Author| Film Lady (Headline Signed Author)
At the end of 2018, Cao Baoping's "Dog Thirteen" was released.
This work that has been hidden for 5 years has greatly resonated with the audience:
About Chinese-style family education, growth, parent-child relationship, etc.
The film is a bit like the flow of life, but there is a huge amount of energy behind it.
It poses an incredibly poignant question to all:
When we grow into the well-behaved appearance that adults expect, are we still our true selves?
The so-called growth is not to grow up day by day, but in the constant collision with the adult world, learn to compromise, give in, learn to obey, understand, and grow into an adult.
Through a large number of metaphors, "Dog Thirteen" reveals the disciplined nature of Chinese-style growth.
Understand the meaning of these metaphors, you can clearly see the process of growing up:
What a difficult time it was? How cruel is t?
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (1) Dog: domesticated</h1>
As we all know, dogs are the first animals to be domesticated by humans, and their biggest characteristics are obedience, "sensible", and loyal to their owners.
The father and stepmother gave Lee two dog rides in succession, in their consciousness:
Dogs are just beasts, an "instrumental" existence that is used to "please" the master.
The first time, it was the father who wanted to improve the father-daughter relationship.
After all, he forcibly changed his interest group without his daughter's consent.
Moreover, he wanted to find an opportunity to inform him that his half-brother had been born.
Sending a dog makes it easy to achieve the above goals.
Unexpectedly, Li Play heard that it was sent by his father, and immediately turned his face and did not recognize the "dog".
Her attitude towards dogs actually reflects her relationship with her father and family.
Her father wants her to be obedient and sensible, and Li plays a little bit to resist.
The second time, it was the stepmother who used to replace the lost first dog.
Li Play not only did not accept it, but also "collided" with the crowd and went to the bar to drink.
As a result, grandma, who had not been out for many years, almost got lost in order to find her, and Li was beaten by his father after he returned from playing.
She was finally "domesticated", and like a dog, she stopped making noise and became well-behaved and obedient.
This is the "growth" that Lee gets at home.
The parents, represented by their fathers, used two dogs to achieve rapid discipline of Li Play.
Li Play also saw for the first time the ugliness of the adult world, cajoling, black and white upside down, and violence.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (2) Wine: Social</h1>
Alcohol often means dinner, and is a tool for adults to connect with feelings and expand interpersonal relationships.
Wine culture is also the most likely to see the hypocrisy and vanity of adults, especially after children are implicated.
The first time Li played a drink, it was when the whole family pointed out that the deer was a horse, and she had to admit that the newly bought dog was the dog that had been lost before.
She was in the bar, hanging out with her classmates, and the wine became a tool for her to vent her emotions.
The second time, he was called by his father to attend a dinner party with Chamberlain.
Li Play went with a "political mission" to support his father's work.
At the dinner table, my father sleekly echoed Brother Zhang, who talked about classical culture.
He also let his daughter toast and learn the hypocrisy and ugliness of a group of middle-aged greasy men.
My father was trapped in the dinner and missed the opportunity to accompany Li to watch the astronomical exhibition.
The third time, when the second dog was sent away, she ran to the bar again.
Wine is still a tool for venting its emotions.
The fourth time was a celebration banquet for her to win the first place in the province in a physics competition.
Li Play, who was originally the protagonist, became a "tool" for his father to express vanity.
He was ordered by his father to toast his uncles and uncles as a token of appreciation.
Wine, a highly social "prop", quickly involved Li Play in the adult world.
From the social level, she was disciplined by traditional cultural etiquette.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (3) Bat: Interloper</h1>
The film doesn't show much of the campus scene, but there is one scene that is important.
Li Play has always been reluctant to accept the second dog, because it is completely a matter of parents confusing right and wrong.
She had already left her in the street, but a scene in class completely changed her attitude.
In the face of bats that suddenly broke into the classroom, the students were extremely excited, and the normal teaching order was gone.
Unexpectedly, the class teacher, Teacher Wu, threw out the book in his hand accurately, the screen went black, and the bat fell in response.
In full view of everyone, an innocent weak life died at the hands of the teacher.
It was brutally beaten to death and thrown out of the window without mercy.
This made Li, who had originally been punished, have a great tremor in his eyes.
Maybe Lee played not to know:
Any violator of order is doomed to be punished.
In any case, such a violent treatment of innocent people who have no ability to resist makes Li Play very afraid in his heart.
The death of the bat gave her a new and deeper understanding of the authority of the maintainer of the established order.
So she developed sympathy for the second dog.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > (4) Younger brother Zhao Zhao: a characterization of son preference</h1>
The first protagonist of the film is undoubtedly The 13-year-old girl Li Play, played by Zhang Xueying.
But in the side line, his half-brother Zhao Zhao is very important.
The opening scene is a two-segment contrast montage:
On the one hand, Li Play is talking to himself to express the various entanglements of his adolescence;
On the one hand, the father waited anxiously outside the delivery room until a cry sounded.
How to choose the right time to inform the daughter of the existence of the younger brother is a major "problem" for the father to solve.
He went out after Li Playyue won the first place in the whole grade.
His younger brother Akira's first official appearance was at his birthday party.
Since then, he has taken away the only bit of fatherly love that Li Play has, and the whole family has begun to circle around his brother.
The patriarchal concept could not be more evident in this traditional family.
We can boldly guess that her parents divorced because Li Play was a girl.
Of course, there are two most notable points.
First, when Grandpa named his brother, he revealed:
The name of Li Play is that you (referring to Li Play parents) play, and this time it is a male doll, not casually.
Therefore, from mencius's "with its Zhao Zhao, make people Zhao Zhao" named, called Zhao Zhao.
Second, the second dog was knocked with a stick by Zhao Zhao many times, which caused it to bark wildly.
As a result, he was loudly reprimanded by his stepmother and ordered to send him to the dog meat hot pot restaurant.
In the second half of the film, Li Play is increasingly reduced to a symbolic, instrumental character.
The focus of the family's attention is on his younger brother Zhaozhao, and Li Play can only "take a back seat".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (5) Parallel Universes: The Sustenance of One's Dreams</h1>
The opening scene is a "look at the camera" performance played by Li:
She struggled with the insoluble puzzle of buying either a red sweater or a green sweater that she would regret.
He also confided in the dilemma of physics or astronomy interest groups.
And all this confusion can be solved in parallel universes:
Beyond this universe, there must be an infinite number of identical universes, containing a collection of all our possibilities;
In this way, what we have not accomplished will be accomplished in some universe. Incorrect choices are also corrected.
Obviously, the existence of parallel universes can make up for the imperfections of the real world.
Let regrets be compensated, mistakes be corrected, and the impossible possible.
This is both Li Play's natural love of astronomy and a manifestation of her desire to explore the outside world.
It is also the subconscious yearning and sustenance for dissatisfaction with real life.
In parallel universes, she is not a divorced family, nor will her whole family love her, but no one really pays attention to her heart.
In parallel universes, she can study freely, love astronomy and physics, and the dog "Einstein" will not be lost.
The parallel universe holds Li's dream of playing and his desire for all good things.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" ends > (6): the "reincarnation" of Chinese growth</h1>
The last scene in the film is when Akira learns to skate at the ice rink.
He first stood in line with many children and drank milk.
But he and his sister were allergic, and they threw up after taking a sip.
Next is the detail "zooming in" in slow motion:
In the middle of the ice rink, Zhao Zhao was guided from the side, he fell again and again, and the coach only asked him to stand up, but did not help him.
Surrounded by onlookers, including coach and Lee play.
Li Play only looked at it coldly, and his eyes seemed to be very proud.
From rebellion to compromise, she has fully accepted the discipline of the adult world.
As a result, she went from being disciplined to being a spectator and an observer.
To some extent, even assimilated into the same new discipline as the "parents".
And his younger brother, Akira, is taking on the imposed, painful game of "growing up."
No one cared if he wanted to learn, and no one helped him when he needed it, as if no one realized that he was still just a child.
This skating scene is not only a concentrated drill for Zhao Zhao to be forced to join the growth camp, but also a final point for Li Play's growth, and it is also a striking warning:
The cycle of Chinese-style growth will only continue to cycle according to the majestic inertia of patriarchal culture.
No wonder Mr. Lu Xun had to say:
Save the children...
(The picture originated from the Internet, invaded and deleted)
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About the Author: @Movie Lady, independent film critic, headline number signed author. Write about film and television, but also write about the love and hate of the entertainment industry.