They floated on the lake in the same boat.
A small boat three paces long and one step wide, he and she sat at opposite ends. In the daylight, the lake is blue-green, and the sunburn on the face is clearly visible.
Night doesn't have to wait to come, at the moment when the camera connects.
Then bare your legs and strip off your clothes. The white bandages match the dark brown chest. There, a bullet had been punched in and taken out, and at this moment a dark red flower was poured out.
She stroked his wounds, and then stroked his waist, and the touch was seduction.
Is the moon out? A glimmer of light falls on the body.
Who is gasping for breath, and who is groaning lowly. There are no roots and no nests. Salty taste, to stir a handful of lake water gargle.
Who invented the gun to get people shot, and who invented the film to mourn at this moment. To find the roots, but also to find the nest. Rotate the gear to the middle.
Friends, do you know that at the beginning of the party, the separation is in the countdown —
The Party at South Station
The Wild Goose Lake
2019.12.06
In the five years after "Daytime Fireworks", Diao Yinan was almost invisible. Rarely appears and is rarely reported.
When I think of him, I guess he lives alone in the countryside, writing in the daytime, watching various movies at night, and going for a walk in his free time.
Such speculation is all due to the alienating temperament of the literati in him.
Diao Yinan, who was born in 1968, is a Major in Chinese Opera Literature and has been engaged in the creation of avant-garde drama before making films.
He called drama his first lover.
After 2000, he wanted to put on a veil for his lover, so he started to make a movie. From "Uniform" and "Night Train" to "Daytime Fireworks" to today's "The Party at South Station", the time span is nearly two decades.
Compared with Jia Zhangke in Fenyang, Shanxi, and Bi Gan in Kaili, Guizhou, the nostalgia that is so thick that it cannot be dissolved has all been dispersed here by Diao Yinan.
He is rootless.
"Uniform" was filmed in Xi'an, "Night Train" was filmed in Pingchuan, Gansu, and "Daytime Fireworks" was filmed in Harbin, and then he stepped out of the north to the south and came to Wuhan, Hubei Province, to have a southern party.
Part 1: "Uniform" Xi'an Medium: "Night Train" Hirakawa
Below: "Daytime Fireworks" Harbin
He said a long time ago that the happiest thing to do in a movie is to "see the scene", step on the shooting location in advance, and imagine that the story happens here. The vivid breath of the characters will come out, and the air can capture the traces of emotion.
Then he put the man in, then the woman in, the fugitive in, and the pursuer in.
He holds a gun in his hand, which determines the fate of the character's life and death; he also holds a knife in his hand, which is used to cut through the veins of society.
Thus began a barbaric pastoral experiment.
1
The battle of the trapped beasts stems from reality
Diao Yinan once expressed his love for Danish director Nicholas Wending Reyfern, especially the film "Outlaw Driving".
Starting from this, it is not difficult to understand why he chose Hu Ge to play the male protagonist Zhou Zenong.
Hu Ge is similar to the male protagonist of "Outlaw Driving" Ryan Gosling, and is also suitable for playing a taciturn man. Handsome appearance, melancholy temperament, a little detached from the surrounding environment, and gritting his teeth with fierceness.
When he walked, it was like carrying a heavy burden, just as Zhou Zenong was carrying a murder on his back.
Top: Ryan Gosling Stills from Outlaw Driving
Bottom: Stills from Hu Ge's "The Party at South Station"
And the heroine Liu Ai'ai, played by Gui Lunmeng, is thin and thin. Because the facial features are clean, whether in a daze or talking, the look is always innocent and stubborn.
This innocence and stubbornness are also bitter because of deceptiveness.
Privately, she does the work of accompanying swimmers. When going out to sea with strange male tourists, under the conservative clothes are a variety of swimsuits, and full or half sets of services are available according to the bid.
In this way, on the railway platform in the south, Zhou Zenong and Liu Ai'ai met.
A murderer, a swimmer.
He hid in the shadows, she borrowed fire from him in red, asked him if he was Zhou Zenong, and told him that his wife did not dare to come, and the compatriots who helped to contact him found himself to come to the joint.
It turned out that Zhou Zenong was the small leader of a gang of car thieves, who returned to his old business after being released from prison, but accidentally killed the police in a gang clash.
In order to arrest him, the police offered a high bounty of 300,000 yuan.
Zhou Zenong decided not to flee.
He instructs his subordinates to find his wife (Wan Qian), whom he has not seen in five years, and she will report him. He would leave the 300,000 to his wife and children.
But the wife is already under police surveillance. Rival enemies are also looking for him, and if they want to take his life, they will exchange him for money.
In the face of Liu Ai'ai, who met for the first time, it was difficult to distinguish whether he was an enemy or a friend.
There is a scene in the film where Liu Ai'ai tells Zhou Zenong about her plan, and the train whistles past, covering up the voices.
From beginning to end, whether the two conspired together or defected in the middle, Diao Yinan set up a mystery. And the mystery is in the subtleties of the film.
The prototype of this story was conceived long before "Daytime Fireworks". It wasn't until similar news was reported and a basis was found in reality that Diao Yinan decided to make it into a movie.
Around 2000, there was a fugitive in the northeast, and when he learned that the reward for his clues was as high as 100,000, he ran to find his sister-in-law, hoping to exchange himself for a sum of money for his relatives.
At the beginning of the film, Zhou Zenong participates in the car theft site division rally, which is based on the National Thief Congress held in Wuhan in 2012. Thieves from more than 30 provinces gathered here to exchange experiences, divide their territory, and hold theft competitions.
Image source: One
Liu Ai'ai's identity as a swimmer is a common female occupation in Yintan, Guangxi Beihai. They use the name of "accompanying swimming" to solicit money. The hat on the top of the head, one is shade, the other is to distinguish peers.
Beihai Silver Beach with swimmers
Graph source; network
As it should be, the film stretches the boundaries of dreams indefinitely, rubbing away geographical barriers, and stacking dramatic conflicts into this urban village called Wild Goose Pond, thus drumming up a soft yellow wet powder ukiyo-e.
It is a mixture of reality and imagination.
Image source: Full record of Chinese creators
2
Cinematic techniques, dark night secrets
Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu has a thesis: "Movies are won or lost by aftertaste."
I think so.
After watching the Cannes premiere of "The Party at the South Station," Quentin confessed: "This is the most beautiful movie I've seen in recent years, and I liked it even more the day after watching the movie." ”
At first glance, Quentin felt a little unsatisfied because the plot was predictable. Its narrative purpose is not to climax with the audience, but to go around and turn to a dead end.
It is mediocre and trivial.
But by the next day, when the movie's momentum strikes, you'll love its bloody and cruel smell and the beauty of its filthy wrapping.
As a fan of the film said: "Diao Yinan used an almost obstinate visual light and shadow to create a bloody spectacle for this adventure with a dreamlike footnote." ”
This will be the biggest bloody performance to be seen in theaters this year. If not, it would be the most beautiful bloody show.
The crane is enough to cut the head, and the umbrella can also wear the belly.
Imagination is the most powerful violence.
In the film, neon lights and warm halos can be seen everywhere. Under the high saturation colors, the darkness is also more intense.
According to statistics, of the total of 106 scenes, the night scene reached 71.
In the urban village, where the dilapidated houses share the ridge with the mountain, the rain stops and falls, and Zhou Zenong runs when he hides.
Geospatial and shaky shadows also form a certain interaction.
Fear, the unknown, and the repressive relationship between the characters are highlighted to the fullest.
There are several places in the movie that are even more impressive.
One is montage processing.
When the police are chasing the fugitives, they mistakenly enter the zoo, the arrestees flee in terror, the pursuers are terrified, and the panicked eyes of the characters and animals alternate, and the backs of the people are chilled.
One is the surrealist approach.
Zhou Zenong hid in a dilapidated hut, and the colorful newspapers posted on the walls transformed into real scenes, rumbling and making sounds.
He found that there were so many places in the world, but he could not escape. He raised his gun and aimed it at the wall, but could not fire a single shot.
In another place, Zhou Zenong is walking on the road, and the background wall is a landscape of high-rise buildings planned on the drawings. In stark contrast to his sneaky despondency.
But the film is as typical of film noir, and the compositional tension of the film takes precedence over the actors' physical actions.
The narrative is no longer realistic, complete, and fluid.
As in Panorama of American Film Noir, five words are used to describe this type of film, "oneiric, bizarre, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel," and concludes that film noir "has a dream flavor in these incoherent violence."
This is also why after watching the film, you will feel that the actor's performance is not as impressive as the audiovisual language, and the narrative jump is divided.
Even if such a strong personal style is scarce in today's environment, it is not worth the loss to overemphasize the aesthetics of form and ignore the heavy social issues behind the film.
3
Greed for convergence, trapped beasts (with spoilers)
"The Purpose of The Gathering at South Station is not to discuss the justice of individual actions."
"Instead, it is an attempt to take Zhou Zenong as an example, cut through the sociological fabric of contemporary China, and use an escape as a microscope to look at the scene of the Slovak people on this land at this moment."
In the film, there are four large "gatherings".
The car theft gang led by Zhou Zenong is assembling in response to a meeting of the public security to arrest him.
Interestingly, the former divides the car theft jurisdiction area against the map, while the latter divides the police force investigation area against the map. In terms of division methods, there is not much difference between the two.
Top: Thieves rally Down: Police meeting
On the other two occasions, when the police arrested Zhou Zenong, they organized a residents' rally, corresponding to the demolition household rally that Liu Ai'ai had mistakenly entered.
The former has nothing to do with themselves, and the residents have thrown warm bottles in protest; the latter is related to personal interests, but everyone actively participates.
This also achieves a tacit understanding of the way of survival, numb and indifferent most people with such logical wisdom to obtain living space.
The film features Vajrayogini's angry eyes and a bodhisattva's low brow.
The wife played by Wan Qian and Liu Ai'ai, played by Gui Lunmeng, became the back of the film's warmth.
When the police asked for cooperation, the former still relied on the woman's intuition to protect her fugitive husband Zhou Zenong.
The latter, as a swimmer who works for her life, also has compassion.
They are drawn into a bloody battle of males, hastily dodging the nearby fighting. The two have become the weight and tool of men, and they have also become the reconciliation and meaning behind this.
And Zhou Zenong, who embarked on the road to escape because of the accidental killing, reached a tacit understanding after getting to know Liu Ai'ai.
They have similarities, they all carry a bag dangling on the road, unable to take root and exhausted.
The article begins with the erotic scene between the two on the boat, which is the only place where the whole film is relaxed, and I guess there is no love between them, and most of the elements of mutual comfort at that moment are there.
In that situation, human nature is crazy and contrary to morality.
At the end of the film, Zhou Zenong wears the Argentine center No. 9 Batistuta jersey and shoots with the police.
Barty is a god of war, and he is known for his violent aesthetic on the pitch. But as in the 2002 World Cup against Sweden, the ending was tearful and Barty collapsed before dawn.
This is like a very good sign of Zhou Zenong's death.
"He relied on his superior personal will and family supremacy, through injustice, through betrayal, through traps, and finally fell before the other shore."
However, there are thousands of Zhou Zenong and Liu Ai'ai passing by you on the street, drowned by crowds of people and noisy songs.
You don't know, why would he steal for a living? You don't know, why would she be in prostitution to survive?
Some people have written books and biographies for them with meager strength, but who dares to pay for thousands of them.
At the end of the film, the song "Beautiful Thoreau River" sings: WanzhongShan sends you all the way, and the rolling waves flow into the distance.
Remember that? The coin-operated man in the acrobatic troupe also sang.
Zhou Zenong stuck into the bottle called "Society" like her.
I think of Hu Ge saying:
Zhou Zenong is like a kite, the kite does not belong to the sky, nor does it belong to the earth - he has no real ability to fly, so it does not belong to the sky; he also does not have the ability to walk on land, so it does not belong to the earth.
For the whole world, he was out of place. But at the end of life, you can follow that line, find the person he really cares about, feel his warm place under his indifferent appearance.
Tragically, there is a kind of death that is comparable to life.
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