"Bursting into Silence" is director Xin Yukun's second feature film, unlike the debut film "Labyrinth of Hearts", which is obsessed with a showmanship-like narrative structure, but through rendering a large number of image symbols, it cares about real life in the form of metaphors, bringing the audience a strong viewing experience.
Poster of "Burst into Silence"
"Bursting into Silence" is a crime suspense film with a realist core, telling the story of a child disappearance that occurred in a mountain village in northern China, involving more cruel social reality and the ugliness of human nature in the process of the father's search for the missing son.
Xin Yukun stepped out of the comfort zone of "Labyrinth of Hearts" and conducted new explorations and experiments in "Bursting Into Silence". The following is a brief analysis of the film from three aspects: multi-line narrative, symbolic metaphor and social concerns:
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, interlocking, multi-line narrative structure</h1>
Xin Yukun showed amazing narrative skills in "Labyrinth of Hearts", and "Bursting Into Silence", although not obsessed with winning with narrative skills, is still a film with a high degree of narrative completion.
The two-hour film can be roughly divided into three narrative threads, the first is Zhang Baomin's search for his missing son, the second is Chang Wannian's crazy expansion, and the third is Xu Wenjie's search for his missing daughter.
Stills from "Burst into Silence"
Of course, this is a very rough division. In fact, the content of each clue is not clear, but interconnected. Zhang Baomin, who was looking for his son, met Chang Wannian's horse boy at the mine and smashed his car window, so Zhang Baomin and Chang Wan began to have a connection; after Chang Wannian saw Zhang Baomin, he became a thief and had a grudge with Xu Wenjie in order to hide evidence, thus kidnapping Xu Wenjie's daughter; Zhang Baomin inadvertently saved Xu Wenjie's daughter, so Zhang Baomin and Xu Wenjie also had contact. When the three main characters meet, the dramatic conflict also reaches its extreme.
In the early stage, through a little bit of disclosure of details, the audience began to gradually enter the "trap" carefully compiled by the director, and when the movie was finished, the audience suddenly realized.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, a symbolic metaphor with a deep meaning</h1>
"Bursting into Silence" exaggerates certain image symbols, making them an important means to promote the development of the plot, highlight the fate of the characters, and reveal the cruel reality of society. Important symbolic images are:
1. Pyramids
The film begins with Zhang Lei fiddling with stones while herding sheep, and the stones that have been built up are like the simplest pyramids, and at the same time, these stones also fit Zhang Lei's name (Lei, that is, the accumulation of stones). Therefore, when the stones are broken, it also symbolizes Zhang Lei's tragic fate.
In Chang Wannian's office, there is a pyramid ornament, which is also a representative artifact of Zhang Baomin's downfall.
Pyramid shapes are the most common social class structures in history and are symbols and totems of power. In the pyramid-shaped society, there are great problems in the distribution of social resources, and a very small number of people at the top of the pyramid occupy the vast majority of resources, and class contradictions and conflicts are more intense, which is more likely to cause social instability.
The rational social structure now recognized by the academic circles is the olive-shaped social structure, that is, the structure of "small at both ends and large in the middle", the number and scale of the middle class are relatively large, and the number of elites and the bottom is relatively small, such a social structure is conducive to maintaining social stability.
Specific to the film, the three main characters Zhang Baomin, Xu Wenjie and Chang Wannian correspond to the three classes of the pyramid.
Pyramid structure
Zhang Baomin, a miner, the bottom of the pyramid, the representative of the broadest masses of poor people, the level of education is not high, occupies very few social resources, and can only maintain a state of life of food and clothing with all his strength.
Xu Wenjie, a lawyer, the middle level of the pyramid, the representative of the middle class of society, has a high level of education and professional accomplishment, occupies a relatively rich social resource, has a house and a car, and has no worries about food and clothing.
Chang Wannian, the owner of the mining company, the top of the pyramid, the representative of the social elite and the elite, holds a great wealth of social resources, and uses capital and power to frantically grab material benefits and social prestige.
2. Flocks of sheep
Sheep, this symbolic imagery runs through the entire film.
At the beginning of the film, Zhang Baomin's son Zhang Lei is herding sheep on the hillside. Then there are close-up shots of the butcher Ding Hai slaughtering sheep and Chang Wannian eating mutton, which constitute a complete food chain.
Sheep, which have always been synonymous with the weak, cannot escape the fate of being slaughtered.
When Chang Wannian invited his rival Li Zong to dinner, he advised the man to eat some mutton, and Li Zong said, "I believe in Buddhism and eat vegetarian." Chang Wannian replied, "Sheep are also vegetarian." This one detail shows that Chang Wannian was a greedy "meat eater" who believed in power and possession.
The sheep represent the weak at the bottom of society, such as villagers like Zhang Baomin, who are powerless to resist the fate of mining and forcible land expropriation.
There is a detail in the film that the cutting machine is stuck by a thorn, which corresponds to Zhang Baomin's big fuss about the company. But Zhang Baomin is still just a sheep bone spur in the end, and he can't escape the fate of "man-made knife trick me into fish meat".
After his son went missing, Zhang Baomin reported the case to the Public Security Bureau, but the understaffed police station was tired of dealing with various complicated affairs. Zhang Baomin only had to travel a long distance on the mountain to find him, while his wife and mother-in-law could only pray for the safe return of their children by praying to God and worshiping Buddha.
3. Caves
The cave is seen as the abyss of the unknown and sin.
Recurring in the film are the key caves in Zhang Lei's disappearance and the hidden door of Chang Wannian's office, which are symbols of caves.
These recurring cave images become an important driving force for the development of the plot, and at the same time, the bottomless darkness in the cave is also a symbol of darkness in human nature, and there are always places in the caves of human nature where the sun cannot shine.
Nietzsche once said, "Those who fight the devil should be careful not to become devils." When you gaze at the abyss from afar, the abyss is also staring at you. "
4. License plate
In the film, the director fictionalized the abbreviation of a license plate, Feng, which is very similar to the abbreviation "Meng" in Xin Yukun's hometown of Inner Mongolia. The original meaning of 豢 is to set up a fence to raise pigs with grain, which refers to feeding and feeding.
Chang Wannian off-road vehicle license plate is 豢 A · S8888, Xu Wenjie's car license plate is Feng B · X9174, Zhang Baomin's motorcycle license plate is C1984.
For example, the license plate of 8888 symbolizes the nouveau riche mentality of Chang Wannian, while 1984 has a certain homage to the writers of great novels.
ABC itself constitutes a sequence, and with the meaning of feeding and breeding, there is a sense that people in the A and B classes are supported by people in the C class, and people in the A class raise the people of the B class for their own use.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the aphasia: the "silent anger" at the bottom of society</h1>
The English name of "Burst of Silence" is "Warth of Silence", which means "silent anger", and "silence" is a narrative expression set by the symbol "aphasia". Aphasia is both a physiological and a social phenomenon.
1. Zhang Baomin's aphasia
Zhang Baomin, because he fought with people and bit his tongue when he was young, was inconvenient to speak, and also lost the desire to speak, so he was completely "speechless" later.
After his son disappeared, Zhang Baomin's journey to find his son was extremely difficult, and he could not express his reasonable demands, and all he could rely on was his angry fist. I thought it was my own son who was rescued, who knew that Yin and Yang mistakenly saved Xu Wenjie's daughter.
The film artistically presents Xu Wenjie, who can speak, to call back his daughter Yuanyuan, while Zhang Baomin, who has lost his voice, has lost his son Zhang Lei forever.
The bottom of society, represented by Zhang Baomin, is speechless, and they cannot or cannot decide their own fate: when the mining bosses forcibly expropriate land, they have to give up their ownership with meager subsidies, and they are forced to endure the water pollution brought by the mine and endure the pain caused by the water pollution; in order to make a living, they have to work hard, have no time to take care of the healthy and happy growth of their children, and can only give their children "shepherding love"; when the family changes, most of them can only be a "nest waste", either pray to God and worship Buddha, or endure in silence When modern trains roar by, they are the silent souls who are crushed under the wheels...
2. Xu Wenjie's aphasia
As a lawyer, Xu Wenjie is a middle class with high cultural literacy and professional skills. Decent work and high social status allowed him to speak out for social fairness and justice, but this turned out not to be the case.
Xu Wenjie is a fragile middle class, and when the family changes, he also faces the crisis of returning to poverty due to illness. In order to raise funds to cure his wife's illness, he gave up his principle of perjury to help Chang Wannian escape punishment and obtained the much-needed 500,000 yuan; after his wife's death, in order to let his daughter have a happy and stable childhood, he concealed the fact that he conspired with Chang Wannian to kill Zhang Baomin's son Zhang Lei.
The selective aphasia of the middle class of society represented by Xu Wenjie is the flattery of intellectuals to the capitalist elite. As exquisite egoists, they gave up their original intentions and perseverance, and in order to obtain more social benefits, their selfish ego defeated the public ego and became the minions and accomplices of the capitalist elite.
3. Ding Hansheng's aphasia
Ding Hansheng, the son of the butcher Ding Hai, was the only one who witnessed the truth of Zhang Lei's murder, but he was also a man of aphasia. Limited by his own physical or intellectual defects, he was unable to express what had happened to others.
He once tried to simulate the situation of Zhang Lei's murder, and also through some representative movements (doing a bow and shooting an arrow to aim at Xu Wenjie), more in the form of painting to "make a sound".
Ding Hansheng is a person with aphasia in the adult world, and he cannot get the attention or recognition of adults (both Zhang Baomin and Ding Hai have been indifferent to his actions). At the same time, what is even more tragic is that he is the descendant of a person with aphasia, and his future growth path is more bumpy, and he is very likely to become a new generation of aphasiars.
The second generation of aphasia represented by Ding Hansheng shows that when the social class is more and more solidified, the descendants of the aphasiars will become the second generation of aphasiars, and they will still be at the bottom of the society, lacking the way to express their own demands and the channel for upward promotion.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Through a microcosm of China's modernization and change, "Bursting into Silence" responds to and cares about social symptoms such as class antagonism, survival dilemma and bottom aphasia in the current society with a series of symbolic image symbols.
Although the film does not prescribe a cure for the world, it expresses concern for the diversified living conditions of society, is full of responsibility and care for social reality, and is still a rare work of sincerity.