Write the words on the front
Life is like a play, and a play is like life. Most of us are just chaotic and stable, but when the stability is gone, how do we live in chaos? Chen Jianbin's film "The Eleventh Time" tells such a story, 30 years ago, the "tractor killing incident" was adapted into a stage play by the Municipal Repertory Theatre, disrupting the life of Ma Fuli as a party, in the face of the drama adaptation of the old things and the relationship between his wife and daughter in the family, how will Ma Fuli respond?
As the second film directed by Chen Jianbin, "The Eleventh Time" continues the absurdity and humor of "A Spoon", and at the same time, it is greatly stylized in both the text and the form of the film. The novel and eye-catching narrative mode of classical novels, the intertextual metaphors between movies and dramas, and the thematic expression of the truth involving the self and self, make many fans directly addicted, but also make many ordinary audiences in the clouds.
So what exactly is "The Eleventh Time" trying to express? This article only attempts to explore the theme of the film from the perspective of self-awareness.
Apple (forbidden fruit)
In the story of the Garden of Eden, after human beings eat the apples on the tree of good and evil, they have consciousness, self-awareness arises, and suffering comes from it. So, self-awareness is the source of human suffering.
The main story of the whole film is actually around the "eating forbidden fruit", whether it is the love of Zhao Fengxia and Li Jianjian, who is not tolerated by the times, Hu Quentin and Jia Meiyi's fake extramarital affair, or Jin Duoduo's unmarried pregnancy, are all manifestations of "eating forbidden fruit".
The awakening of self-consciousness brings different choices, whether it is to choose the truth or to choose lies, and suffering cannot be avoided.
Zhao Fengxia and Li Jianjian are people who have egos and are willing to pursue the truth, Jia Meiyi is the one who found herself and also pursued the truth in the process of playing Zhao Fengxia, Jin Cailing and Jin Duoduo are the people who actively choose the truth under self-awareness, Hu Quentin is the person who chose the truth at first and then chose the truth, each of them is suffering because of the awakening of self-consciousness and the choice of truth.
Ma Fuli is the only outlier in the film, the only one who faces the truth and does not feel pain. Lacking self-awareness, he was tricked by the words of Brother Ass and Lawyer Bai, but Ma Fuli, as a party to the case, actually did not care so much about the truth, but once because of "face", and now because of his family, he took the initiative to choose the truth.
In Ma Fuli's heart, there is always something more important than the truth, even more than the "self", that is, the belief in living a good life with his family, so for the sake of more, he is even willing to choose to give up the identity of "self".
Quentin Hu with the name
There is a large discussion of names in the film, first of all, the head and deputy leader, Gou Yewu said that they only care about their seat, but they don't care about their own names. But Hu Quentin is just the opposite, he cares a lot about his name, Arthur Miller's "Salem's Witch" quote is the whole film of his most sincere feeling of the reveal, and later he chose to complete the truth, the completion of this drama is at the cost of giving up the right of attribution, from caring about the name to giving up the name of the change, it is exactly the awakening of Hu Quentin's self-consciousness and the transformation of facing the truth.
Hu Quentin appears barefoot, personally believing that he has made the drama his garden of Eden and immersed himself in it, using the "self" immersed in the drama to escape the truth, and finally when he cuts his hair and puts on his shoes, it is when he decides to face the truth.
Write in the last words
Are the bean blossoms salty or light? Everyone may have their own answers, but the most important thing is how do we deal with ourselves in the face of a chicken feather life? How to live well?
Ma Fuli, who has no self, Hu Quentin, who disguises himself, Jia Meiyi, who insists on self... Each of us can see our own shadow in them to a greater or lesser extent.
They all give their own answers, and our answers are only ourselves.
The illustration comes from the network