In the process of life, we always look at others and assume that we were born elsewhere, so as to conceive a life different from our own. But you are you, you were born in a certain family, a certain era. The imprint of your life will not change because of your reverie. At that point, all you can do is accept it and respect it. @Pippi loves to nag
In 2011, Wang Xiaoshuai released "I 11" after the movie "Qinghong", which continued Wang Xiaoshuai's consistent artistic persistence. Gentle and gentle without losing the literary atmosphere of conflict, it pierces the atrium of every moviegoer. Arouse the audience's perception and thinking about their own life. It shows the confusion of a complex society and a simple and well-cared tribute to the growth of youth.
Screenshot of the movie "I 11"
After the film was released, Yan Ni won the Best Actress Award, in addition to three nominations, namely: 2012 6th Asian Film Awards Best Supporting Actress Nomination Yan Ni, Best Editing Nelly Meunier nomination, 8th Sino-US Film Festival Best Actress Yan Ni won; 2013 Chinese Film and Media Awards Best Supporting Actress Yan Ni nomination.
"I 11" shows us the real life of the builders in the southwest third-tier area in the 1970s who cherished ideals and were far away from home from the perspective of 11-year-old Wang Huan. Wang Xian began to enter the adult world because he witnessed a "murder incident". Explore the cruelty, repression, and indifference of the adult world in his curiosity and confusion.
With the themes of "the inability of individuals to resist under the suppression of the times" and "the collision of youth growth and the cruel reality of the times", the film reproduces to the audience the real life of the "immigrant families" in the construction of the third line in 1975. Through many dialogues between the children's world and the adult world, the audience can see the difficult struggles of individuals under the suppression of the times, and the growth and memory of youth under the influence of the times.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > many dialogues between the children's world and the adult world, and unfolds the adult world for us little by little from Wang Xian's perspective</h1>
01 Children have distinct personality characteristics, and adults are tolerant, cautious and conservative
The film tells the story from the perspective of 11-year-old Wang Xian. In Wang Huan's curiosity, confusion, and loss, the oppression, absurdity, and cruelty of the adult world are peeled away little by little. This constructs multiple dialogues between the children's world and the adult world.
Wang Xian and his friends
The four people who have the most shots in the film are Wang Huan, Little Mouse, BaLatou, and Wei Jun. Through the details, the personalities of the four children are portrayed differently: Wang Huan's sensitive and thoughtful, silent and stubborn; weijun's young and old, steady and straight; the little mouse's sharp teeth and witty and smooth; the big grin of the eight pulling heads, and the straight mouth.
Adults, in stark contrast to them, have the same personalities: stoic, cautious, conservative. The ubiquitous wake-up calls, revolutionary songs, and slogans in the film all tell the audience that this is an era in which the political form is the mainstream form. In this era, the individual is completely assimilated by the collective, and the personality and truth in the adult are not allowed to exist. This can be seen through the school's selection of action standards Wang Xian to lead the exercise, they prefer the world is the rule, hope to cultivate children's "uniform" ideology.
Through the sharp contrast between children's and adult personalities, we can more intuitively see the destruction of human thinking and lifestyle by collectivism and absurd mistakes in that era. They live in a rigid, monotonous political atmosphere, silently looking at the struggles between political factions, and trying to run their personal family life, but deep down they still long for freedom.
The square in the film
02 The white shirt represents the purity and unblemished world of children and the dirtiness of the adult world
In the film, Wang Xian begged his mother to buy him a brand new white shirt because of the essential exercises. The fuse of the subsequent story is also the white shirt, which has more connotations of the times in the film, connecting the simplicity of the children's world and the evil of the adult world.
When the shirt first appeared, it was pure white cloth, which appeared pure and precious, and later after being stained red by Xie Jueqiang's blood, it became an "unclean thing", stained with hatred, blood and death. Finally, when the shirt was sent from the first prison to Wang Huan's hand, Yubende was as white as ever. For Wang Xian, his childhood should have been simple and beautiful, just like that white shirt. However, when he first saw death, met Xie Jueqiang, who was chased and snatched away from his shirt, and saw his father injured in the battle between the royalists and 411, he realized that there was so much ugliness and cruelty hidden around him. It was then that his childhood was completely lost to simple clarity.
At the end of the film, Wang Xian received his own white shirt, and Xie Jueqiang completed his agreement. However, in Wang Xi's view, the bloody meaning behind the shirt still exists, and it will become a tribute to that era, a way to remember Wang Xi's childhood and a witness to the growth of youth. Because of this, when he heard that Xie Jueqiang was about to be shot, Wang Xian, who had always loved to watch the liveliness, did not dare to go to the execution ground, and his knowledge stopped far away, and the gunshot made his understanding of this world completely changed.
The film chooses to deconstruct the storyline from Wang Xian's point of view and present the movie scene. On the one hand, through this narrative, the storyline development is more reasonable and realistic, on the other hand, the director also hopes to set off the repressed adults in that era through the simplicity and innocence of the children's world, and dissect the connection between the children's world and the adult world - children's growth takes the adult world as a reference.
Wang Huan in a white shirt
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the repression of the times and the hardship and powerless resistance of individuals</h1>
01 Xie Jueqiang's killing of Chen Kunfang is both to avenge his sister and to fight against the times
In 1975, the absurdity of the times was coming to an end, but its dominance was still strong. The story takes place in a remote and beautiful town, with lush trees, crystal clear river water, and simple and harmonious neighborhood relations, all of which look like Tao Yuanming's "paradise". But politics is still the dominant form here. The "political" product arsenal, the "411 and the royalists" of the martial arts, all tell the audience that this is a repressive, gray, and tortured era.
Chen Kunfang was a cadre of the Revolutionary Committee of the Arsenal and represented the official sacredness and authority. But it was this "revolution" who used power as a bargaining chip to rape Xie Juehong, a 16-year-old middle school student. The young girl of cardamom is completely lifeless because of his desires. In order to get angry for his sister, his brother Xie Jueqiang killed Chen Kunfang, cut off his genitals, and even planned to set fire to the factory.
From Xie Jueqiang's act of burning the factory, it can be seen that he is dissatisfied with this era and questions the "three-line construction" policy, so he hopes to mix up the revolutionary authority of the factory representatives. Unfortunately, at the end of the film, Xie Juehong and his father can only hide and live, and Xie Jueqiang also paid for his life. The tragedy of their family tells us that the individual's rebellion against reality can only stay at the level of thought, which cannot be implemented or realized. Once again, we can see the silent grief of individuals under the suppression of the times.
Xie Jueqiang, who fled after killing
02 Under the numb life of adults is a silent rebellion against fate and the status quo
In addition to the Xie Jueqiang family, the other people in the film are also bound by this repressive era all the time, they have nowhere to escape, let alone catharsis, and can only live numbly.
When Wang Boju and his neighbors were drinking, someone sang a Piece of Shanghai Opera, and immediately friends should be careful and proposed to sing revolutionary songs instead. But everyone was reluctant to listen to revolutionary songs, so Wang Boju and his wife sang a passage of "The Sun That Rises and Never Sets on the Grassland.". Everyone was very happy to hear the music that had been missing for a long time, but everyone laughed and laughed. Because the lyrics of this song are also praising the party and the authoritative policies of the state. The lives of these people have been completely rewritten by the "Party's policy," and the future of their children will not be known because of the "Party's policy."
Wang Boju and his wife sang "The Sun Rises on the Grassland and Never Sets"
Wang Boju is a small actor who loves art and pursues art. Although I have a grudge against real life, I will not resist. In the film, his only resistance is to train his son Wang Xian to learn to paint, he said: "Only when you paint are you working for yourself" "When painting, pay attention to the light, sometimes when the light is the strongest, it is the darkest." He was wounded in the royalist struggle against 411, and helplessly and repressively, he shouted in front of his wife: "Which faction I count, I am nothing", but when facing his son, he lit a candle and carefully told him about the "Impressionist" paintings.
Wang Boju was bound by his own faith in the first half of his life, and could only live under the repressive Southwest Arsenal, numbly living a life he hated. It is not that he does not want to fight, but under the oppression of politics and the times, he has nowhere to escape. His rebellion rested on his son Wang Xian, and he worked hard to teach his son to learn to paint, hoping that his son could be free and get real "sunshine".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > The growth and memory of youth under the influence of the times is hazy and beautiful</h1>
The biggest influence on Wang Xian's youth growth was Xie Juehong. When Wang Xian and his father were sketching in the wild, they met Xie Juehong, a young girl with a red mole in her eyebrows, warm and beautiful. This was also the first time that Wang Xian realized that Xie Juehong was different from his own. Later, he and his friends discussed Xie Juehong's development at the door of the classroom, and the reality showed that adolescent children were curious about the opposite sex, which was their exploration of youth growth. Then they go together to spy on the Weijun brothers falling in love, throwing them with stones, thinking that the hugs between the couples are shameful, and they all portray the ignorant side of youth.
Xie Juehong
After Wang Xian and Xie Juehong were drenched in rain, the two of them put on a dress together, and when Xie Juehong changed clothes, Wang Xian inadvertently spied the girl's half-exposed body, and the camera stayed here for a long time, which meant that Wang Xian peeked at it for a long time, which was the initial memory of Wang Juehong's female body. Later, his mother discovered Wang Xian's dream, his father began to let him drink liquor, and Wang Xi finally completed his sexual maturity in the era of repression, saying goodbye to his childhood and innocence.
In Wang Xian's youth growth, Xie Juehong's brothers and sisters played an important role. Because of the appearance of Xie Jueqiang, he came into contact with the dirtiness and depression of the adult world, and it was also from this time that Wang Xian's world view and values changed, and he began to think like an adult; because of the emergence of Xie Juehong, Wang Xian realized the difference between men and women, matured physiologically, and bid farewell to the innocence of children. At the same time, Xie Juehong and Xie Jueqiang also represent the youth and wordless and fierce resistance that grew up in the premature death of that era. In Wang Xian's world, he may not be deeply impressed by the great events of the times, but the memories of the growth of youth that happened around him will accompany him for the rest of his life.
To sum up, "I 11" shows the living state and mental state of people in a specific era from the perspective of a child, and touches the helplessness and sadness in the depths of history with "innocence". The film does not have a fierce plot conflict, but the compulsion of the narrative, the cold scenes, and the gloomy tones reproduce the repression and suffocation of the times, presenting the absurdity and sadness of that era.
Wang Huan's youth grew up in repression and was deeply branded by the times. Even if he is dying of old age, he still cannot get rid of the memory of youth and the influence of the times, which is what the director wants to tell us: the past cannot be changed, and what we can do is to accept it calmly and start with a heavy load.