Sanqi also seems to be infected by Lu Jie's emotions, and after she was found by mosquitoes, she pushed mosquitoes down the hillside in fear.
None of them are direct perpetrators, but they are all "murderers", including Qiao Yongzhao and Fu Erdai. In the film, the various types of disjointed people who originally maintained a balanced state are associated with the "labyrinth of desire", and the extreme irony of people's indifference, cruelty, meanness and squalor is reflected through the emptiness under desire.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > deep concern for the "sick" real society</h1>
The movie "Floating City Mystery" should be a rare and calm mirror operation by director Lou Ye, although he still uses a handheld shaking camera to process the long shots of the two rain scenes, but he reduces the number of shaking shots and increases the presentation of slow motion (the slow shot of mosquitoes being pushed down the hillside extends the audience's thinking space, so that the audience can feel the shocking shock brought by this black shadow tone).
At the same time, in the film, director Lou Ye uses the musical purification and religious feelings that are relatively easy to accept in society to guide the audience to have a deep concern for the real society.
(1) Use music to purify emotions
In addition to swamp band's "Panic", the most impressive music in the film is "Ode to Joy", which appears three times in total.
The first time, when "Ode to Joy" appeared, it was when the rich second generation was laughing and frolicking all the way, but when the rich second generation's car hit the mosquito of the girl who stood up in the middle of the road, the joyful and sacred "Ode to Joy" came to an abrupt end.
The second time, after Qiao Yongzhao beat Up Sanqi in the hidden family and vented his desires, his illegitimate son played "Ode to Joy" on a toy electronic keyboard.
The third time, in the kindergarten where their son went to school, Qiao Yongzhao and Sanqi "bathed" in the bright yellow sun and listened to the children sing "Ode to Joy" in their childish voices.
"Ode to Joy" for us living in modern society, is an expression of a beautiful dream, the "Ode to Joy" that appears in the film is gradually progressing, all the mistakes originate from ease, beautiful and brisk music is silent because of an accidental "murder". Subsequently, the little boy showed on the toy with a childish technique, until the last group of children sang in unison under the soft sunlight of the bright yellow sun, at this time, under the director's lens, finally reached the state of "love and painting unity".
Against the backdrop of warm colors, two people with sins listen to the ethereal and pure sounds of children, and the director uses such a ritualistic scene as a metaphor for the spiritual purification of them who are receiving innocent children and the music.
(2) Metaphors under Buddhist elements
In Buddhism, there are 8 kinds of merits in water: keeping vows pure, enjoying a variety of tastes, being able to endure and be strong in body and mind, being soft in mind, being clear in mind, purifying sins, sounding and elegance, achieving good words, not having diseases in the body, and being healthy and disease-free. (From Baidu Encyclopedia)
Water, in "The Mystery of the Floating City", was given a very important connotation by the director, and he hoped that the "merit" of water would give a touch of humanistic care to all sentient beings in the floating city.
In the film, there are a total of 4 scenes highlighting the water, and the director arranges the tragic deaths of the girl mosquitoes and the scavenger wanderers on a heavy rainy day. In addition to the appearance that it is easy to erase the evidence left by the perpetrators of crimes on heavy rainy days, it is more a metaphor for these people who were not originally traitors and evil people, who were deeply condemned by their hearts after committing evil deeds, and they hoped that there would be a way to slowly wash away their sins.
The other two are: Lu Jie, in the mood of anger and hatred, "passion" after smashing mosquitoes, rushed back to the bathroom to wash her face and wash her hands with water as soon as she returned home. There is also that after Qiao Yongzhao promised to solve the problem of scavenger wandering for Sanqi, he found the scavenger's residence, suddenly lost control of his emotions and beat him to death, and after returning to Sanqi's home, the director arranged a scene of Qiao Yongzhao and his son bathing in the bathroom.
Whether it is Lu Jie or Qiao Yongzhao, after committing the crime, they all show their inner guilt and strong sense of guilt through the cleaning of water. Neither of the two "murders" in the film was premeditated, and it was clear to the viewer that the two cases seemed to fall into the category of "crimes of passion." When they have committed their sins, they are deeply condemned by different emotions of fear, uneasiness, and repentance, but there is also the word "deep sin" in Buddhism, and if they have committed a sin, they should bear the corresponding legal responsibility. However, the director uses the metaphor of "water" to express compassion and care for their attitude of being able to repent and ask for forgiveness.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
At the end of the film, the subtitles are typed: a few weeks later, Qiao Yongzhao and Sanqi were investigated by the police, and it was rumored that these subtitles were added in order to be able to pass the censorship faster, which was forced by the director to be helpless, but Jiugua believed that it was still necessary to add these, although the film implied that violence could be triggered at any time, but for violence, we still need to use the law to punish, even in the floating city of the lost created by director Lou Ye, it is also applicable!
——END——
【This article was published by "Jiugua Entertainment" on March 9, 2019】
Image source: Network intrusion and deletion
bibliography:
[1] Zhang Rumor The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins: The Religious Concern of The Mystery of the Floating City.
[2] Zhang Huiyu Lou Ye's image "Mystery" M. South Wind Window, 2012.24
[3] Han Zhipeng Dialogue with the World with the Body: Lou Ye Film Analysis[J]Beijing Film Academy Daily.2013. (03)15.