Veteran film fans know that 1994 was a big year for Chinese films.
That year, Zhang Yimou made his best film so far, "Alive", Douban 9.3; Ang Lee's "Diet Men and Women" was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with a rating of 9.1;
Jiang Wen bravely entered Cannes with "Sunny Day", which has a score of 8.8 so far; Wong Kar-wai released "Chongqing Forest" and "East Evil and West Poison" at the same time, with 8.8 and 8.6 points respectively;
Yang Dechang's "Independent Era" was also shortlisted for Cannes, which was also 8.8 points; even Wang Jing also shot his current highest-rated work on Douban - the 8.6 "Nine Pin Sesame Officer".
But there is only one domestic film released at the same time, although the rating is as high as 9.5, which is better than all the above films, but so far, not many people know it, and the fans who have seen it on Douban are less than 90,000.
The movie is called Back to Back, Face to Face.
Hereinafter referred to as "Back to Back"
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"Back to Back" is directed by Huang Jianxin and Yang Yaya, adapted from the novella "Autumn Wind Drunk" by writer Liu Xinglong.
The film mainly tells the official story of Wang Shuangli (Niu Zhenhua), the deputy director of a city cultural center, who has served as the "acting curator" for many years, but has never been regularized, and has fought with two new curators sent abroad.
Shadow Emperor Niu Zhenhua
Although "Back to Back" is a niche, after its release that year, it was also shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 7th Tokyo International Film Festival, and helped actor Niu Zhenhua win the throne of the film emperor.
Interestingly, in the same year, 2 Other Chinese actors also won the Film Emperor of the International A-category Film Festival.
They are Ge You, who won the Cannes film emperor with "Alive", and Xia Yu, who became the youngest film emperor in the history of the Venice Film Festival with "Sunny Days". The fame of the latter two clearly overshadows the former.
At the 15th Golden Rooster Awards of Chinese Cinema the following year, "Back to Back" won two more awards: Best Director and Best Co-production (the film is co-produced by the mainland and Hong Kong).
I think that if it weren't for the fact that "Back to Back" was a co-production, the best feature film of the Golden Rooster Awards of that year would be none other than it.
Many people praised that "Back to Back" is an official science and education film, which can be called the official field appearance. People who have stayed in the official arena will feel the same after watching it. People who have not stayed in the system will also have chills on their backs after watching it.
But I think they are only half right, and "Back to Back" is indeed about the officialdom, but it is not exactly the officialdom.
As for what the other half is talking about? I'll elaborate on that in the third section, and I'll start with the bureaucracy.
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The male protagonist of "Back to Back" Wang Shuangli, who has been the "acting curator" of the cultural center for many years, has a very high IQ and emotional intelligence, not only the subordinates are "played like monkeys", the leaders do not dare to underestimate him.
At the beginning of the film, the cultural center is holding an open recruitment, nominally open, but in fact, it is Wang Shuangli's qianjin to the director of the cultural bureau, which is directly under the leadership, and a special internal recruitment that only hires 1 person.
Unexpectedly, on the day of the interview, the director's thousands of gold did not come, but all the other applicants were present.
This was difficult for everyone in the museum, because they knew that if they hired a new person, whoever took over the job would offend the old staff, and the director of the bureau would also be angry, and the hard-won quota was given to outsiders.
If you don't hire it, the open recruitment has been made public, and the interview will start soon, so I can't say anything.
Just when the 10 interview judges in the museum were all anxious, Wang Shuangli suddenly had a plan, and the human design stood up in an instant.
Wang Shuangli's brilliant plan is to let these 10 subordinates deliberately give each interviewer the same total score according to his method, as long as the average score is the same, the recruitment can be invalidated, and no one can be admitted.
The note here refers to the letter of recommendation brought by the candidates
But this clever plan also has a risk, that is, if any subordinate disobeys and does not score according to Wang Shuangli's plan, then it will hire a new person, and Wang Shuangli will be unlucky.
But the final result was that all 10 subordinates obediently listened to Wang Shuangli's words, and there was no mistake in the process.
It can be seen that Wang Shuangli has great prestige in the hearts of his subordinates, as well as his resourcefulness.
But it is precisely because he is too smart that Wang Shuangli, as the acting curator, has not received the approval of the director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, after all, most leaders do not want their subordinates to be more capable than themselves.
Soon, the director transferred a deputy township chief from other places to the cultural center as the new director, and Wang Shuangli returned to the position of deputy director and was only in charge of financial and economic work.
On the left is the New Pavilion Elder Ma (Lei Kesheng)
The new curator is called Lao Ma, who is older than Wang Shuangli, because he has been working in the countryside for many years, has not dealt with the people in the city much, and the double merchants are not as good as Wang Shuangli, so Wang Shuangli is very dissatisfied.
Soon, with his own extremely high means, he channeled Wang Shuangli of his subordinates, so that the old horse did not do a good thing, and carried the pot everywhere, and finally the old horse was transferred.
Just when Wang Shuangli thought that he was about to be corrected, the director made another big move, transferred his secretary to the cultural center as the director, and handed over the financial and economic work that Wang Shuangli had previously supervised to the new director.
At this time, Wang Shuangli, who did not have any real power, completely understood that the original curator could not only not be too smart, but also had a strong backstage.
As for the follow-up, I will no longer spoil, interested friends, you can go to Tencent Video to watch for free.
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In fact, in addition to the story line of the officialdom, the film "Back to Back" has another main line, that is, Wang Shuangli's family story, and this family story line is ranked before the official story line.
At the beginning of the film, it is also the first to show Wang Shuangli's family contradictions, the wife thinks that the father-in-law's shoes are too noisy, and the father-in-law complains that the daughter-in-law did not have a son, and the official affairs are only the other half of Wang Shuangli's life.
The title of the film "Back to Back, Face to Face" is also like the male protagonist's name Wang Shuangli, in fact, it is all hinted at the two story lines in the film - officialdom and family, we can look at "back to back" and "face to face" separately.
"Face-to-face" is easier to understand, first of all, it refers to the desk position of deputy curator Wang Shuangli and the new curator, always sitting opposite each other in the office, face to face. The second is to allude to the tit-for-tat confrontation between the main and deputy curators, and the open struggle and secret struggle.
Of course, in addition to the contest between the head and deputy curators, there are also "face-to-face" scenes between the curator and his subordinates. For example, the subordinates who had quarreled with Wang Shuangli turned to the new curator and opposed Wang Shuangli everywhere.
The meaning of "back-to-back" is somewhat obscure, the first layer refers to the married life of Wang Shuangli and his wife, because the two always sleep back to back, the relationship is intimate, but there are also some contradictions.
For example, his wife always disliked Wang Shuangli's position as too low to be promoted; although Wang Shuangli usually had no temper, once he saw his wife arguing with his father, he would immediately slap his wife.
Secondly, "back-to-back" also alludes to the extended family of Wang Shuangli and his three family members. But even if you are a family that relies on each other, something heart-wrenching can happen.
For example, Wang Shuangli's father did not hesitate to poison his granddaughter in order to have a grandson. Such a thing is actually more frightening than what happened in the official arena.
Therefore, the biggest highlight of the film "Back to Back, Face to Face" is not exactly the sinister in the official arena, but also the family conflicts that we do not take for granted and are surging in the undercurrent.
Family conflicts always occur at our pillows, behind our backs, it is difficult for us to be suspicious, it is difficult to think badly, even if we are really suspicious, it is often too late.
More importantly, the harm caused by the family is more painful than the harm of anyone else.
In the official field, Wang Shuangli in the film will not shed tears no matter how much he is wronged, but in the face of his father who insists on selling blood, Wang Shuangli can only cry on the spot and kneel in public.
After all, "face-to-face" can also dodge the other party's open gun, while "back-to-back" can't prevent the dark arrows behind them.
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