Stills from the South Station Party movie.
The movie "The Party at South Station" is currently being screened. This literary crime film has received a lot of praise, but it has also aroused the criticism of a few people.
For example, some Wuhan netizens believe that this movie has smeared Wuhan.
In "The Party at South Station", the actors are racing "Wuhan dialect" throughout the whole process, which makes this black style film have a strong Wuhan style. However, some plots in the movie are not very positive, such as the violent scenes in the movie are very bloody, such as the phenomenon of stealing battery cars, such as the appearance of "swimming girls" and so on. These elements appeared in the movie and made many netizens from Wuhan feel that their hometown was "smeared".
This "smear theory" even alarmed the director Diao Yinan to respond specifically, saying that there was no place in the film that marked the place where the film took place was "Wuhan". It was a small southern town, or the junction of urban and rural areas. Because it was filmed in Hubei, the actors were allowed to speak Wuhan dialect.
"The Party at South Station", the film shows a strong small town atmosphere.
People like a city, not all because it has a clean "front"
Director Diao's words are actually correct, although the actors speak a Wuhan accent, but the film does not deliberately highlight the regional characteristics of "Wuhan". In other words, as an art, film is detached from reality and has a distance from reality. Many times from a certain place to shoot, just to find a "support place" for the theme and story that jumped out of the narrative, the important thing is the theme and story, not necessarily to reflect the regional characteristics truthfully.
In my opinion, if the film really "smears" Wuhan according to what some netizens say, and then cuts the relationship between this movie and Wuhan, then Wuhan may lose a good opportunity to promote the city's culture.
From the perspective of urban propaganda, "Chengdu" sung by Zhao Lei is more ideal, popular, and more positive (at least neutral). But there is also a non-positive element in this song, the construction of Chengdu is changing rapidly, you only sing about drinking, sadness, falling in love, and importantly, there is no "end of Yulin Road" at all, which is also inconsistent with the facts. However, this pop song created by the singer spontaneously is better than the city spending hundreds of millions of dollars to engage in image publicity.
People like a city, not all because it has a "clean and transparent front". If there is no bar in Yulin and Nine-Eye Bridge, and there is no heartwarming nightlife, its charm value in the hearts of netizens across the country will be reduced by at least 30%.
In the history of Paris, Baudelaire's "Flower of Evil" is the premier "urban propaganda" product. This book of poems writes about many of the dark sides of the urban expansion period, and stealing cars and the like is nothing. But instead of blaming Baudelaire, Parisians see him as the city's cultural hero. Georges Orwell wrote a book, "The Fall of London in Paris," in which he worked in a Paris hotel and experienced the cruellest side of the city. However, it was not seen that parisians protested to him as a result, on the contrary, people were grateful.
Paris was once known as the "capital of the world", prosperity is one thing, and the creation of poets and painters with Paris as the theme is actually a more important and lasting aspect. Believe me, no poet would paint Paris with a completely positive pen.
International metropolises, such as Paris, London and New York, as well as Beijing and Shanghai, have countless artists to write about. The Lonely City I was watching portrayed New York in the last century as a city so cold that it was mentally disabling. The richness of cities gives birth to culture, which in turn reshapes cities. After the broadcast of "Beijingers in New York", Chinese are familiar with the phrase "love a person and send him to New York, hate a person and send him to New York", if there is only love and sunshine, who will like New York.
Movie stills
Declaring that "no one stole a battery car" in Wuhan is a bit naïve and cute
The real "soft power" of the city is that it can attract multiple forces and present it in the form of art. Among Asian cities, the rise of Tokyo was not only due to the economic take-off, but also the names of Ginza and Shinjuku, which began to appear in novels and movies with more themes. A city needs its own legend, even its own "bastards," not just reinforced concrete buildings that look tall. As more and more "fictional" works appear in Tokyo, its street names and buildings are given different meanings.
Classic movies will create cultural landmarks for the city out of thin air. Many young people who come to Tokyo to play in Shibuya will set the meeting place in the "Hachiko Statue of the Faithful Dog", which is a very ordinary statue, neither magnificent nor artistic, but derived from a movie that everyone likes. In this sense, Wuhan lost a small opportunity to "enter the movie".
In the era of mass culture, movies and TV series will have an unexpected effect on "promoting" a city. Hollywood blockbusters will focus on cities around the world, those action movies, which is not destructive, but in the darkness of the theater, what people capture from the screen is only "unforgettable" itself.
Some commercial organizations have to pay a fee for this in order to appear in the film. The luxury cars in the movie are blown to pieces, but the car manufacturers will not think that this is alluding to the poor quality of their products, and they will be overjoyed by the brand's appearance.
Therefore, to think that a film discredits one's own city is not only a matter of tolerance, but also of understanding what a city's culture means. After 30 years of urbanization in China, the scale of urban architecture has gone up, but "culture" still needs to continue to be polished, developed and kept up.
Some friends in Wuhan love their city urgently and want to maintain the image of their hometown, which is no problem. However, to take the "stealing battery car" as a smear and loudly declare that "no one will steal the battery car" in Wuhan is really a bit naïve and cute.
□ Zhang Feng (Media Person)
Editor: Di Xuanya Intern: Gu Yuchen Proofreader: Wu Xingfa