"Spring Tide": Fate chose her, and she chose fate

In the movie "Spring Tide", in addition to suppressing Guo Jianbo, the strong mother also leads the upbringing and education of Guo Jianbo's daughter born out of wedlock. (Infographic/Figure)

The movie "Spring Tide" is full of dark conflicts, repressed hatred, and endless unhappiness. When the protagonist is trapped in a tragic circle and it is difficult to break free, we seem to see our own similar embarrassing situation, but we have gained relief from self-deprecation.

"Spring Tide" has a prose poetic narrative with a strong realistic color. The stunning confrontation between the two superb actors, Hao Lei and Jin Yanling, adds tension and discussion space to this film that is difficult to produce topics. "Spring Tide" has gradually formed a topic since its online release on May 17, 2020, with a Douban score of 7.2, which once occupied the first place in the Douban new film list.

Hao Lei played Guo Jianbo, a 40-year-old investigative journalist living in the northeast, in "Spring Tide". At the beginning of the film, she exposed a campus sexual assault scandal, and the audience in the barrage applauded Guo Jianbo for slapping the teacher who sexually assaulted many primary school girls in an interview but argued that "all students volunteered".

But Guo Jianbo or Hao Lei, the real drama is at home.

The female journalist, who has a sense of professional achievement, fell into depression after returning to the home of the three. As soon as he entered the house, in the face of his domineering and confident mother who turned his narrow home into a rehearsal ground for the community elderly choir, Guo Jianbo turned sideways through the crowd, stayed in the corner of the balcony, put the cigarette butt on the turnip slice that his mother dried, and pulled out the water pipe to let the water go of the guests. This kind of mother-daughter confrontation stalemate has become the norm of life.

The shortcomings and cramps of family life, the secret struggle between mother and daughter and the struggle between each other, control and anti-control, in this family relationship shaped by trivial years, Guo Jianbo's way of dealing with it is silent "soft resistance" - in the face of her mother's clamor, she hides back in her small room without a word.

During the meal, the mother, the aunt who visited the house as a nun and the little granddaughter were talking, and Guo Jianbo, who had his back to the camera, was ignored in the corner and did not make a sound. The silent back of this long shot, which does not seem to have any performance, hints at Guo Jianbo's position in the home throughout the play. In the face of the newspaper's report on the teacher's sexual assault case written by Guo Jianbocai, the mother was greatly dissatisfied, and even commented that her daughter's work as a reporter to write such negative news with state money was "eating inside and outside".

Three years ago, when Hao Lei chose "Spring Tide", she saw that its background color was consistent with herself. "What I want to express at a certain age is important to me. I'll look for a script like this, or when that script finds me, I'll agree to star, because that's exactly the value I want to export. There is actually a huge gap between the actors themselves and the characters. What this script expresses is also the state I want to express and am willing to let myself become, and I am just pursuing this state. ”

At the age of 40, Hao Lei also began to "not be confused" and knew how to bear her own destiny: "There are many things in this world that cannot be solved, and if you can't solve it, you surrender to it, just let it be placed there, you yourself are also placed here, placed in life." 」 So choose quiet. This is really me, 40 years old, if there are more doubts at 40 years old, it will be in vain. And Guo Jianbo also chose to be quiet. Whether she was forced to be quiet or chose to be quiet, she was quiet anyway. I think that on the premise that fate chose her, she also chose fate. ”

Ji Minglan, the mother played by Jin Yanling, has always been strong, squeezing almost all the space of her daughter's home, and even leading the upbringing and education of Guo Jianbo's daughter born out of wedlock from kindergarten to primary school. Guo Jianbo's mother divorced her husband thirty years ago and raised her daughter alone, and her "dedication" and "love" eventually evolved into arbitrariness and control — when the daughter was an adult and wanted to control her own destiny, the contradiction between mother and daughter was on the verge of erupting. Guo Jianbo, who has given up disobeying his mother and made compromises, is eager to rebuild a relationship with his mother, but it often backfires: "Every night I can't sleep at night, I want to lie in my mother's arms, but most of me lie next to men." 」 ”

Hao Lei does not like that kind of explosive passionate performance, and "Spring Tide" is more of an inner drama. "Ordinary people's lives don't have so many so-called big drama points, she just lives ordinary, and ordinary is actually the most difficult to perform."

All the psychological scenes between mother and daughter in the movie have great attraction for the audience. The mother cursed the "rogue" husband who died after the divorce, but Guo Jianbo felt that her father was the only person in the family who gave her consideration and encouragement; when the mother committed suicide or even angered Guo Jianbo when the mother committed suicide without saying a word to her old neighbor upstairs, Guo Jianbo patiently grabbed the fairy ball with her hand until she bled to answer; the only time the mother was dumbfounded was when she burned Guo Jianbo's diary and was questioned by Guo Jianbo at the door.

"You're quiet, the world is quiet." At the end of the film, when faced with his mother who suffered a stroke and could not speak in a hospital bed, Guo Jianbo poured out for 7 minutes. In this emotional outburst scene, Hao Lei advocates retaining the original length of 12 minutes, which can be less than one second. This seems to be understood as Guo Jianbo's "monologue" rehearsed countless times in his mind. This scene reminds me of Yang Dechang's "Yiyi", in which the entire family members went to the bedside after the grandmother suffered a stroke and coma, and Jin Yanling just happened to be the role of the mother in "Yiyi". In "Spring Tide", Guo Jianbo's silence in front of his mother for most of the time, through the final cross-examination, seems to have reached a certain balance in the structure of the film.

Unlike the usual movie endings that try to solve the problem, Spring Tide doesn't give any answers. Hao Lei recognized such an inexplicable ending. In her opinion, the same is true in real life. "This play does not try to tell the audience how to solve it, there are many things in life that are not solved, people can't change anyone but themselves, this is a norm, there is no solution, I think it is best to end the movie like this." All kinds of problems in life cannot be solved. The only thing we can solve is ourselves, we quietly improve ourselves, our understanding and inclusiveness of things are more ambitious, maybe it will be a big thing. ”

Southern Weekend reporter Zhu Youke