At present, film and television works rarely focus on rural themes, and they are often hegemonic presidents, hundreds of millions of families, and so on, and slowly develop towards "distortion".
In the 1980s and 1990s, there were many excellent works on rural themes in the mainland, such as Tian Chengren's "Fence Woman and Dog", and the movies also included "Wrangler", "New Year", "Filial Piety and Virtuous Grandchildren Waiting", "Xiyingmen" and so on.
Among them, "Xiyingmen" pays more attention to the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, which is also a common problem for thousands of years, but the film is made with affection and taste, close to life, and in the 80s, Douban was as high as 8.2 points, which is a rare film.
01, a pair of polyester silk pants dispute
At the beginning of the film, the second brother Renwu was newly married, married his new sister-in-law Shuilian and entered the door, relatives and friends came, and the shrewd and capable sister-in-law greeted the head of the road.
Everyone scrambled to toast to the newcomers, Renwu and Shuilian could not drink, nor did they drink, or the bold sister-in-law blocked a few cups for them, so as to avoid embarrassment.
The first conflict in the story is caused by a strip of polyester silk cloth. In that era, there were almost no ready-to-wear clothes, all of which were bought to make clothes, and now it should be called high-end handmade customization.
The status of polyester fabric at that time was no less than that of a high-end bag. This kind of fabric is commonly known as indeed good, just like this name, it is indeed "good", in the era of material scarcity, it not only meets people's basic clothing needs, but also satisfies the fashion pursuit to the greatest extent.
On this day, the sister-in-law RenFang rushed to find the sister-in-law with the polyester silk fabric, wanting to beg her to make a pair of pants, and the sister-in-law immediately became citric acid.
Such a rare fabric, she has always wanted, although her husband Renwen works in the veterinary station and receives a salary, but a large family lives together, and the money of being the eldest brother is not at his disposal.
It was not easy for the second brother to marry, and the polyester pants finally mentioned the schedule of next month. I didn't expect that the sister-in-law who was not married had just earned a few jobs in the brigade, but she put it on one step ahead of herself.
Sister-in-law Qiangying did not expect that the cloth was given to Renfang by the accountant Longgang, and after repeated questioning, Renfang thought of her sweetheart Longgang's face was red, and she smiled without saying a word.
At this moment, Qiang Ying decided that Renfang was embarrassed to say that because the cloth was bought by her mother-in-law, she was obviously biased against her little daughter and did not take her daughter-in-law seriously.
She did not forgive, looking for Water Lotus and herself to jointly go to her mother-in-law to pick things up, "being a daughter-in-law is not damned", listening to this cruel word, just for a piece of cloth, I think Qiangying is a brutal and domineering role at home.
Fortunately, Shui Lian understood the matter and did not listen to her instigation, but the honest mother-in-law had to borrow money to buy her a piece of cloth in order to calm things down, hoping to exchange for harmony.
Unfortunately, after putting on the new fabric, the sister-in-law was still not satisfied. Since the mother-in-law is eccentric, the second daughter-in-law enters the door, filial piety and thoughtfulness, but it seems that she is not a person inside and outside, simply separate the family, each passing each other.
The eldest sister-in-law pointed out mulberry and scolded the locust in the courtyard, clamoring to separate the family, and the weak mother-in-law would only swallow her anger and calm down. Although Grandpa is the elder in the family, after all, there are generations apart, "there are words to speak slowly, there is a reason to sit down and talk."
This painless and inexcrucent sentence could not deter the arrogance of the sister-in-law at all. Renwu saw that his grandfather was not speaking well, so he stepped forward to stop his sister-in-law.
The eldest sister-in-law is like a mother, he has been taken care of by the eldest sister-in-law over the years, Qiang Ying said a few words that he was not good to return to his mouth, there was no momentum, he could only take the swallow nest to vent.
His father died early, the eldest brother was like a father, Renwen was the pillar of the family, he had culture and decent work, but he had a cowardly personality and a bit of a strict wife.
When it was his turn to express his position, although he originally meant that "it is best not to divide", but he could not screw his daughter-in-law, "This family is not divided." ”
Since the family must be divided, the house, livestock, etc. must be clearly divided, and even the two elderly people must be divided.
The sister-in-law's abacus crackled, and the adoptive mother-in-law, although weak, could help with the child. Unfortunately, the mother-in-law was admitted to the hospital in a hurry, so the grandfather was supported by them.
In this matter, the sister-in-law failed to do as she wished, and after the separation of the family, she did not treat her grandfather kindly. The dumplings wrapped in meatballs did not wait for Grandpa to come back to eat together, and Renwen did not move his chopsticks, just smoked a cigarette, in fact, he understood in his heart that not waiting for Grandpa was not giving Grandpa to eat.
Sure enough, hearing Grandpa's knock on the door, the dumplings were all put away and the nest heads prepared in advance were taken out. Renwen dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, so he quickly put away the garlic on the table and hid in the back room.
The little granddaughter was innocent, and when she heard grandpa say that she liked to eat dumplings, she brought out a large bowl, so angry that grandpa moved out of the house in the rain and lived in the warehouse of the team.
Renwen was also awakened by the heavy rain and slapped Qiang Ying in the face. The two of them got into a fight and made a big fuss at the veterinary station, disturbing their neighbors.
02, the comedic effect under the personality change
In order to highlight the theme and promote the development of the plot, the transformation of the sister-in-law is a main line. What contributed to the change of the sister-in-law was not the fear of delaying the processing work in the team, not the front teeth of the child, nor the persuasion of the water lotus who came from afar, but the transformation of the eldest brother.
The honest man Renwen finally couldn't bear it anymore and proposed a divorce, even if the mother-in-law was crying in the courtyard holding his leg, it did not change his mind.
Qiang Ying had never seen Ren Wen so tough, afraid of really divorcing, and also worried about the family's children and farm work, dreaming that he had become a little dwarf and was kicked down the abyss by the family. She ran home in the middle of the night in the rain.
The mother-in-law originally had to stop it, and the father-in-law could not see it, "I should have gone back long ago, I blame you", the mother-in-law's surprised expression was not only to realize her mistake, but also to accept the husband's sudden accusations, which is probably also a rare violation of the husband.
It can be seen that no one side is really strong, the key is to be reasonable and responsible. Finally, the family sat around a table again, and the sister-in-law served steaming dumplings and a happy reunion with Meimei.
03, close to the main theme of life
This main theme work released in 1981 is in the form of comedy, with a clear main line, a clear intention, serious and lively, unity and tension.
One of the characteristics of the film is that the character settings are symmetrical and the contrast is strong. There is the weak older brother Renwen, there is gengzhi's younger brother Renwu, there is the weak mother-in-law, there is the cruel mother-in-law, there is the eldest sister-in-law of not many, and there is the second sister-in-law who is sensible.
However, in the strong contrast of the script, it is slightly blunt. When the script was reviewed, some people suggested that the image of the water lotus was too high, and the transformation of Qiang Ying was too sudden.
So the screenwriter Xin Xianling and the director Zhao Huanzhang made changes. When the family was separated, although ShuiLian gave up the big wardrobe, she was resentful in her heart, so she quarreled with Renwu and regretted marrying into the old Chen family.
The plot of Qiang Ying stealing RenFang's money in the original script was removed, and when Qiang Ying woke up from a nightmare and ran back to the Chen family overnight, he ran to the pigsty as soon as he entered the door. Watching her pigs still eat well, Shuilian rushed to make processing work for herself overnight, and her mother-in-law coaxed two children in the house.
Everything in the family is fine, and it is the help of the family regardless of the previous suspicions. This not only shows the complexity of Qiangying's personality, but also makes the character of the sister-in-law more three-dimensional and real.
The film only depicts some trivial household chores, but it writes through the love and reason between people, and advocates a new style of social ethics such as freedom of marriage, respect for the elderly and filial piety, women's independence, and family responsibility.
This narrow and sincere emotion between people has also greatly exceeded the scope of the family, broken through the background of rural themes, exceeded the times, and still has universal understanding and vigilance significance today. (Author: September Cow on Earth)