"All Year Round" is a comedy film directed by Wang Jing in 2008, which has been around for a full twelve years. The film, from the film itself to the lead actor of the story, is not famous, and after the film's short release, it is quickly drowned in the historical flood of The development of Chinese cinema, without stirring up a tumbling wave.
Although this film was produced at a small cost and did not leave a strong mark in the history of Chinese cinema, this film is deeply imprinted in the hearts of many audiences, because this is a film that is truly based on the theme of "Spring Festival", and everyone who returns home for the New Year can see their own miniature through this film. I think this is also the main reason why this movie can score 8.2 points on Douban.
In recent years, a number of comedy films with the theme of the New Year have emerged in China, which are released intensively at the beginning of the New Year. The red-hot scenes and the dense bursting laughter are the common expressions of these New Year movies to please the audience. Although under the banner of "New Year", in addition to the release time, the main theme expressed by these films is incompatible with the New Year. There are only a few movies that truly embody the taste of the year, and I was deeply impressed by "People on the Road".
"People on the Road" tells the story that happened on the way home for the New Year, cloaked in comedy, but reflecting the helplessness and sadness of the people at the bottom of society. "All Year Round" is also a story told around the theme of returning home for the New Year, it is more like a documentary under the lens, and the Spring Festival that affects the nerves of Chinese is truly reproduced on the screen.
"Going home for the New Year" and "going home for the New Year" are two very different concepts of cause and effect, but they are closely intertwined with each other. Migrant workers who struggle to survive on the edge of the city, the majority of students who go away from their hometowns to study abroad, or successful people who are dressed up and dressed brightly, no matter what kind of person you are in society, what kind of social status you have, in front of the New Year, there is a common and common wish, that is, to go home to see.
If we look at the world as a vast sea, we are more like a drifting cruise ship, and home is a haven from the wind. "Year" provides an opportunity for each cruise ship to sail into the harbor. This warm harbor will repair the cracks in the surface of each cruise ship, soothe the wounds of the soul, let the cruise ship unload its burden and enjoy true tranquility, and inject the courage to ride the wind and waves to fight again in the coming year.
Going home for the New Year has a different meaning for everyone, but for some people, going home for the New Year is to complete their own life events, which is also the story that "All year round" wants to tell.
For Zhang Guodong, a contractor who has been struggling outside for many years, his life event is to formally establish a relationship with his lover Xiaomei back to his hometown; for Li Jialiang, director of the cardiology department of the hospital, his life event is to be able to take his son home to celebrate his birthday on the eightieth birthday of his father during the Spring Festival; and for Teacher Bai, vice principal of the city's key middle school, his life event is to be able to reunite with his family who returned from the United States to visit his family in a newly renovated house.
The three people with a clear image are not only the three main characters in the story, but also in their bodies, from point to point, they truly reflect the mirror images of three different age groups that exist in real life: Zhang Guodong, the contractor, represents the image of young people who work hard for life, Li Jialiang, director of the Cardiology Department of the hospital, represents the middle-aged image of struggling between being a son of man and a husband, and Teacher Bai, vice principal of the city's key middle school, represents the image of widows and widows whose children are not around for many years.
An ordinary film covers the direction of life for the vast majority of people in society. Therefore, through this film with the theme of "Spring Festival", we can see the shadow of ourselves projected horizontally in the mirror in these characters.
The year is approaching, by chance, I got to know Teacher Bai, who was in urgent need of renovation at the end of the year, and verbal speculation was able to win this big job in his hand, which was a lucky and rare opportunity for Zhang Guodong, the contractor foreman. After completing this big job at the bottom of his hand and settling the project with Hu Zong, he can take his brother and lover Xiaomei on the train to embark on the journey home, which is a beautiful idea that exists in Zhang Guodong's mind, but it is blocked by various practical problems that follow.
Mr. Hu refused to show up on the pretext that there was a problem with the quality of the house inspection as a reason for the arrears of wages; the workers recruited by the laborers who were responsible for the decoration of the water and electricity halfway chose to run away for the first time after the decoration of the house; the owner of the new house, Teacher Bai, was sent to the hospital because of the heart attack caused by the leakage of the house decoration heating.
In the face of the sudden difficulties in life, Zhang Guodong also thought about escaping, but avoidance is a way to cope with difficulties, but it cannot become the ultimate way to solve difficulties. So after escaping from the difficulties without results, he chose to face the difficulties themselves and embarked on a road of self-redemption.
Tracing the artistic expression method of the film "All Year Round", the difficulties encountered by Zhang Guodong before the New Year have actually laid a profound foreshadowing at the beginning of the story, because Teacher Bai's heart attack made Zhang Guodong and him know, and the self-recommendation sign that reads "Release Water" and "Waterproof" held up by Lao Ma when recruiting water workers is even more ironic.
After being driven out by the security guards of the community who were also from the countryside, Zhang Guodong chose to force Hu to sum up the arrears of wages through "squatting" and "media exposure", and clinged to the typo slogan of "civilized newness" on the van, which embodied the wisdom displayed by the little people, and also reflected the difficulty of survival and the sadness of life of the masses at the bottom of society. The choice of giving up the train home for the New Year and leaving a "dead sheep to make up for the prison" is not only the promise that Zhang Guodong promised to Teacher Bai on the hospital bed, but also the practice of integrity as an ordinary migrant worker.
At the end of the film, Zhang Guodong drives a dilapidated van that is about to be scrapped, carrying his partners and close lovers to his homecoming journey, but the car breaks down at the intersection of the nearby village, which is a new difficulty, but at this moment Zhang Guodong does not hesitate, he faces the difficulties that may occur at any time in life with a pleasant attitude, and chooses a down-to-earth way to walk easily on the road of his hometown, which is also the road of his future life.
In the body of migrant worker Zhang Guodong, we see the state of survival of small people at the bottom of society between the gap between urban and rural areas. But in li jialiang, director of the cardiology department of the hospital, we see the potential contradictions caused by different concepts between husband and wife within the family. This contradictory relationship between small and large families is also a problem that has plagued all Chinese families for thousands of years.
As a doctor, Li Jialiang not only has exquisite and superb medical skills, but also has a strong psychological quality and a good anti-pressure mentality when dealing with various doctor-patient conflict relationships. However, returning to family life, there was a huge disagreement over the New Year's issue discussed with his wife. The wife believes that the child is in a state of intense preparation, so she completely ignores the requirement that Li Jialiang take the child home for the New Year to give his eighty-year-old father a birthday. But in Li Jialiang's eyes, every time he goes home may be the last time he sees his father, he cherishes this few vacation opportunities, and nothing is more important than returning home for the New Year.
At the end of the story, Li Jialiang entrusted Zhang Guodong to buy a high-priced ticket from a scalper, which was resold by his wife and son to other returnees, and this strong-looking man could no longer suppress his sad emotions in his heart, and he cried silently with his back to his wife and son. This unprecedented behavior that happened to the husband of a woman and the father of the child frightened the wife and son, and finally with the efforts of the wife and children, the ticket to the hometown was recovered again, and the love between the husband and wife and the affection between the father and son reached a silent reconciliation.
Teacher Bai, the deputy principal of the municipal key middle school, represents the image of the widow and elderly whose children are not around for many years, because the quality of the new house decoration has caused two hospitalizations for heart disease, and in order not to let his wife and children in the United States worry and hide the fact of being sick and hospitalized, he chose to be discharged early before the New Year, and in Teacher Bai's own words, it is not easy for his son and daughter to live in the United States. This is an elderly father's deep love for his children, but also forced by the helplessness of life.
But what touched me deeply in the movie was the sharp contrast between the elderly patient named Lao Hei who lived in a ward with Teacher Bai, one "white" and one "black". Teacher Bai has a family and a wife and children, but Lao Hei is a real widowed old man, his wife is long gone, his son is in Shenzhen, and he can't see him for two or three years. Therefore, Teacher Bai was discharged early before the New Year, but Lao Hei preferred to stay in the hospital on the contrary. Perhaps for him, being homeless everywhere is considered home.
The movie "All year round" tells the new year story of ordinary people. For each of us, in the new year's day, in front of our hometown, we are all the same people who go home. No matter where you are or what you do, remember to go home often, and at the end of your hometown, there are always people who are worried about us and people we are worried about.