The short film uses absurd and surreal techniques to make the vanished homeland poetically reproduce the story of @Schrödinger
"Ten Minutes, Old Age" was launched in 2002 by the British company "10 Minutes, Old Age" company, and is a combination of ten-minute short films shot by a number of world-class master directors, including Chen Kaige's "Hundred Flowers Deep" with a Douban score of 9.2 points.
The film tells the story of a "crazy" Mr. Feng who finds a moving company and moves him into and out of the big yard, but there is only a wasteland and old locust trees in front of him.
Compared with regular films of standard length, short films are easier to show the director's unique personal style and its experimental and exploratory nature through highly condensed audition language. In this short film, Chen Kaige also shows the unique audio-visual language and character shaping of Yuntong, showing the scene of the old Beijing city under the development and change of the times, interpreting the fragility and perishability of traditional culture in the face of the impact of modern civilization, and giving the audience a deep reflection through the film.
(1) Closed composition and switching of pitching perspective to reflect the theme of the film and the inner world of the characters.
At the beginning of the film, the collision and conflict between traditional culture and modern civilization are shown in a very accurate lens language: under a new-style residential building, there are busy moving workers, moving Western-style furniture, and the cries of children asking parents to buy computers are heard in the building, combined with the background of the era in early 2000 when the short film was filmed, showing a vibrant picture of modern life.
With the sound of crackling firecrackers, the camera slowly shakes up, and finally freezes on the closed composition with a large elevation angle: the picture is almost occupied by towering buildings, revealing only a small corner of the sky, showing the modern high-rise buildings that make people's hearts more closed and depressing. Against the backdrop of tall buildings, only two red lanterns and a small firecracker are embellished, showing the smallness and weakness of traditional culture in the face of modern civilization.
Subsequently, Mr. Feng, played by Feng Yuanzheng, appeared in the picture and asked the mover played by Geng Le to go to the "Hundred Flowers Deep" hutong with him to help move. The director adopts a closed composition, using car windows and rearview mirrors to cut the picture and increase the depth, showing the sense of alienation between people in modern society. At the same time, the director uses alternating shots of front and back hitting and pitching, so that the movers always look at Mr. Feng in a condescending posture. It further highlights the weak position of traditional culture, and in less than two minutes, the tone of the whole film is set in the first scene with its precise lens language.
Subsequently, Mr. Feng got into the car and followed the moving company through the "Hundred Flowers Deep" alley. The director begins with a framed composition that shows the truck driving through a desolate scene: a tree cut down, a demolished house, and a foreshadowing that they are about to go to a vanished place. Subsequently, the camera looks out through the window frame inside the car, and against the background of the red Chinese knot in the foreground, it shows the demolished houses outside the car, which is also a metaphor for the traditional culture that has never returned.
Then, the movers followed Mr. Feng to what he called the "Depths of a Hundred Flowers", only to find that it was desolate and nothing. Mr. Feng excitedly climbed the slope and pointed to his "home" to the movers, but the movers obviously felt that they had been deceived and were about to leave in a huff.
In this scene, the director unconventionally uses a top-down lens to shoot Mr. Feng in a high position, but uses a low camera position to shoot the low-level movers, showing the weakness and helplessness of the traditional culture represented by Mr. Feng in the face of modern civilization.
Subsequently, the car started, and the mover received a call from the company, learned that Mr. Feng was a "madman", he looked into the mirror, and under the closed composition, Mr. Feng stood next to the locust tree, which just formed the word "ghost" next to "wood". Combined with the Chinese knot that sways under the mirror, through the image of Mr. Feng, the traditional culture of aging, unable to integrate into modern society, and gradually abandoned and dead is metaphorical.
(2) Through the performance of no physical objects and the clever use of sound effects, the ironic reflection of the film is shown in an absurd and humorous way.
If the first half of the film shows us a poignant reality, the second half further sublimates the theme through a rather surreal and absurd "fake moving scene".
In the eyes of the modern people represented by the movers, the clash of ideas is not important, and everything can be solved with money. They turned the front of the car and told Mr. Feng that as long as they were willing to give money, they could help him move the furniture that did not exist and accompany him to "go crazy". Here, the film satirically contrasts the roles of the two sides, shooting Mr. Feng with a back shot, while the movers are in a downward looking camera, showing the alternation of dominance.
Although Mr. Feng became a "madman", he was out of his own ideals and adherence to tradition. The irony of the moving workers, as normal people, takes the initiative to pretend to be "crazy" for financial gain. Imagine how many people in reality, under the banner of protecting traditional culture, actually don't care about its life or death, but only want to make profits from it?
Subsequently, through a long shot of nearly two minutes, combined with the actor's wonderful performance without physical objects, the sound effects of moving things, accompanied by the drum beat of the background music, the film shows a seemingly absurd and lively, but in fact sad "fake moving scene". From mr. Feng's description of the rosewood wardrobe, the big goldfish bowl, and the exquisite vase, we can know the grand scene of his home, a metaphor for the once glorious traditional culture.
Mr. Feng found the bell under the eaves of the house from the ruins, which was the only "physical object" that appeared. The traditional culture that hints at decay is now left with only a trace for people to hang on and remember. Subsequently, the workers accidentally smashed the "vase" on the ground while passing the lighter. At this time, with a faint sad flute sound, Mr. Feng squatted on the ground, holding the fragment of the "vase" in his hand, and cried loudly. The shattering of the vase symbolizes the demise of traditional culture, and Mr. Feng's crying is mixed with the sadness of old age, the wrong thing and the sadness of the loss of tradition. Perhaps Mr. Feng has not been crazy, but as a martyr of traditional culture, he does not want to face reality.
How to use a short film of only ten minutes to show a deep theme and connotation is a great test of the director's skill. In this short film, Chen Kaige symbolizes the character image, symbolizing traditional culture and modern society through "crazy" Mr. Feng and movers, highlighting the main theme of the film.
Mr. Feng, played by Feng Yuanzheng, is a character similar to Don Quixote, a stubborn, conservative, and detached old Beijing. In the eyes of young people, he is a "madman" who is out of touch with the times: wearing red and yellow, old sportswear and sports hats that symbolize traditional Chinese culture, immersed in his fantasies of the past, as an old Beijing but unable to recognize his hometown, facing the high-rise buildings and traffic of modern society.
But he is also a pathetic idealist, convinced that his two-in-two courtyard and furniture are still preserved, and he is looking for his long-non-existent home in the ruins of the depths of a hundred flowers.
The brilliance of this short film is through the perspective of a "madman", using absurd and surreal techniques to achieve profound irony and reflection. To some extent, Mr. Feng represents the traditional culture and spiritual homeland that modern society has abandoned and lost in the process of blindly pursuing material interests.
The movers, played by Geng Le and others, seem to be the epitome of modern society, they scorn traditional culture, but in essence they know nothing about it, and even the placement of the most basic furniture is not clear. On the other hand, they pay attention to money and can cooperate with Mr. Feng to carry out a non-existent move for money, so that they are treated as crazy by passers-by.
In the absurd reality, who is the madman?
From "Yellow Land" to "Farewell to the Overlord" to "Mei Lanfang" and other works, we can see director Chen Kaige's humanistic feelings and attention to traditional culture. As a native of Beijing, Chen Kaige, who has experienced the city's complete process from tradition to modernization, pours more personal emotions into this short film.
The breakthrough of this short film is that it does not blindly immerse itself in the remembrance of lost traditions, thus negating social development and urbanization. Instead, from a deeper perspective, through symbolic character shaping, it shows how to find the reflection of the lost traditional culture and spiritual homeland in modern society.
At the end of the film, the movers did not charge the moving fee because they broke the vase that did not exist, which to some extent reflects that they began to realize the value of traditional culture. Subsequently, because the workers did not listen to Mr. Feng's instructions, they let the car fall into the ditch, which also metaphorically implied that the consequence of blindly pursuing development and abandoning tradition was to fall into a bottleneck and be lost.
Mr. Feng jumped out of the car, dug out the buried bell from the pit, and turned back. The bell symbolizes the key to reopening traditional culture, and the picture switches to an ink painting presented with computer stunts through the swaying bell, where Mr. Feng finds his home, and the workers also see the hutongs of that year, and the traditional old Beijing is reproduced in another form with the help of modern technology.
Just like the last scene of the film, Mr. Feng shakes the bell and rushes to the depths of the hundred flowers, the "dream" character composed of the big tree and the afterglow of the sunset, we seem to have experienced the process of aging in just ten minutes of light and shadow.
The past can no longer be recovered, the times must eventually move forward, and how to inherit and carry forward traditional culture on this basis, and integrate it with modern technology to revitalize it, is a deeper reflection given to us by the short film.
Today, 18 years later, with the development of society and the progress of spiritual civilization, the protection and inheritance of Beijing's traditional neighborhoods, courtyards and Jingyun culture have received more and more attention. After experiencing the painful period of development, traditional culture will also be reintegrated into modern society and revitalized in new forms. Combined with reality, let us look back at this rather advanced allegorical short film, have a deeper reflection, and appreciate the unique charm and value of this work. Therefore, I also combined my own thinking and wrote this article.