In contrast, Tharlo was cut in various lines in the county seat and police station, and his face was also pressed to the edge of the entire field of vision.
【Culture Tan】
His unique cultural identity and literary experience make Wan Ma Tse-dan particularly sensitive to the internal conflicts of the characters composed of the details of life, and is good at conveying layered themes with simple narrative structures. If nothing else, "Tharlo" will probably not be released in theaters for more than two weeks. Subsequently, it will gain a longer cinematic life in some quasi-art theaters, providing valuable humanistic reflections for this rapidly changing era while expressing Tibetan life and the spiritual world.
The language of the director's shots is exquisite and complete
In a blockbuster, bayonet-blooded Lunar New Year slot, "Tharlo" is as unsociable as an elephant breaking into a room. It did not get too many films, nor did it arouse the popularity of the public, but it is still a work that cannot be ignored in the current Chinese film creation.
Tharlo is a Tibetan shepherd who lives alone in the barren mountains, without any relatives, only herds, shepherd dogs and an old-fashioned radio. Perhaps it is such a simple and extreme environment that makes his memory surprisingly good. In a long shot at the beginning of the film, he recites "Serving the People" completely and fluently in a chanting tone. History remains part of reality for this isolated, unique individual — until he walks into a photo studio in the county seat and tries to passively blend into modern society by taking ID photos.
The camera shows the full experience of Tharlo's first trip to the county seat in great detail. Under the seemingly unfazed flowing account, the emotional fluctuations brought by modern concepts to the characters are carefully presented in the realistic atmosphere created by the long shots, which also lays a solid emotional foundation and plot for the turning point of the entire story later.
However, the film tightly controls the way Tharlo's experience in the county seat is presented. His body and presence are vastly not directly observed by the camera-human-eye system; the viewer needs to see a part of the body and the scene through the visual intermediaries of mirror reflections, glass window projections, and camera lenses.
There is no doubt that this is completely different from the way the film provides us to watch Tharlo in his own living environment. The middle of the story gives a complete picture of Tharlo's own rhythm of life. Whether drunk or toiling, Tharlo's relationship with his surroundings is relatively complete, showing a self-contained physical and spiritual world. In contrast, Tharlo was cut in various lines in the county seat and police station, and his face was also pressed to the edge of the entire field of vision. For the film creators, every bit of the camera is conveyed, and Wan Ma Tse-dan explores his own exquisite and complete film language in "Tharlo".
Wan Ma Tse-dan opposed deliberately glorified narrative techniques
Wan Ma Tse-dan is the founder of Tibetan-language cinema in China, a film director with a remarkable authorial style and literary temperament. His series of works has been thinking and questioning the collision of national traditions and identities with modern socio-economic structures. Although Tibetan cinema started relatively late, from the perspective of world cinema history, ethnic films have matured from the 1920s in the period of Nanuk of the North (a documentary film produced by Robert Flahadi in 1922). Such films often deliberately obscure elements of Western and modern civilization, focusing on the antagonistic and unified relationship between nations and the natural world in terms of production, life and belief. Although it does not directly show the conflict between tradition and modernity, the poetic presentation of the simple life of the nation provides the image of the Garden of Eden for modern society.
However, there is also a growing awareness of the flaws inherent in such "natural epic" narratives. In the final analysis, this kind of film does not present real peoples and their real lives; it is essentially a narrative and visual presentation imagined and constructed by Western and modern civilizations out of their own needs. In most films, the nation becomes a symbolic instrument, presented in a glamorous, fairyland; the problems of social, economic and cultural inequality are ignored and obscured.
After the 1960s, with the gradual popularization of film and television technology, new film and television practices such as ethnic films and villager images began to appear; locals themselves picked up cameras and expressed their understanding of life and the world through film. Although the communication system and capital forces still suppress these unique expressions, film creators can still penetrate the mass dreams created by commercial films from time to time and convey deep thinking about history and society.
Wan Ma Tse-dan's filmmaking is an important part of this wave of reflection. Through his own creations, he explores the specific experiences of Tibetans in the current global topic of tradition and modernity. Therefore, the film also has a universal thematic significance and a special social and cultural value. Beginning with The Quiet Mane Stone (released in 2006), Wan Ma Tse-dan deliberately reversed the narrative and visual beautification of the Tibetan paradise, and resolutely regarded "contemporaneity" as the overall narrative core of the film.
The unique cultural identity and literary creation experience make Wan Ma Tse-dan particularly sensitive to the internal conflicts of the characters composed of the details of life, and the simple narrative structure can often convey a layered theme. If nothing else, "Tharlo" will probably not be released in theaters for more than two weeks. Subsequently, it will gain a longer cinematic life in some quasi-art theaters, providing valuable humanistic reflections for this rapidly changing era while expressing Tibetan life and the spiritual world.
□ Liang Junjian (Teacher, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University)