The rural narrative of the 90s revolves around poverty and the compassion of the yellow land, when life was hard, except for one or two families who were occasionally lucky enough to barely get rich, mostly just for the sake of life.
And living in the twenty-first century, it is difficult to imagine that for a television set, a woman can desperately go to this point.
The second concubine sold baskets, sold twist flowers, and even drank several large bowls of brine every three to five to sell blood, all just to save money to buy a 29-inch color TV that the county magistrate could not afford.
She carries a kind of stubbornness, which is especially out of place in the world where her face is facing the yellow earth and her back to the sky.
This is the image of a woman who "does not know the height of the sky, but is particularly tough" portrayed in the movie "Second Concubine", and under the erosion of the imprint of that era, through the phenomenon, we can see the modernization impact faced by the backward and desolate countryside.
Every action pointing and character behavior hint in the shot is particularly meaningful, and the second concubine, from an ordinary local woman to a secret affair with her husband, let us dig out the most contradictory but most essential truth.
Her man was originally the village chief, and she wanted to come to her for a rare and easy time, but when an accident caused her husband to injure his waist and fall ill, he could not do heavy work from then on, and all the survival pressure in the family was also pressed on her alone.
She did not sell twist noodles day and night, and she also secretly made more than a hundred baskets in the air, just to make the family live better.
But her neighbors, the "blind", are the most obvious and rich contrast, which can also be said to be the reason for her determination to buy a big TV, because the blind man is one of the few rich families in this area, the family has a truck, and he also bought a TV early to go home.
The second concubine's son, Huzi, often used to rub tv, which made the second concubine's inner self-esteem suffer, which prompted him to eventually transform the oppression of an era into a new woman with an awakened consciousness.
Unfortunately, when she cheated on the blind man and passively accepted the blind man's "handout" without knowing it, it made her absolutely unacceptable.
Coupled with the fact that when all her expectations for the future are pinned on a television set, when the TV is really bought, it will only bring her back to the chaotic state she once was, and her awakened consciousness was born because of a goal, but it was also broken again because of the completion of a goal.
It can be said that this is a very realistic work, which is both profound in meaning and leaves us with many realistic ironies.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, from sticking to the heart to breaking through the bottom line of desire indulgence, how did the second concubine change step by step? </h1>
At the beginning of the movie, a conservatively dressed rural woman is standing on the street shouting "selling twist flowers", the second concubine sells more expensive than others, whenever she encounters someone bargaining, she is always very stereotypical to say, not expensive, can not be less.
She lacks the sleekness that a businessman should have, which is the first side of her character that she shows us: stubborn to stubborn.
When she got home, she knew from her husband's mouth that because the harvest of fruit this year was not good, the basket she had spent a summer weaving could not be sold, and her husband felt that everything was normal, but she could not accept it.
The blind man next door heard that he could help bring it to the county town to sell, and thus began to have two solitary involvements with the second concubine.
In the early nineties, the contrast between the various aspects was always more intense than it is now, and whoever bought a strange thing was enough for the whole village to watch.
"Blind Man" was originally a nickname shouted by the villagers in the township, he himself had no defects, he looked like a talent, and he especially understood the ingenuity of some mixed crowds, and his popularity has always been very good.
It's just that his daughter-in-law is quite spicy, plus she has no son, she is always poked in the spine, and she becomes even more inhumane, and the second concubine and she have never dealt with each other, and I don't know how many fights she has had.
The second concubine was not accustomed to her, so she did not allow her son to go to her house to rub TV, and even secretly drugged her pig, which had the illusion of "bitter hatred".
This is the second side of Eryan's personality, even in this small place, she has the toughest backbone, but when she goes out of this small village and looks at her with a wide angle, she still can't get rid of the essence of the city's small servants and the essence of the eyes that must be repaid.
Her good and bad, good and evil seem to be very opposed, only the desire for money, undisguised blunt, but on the other hand, she pays special attention to the bottom line of "there is a reward for paying", not receiving food, which is also her always insistent attitude.
Later, after getting closer and closer to the blind, they had skin kisses, which was absolutely unreasonable in morality and ethics, but in the heart of the second concubine, she never imagined everything dirty.
She listened to the blind man's idea that the two of them would form a family and take care of the village chief together, and in her world, there was not so much love to speak of, and between her husband, it was more like relatives who had become accustomed to each other's existence.
So when she broke through a moral boundary of femininity and began to maintain a fresh and exciting underground relationship with the blind man, the transformation in her heart reached its climax.
There is a scene in the movie that particularly impressed me, after the blind man found a job for the second concubine in the county town, they had a more personal place to be alone.
The second concubine bought the underwear worn by the women in the city and asked the blind man, "You see, is that so?" At that moment, she was sincerely eager to get rid of the inferiority that the yellow land had imprinted on her, and she wanted to become a "different" person, even if she did not know what was different.
She's quick to embrace new things, so buying a TV or other details highlights her inner desire for change.
For example, when she learned that she could also take money for blood draws, she began to run to the hospital for three days, and in her understanding, drinking three bowls of salt water before drawing blood, even if it was smoked more, it was only half water and half blood.
And her kind of desperation, outsiders do not understand, but the blind man understands, seeing the red spots on her arms, the blind man is very distressed, and said harsh words " if you dare to go again, I will break your leg."
It can be said that the second concubine really felt the care she had never felt here in the blind man, she was attached to and willing to indulge in this feeling, but once the beauty was punctured, when those realistic things came to her face, it was destined to make her return to reason again.
So when she learned that the blind man was kind enough to let the boss give herself a little more money, it completely changed in her eyes, and when the meaning of money made her become a woman raised by a man, she could not accept it.
So she resolutely returned all the money and stopped associating with the blind, which is the last side of her character for us: always pure and clean heart.
And what kind of person is the second concubine? It seems difficult for us to generalize, but there is one aspect that is particularly important, the second concubine is always in that depressed and conservative place, eager to break through the world.
She cheated on the blind man, as a woman did not make her feel tormented by that shame, and her willingness to spend a year or even a few years of income to buy a TV also represented her determination to do what she said.
On the one hand, her "stupidity" made her the object of discussion in the whole village, and on the other hand, her husband never came near her.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, the distortion of two families, the tragedy of the second sister-in-law is just a continuation of the similar tragic fate of rural women for thousands of years</h1>
It is very vivid to say that between the two families of the second concubine and the blind, there has always been a sense of special violation of the awkwardness, and the husband of the second concubine has never understood her, but like a spy in the shadows, he has been carefully "monitoring" her.
He watched his wife and another man get closer and closer, on the one hand, he was worried, and on the other hand, he never dared to really question anything.
He used a moral kidnapping relationship to let the second concubine take care of him, but in fact he did not consider it for her from the perspective of the second concubine.
It has never been so easy for the second concubine to earn money and support her family outside, but in her husband's eyes, her appearance has become an ambition that is difficult to control, and he is afraid that he is not worthy of her, but he does not even have the courage to say a word of truth.
He sits at home with the majesty of the male host and commands the second concubine, which completely represents the most real epitome in the construction of a patriarchal society.
He didn't understand why the second concubine had to spend so much money on a TV, and in his understanding, the money should be spent in more useful places, such as rebuilding a new house.
But he couldn't persuade the second concubine to change her mind, but when the second concubine really bought the TV back, the sense of superiority made him especially complacent.
Just as when others still call him the village chief, he will always whisper a retort of "it is not long ago", he is afraid of this gap from heaven to earth in his heart, so he also unconsciously becomes inferior and cowardly, but he has not been willing to admit this truth, and can only pretend to be stupid forever.
In the same way, the blind man's daughter-in-law is also such a person, she failed to give birth to a son, compared to the pointing of others, in fact, more important, but she herself continues to amplify this part.
The blind man has become rich, and she knows that her husband is too easy to mess around outside, but she can't do anything but guard this little home, hoping that her husband will look at herself more when he returns.
Later, the blind man raised Xiaosan and was beaten by people outside, in addition to crying and crying, she could only choose to forgive, in such a structure of contrast between strength and weakness, these two families are tolerant to maintain the calm of superficial life.
But in the deliberation of some details, one knows that his wife has an affair with others, and the other endures his husband's cheating, but chooses to ignore it because he can't tear his face, which adds a lot of humor to the whole story.
And when the second concubine finally bought back the TV, her once fiery heart died in an instant, and her tragedy stemmed from the fact that in such a specific environment, she could not have complete resistance, and the final outcome was only to be assimilated by the people around her, even if she had tried her best.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, everything returns to zero, behind the absurd black humor, how should the short but tenacious vitality of the second concubine face reality? </h1>
At the end of the movie, the big TV that was bought did not know where to put it, this small home, because such a valuable item was particularly obtrusive.
The blind man tried to tear off the label on the TV, but the second concubine only said, "What if it breaks?" Immediately after that, as if she had lost her soul, she suddenly lost all her vitality.
At this time, she also understood that she had never changed anything because she bought a TV set that others could not afford, and that innate smallness was still deeply engraved on her.
Later, the villagers came to her house to watch TV, except for becoming a lively day and night, everything stopped abruptly, just like the snowflakes flashing on TV, life is like a TV show, except for repetition, nothing else will change.
And the film combines the desire for a television set with the catharsis of the second concubine's inner desire, and after that short pleasure, what remains is doomed to be a huge sense of powerlessness.
It can be said that the second concubine is the victim of the alternation of the old and new society, the power of tradition cannot be ignored, and the reality is doomed to break free.
She is willing to accept new life, but she can never get rid of the past, which is a cruel reality, so the fate left to her is only a repetition day after day, year after year.
So what did the second concubine get from the blind man? I think it was a difficult emotion to express, at least in a world that was cold to numbness, and she had really felt a heartbeat.
For her, this has already planted a seed, no matter what the future holds, at least changing and breaking through the world has really existed in her world.
The role of her husband has indeed weakened into an empty shell with no sense of existence in her family, on the one hand, the pressure of survival makes the second concubine can only do her best, on the other hand, because her husband is incompetent, she has also lost the arm that she can rely on as a woman.
What can't she get from her husband? So the only one who can believe is herself, but when a seed of hope can continue to sprout in her heart, it also means that she will always have countless opportunities to start over.
The director's choice to stay on a lens that can have unlimited reverie also leaves us with final reflections.
What will happen to the second wife in the future? I think there will be a replacement for the next TV set, and then rekindle the enthusiasm in her heart and continue to have the courage to carry it through.
Because the second concubine is destined to be a different woman, and even in such a local society to represent a special cultural symbol, she is the epitome of a generation or even several generations, both men and women, it seems that a little similar shadow can be found in her.
On one side is the despair of defeat and despair, on the other side is the thriving hope, once there were many second wives in that world, and the current world is still the same.
Hard work, paranoia, go the extra mile.
Thanks for reading! Image from the movie "Second Concubine"
Writer/Stars in the deep sea, insight into the essence, listen to the power of the world with words.
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