Introduction: The film alludes to the values created by modern society, lies, hypocrisy and contempt, so that teenagers break through the wall to break out of the cage of growth, and finally the modern tragedy of cuckoo crying blood.
The film "Dog Thirteen", directed by Cao Baoping, places the perspective on the body of a thirteen-year-old girl, abandons the original love elements around the youth film, replaces the memories in the genre youth films into the core of cruel growth in an embarrassing situation, tells the impact of a series of trivial things on the protagonist "Li Play" in a plain image style, and at the same time refers to the memory space of the real audience with the fable of "Nezha's Death".
1. The restoration of real youth life
In focusing on Li Play's growth path, the film does not apply the plot structure of a typical genre film, but stacks a series of trivial and trivial things: a series of conflicts provoked by the dog Einstein. The small things that originally seemed to be insufficient were magnified by the perspective of Li Play, and through the complex structure of the family, li play was continuously promoted to grow. In the "understanding" that parents constantly demand and the contempt that does not care at the same time, the pain of self-exploration in the head refers to reality.
First, the film in most of the visual processing to maintain a plain life style, as far as possible to write the real growth environment, and in the use of the lens a large number of close-up or close-up, the camera first close to Li Play's facial expressions, so that the audience can greatly produce and perceive the emotional commonality with the character, the film throughout the li play perspective, Li Play as a grower role change is always the core of the film's narrative, the point of view in the view of the character perceived from the rebel to the petitioner to the yielder, So that the audience no longer exists as cold bystanders. This kind of growth small thing, which is similar to most people's ordinary growth, can easily pull the audience into emotional resonance after emotional reinforcement.
Second, the film uses a large number of subjective lenses, as mentioned above, which also strengthens the audience's sense of presence, with the jitter of the mirror light and the wandering of the subjective perspective, so that the audience shifts for Li Play himself, so that the audience travels back and forth between different subject identities, resulting in cognition beyond identity. Third, the film is set in the ancient city of Xi'an, in the old city of the image, the old street, the director set up many meaningful character behaviors, such as skating in the ice rink, and Li Play after cooking the noodles extended the noodles out of the anti-theft net to cool down, these behaviors in the rich character's play bad heart at the same time, also combined with the landscape of the old city to form a nostalgic picture, became an integral part of the film's "attraction", and with the language line characteristics built by the dialect to develop a distinct style direction, with a realistic brushstroke base, Throw away the modification of youthful romantic colors.
2. Imagery of growth paths
In Lacan's theory, the father has a dual function, one is the "referential function", "represented by an individual", referring to the male who gives the child life, the other is the "symbolic function", symbolizing the external language law and social and cultural order, and in "Dog Thirteen", the father is the "negative role" of the symbol of authority, and the absent person who is in the path of Li Play's growth most of the time, and because of the absence, his education method is often simple and rude, becoming an urgent pusher to promote Li Play's growth. The father's face refers to the lies and rough scenes of the adult world. But the father is not a negative character in the classic sense, on the contrary, he loves Li play and is proud of her achievements, but his compulsion and impersonal care and education also show the absolute authority under the dictatorial and patriarchal discourse of the adult world from another level. On the one hand, he asked Li Play to become sensible, grow into an adult, and promote his growth in a way that was promoted by seedlings, and on the other hand, he despised Li Play's identity as an independent individual, and only existed as his own appendage, a child.
This contradiction acts on Li Play's body, refracting into a growing dilemma that is forced to grow into a father's expectation, and taking "there will be more such situations in the future" as a psychological consolation for self-consolation, and reasonably as a narration to obey fate. The final outcome of the "Death of the Rebel" was formed. In other imagery expressions in the film, a large number of symbols are also used as an endorsement for growth: the milk drunk with nausea, the wine glass picked up on the wine table, the "abnormal person" who was carried to the hospital because of learning birdsong... Among them, when Li Play was punished in English class, the bat that broke in attracted the attention of the whole class, only Li Play and the teacher were not impulsive, Li Play's dazed and numb expression appeared abrupt in the screams of teenagers, when the bat was killed by the teacher, the fragment at this time formed a two-fold metaphor: Li Play has become a member of the growth, she grew up, and the bat was shot dead and thrown out of the window, which also alludes to Li Play himself who was beaten and submissive in the first half of the film. At this time, the bat, as her symbol of the child's asexual rebellious spirit, is hit by the social forces implied by the family and cruelly discarded.
3. The value embodiment in the fable of growth
Youth movies, since the formation of a large number of pure love movies led by "To Youth", have created a glorified memory space, and the hidden pain of growth stripped out of the youthful love line of the student period has actually provided the audience with a safe haven to escape social pressure and find memories, and its fundamental is still to win the "attraction" of "memories" based on dream-making. However, with the evolution of youth films, a new batch of realistic youth films led by "Dog Thirteen", "Over Spring" and "Young You" is to place the perspective on adolescence, which is a growth stage that everyone resonates with and strengthens the impact, and tries to explore the initial cause of a "modern virilism" with a realistic background. The search for the path of the "rebel" becoming a "capitulant" and the reference to real life have formed a modern allegory of "the death of Nezha".
"Dog Thirteen" is based on the growth of adolescence as an example, while strengthening conflict with family complexity, showing a cruel asexual deprivation suffering that adolescents are forced to understand when they face the adult world for the first time. What it offers is a traceable decoding of modern indifference and hypocrisy. Among them, "Dog Thirteen" also tries to explore the identity situation involved in facing gender from a female perspective: the childishness of the younger brother's sprinkling, and the immature behavior of "like a person to tattoo her" at the end of the film, these behaviors also hint at the current situation of society exerting pressure on women on Li Play's difficult growth path in the profile of men who are not easy to mature.
Under the allegory of growth, there is the injustice of male discourse status to women, and in the concentrated trivia, with small things woven into a net, referring to the oppression and confusion of the adult world, the process of maverick girls becoming well-behaved girls is cut open to the audience, forming a realistic aspect of growth, accompanied by the exploration and compromise of the teacher, the film more innuendo the values created by modern society, lies, hypocrisy and contempt, so that teenagers rush out of the growth cage with a broken wall posture, and finally the modern tragedy of cuckoo crying blood, This is the domestic youth film after getting rid of the dolphin-style gentle dream-making art, similar to the sharp critical meaning of the shark, it directly refers to the adult world referred to by the father who symbolizes the authoritative right to speak in the film, and the second is that Li Play transformed into most adults after experiencing the "death of Nezha", which invisibly forms a reincarnation in the real space, and as an answer without an exit, it is a deep reflection on "modern sinana".