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Since Xu Zheng's "I Am Not a Medicine God" came out with a sharp and warm attitude, realistic films have attracted more and more attention from the general public.
In fact, as early as 1913, China's first feature film "Difficult Husbands and Wives" criticized the traditional feudal marriage system, which opened up the attention and understanding of Chinese films to reality.
Since then, films such as "Goddess", "Peach and Plum Robbery", and "Road Angel" have attacked the dark decay of reality, conveyed humanitarian care and revolutionary passion against oppression, cultivated a deep tradition of realism for Chinese films, and created the first "golden age" of Chinese films.
After the founding of New China, although the tradition of realist film was once abandoned due to the rise of various movements, after the reform and opening up, the surviving third generation of directors and the fourth generation of directors after that conformed to the trend of the times and revitalized realist films.
Xie Fei, with his unique style, is definitely the best of the fourth generation of directors: he was shortlisted for the main competition section of the Berlin Film Festival with "Fragrant Soul Girl" and won the Golden Bear Award, the highest honor, together with Ang Lee's "Wedding Feast".
Xie Fei can always express his deep sympathy for the fate of small people in the big era through the examination of traditional morality and contemporary society, and he is both an "analyst" of human nature and an "observer" of society.
The 1990 work "The Year of The Life" still continues his concern for "small people in the big era", through the various encounters of a young man who has "committed crimes" in society, pointing out the survival dilemma of young people in contemporary society, which is more cruel than Xu Zheng's "Medicine God".
In view of the high requirements for actors at the complex level of Li Huiquan's role, Xie Fei finally determined the most suitable candidate for this image after layers of screening - Jiang Wen.
For Jiang Wen, "The Year of The Life" had a deep influence on his later film career, especially when he later directed his debut "Sunny Day".
It is no exaggeration to say that Jiang Wen's acting skills in "The Year of This Life" are definitely one of his best performances so far, and the bold jianghu atmosphere and the frank personality of the male protagonist Li Huiquan have a certain degree of fit with Jiang Wen, which makes Jiang Wen's shaping appear real and credible.
Li Huiquan, a 24-year-old native of Beijing, was jailed three years ago for helping the iron brother Fang Fork fight, and Fang Fork was sentenced to life for serious crimes.
After his release from prison, Li Huiquan returned to his home in the original old hutong, and with the help of his neighbor Aunt Luo and the film police, he relied on a little savings from his mother's life to get a certificate and set up a stall, and began a new life.
Li Huiquan is not bad in nature, although he is a quick temper and looks a bit hanging, but in his bones there is a "chivalrous atmosphere" of heavy affection and righteousness.
Li Huiquan emphasizes "righteousness."
According to the theory, Li Huiquan should hate Fang Forkzi who let him squat in vain for three years, just like Fang Fork's parents, who wished they had never given birth to this son who had humiliated them.
But as soon as Li Huiquan got out of prison, he wrote a letter to Fang Chazi, in his heart, buddies will always be buddies, which is a fact that iron generally cannot change.
Later, fang fork escaped from prison and came to defect in the middle of the night, Li Huiquan was not afraid of causing trouble and turned him away, eating and drinking well, and bitterly persuaded him to surrender.
Even in the face of the rogue-style "wine and meat friend" brush, Li Huiquan is also unambiguous: when the brush opens to borrow money, Li Huiquan, who is not generous, does not say a word and immediately pulls out a stack of banknotes.
Not only to friends, seeing that Aunt Luo's daughter was about to give birth but could not find a car, Li Huiquan desperately pedaled three wheels and sent them to the hospital in time.
If others have difficulties, they should stretch out their hands and pull a hand - this is Li Huiquan's creed, and it is also the foundation of his survival in the world.
Li Huiquan attaches great importance to "love".
By chance, he met zhao Yaqiu, the resident singer of the café and a pure and lovely girl, and was deeply moved by her singing voice and pure appearance.
The simple and clean temperament of Zhao Yaqiu is unattainable by Li Huiquan, who has experienced many things in the world, and her innocence has dispelled all kinds of haze and darkness in Li Huiquan's life.
Riding a bicycle to send Zhao Yaqiu home at the end of each residency is the best time of Li Huiquan's day, although on the surface it seems to be full of indifference, but looking at Zhao Yaqiu on the stage, he is always so focused, as if everything else does not exist.
In the face of Cui Yongli, a businessman who wanted to be lustful and even wanted to do something wrong to Zhao Yaqiu, he ruthlessly punched and kicked him and warned him not to move Zhao Yaqiu.
But Li Huiquan never confessed his heart to Zhao Yaqiu, but chose to hide this love deep in his heart.
In Li Huiquan's view, it was enough to be able to silently stay by her side.
But he underestimated the world too much, money, fame, power... These worldly desires are the easiest to sink, and they also make the world that Li Huiquan built with affection and righteousness gradually collapse.
Fang Chazi refused Li Huiquan's request to make him surrender himself, and fled to the end of the world with the three hundred yuan that Li Huiquan had left him, and has not been heard from since.
Zhao Yaqiu is no longer as simple as before, she leaned on Cui Yongli, who has money and a way, hoping to become a big singer who attracts the attention of thousands of people one day.
Everything changed so quickly that Li Huiquan did not have time to see and understand it in a flash, Li Huiquan was a little confused, a little confused, and even more discouraged.
He tried to use "love" to confront the world, but in the face of the world, the original "love" was nothing more than that.
It was late at night, and Li Huiquan came to the lively temple fair with a sense of wine, huddled in the crowd to watch the burlesque play performed on the stage.
When he laughed inappropriately in the midst of silence, the surrounding audience looked sideways and laughed at him—he seemed to be out of place with everything in this society, becoming "out of place."
Where in this world there are still chivalrous guests, even if there are, they probably live in seclusion in the peach blossom garden.
Lonely leaving the lively crowd, Li Huiquan encountered two small blocking the road and robbing, in the pushing and shoving, Li Huiquan was stabbed in the abdomen by a knife, and the small fled into the wilderness.
No one expected that the temple fair would become the burial place of Li Huiquan, and the people who watched the temple fair were walking back in a hustle and bustle, while Li Huiquan staggered and walked against the crowd to the end of life.
In the empty streets, Li Huiquan died meaninglessly and alone in his original life year...
At the beginning of the film, Li Huiquan walks from the dark underground corridor to the light, and the camera follows him into the vast world outside, into the old alley where he lives.
At the end of the story, he is seriously injured and moves against the current in the sea of people, quietly dying in the dark, and can no longer touch the light.
I thought that walking out of prison was a rebirth and a new start, but Li Huiquan, who had struggled for a long time, failed to usher in his new life, and he also had expectations and hopes, but in the end he fell into the mud of confusion and pain.
In the film, when Li Huiquan asked him for money, he said such a sentence: Work is not energetic, no work is not energetic; finding objects is not energetic, not looking for objects is not energetic; you say how can everything be boring?
It seems to be a prevarication of a rogue, but it truly speaks the voice of many young people at that time: What is the purpose of people's lives in this life?
Even 30 years later, young people like Li Huiquan and Brush Zi who are struggling with life are still everywhere, living a muddy life with the mentality of "getting by and living", confused about the clueless future, and choosing to escape.
This is also why "The Year of The True Destiny" still has a deafening meaning at the moment: is it to go with the flow, or to live out oneself according to one's original intention?
Perhaps every young person should think hard about the answer to this question.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Ah Zhi
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