Brazil's "City of God" has many similarities with China's Shuipo Liangshan.
City of God is a Brazilian film released in 2002. It still looks shocking enough. The content of the film, the theme intention expressed, the creative method, etc., are all convincing enough. Unlike the skillful and kitsch Hollywood films, unlike the European films of noble blood and elegant preferences. It has a rough and primitive impact, but also contains many mature techniques. Reminiscent of Brazilian football: fans of the whole population. Street soccer is also often shocking.
The film takes place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But the authors do not show their poverty, but rather their rogue lives. According to the words in the film, it is "mixed brothers", that is, they do not make a living, and they are engaged in robbery, drug trafficking, and gang vendetta. The children of the city of God do not take these as evil, and consider it a kind of "heroism." Take Little Bean, for example, because of his young age, let him take the wind during the robbery, which he considers a disgrace. He went into the inn himself and shot and killed. He also killed his accomplices who were older than himself. In order to grab territory, monopolize the drug business, and endlessly kill dissidents. At this time, the little bully already has his own half of the country, can lead the gang, dare to open fire and confront the police with a gun, and the end is that the police side retreats.
There are many things that the film brings people to think about, it is not easy to say them all, simply jump out of the film itself, and compare it with our China's "Water Po Liang Shan".
First of all, from the same point of view, both have the nature of black shooting. The so-called black is the opposite of "white", that is, the legal "official society". White society has many irrational factors, but one of them is reasonable. That is the cycle of "taking and nurturing". We ancient politicians and rulers also often likened the governance of the people to the relationship of "fishing and hunting". Pay attention to the open side of the net, and we must have to take and nourish. The ruler must not only strip the benefits from the producers, but also go to the role of management and conservation. Only then can the whole society live forever. The underworld only takes, robs, harms, and achieves its own selfish interests through violent robbery and drug trade. This is the difference between black and white, and it is also a place that cannot be melted. The emergence of the underworld is indeed caused by the injustice of the "white society". As a contemporary gangster said, "If there is injustice in society, gangsters exist."
From this point of view, the "City of God" is no different from the "Water Po Liang Mountain". It is all the inequality between the rich and the poor in society, and "the officials force the people to rebel." All are not tolerated by normal society. It is also intertwined with some parts of normal society. In China, there is an old saying called "the family of soldiers and bandits". From the perspective of the "City of God", the hooligans inside often need to buy off the police. The police were also afraid of him.
Both "up" and "water" embody the original tension of human life. It sounds good to say that it is called "blood", that is, "wild" and "animal". They are not willing to be subordinate to others, not willing to be mediocre. I don't even like to work, "selling fish is a stinky thing." What you want is to be happy and vengeful, and what you want is to "eat meat in large pieces and drink wine in large bowls." Smoking marijuana, drug use. Kill people like hemp, make yourself stronger and bigger. Let others dare not bully, let others be afraid. To sum it up, that is, to obtain the greatest satisfaction of selfish desires from both the material and spiritual aspects. Don't think about anything else, think more about the longer term.
In the "City of God", the "three brothers" at the beginning, after robbery, each chose a way out. Some people go to sell fish, some people find love, some people convert to Christ. The brother of the "Little Bully" in the back, the most respected rogue, wants to retire. Live your own happy life. The same is true of "Shui Po Liang Shan". From the beginning of Juyi, there was also a question: where is Liangshan Po going? Represented by Chao Gai, everyone is "only concerned about the happiness in front of them" and does not want anything else. But Song Jiang wanted to "find a way out" for his brothers. - Why? Because, obviously, blood courage can only be successful for a while, and it is difficult to save a lifetime. Judging from the needs of the whole society, this kind of selfish and short-sighted approach is also difficult to establish for a long time. This "life tension" is good, or bloody animal nature. It is of positive significance to act as a rebellion against injustice and irrationality. But after all, it is not a constructive productive force, it is a destructive force. Judging from its own development and external requirements, it is not a long-term solution. There are no elderly people in the good men of Liangshan, and the brothers in the City of God are also heroes out of youth. It is difficult to end well if you cannot start with a good one.
Moreover, people's attitudes toward these people are similar: reverence is not fearful because of respect, but because fear is fearful. Disgusted because these people do not represent the ideal state of life of most people. They still live a precarious life of knife heads licking blood. In the words of the saying " out of the mix, always have to get back" . Also, forced to helplessly agree: for example, in the "City of God", Shuai Ned is his girlfriend was insulted, his family was killed, he joined the "brother" in desperation, and there was no way back, and he was also forced to kill and be killed helplessly. This is more commonplace in the "Water Po Liang Mountain". Among the one hundred single and eight generals, few took the initiative to go to Liangshan. Most of them are forced to be helpless, and they are really forced to Liangshan! Therefore, people have a kind of sympathy for these people, whether they are "good men" or "hooligans".
For the attitude of these people, most of the people outside the city and down the mountain are both admired and disgusted, both understanding and sympathetic. The complexity of attitude is precisely because of the complexity of society and the complexity of human nature.
If it's different. Most of the good men of Liangshan were idealized as heroes. Many ferocious and violent parts were originally in the original work, but they were deliberately hidden in the later praises. For example, Lu Da also stole silverware, Wu Song killed his sister-in-law to pluck the heart and liver, and Li Kui had to cut off the heads of the people with a large axe. From the point of view of indoctrination, idealization is not necessarily a good thing. It can cause people to be numb and blind. The high realism of the City of God is more likely to play a role in tremor alertness and can cause healing. However, if it is directly imitated, the abuse is even greater.
Finally, City of God has received multiple Oscar nominations, with the final winner being "Best Editing." Some people praised that "the Oscars finally did the right thing" and "the editing was extremely sharp and accurately expressed the creator's intentions". In fact, what shocked me even more was the statement that this work was almost autobiographical. The filming process also mostly used local real people!