From the film "Old Beast" on the "disenchantment" and "reconstruction" of the inner Mongolian screen image

Source: Audiovisual, No. 9, 2019

Abstract: The award of the film "Old Beast" has aroused people's attention to the image of the inner Mongolian screen. Throughout the history of the development of Inner Mongolia films, the Inner Mongolian films before 1985 mainly reflect the common progress of the Mongolian people and New China, mainly to write the historical process of the country and the nation, the main features of the film in this period are the national liberation, national construction themes run through the language, behavior and event development of the characters, and the characters have a relatively strong color of the times. In the 21st century, from the early "pan-ethnic, pan-folklore" video display to the serious thinking on ecological issues, from dazed adherence to the main theme to the restoration of the essence of life, Inner Mongolian films are constantly looking for self-writing and shaping an appropriate screen image.

The movie "Old Beast" won many awards such as best actor and best original screenplay at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, which attracted people's attention. The people and events in the film give the audience a great spiritual impact, and many Ordos people see the shadow of themselves or their relatives and friends. For other regions, the film refreshes the early film screen image of Inner Mongolia, and more importantly, it can see the trapped beasts lurking in the depths of human nature. As one of the important media of cultural dissemination, film can reflect the characteristics and state of a region or nation, so audiences often try to find the trajectory of their culture through movies. However, the people, things and things presented in each film are filtered by the director's aesthetics, and the formation of aesthetic vision is affected by many factors such as times, regions, and personal experiences. This article starts from the film "Old Beast", combines the characteristics of films in other periods in Inner Mongolia, and analyzes the transformation of Inner Mongolian films in thematic narrative, in order to help the creation of other films.

First, from highlighting regional scenery to talking about grassland degradation and the plight of herders

During the "Seventeen Years" film period, Inner Mongolian films mainly include "The Victory of the Inner Mongolian People", "People on the Grassland", "Son of a Shepherd", "Grassland Morning Song", "Ordos Storm", etc. Although the theme settings are different, the mirror expression of the grassland scenery is extremely similar, the vast grassland, the traditional felt bag, the herd of cattle and sheep, the leisurely white clouds, and the circling eagles have become the fixed landscapes in the Inner Mongolian films of this period. This is because the entire ecological situation in Inner Mongolia at that time was better, such as "The Victory of the Inner Mongolian People", which was originally titled "Spring Light of Inner Mongolia", which showed the yurts scattered in the vast grasslands, the amazing horse skills of Dundebu, and the dark cloud Bileg who drove sheep barefoot, etc., all of which satisfied the imagination of mainland audiences for frontier life. Scholar Chen Xuguang once pointed out the basic characteristics of Inner Mongolian films in the "Seventeen Years" period: "From the perspective of cultural function, the ethnic minority theme films at this stage are the imaginative reconstruction of ethnic minorities by the state ideology with Han ethnic culture as the main body. (1) The movie "Desert Spring", like other contemporaneous films, is a film that takes the production and life of Inner Mongolia as the performance object, but its ecological background is worth thinking about: the beautiful grassland is invaded by wind and sand, full of holes, coupled with man-made destruction, it is even more dangerous, inadvertently revealing that ecological problems have begun to emerge. As the scholar Rao Shuguang said: "'Spring in the Desert' is the first film filmed during the 'Cultural Revolution' to reflect the struggle and life of the revolutionary people in China's ethnic minority areas, and the film and television shows the intricate class struggle in grassland pastoral areas, which not only has the characteristics of the grassland nation, but also reflects the epochality of the special historical period of 'taking class struggle as the guideline'. ”②

From the 1970s to the 1980s, the film industry in Inner Mongolia developed rapidly, especially the addition of ethnic minority directors, which opened a new chapter in the screen writing of grassland ethnic culture. In the creation of Inner Mongolian films in this period, on the one hand, they continued the previous tradition and mainly focused on the main theme of the times; on the other hand, they penetrated into the multi-faceted thinking of regional culture, grassland ecology and national history, such as "Motherland, Mother" (1977), "Meng Gen Hua" (1978), "Jade Broken Palace Tilt" (1981), "Alima" (1981), "Mother Lake" (1982), "Snow Wolf" (1989), "Black Horse" (1995) and other films. Most of the films in this period use low angle shooting to highlight the colorful grassland style, such as grassland, yurt, sheep, horse galloping, etc., which adds a romantic color to the film and deliberately avoids the natural ecological problems that exist in reality. Since the 21st century, the film industry in Inner Mongolia has developed rapidly, and many outstanding Mongolian directors have emerged, and through their works, we can truly see that the traditional grassland and ecological environment have been impacted by modern industrial civilization. When talking about the original intention of creating "Horses in the Monsoon", Mongolian director Ning Cai said: "The reason why I wanted to make this film is that when I was filming in the Xilin Gol grassland in 1986, I saw that the water and grass there were rich and picturesque, and more than ten years had passed. Protecting the ecology and protecting our beautiful homeland is the common wish of everyone. (3) The film begins with several empty shots of wind and sand rolling and grassland decay, and then the story unfolds in this context, where the relentless snow and drought force most herders to choose to leave the grassland and enter a strange city to survive. Uzhigen was the last to hold on, and several attempts to get out of the predicament ended in failure, and he could only release "Sarella" and had no choice but to move into the city.

Although the background of gibson and Uzhgen in the film "The Old Beast" is ten years apart, the dilemma they face is extremely similar. Gibson appeared on the road of the city with a thin and sick camel, which seemed very abrupt, and he told Old Yang that this was the only camel they had there, and even this only camel was sold by Old Yang. Gibson said that without the male camel, the camels in their pastoral area would have become extinct. The camel here is not only the camel itself, but also a symbol of the vitality of the steppe, and the image of the camel appears frequently in the film. In the 2007 film "Long Tune" directed by Haschaoru, the protagonist Kikige returned to the grassland to soothe his inner trauma, and it was precisely because he saw his mother singing to milk the mother camel, breastfeeding another lamb that was waiting to be fed because of the loss of her mother, Kikige touched the scene and was reborn. After ten years, the camels themselves are facing extinction. In the empty shots at the beginning of the movie "Old Beast", there are dry elm branches and tribulus strips, which appear deserted and depressed, on the one hand, laying a sad tone for the story, on the other hand, reflecting the ecological crisis in Inner Mongolia that urgently needs to be saved.

Second, shift from a grand historical narrative to a personal discourse

The films of Inner Mongolia during the "Seventeen Years" period are mainly expressed in national discourse, ethnic discourse and political discourse. Taking the film "The Victory of the People of Inner Mongolia" as an example, ethnic contradictions are transformed into class contradictions, and eventually national discourse is integrated with mainstream ideology. In the 1960s film Storm of Ordos, the protagonist Wu Li remembers his father being killed in a rebellion against class oppression, imprisoned as an adult for revenge, and then joined the Communist Party, embarked on the revolutionary road, and became the leader of the local steppe people in resisting class oppression. The protagonists of the 70s movie "Meng Gen Hua" and the 80s movie "Alima" have the same experience as Uriki, who came from a poor background, experienced hardships, and finally threw themselves into the revolution and found the right way to save themselves and the nation. The personality color of the characters in the film is diluted, and the commonality is greater than the personality, reflecting the inevitable choice of the road to national liberation. In the 1950s, following "The Victory of the People of Inner Mongolia", films such as "People on the Grassland", "Son of the Shepherd", "Morning Song of the Grassland", and "Spring in the Desert" took the construction of new China as the theme, reflecting the themes of the pastoral cooperative movement, the construction of water conservancy and reconstruction of pastures, the emerging steel industry on the grassland, and the planting of trees and sand to protect the homeland. These films reflect the mongolian people and the new China advancing together, and writing the historical process of the country and the nation in the form of film and television art. The main feature of the film in this period is that national liberation and national construction run through the language, behavior and event development of the characters, and the characters render a strong color of the times.

Since the new era, the political discourse and ethnic narrative in Inner Mongolian films have decreased, but before 1985, there has been no great change, and the films "Alima", "Mother Lake", "Hunting Ground Zaza" and "Senjidema" continue to express the spirit of the times and political ideals as the main narrative intentions. The film "Alima" tells the story of the Mongolian girl Alima who accepted the arrangement of the party organization to come to the grasslands, escorted a group of cadres back to Yan'an, overcame the obstacles of the Kuomintang reactionaries and traitors, and finally completed the task. The scene of Tara with the mount after being injured in the film shows that during this period, Inner Mongolian films began to pay attention to the emotions of the characters themselves. The protagonist of the film "Senjidema", Tergo, comes from a humble background, falls in love with Senjidema, and is finally destroyed by Senjidema's mother-in-law, expressing the protagonist's yearning for love, and the female independent consciousness presented in the film is rare and valuable.

After 1986, the theme of Inner Mongolian film creation began to change, the first turn was reflected in the film "Genghis Khan", from class struggle to the writing of national history; the other time was represented by "Sad Brook" filmed by Sef and Myris in 1995, although the film continued the narrative of class struggle, it has tried to present the national spirit and national character through film and television art, and also has a deep excavation of personal psychology. Horses are the beloved object of the Mongolian people, and in the film, the audience can fully see the horses that have been broken and dismembered by jumping off cliffs, and the camera is meaningful, reflecting the concern about the loss of Inner Mongolian culture. After 2000, more and more directors have withdrawn their creative perspectives from the grand narrative and reconstructed the subject of discourse through individual speech, whether it is the simple and rude Snow Rigan in the film "Heavenly Grassland", or the rough and sad Wu Rigen in "Horse in the Monsoon", or the stubborn and determined Otgen in "Genghis Khan's Water Station", etc., the director began to focus the lens on the heart of the individual characters, presenting the emotions of ordinary people in Inner Mongolia under the background of modernization.

Looking at the development process of Inner Mongolia films, it can be clearly seen that the heroic legends and national history have gradually withdrawn with the involvement of economic globalization and modern industrial civilization, and the rich grasslands, leisurely sheep and galloping horses on the screen in the past have disappeared, replaced by mottled earth and herdsmen. The protagonists in the film show the insight and understanding of ordinary people into society, history and human nature in a way that individually speaks. In the film "Horses in the Monsoon", no matter how much Uzhgen is attached to steppe life, how reluctant his mount "Sarila", forced by the need for survival, or come to his out of place in the city. In this film, the director uses psychological montage techniques many times to vividly express the pain, anxiety and confusion of the protagonist's heart through a subjective perspective. In order to carry forward the traditional art of long tone, Kikige in the film "Long Tone" came to Beijing, and then due to the difficulty of her husband's car accident, she returned to the grassland and finally found her own inner long tone. What this process of recovery implies is the conflict between nationality and modernity. In the face of this conflict, some people choose to retreat, such as kikiger, the protagonist of "Long Tune"; some people choose to stick to it, such as Ottergen, the protagonist of "Genghis Khan's Water Station"; some people choose to seek the fusion of the two, such as the protagonist of "Blue Knight", Tassa. Director Zhou Ziyang continues the topic of "dilemma" in "Old Beast", still slowly unfolding in the way of ordinary people's individual speech, showing the crushing from the outside world and the inner dilemma of the characters through the lens. In the film "Old Beast", Lao Yang reprimands his children in court, reminisces with Gibson, is ambiguous with his lover, and says a final goodbye to his wife, Gibson tells about the dilemma and his dreams, because the medical expenses are constantly arguing, and everyone speaks according to their own starting point. The composition of this film is concise, the pace is slow, the plot is ordinary, but it has won international awards one after another, the reason is that the mirror restores real life, restores the living conditions of ordinary people, Zhou Ziyang, as a local director, is familiar with life in Inner Mongolia, laying a solid foundation for the life of audiovisual language and playing a direct effect to the hearts of the people.

III. Conclusion

Film is an important carrier of culture, and Inner Mongolian films, as an important part of Chinese films, play an important role in the construction and inheritance of Chinese national culture. In the history of the development of Inner Mongolian films, from the image display of "pan-ethnic and pan-folklore" to the thinking on ecological issues, from following the main theme to restoring the essence of life, Inner Mongolian films are constantly looking for self-awareness, thus shaping the most appropriate screen image. At present, more and more directors have participated in the creation of national films. We look forward to more excellent works in Inner Mongolian films in the future to meet people's demand for national films.

exegesis:

(1) Chen Xuguang. Ethnic Minority Films: "Who's Saying" and "How to Say"[J], Contemporary Film, 2010(09).

(2) Xie Xiaoqing. The Sweeping of Culture by Civilization: The Aftermath of the Movie "Horse in the Monsoon"[J].Inner Mongolia Education, 2013(13).

(3) Rao Shuguang. History of Chinese Ethnic Minority Films[M].Beijing: China Film Publishing House, 2011:172.

Fund project: This paper is the phased result of the scientific research project of inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Colleges and Universities "Research on the Relationship between Ethnic Identity and National Identity in Mongolian Theme Films" (NJSY19248).

(Author Affilications:Hetao College)