In the passage of time, contradictions and conflicts in the new and old changes are constantly presented, and if this contradiction and conflict is condensed in ten minutes, I think that although time is short, it is enough to be able to appreciate the most profound understanding in the development of the times. Because the story itself is not only to convey the complete content, but more importantly, to be able to express the complete thought, because, in the face of time, the thought is eternal.
Imagine if we take time as a noun, we can feel the thickness of the past, if we use time as a verb, we can experience the sigh of the future.
How to present the most profound sense of life in a limited time, I think, Chen Kaige's "The Depths of a Hundred Flowers" is the best answer.
"The Depths of a Hundred Flowers" is the only short film produced by a Chinese director in the "Ten Minutes of Aging" series.
This series, which was filmed by the British "10 Minutes, Old Age" Co., Ltd., spent hundreds of millions of yuan, and it invited 15 world-class directors to shoot 10 minutes each and string them into a 150-minute movie. As the only Chinese director invited by the producers, Chen Kaige's "A Hundred Flowers Deep" short film is undoubtedly the most eye-catching in the "Ten Minutes of Aging" series.
The whole film, standing from the perspective of humanistic care, carefully presents the conflict between the old and the new, and at the same time integrates the director's interpretation of the disappearance of history and culture and the development of modern science and technology, without criticism or preaching, simply presenting the disappearance of a certain alley with historical symbols.
At this time, director Chen Kaige put himself at the crossroads of development, putting more humanistic and social attributes into the story, and then, in the contradiction of going left or right, let the short film have a slightly bitter but lasting aftertaste.
The alley in the eyes of "crazy" Mr. Feng is perfect, while the alley in the eyes of the mover is deserted, using the image of the combination of virtual and real to draw everyone's eyes to the bottom of the big locust tree, and then, in the ruins, using ink animation, recreates the past style of the compound of the "Hundred Flowers Deep" hutong.
It's a look back, or a look.
For ten minutes, I actually fell into this short film and couldn't extricate myself, probably because of my age, but more importantly, the faint sadness conveyed from the short film was always so familiar.
In the passage of time, we are discarded and accepted at the same time, unable to stop the big development trend, and we can only be forced to run forward. When looking back at a certain node, just like Mr. Feng in the movie, he actually forgot the way home before, the home became a distant place, and the tradition became a dusty antique.
"The Depths of a Hundred Flowers" is not only the name of the movie, but also the place where the story takes place in the film. It is a hutong that has been demolished, but in the eyes of director Chen Kaige, this hutong is a cultural symbol carrying historical heritage.
When the older generation represented by Mr. Feng in the film and the new generation represented by the movers are all placed in this geographical location, this emotional contrast for the hutong highlights the cultural inheritance and epochality of the current decline from the side.
At the beginning of the movie, under the shaky camera, it presents a busy moving scene, and in the voice-over, the child shouts to be careful of his computer, and the camera also uses the way of upward shooting from time to time to sweep the tall building into the picture. This is the living state of people in the context of a new era, and it is also a society in the rapid transformation of information technology. For setting up the move as a driving force for the story, I think it was also deliberately done by director Chen Kaige.
Moving, representing the alternation of the old and the new, from an old place to a new place, the environment is changing, people's state of mind is also changing, and according to most people's new and tired of the old personality, forgetting may be the best choice to start a new life. At this time, in this alternating story atmosphere of old and new, an inappropriate character appeared, he was Mr. Feng.
Mr. Feng wants to move, and the movers only need to give money, so they use the profits to make a deal. At the same time as going to the "depths of a hundred flowers" Hu that Mr. Feng said in Mr. Feng's mouth, Mr. Feng, as an old Beijinger, actually got lost, and the driver's words explained the reason for this - "Now this old Beijing is lost in Beijing." ”
The high-rise buildings swept by the camera always give people a feeling of suffocation that is difficult to breathe, and Mr. Feng's sad face contrasts with the smiles of the movers. Here, the expressions of the old and new are used to present the living conditions of the two kinds of people in the context of the development of the times.
This presentation of the contrast between the old and the new, in fact, has been reflected from the beginning of the movie. The computer in the mouth of a child, the deep alley of a hundred flowers in Mr. Feng's mouth, the dress of a mover, the dress of Mr. Feng, the director always deliberately distinguishes between the old and the new, and this distinction is not to tear, but to seek a certain integration point.
The old and the new represent different understandings of culture, but also represent different values in social development, but whether it is remembering the old or catching up with the trend, this is a cultural attribute contained in society, so the purpose of this film is to stand at the node of time, look back at the future in retrospect, and often look back in the future.
For the display of high-rise buildings, the display of large vistas and vistas is used, and for the display of hutong ruins, the display of medium and short-range views and panoramas is used, the former is to deliberately create a sense of isolation that cannot be integrated, and the latter is to create a sense of emotional closeness.
When, under Mr. Feng's instructions, the movers could only cooperate with Mr. Feng to fiddle with the non-existent furniture in a vacant lot for the sake of profit, at this moment, what was given to the audience was a desolate feeling.
Especially in the movie, when the mover inadvertently let go of the hand carrying the vase, it was originally empty, and suddenly there was a real picture of the broken vase. Mr. Feng's sad emotions touching the soil made the story that seemed like a dream from beginning to end finally appear in the eyes of the audience.
At this moment, we are as sad as Mr. Feng, not because of the vase, but because the vase has been given the meaning of some kind of good memory, and we all stand at the starting point of the past, looking for familiar memories.
In this movie, director Chen Kaige's narrative attitude is not pessimistic, but full of piety, he coldly watches everything disappear, but enthusiastically shows everything that disappears, using sound and picture.
The words on the ruined walls of the hutongs in the depths of hundreds of flowers herald the disappearance of the city's best memories. What is demolished is the building, but what is erased is beautiful, and the past that cannot be returned is like mr. Feng who was abandoned, Feng is equivalent to "crazy", but this crazy person, is it Mr. Feng or us?
In order to make up for the gap in the audience's emotions, on this ruin, the director always uses the sound of old objects as a guide, so that we realize that this is not a dream, but a cultural memory that really existed.
The film "The Depths of a Hundred Flowers" uses the disappearance of architecture to hint at the demise of culture and spirit, while using the dream-like moving process to present the conflict and integration of new and old cultures.
Some people have become perseverers, some people have become forwarders, and the big locust tree under the sunset, accompanied by the sound of the bell in Mr. Feng's hand, allows us to see the large courtyard that has always lived in Mr. Feng's mouth in traditional Chinese ink paintings. In the ten-minute short film, traditional culture lives in Mr. Feng's heart in the first nine minutes, and in the last minute, traditional culture enters everyone's heart.
Demolition and reconstruction is the inevitable development of the times, the director does not want to use this film to block this trend, he just through the solidified building to express the flow of spirit, trying to be the last spiritual home to hold on, and then, put forward a question worth thinking about - "how to achieve a smooth transition in the alternation of the old and the new, neither let the tradition be lost, nor let the modern be blocked"
Chen Kaige always uses a kind of literati thinking to look at all changes and developments, which is not a sad and compassionate melancholy, but a calm thinking, in this short film of only ten minutes, deeply explores the issues of new and old, broken and standing, stagnation and inheritance, tradition and modernity.
Mr. Feng reinstalled the bell and bell he had picked up, jumped toward the depths of the locust tree, and the workers who remained on the ground, from the original incomprehension to the final vague understanding, the appearance of the ink painting at the end indicated the vigorous vitality of traditional culture. I think that at this moment, those workers should have seen the large courtyard in Mr. Feng's mouth, because although the building has been demolished, the traditional culture has been transmitted in another way.
The sound of the bell is crisp, telling the vicissitudes of the past, the lights in the depths of the flowers are bright, showing the charm of tradition, the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, traditional culture is always struggling, but I am still willing to believe that it will always support people's spiritual home with tenacious vitality, just like the bell, although buried deep in the soil, people's ears, but there is always its voice.