introduction
People who really love you will never force you to give up your dreams, I thought that life will never look forward to anything again, but the misfortune of life, not your fault, maybe the start is different, but I believe that everyone can dream, still human, still dream.
Some movies are like poetry, creating an artistic mood through warm images, some movies are like dreams, beautiful but unattainable, and some movies are like novels, which are very attractive in the beginning and turn, and the first taste is amazing, and "Fallen Man" belongs to the latter. This warm Hong Kong film tells the story of two people who live differently but pursue their dreams for people at the bottom of society.
The plot of the film is simple, the story is plain, warm but not pretentious. The male protagonist, Chang Rong, is a construction worker who is partially paralyzed due to an accident, his wife is separated, he lives alone in public housing, and he cannot take care of himself. The heroine Evelyn is a young Filipino maid with a dream of photography, forced by the embarrassment of the family and the misfortune of marriage to come to Hong Kong alone. One half-dead, one uprooted, different identities, but similar situations make the two people rely on each other in a desperate and lonely life, and complete the transformation from master servant to confidant in continuous coexistence. Hong Kong's cold and crowded city of nearly 380,000 foreign domestic workers has become an important part of Hong Kong's urban expansion, and the domestic film "The Fallen Man", which has a strong realistic significance as the main theme of foreign domestic workers' lives, seems to be the first.
The life of the bottom of society has always been the focus of the film, and "The Fallen Man" is based on plain materials and tries to reflect the current life situation of most Hong Kong residents from the perspective of small people. The film is different from the traditional inspirational low-level character biography, the protagonist in the play does not have the so-called protagonist aura, nor too much artistic rendering, but adopts a nearly realistic performance method to tell the hardships and unbearable aspects of life, but there is a kind of more heavy power, under the pressure of life and society, in the choice to yield to fate at the same time, you can also choose to give people dreams, which is probably the most precious practical significance conveyed by "Fallen Man". The male protagonist in the film, Chang Rong, is paralyzed at a high position, and the limited body movements do not limit his rich and full inner world, from despair and isolation to rekindling the hope of life, which complements the film environment of spring and blossoms, and retracts freely between outward and introverted.
It is worth mentioning that the image of "Kapok" in the film almost runs through the beginning and end of the film, from the first meeting of the Filipino maid Evelyn and Changrong, to evelyn's dream to set off again, Kapok has always been the background floating in the sky of Hong Kong with high-rise buildings. The director borrows the growth trajectory of "Kapok" to divide the film as a whole into the four seasons of "summer, autumn, winter, and spring", and also uses this metaphor to the rooting of evelyn's dream, the safflower is beautiful, and the flying feathers are also like the fate that women must leave after growing up. At the end of the film, evelyn drags her suitcase on the platform to hand over the key to Changrong, and the cotton wool floats in the middle of summer in Hong Kong, like the scene where Evelyn just came to Hong Kong, and the change of seasons can't help but make people feel infinite emotions about the cycle and parting of life.
As for the director's handling of the emotions of the male and female protagonists in the film is also painstaking, on the one hand, the similar situation makes the emotions of the two people quickly ease, on the other hand, the identity of the same social vulnerable groups makes them more delicate than normal people in the perception of emotions, but the film is finally a movie, the beautiful expectations can not offset the harsh reality problems after all, the combination of vulnerable groups is not as beautiful as depicted in many films, more often than not, the accumulation and continuation of suffering, it is clear that the director is also aware of this, In order to avoid falling into the cliché of emotion, the film arranges evelyn to pursue his photography dream in a foreign country when the two people's emotions are heating up, which not only avoids the vulgar plot, but also creates a sense of greatness for small people to pursue their dreams, which casts a layer of romantic color on the heavy theme of "Fallen Man", and the small fresh ending brings a touch of comfort and a sense of home-like belonging to the depressed and indifferent city of Hong Kong, which is the so-called warm but not dry, painful but not tearful.
Not only Hong Kong, but also in any place of equally rich and gorgeous, mottled and complicated fireworks, there are countless people like Chang Rong and Evelyn who are trying to live upwards, fighting against the burden of life and the fate that is about to collapse. The film reshapes a very tense proposition of life with emotional and delicate brushstrokes, everyone has the right to have dreams, and perseverance and gratitude can also make the seemingly doomed life burst out of beautiful accidents. The cold and restrained image style has a touch of youth and cuteness under the complicated streets of Hong Kong, the rustic color scheme, and the very life-like street scene steaming up the messy but comfortable warmth, just like the 380,000 foreign domestic workers and countless people struggling at the bottom of society rely on the city of Hong Kong. This sincere and plain emotion is not to tell us how beautiful the world we live in is, but to tell people through films like "Fallen Man" that life is not so bad, at least we still have dreams.
The film "Fallen Man" focuses on the ordinary people who have been forgotten by society, from the perspective of entering the world, through the details of life full of life texture, showing the infinite possibilities of the low-level characters in the case of reality or environmental limitations, bringing a long-lost warmth and emotion to the restless and flashy urban life, and showing the subtle beauty of introverted moderation. No matter how the society changes, sincerity and dreams will always be the light source of dark life, the small mutual help of the low-level characters allows us to see the indomitability and dignity of life, the cold and hard city has gradually softened, the brilliance of human nature has become warmer, more people at the bottom of society see hope, seek redemption in the fall, and find hope in the struggle, which is one of the most fundamental reasons why the ordinary theme of "Fallen Man" can arouse the resonance of the audience.
A shadow and a word, the world is illusory
It is a stormy boat, and the words can withstand sorrow
WeChat public account: superflaneur
Public account team: Drama and Film and Television Studies, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology
Final South Film Talk Film Group