I saw a clip from "Young Babylon" on TikTok before I searched for this movie. It's a movie from a few years ago, and thankfully, I can see it.
"Young Babylon" is a youth film released in 2017, the protagonist is Lu Xiaolu, a worker's son played by Dong Zijian.
Dong Zijian is an actor I particularly like, and I especially like to watch "Junior Class" and "Youth Pie" that he has acted in. In the youth movies he plays, he always carries the atmosphere of ordinary teenagers or mediocrity or rebellion, making people unconsciously substitute for them, and in the roles he plays, it seems that our youth is like this.
At first, I was attracted to the funny clips in the movie, but after watching it, I realized that the movie was actually a tragedy cloaked in comedy and farce. Of course, it's not just that simple. In fact, it's more like "The Troubles of Young Werther"—with a magical sense of reality like a hundred years of loneliness.
"Young Babylon" is different from other youth movies, the protagonist Lu Xiaolu's youth story takes place in the factory: without seeking advancement, Lu Xiaolu, a technical school student of Hanger Langdang, was sent by his father to the saccharin factory in Daicheng with a turtle, and in the factory he still disobeyed discipline, and he was full of jianghu qi, resisting the strict rules of the factory, being late for work, flirting with little girls, and fighting with workers, all of which became a common thing. However, since meeting the woman who rode against the flow of people, his confused youth seemed to have a light and direction...
White blue and road trails
After checking the information, I personally feel that Babylon has two meanings, one refers to the confused adolescence of life, and the other refers to the state-owned enterprises and factories of the old era that were eliminated
1, under the change of youth, the time that has passed
In the Bible, Genesis, there is a word called "Babel," which means chaos. If we connect the film, we can understand "Babylon" as a period of change and confusion.
The 20-year-old Lu Xiaolu is in the stage of the most energetic and rebellious spirit, but at the same time he is in the most confused, most confused, and most changeable adolescence, and he is at a loss for the future. This stage is a stage of having nothing and accomplishing nothing.
I remember very clearly that Lu Xiaolu had a sentence that described himself at this stage very accurately- "That year, I was twenty years old, the sweetest and most rotten time of my youth." ”
Youth is the most beautiful synonym, so we can understand the "sweetness" in his mouth, but how can youth "rot"?
When the road path is a fitter
Because I am twenty years old, I am in the "Babylonian period" of my life stage. At this time, teenagers, whether it is friendship or love, or their own mentality is in a shaky state, in the face of various problems and difficulties, teenagers can stick to their hearts very little, and it is more common to move with the situation.
Lu Xiaolu wandered around the workshops of the factory, long feet were ostracized in various ways for the night examination, and Bai Lan went to Shanghai to take the medical school graduate school, etc., which are all the epitome of the choices experienced by each character in his youth.
"Young Babylon" is more like a refinement and summary of the adolescence of the road path and the surrounding characters.
Youth and first love are like the white and blue in the film, she may be the encouragement and companionship of youth, or she may leave others at any time. When I woke up many years later, in the afternoon, I saw the sunlight through the window sprinkling on the ground, heard the sound of cicadas downstairs, and remembered the summer of my youth, maybe I couldn't catch her traces in my memory, but I always believed that she did come to the summer of my first love.
2, babylonian civilization, a civilization that fell under an era
If "Babylon" is understood as a vanished ancient civilization, it refers to the change of the age of the kingdom or the fall of the no longer existent. Well, can we understand that in the film, in the 1980s and 1990s, the factory was a real landscape in most of the area at that time.
At that time, we call it the "factory age."
In that era, the city became synonymous with modern industry from time to time, and the industrial development of a city meant that the city was developed, and being able to go into the factory to work meant that there was an iron rice bowl, and state-owned enterprises were synonymous with good welfare and high wages. Therefore, Lu Xiaolu's father went to great lengths to stuff him into the saccharin factory.
In the factory, those old workers work, chat, create all kinds of fun, and the leaders are not afraid to come. He seems to be free and arrogant, and seems to be planning to hang out in the factory for a lifetime. It seems that I really thought I had gotten the iron rice bowl.
But is this kind of life really good?
From a little girl to a little aunt, from a small aunt to an old aunt, everyone is like a product on the assembly line...
Each character in the film seems to be free, but in fact, he can't help himself.
Longfoot wanted to study and take the exam night, but as soon as he studied, the whole department had no one to work, and his master and a lot of old employees were playing cards, so he let a new employee work. But even if you get admitted, what? The section chief said that he would have to work in this department all his life.
Master Lu Xiaolu, known as the "Bull Devil King", is not afraid of the sky, but he was injured and almost died, and the factory did not even send a car, and he retired honorably, and no one sent him off.
The chief of the security section, a tank soldier, suffered from a strange skin disease in the inspection workshop...
Lu Dad worked as a worker all his life, but because of Lu Xiaolu, he retired early...
The little pout was originally from the office, but was transferred to the third shift and almost raped, and then was retaliated against and fell into a sewer full of boiling water, and the workers' compensation was an air conditioner.
Bai Lan left, Lu Xiaolu became a model worker, and was beaten by the system into his most hated appearance.
They seem to be free, but in fact, they are trapped in the factory forever.
Their loneliness is also the loneliness of that era, the loneliness of the factory.
After watching the movie, I kept thinking, white and blue love road?
Later, the answer was found in the film - not loved.
Bai Lan also said: "I have no one to love, I can only love you." ”
At the end of the film, what impressed me was that the little pout said that he was not as rebellious as before, and Lu Xiaolu said that people are always tamed.
This reminds me of a sentence: everyone wants to live wonderfully, but the mediocre fate will always arrive sooner or later, and it makes people struggle but have nowhere to hide.