Author: Corning
In Hong Kong's local ethical films that focus on small people, "family-like" is a more common narrative technique. The protagonist in this technique often pursues and solves social problems in a confrontational way, repairs the social relations between different classes, and rebuilds the love and trust between people. In this process, the demands and feelings of members of the "quasi-family" are concerned, and the warm tradition of "self-denial" is presented.
Stills from "The Wheat Road man"
The recently released "Mai LuRen" borrows and rewrites the narrative of "quasi-family", which is embodied in the following: extending the narrative space outward, enlarging the individual narrative, and hoping to achieve the effect of extending the tradition of "self-denial" in the tragic fate to the extreme. On the surface, such borrowing and rewriting highlights the frustrations and dilemmas of each individual in the small character group portrait, but at the same time weakens the logical rationality of the deep emotional connection between individuals, so that the film falls into the situation of extreme rendering of individual emotions and the lack of group emotional logic, and it is difficult to cause empathy.
The traditional model of "family-like" storytelling
"Family-like" refers to a model of interpersonal communication practice similar to family relationship between people who do not have blood family relations through various means. As early as the 1950s and 1960s, there were "family-like" narrative films in Hong Kong: because of poverty and chaos, a group of small people gathered on one floor, each with their own problems, although due to the complexity of the flow of character and contradictions, but when the crisis came, they worked together to tide over the difficulties. "Spring Dawn in the Dangerous Building" (1953), "Same Fishing and Same Pot" (1956), "Pulling Cart Demei" (1958), "Fourteen Gangs on the First Floor" (1964), etc., are all related masterpieces.
In 1963, Wang Weiyi's "Seventy-Two Tenants" and the 1973 film of the same name directed by Chu Yuan placed the story in a group rented city wall, showing the confrontation between the low-level people and the chartered public and the chartered wife, as well as the friendship and unity in the face of evil forces. In 2004, Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" took place in the Kowloon City Walled City of "Quasi-Family", which also showed mutual assistance between the people at the bottom in the confrontation and struggle between the good and evil factions.
These films often adopt a "confrontational" model, using a collectivist approach to face common problems, and in the process, sacrificing themselves to save others, helping each other, and condensing into deep feelings. Among them, the warm tradition of "self-denial" is embodied in the subtlety, gentleness, forbearance and helpfulness.
The extension of the narrative space
The young man who ran away from home due to family conflicts, the former financial talent Bo Ge who went bankrupt, the middle-aged female singer Ah Zhen who had declined in her career, the single mother Ah Yan who worked desperately to help her mother-in-law pay off gambling debts, the waiting uncle who had a mental breakdown because of the suicide of his wife, and the frustrated street painter Who couldn't find a job, etc., are the protagonists of the movie "Mai Lu Ren", a group of people who have abandoned their original families and are not accepted by the city. Together, they are outside the normal social order and structure, and become a group of people trapped in the lower society. During the day, they either run to the places where they work at the bottom of the work, or use all their strength to make a living by picking up, and at night they huddle in fast food restaurants, hurrying and panicking, presenting a neglected and forgotten picture of life at the bottom.
"Mai Lu Ren" extends the space of the "family-like" narrative of Hong Kong movies to more insecure fast food restaurants. Space is not passively accommodating social relations, but is itself a powerful, dynamic variable. Unlike the previous placement of narrative space in a fixed space, the "home" in "Mai Lu Ren" is no longer a home in the traditional sense, no longer has a stable space that can provide a sense of security, but is extended into a flowing, unstable public space that can be expelled at any time. The fast food restaurant space flowing on the screen is also a spiritual space that has no dependence, and the day when the business is suspended due to disinfection magnifies the instability and lack of security in the "mai" space.
Such a space turn reflects the creator's attitude of cold-eyed bystanders, put away the compassionate heart, expels such a group of people who have no dependence on the safe space, tears the harsh reality apart and shows it to the audience, so that they can empathize with everything that the Mai Lu people have endured. In particular, the panoramic presentation of the details of the life of mai lu people extends and flows the space of the "family" narrative, which makes it seem even more wandering. For example, in the extremely depressed stage of life, there are still gray striped suits and white shirts wrapped in residual decency, honing their skilled life skills under extremely difficult living conditions, and even abandoning dignity and shame in order to "wake up every day and have food" when life is extremely desperate.
The instability of the narrative space leads to a sense of fragility and alienation in the relationship between the characters. Mai Lu people lack a fixed space to stabilize emotions, and mobility brings a sense of strangeness and distance, which cannot be dissipated by temporary breaks in fast food restaurants.
Amplification of individual narratives
In the film "Mai Lu Ren", the members of the "quasi-family" do not have the object of collective confrontation, and the individual narrative shows a tendency to enlarge, simplifying the dilemma of facing life together to the problem of each individual's confrontation with the dilemma of life, and the difficulties faced become individualized and decentralized. In this way, the emotional glue of facing the difficulties of life is missing, and the "self-denial" between the Mai Lu people appears to be manneristic and deliberate.
Because of the lack of consistent reasons for action, the overly fragmented individual confrontation evolves into a narrative rift that cannot be bridged in all directions, and the reasons for becoming Mailu people seem to be superficial. This makes the originally profound revelation of reality evolve into slogan-style accusations and shouts, hoarse but emotionless.
In addition, the protagonist in the film seems to be pushed to the extreme of "self-denial", has no resistance to the difficulties of life, and the only thing he can do is to endure and accept. "What are you waiting for?" "Wait for luck, aren't you too?" The dialogue between Shen Zai and Bo Ge shows that the film highlights the protagonist's struggle in the predicament, masks its possibility of changing reality, and makes the mutual support between the Mai Lu people meaningless. The "family-like" narrative of "Mai LuRen" only shows the acceptance and face side, weakening or even obscuring the possibility of struggle and resistance: in the face of the layers of pressure and difficulties of life, the only solution is to escape or resign. This leads to the film's attempt to present the difficulties of life and the difficulty of life to change, sliding into the vortex of fate and losing the strength of resistance that fresh life should have.
"Family-like" narratives have a long history in Hong Kong cinema, and such themes are often seen in small ways, carrying the social culture, ethical values and emotional structures of Hong Kong's specific era. As an image projection of the current emotional structure of Hong Kong, the borrowing and rewriting of the "family-like" narrative makes it far away from the core issue that the film should have touched on in the process of overemphasizing individual narratives: Why did this group of people become Mai Lu people, and how can they get rid of this identity? The mutual help between members of the "family-like" can only superficially alleviate the temporary pain of individuals when they are hit, but they cannot profoundly change the tragic ending and fate.
The place where the Brothers and Sisters met was the lottery draw, where two people sat on a bench, only talking about the beauty of the past, but refusing to face and solve the pain of the present. This is the problem of the protagonist in the film, and perhaps the problem of the film's creation itself.
(The author is a lecturer in the Department of Film Studies, Beijing Film Academy, and a master tutor)
Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel