Left-behind children (left) and their friends laugh happily.
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"The Taste of Rice Blossoms", which has just won the most popular film in the new generation unit at the Pingyao International Film Festival, tells the story of left-behind children and single mothers in the Dai family village. "Rice blossoms" are the food that celebrates "reunion" in the festival, and in "The Taste of Rice Flowers", the subtle and moving fluctuations between separation and unwillingness to separate, between tradition and modernity, are expressed. Social cues are hidden, but once opened, they will be more mellow in life and emotion.
The story of "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" seems to focus on the interaction between "mother and daughter from estrangement to reconciliation", but on such a delicate enough basis, at least three lines of village and individual self-help are given.
1
The first is the context of music and dance. It was night when the single mother Ye Mu arrived home from the city, and there was no one in the bamboo building. Faint music came from the window. A place in the village is brightly lit and the music is noisy. Daughter Ran Hang and her partner wore golden robes on stage, danced Indian dances, and were a little shy. When the music malfunctions, the two girls stop their arms in the movement, look at each other and laugh.
The young social worker with dirty braids appeared, dressed in gold and with a strong physique, and said to a few women on the other side waiting to come to the stage: You go and change your clothes. I began to think that this young man had contracted some work for the tourists to perform. Later, it was learned that he was a social worker, which was the organization of recreational activities in the village. After that, he was busy in the village, and there was an embarrassing shadow of this moment: sincere, difficult, and often seemed helpless, but did not give up. Is the "community literature" he organized useful? The women waiting to take the stage dozed off, saying that they were too tired to work during the day and dance at night. But the little child dancing in the Indian dance, Mu Hang and her friend, a pair of "problem girls" /left-behind children who steal things and fight, exude innocence and lively vitality in this jerky dance.
The first conversation between Ye Lan and his daughter Muang Hang, so it is about this dance, who taught you? This is very interesting. While the people in the city are busy making "original ecology" into a trademark or chicken soup, holding the "original" inexplicable ruler to measure the music and dance of a nation, the youth in the village have combined Latin American reggae music with their own national melodies to play lively modern national music.
In the movie, after a series of events and emotional conflicts, concessions, and probing, the mother and daughter began to let go of their defenses from their own anger, disappointment, grievances and awkwardness. The gossip of the village faded away from the mother's dancing posture and smile. At the end, the mother and daughter in the cave dance against each other, physically and mentally facing each other, like a wounded but still beautiful and stubborn peacock, reconstructing the language of life. How fortunate that music and dance for ethnic minorities, indeed, hide the code of culture and soul, and are the source of healing and creation.
2
Then there is the vein of faith and community. Lan Hang's friend Mu Xianglu died unexpectedly, and the people in the village asked the wizards to do it and ask the mountain god for the sake of the "disease" of a series of eras such as children. The mountain god went up to the body of Ye Pin's grandmother, a wizard with sharp teeth, who talked about people's rights and wrongs, and blamed young people for "disobedience", and she/ the mountain god said: Your rice flowers and rice wine taste wrong! How many years have you not visited the Stone Buddha!
So people made up their minds to worship the stone Buddha, bringing sacrifices and gongs and drums. The cave where the stone Buddha is located has become a scenic spot, with a sign that reads "Rest Today". The group of people who sat down outside the scenic spot and hung their heads in silence fell into a rather postmodern absurd situation. "Dirty Braid" suddenly stood up and picked up the drum, "Since you came, no matter where you dance, the stone Buddha can see us!" ”
True. As the center of the village, the temple has been equipped with WIFI and flowers made of renminbi, but it cannot settle people's lives and bodies, although people still bow down respectfully and religiously. Returning to the older, more simple mountain gods and stone Buddhas, then, is not as good as a natural self-healing effort of this community. In fact, like her daughter, Ye Lan is a person who does not follow the rules and is not afraid of different eyes and rumors. However, she is also a person who respects and integrates in the village community, and knows how to respect and be flexible. She asked her daughter to take the opportunity of the Buddha to apologize and reconcile with Grandma Ye.
In the village of "The Taste of Rice Blossoms", the performance of ordinary people may be flat-expressiond, but they do not lose innocence and joy - it is the face of the natives.
3
The third vein, labor and land. Ye Lan returned to her hometown, and between the chaos she had provoked for her daughter, she wore the tube skirt of the Dai girl Wanna, and was very skilled in doing various farm tasks, feeding pigs, grilling grain, and cleaning large pots and bowls for the family that opened a small restaurant. If the land in her hometown can make a living, she may be able to live in her hometown.
Although she once shouted at her daughter: if you don't study well, you won't have to do the cleaners in the city! Grandpa said that he didn't have to go to the city. This is a naturally conservative idea. At the same time, the pursuit of open pluralism is also in it, faith and money, new ideas and old ideas are intertwined.
In addition to the changes in external social conditions, the problem of left-behind children should also have a rejuvenating human body and mind, as well as the self-healing level of the village community. Left-behind children, their parents in the city, they are in distress, but they are not ignorant and ignorant, and they can only wait for help.
Before Ye Lan yells at her daughter, "Dirty Braid" is at her house, consulting with her father and elders, inviting Ye Lan to join their community work. Having seen Ye Muan, who was "big in the world" in the city, strong, independent, and had a brain, she had obviously experienced a lot; she did not necessarily have to go into the city. The yelling at her daughter may be more about "not reading well."
Some people think that such an interesting thing will blur the seriousness of the problem of left-behind children. There are also some friends who often strangle literary and art workers with progressive consciousness and make good stories lifeless. No matter how progressive the thought, no matter how beautiful the emotion, it must be conveyed by appealing to images that do not tire us. "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" may have found a balance.
In any case, this effort of "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" is expected. On the way to understanding the "countryside", they have taken a path that pays more attention to people's physical and mental vitality, and thus more hopeful.
□ Li Na (Associate Researcher, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)