Chapter 671: How is the bull made?

Song Zheng left the crew of "Blind Mountain" the next day, during which he never thought of giving Li Yang a bunch of opinions like he did to Ning Hao, because he was self-aware, and Li Yang was enough to be his teacher when it came to making movies.

Leaving the crew of "Blind Mountain", Song Zheng was not in a hurry to return to Yanjing, but followed up with another drama produced by 1+1 Company, which was also filmed in Jinzhong, "Bullfighting".

Song Zheng took Guan Hu's "Lao Pao'er", and what compensated him was his "Bullfight".

Although in the previous life, "Lao Paoer" pushed Guan Hu's career to a peak, Song Zheng has always felt that the most awesome movie made by Guan Hu is this "Bullfighting".

Guan Hu is an outlier among the sixth generation of Chinese directors, and the reason why he says this is because he is not as insistent on the minority as Jia Zhangshu, nor is he like Lou Ye who is sinking deeper and deeper into his inner struggle, and his works are neither lacking in humanistic care nor lack of watchability.

The same goes for "Bullfight".

In the previous life, after the release of "Bullfighting", it was difficult for people to define it into a fixed category, if "Bullfighting" was regarded as a comedy, it would definitely be disappointed, at the beginning, the people in the village died so that only one person and one cow were left, how could they still laugh?

If you want to treat "Bullfighting" as a war movie, eighty percent will also be disappointed, although there are guns, cannons and mines in it, but Niu Er just wants to save his life and the life of this cow, and he has no thoughts and actions to kill the devil to take revenge, when the opposing side is absent, how can it still be called war?

In the final analysis, this is a movie about love and waiting, and in addition, Guan Hu's filming techniques are also amazing.

"Bullfighting" has been flashbacks, flashbacks are the past of the love between the bachelor Niu Er and the widow Jiu'er, these flashbacks will be sad and cruel reality space cut into pieces, but the attachment between Niu Er and Niu Er is a deepening emotional line, and it is precisely because of the continuous accumulation of these flashbacks about love that people will finally identify with the broken dreams from the farmer Niu Er who are placed on the body of this cow by Guan Hu.

And in the second half, the narrative of the real space will act on the flashback space, and the more beautiful a love destined to be destroyed in the upcoming artillery fire is expressed, the more desolate and helpless it will be.

If such a type of tone is established, then the rest of the encounters can be regarded as emergencies acting on the main line of love, mainly the pursuit of devils and the sneak attack of refugees, and the destruction and annihilation of human nature by war has become a grand narrative background, thus reflecting the preciousness of love under the iron heel of war.

Here, Guan Hu gave up the expression of commercial films, weakened the plot, and highlighted the reactions of the characters and the surrounding details, in order to achieve a realm of kung fu outside the poem.

The greatness of "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" is not how much it has contributed to popular legal education, but because the film is full of details with the nature of the era label obtained through candid shooting, so that the film has the function of a period style painting.

"Bullfighting" also shows the background of the times in which the protagonist lives, as well as the nationality and character psychology in that background, in the magnification of many details, so as to complete a more humanized theme presentation.

For example, the concern of the Japanese soldier who raised cattle at home before the war in the play, and the death of the Kuomintang deserter due to the inability to communicate in the end, are all very intriguing plot settings.

Although such a plot has nothing to do with the main story, it can make people realize the absurdity of war and the senselessness of sacrifice. And the tragic fate of the victims who intended to slaughter the bellies of dairy cows makes people lament the humble lives of the turbulent years.

The most outstanding role in "Bullfighting" is undoubtedly Niu Er, and Huang Bo, who interpreted the role of Niu Er, naturally became the soul of the whole play, it can be said that the whole play is basically Huang Bo's one-man show, Song Zheng still remembers that when Guan Hu first established the group, when he talked about the reason for choosing Huang Bo as the leading actor, he said a very interesting sentence: "There is a kind of animal nature in Huang Bo." ”

Song Zheng watched the original version of "Bullfighting" in his previous life, combined with Shangguan Hu's evaluation of Huang Bo, he couldn't help but feel that what he said in a trance was really reasonable.

Guan Hu has the grace of knowing Huang Bo, and the TV movie "Let's Get in the Car and Go" thoroughly explored Huang Bo's acting talent, and his simple nature makes him the best spokesperson for grassroots civilians at the bottom of society like ants stealing life.

Song Zheng remembers the first shot of Huang Bo's character in "Migrant Workers of Survival", which is the scene of a farmer who has just entered the city being pulled to the construction site by a truck, happily getting off the car and running all the way to the shed.

In the movie "Bullfighting", Niu Er played by Chang Bo is a farmer struggling to survive in the war, with an extremely dirty and messy appearance, running and calling in a dead and silent village that has almost become ruins, like an almost crazy lost dog, but his heart has been reminiscing about the short-lived love, ancestors, lots, marriages, and silver bracelets.

The cow that survived with him became his only connection with his marriage in his previous life, until the end, he named the cow after his lover's name Jiu'er, he didn't want to return to the world where people fought endlessly, and stayed with Jiu'er in the mountains, after he applied for the official handstamp authorization from the former Eighth Route Army, he could live a paradise life in the mountains with his Jiu'er in the mountains, and his choice of fate was a bit allegorical.

Let's look at the character of Niu Er, a typical rural version of "The Rest of the Desert Island", there is only one person left in the world, and the others are all in the pan.

At first, he was the only one, and the whole village died, and in the end, he was still the only one, and he had nothing to do with the world. The whole movie revolves around him, and the farce of life and death is staged.

First of all, the Japanese devils came, destroyed the entire village of Fortress Village, and even the women who were pregnant with children were picked, and then the devils caught the cows and drank the milk of the cows, which was the milk that foreigners gave to us Chinese, how can we give it to the bad guys like this.

Niu Er is not convinced, and Niu Er can't leave the cow alone. But it's not so much that Niu Er can't leave the cow alone, it's better to say that he can't leave the cow alone. If he doesn't care about the cows, what can he do while he's alive, and if he escapes, where can he run away?

There are two contrasting characters in the Jap actors, one is a standard Japanese soldier who is forced to stay and look after the wounded, and the other is a Japanese student who has never killed anyone and can feed cows.

The Japanese soldiers hated the Chinese deeply, and they suffered the losses of the Chinese, and the mantra was "cunning branch.that person", caught Niu Er, was reluctant to kill him directly, and preferred to single out, and after single-handedly, there was also a sharpening knife Huo Huo to cut off his head, but because the speed was too slow, he was finally killed by the Eighth Road.

The Japanese students refused to kill Niu Er, and in the end they were put on the legs of the eight roads and escaped by hiding in the grass hut, but unfortunately they did not escape the second catastrophe, and they died together with the Kuomintang.

In fact, the film does not show how evil the Japanese soldiers are by cutting Niu Er, but the goodness of the Japanese students is more fully reflected. Dealing with the idea that the Japanese devils are villains in people's minds, they come to the conclusion that it is not a disaster of national hatred, but a disaster of life.

When the Japanese devils were there, there were two guerrillas who were looking for death in the middle, thinking that they could trick the Japanese, so they grabbed the machine guns and went back to ask for credit, but before the door could enter, they were blown up and killed.

Later, the guerrillas who exterminated the Japanese devils were even more strange, at first I thought it was the previous Eight Roads back, and then someone shouted that a fellow had sacrificed, and then it was over, Song Zheng was thinking when he watched it in his last life, even if the time was tight, he had to check whether he was really dead, and if he didn't die, he would be treated.

As a result, the guerrillas were seen to move their own casualties with excessive efficiency, leaving the villagers there.

The Japanese devils are gone, the refugees are coming again, the refugees can't drink the milk of the cows, and they have to eat the meat of the cows. In the face of hunger, there have been things in history where people eat people, let alone a cow.

But the cow is the soul of Niu Er, the soul of the film, and if you want to eat the cow, it must not be allowed, and it is an unforgivable sin.

Niu Er watched the cow being caught by the refugees, and looked helpless and helpless in the distance.

And when Niu Er watched the refugees step on the landmine one by one and be blown up, that face was struggling in pain, he dissuaded Lang Zhong not to come, don't worry about his cow anymore, it was too late, Lang Zhong stepped on the landmine and cried bitterly.

He said, "I just want to eat meat, but I'm going to suffer the fate of being blown up."

Lang Zhong's evil won all the sympathy at that moment, and the sin deserved but the sin did not lead to death.

Niu Er's despair was most directly expressed when the wild wolf ate Langzhong's corpse, people are not people, dogs are not dogs, this is not the way of human existence, so he decided to go back to the mountain.

Then an inexplicable national army appeared, and he went into the cave dug by Niu Er in the barren mountains and mountains, and fought with the Japanese students who were rescued by Niu Er.

Niu Er struggled to dissuade, struggled in persuasion, desperate in struggle, he tried to pull down the cow, resigned himself to fate in the gunfire, and then saw a cow and a person "supporting" each other and staggering on the cliff in broad daylight, and the long camera shines on their thin personnel.

When will the suffering end?

The bandits are here again, this time it's actually to breed the bandit cattle, the plot is too tragic.

In order to breed, the bandits stuffed Niu Er into a well and pressed it with a large stone.

Later, Niu Er finally decided not to go down the mountain again, he didn't want to trust anyone anymore, and he no longer lived in the circle of humans. From being forced to live alone, the suffering, psychological loss and frustration in the process make people feel more and more that living is a thing that requires courage.

Fortunately, he has nine sons, one of his sustenance and one companion.

The film ends with seeing the Eighth Road again, at this time the Eighth Route Army is already the People's Liberation Army, but the People's Liberation Army is busy liberating the people, and they don't care about listening to a dirty, weird old farmer who doesn't know where to speak, they are very busy, Niu Er has no eyesight, he doesn't know current affairs, when he heard his strange request, he pressed his handprint at will, and according to Niu Er's request, he left the inscription of "Niu Er's Tomb".

No one cares why he lives in the mountains and how he will live, after the PLA left, the world finally quieted down.

This is Niu Er's movie alone, Huang Bo's movie alone, and a movie of ordinary people who just want men to farm and weave and touch their milk and give birth.

This year seems to be a year for the sixth generation of directors to collectively exert their efforts, Ning Hao's "The Great Gold Robbery", Zhang Yuan's "Looks Beautiful", and Guan Hu returned to film creation again after a long period of TV drama practice, and he seems to have a stronger desire to express himself in the film "Bullfighting".

There are fewer and fewer people in the Chinese film industry who can seriously make a movie with unique artistic pursuits and something to say, Guan Hu definitely doesn't want to make an anti-war movie simply, a lot of movies and national thinking, he wants to present it in this movie, which also leads to the loose structure of this film. The rhythm is not tight and other shortcomings, especially in the first half of the film, for a while I can't figure out what he wants to express, but fortunately, the image has always been very powerful, the film's color use is very economical, always shrouded in gray and dilapidated tones, the ancient village is very textured, as a low-budget movie, fireworks and sound effects and other aspects are also impressive, probably because most of the actors are acting in friendship, Guan Hu was able to put not very sufficient funds into the improvement of these technical indicators.

In fact, for Chinese directors, if they want to film the living state of the Chinese, they should first think about how to shoot the Chinese peasants well, and in the Chinese peasants, the joy of character and the suffering under the squeeze of fate are all fertile soil for excavating the national nature, and the nature of the Chinese is actually quite peasant.

In this film with the Anti-Japanese War as the background of the times, "Bullfighting" cleverly constructs a kind of discursive tension relative to the power narrative: for the lives of ordinary peasants, Japanese invaders, homeless people, bandits, the Eighth Road, the National Army, and even the People's Liberation Army in the future, have become a passing cloud, under the domination of the most simple concept of survival, the peasants live humbly and tenaciously, and the changing banner of the king at the head of the city can never cover the peasants' own one-third of an acre, and finally, they also ruthlessly ridiculed the so-called grand value with the most simple contract concept, ". "Bullfighting" uses the consciousness of small farmers to play a catharsis of the concept of citizens.

Finally, when Niu Er pulled his cow and sat on the dirt slope, sighing the passage of time, Song Zheng immediately remembered the old farmer and his cow described by Yu Hua in "Alive".

As a symbol of agricultural civilization, the close relationship between the cow and the farmer is self-evident, although the "bullfight" replaced the Chinese cow with a Dutch cow, but fundamentally, it is the cow that provides food to the farmers, in the era of war and chaos, the authentic Dutch milk without hydronamine has become a rare nutritional guarantee for farmers.

The plump cow milk room is easy for the male farmer to think about, so stealing the cow's milk has become a crime for Niu Er, and he is even paraded in a high hat.

However, under Guan Hu's treatment, the street was also ridiculed, and the majesty of the temple in the style of "Furong Town" was completely lost.

Of course, there is also another subtle deconstruction relationship here: the Dutch cow is sacred, even if the whole village was slaughtered by the Japanese invaders, this "eight-way cow" is safe, and even becomes the spiritual sustenance and only companion of Niu Er.

And after Niu Er was assigned to raise "Eight Road Cattle" by lot, the boss was reluctant, and Jiu'er shouted "I want him to revolution" on the side, which obviously corresponds to the psychology of contemporary audiences who are tired of the dogmatic narratives of the propaganda machine.

The character of Jiu'er is also very interesting, she defends authority everywhere, and uses her exuberant vitality to sow the meaning of life in the barren mountain village, but she is also a pseudo-rebel.

Although she shouted "women's liberation" and the like, the feudal order of the mountain village obviously sheltered her again, and her marriage with Niu Er was completely arranged by the interests of the clan forces, but the love between Jiu'er and Niu Er grew up so weirdly and naturally.

Later, the cow became a substitute for Jiu'er, and Niu Er sometimes called the cow "Jiu'er" and sometimes called it "Niang".

Song Zheng has always understood the cow as a metaphor for rural Chinese women, who are participating in the war in a different and decisive way when the war makes the women go away.

The cow is silent, the woman has no right to speak, the cow is dull, the woman is in a weak position, the cow is forcibly mated by the bandits, the woman loses the initiative in the torrent of fate, and becomes a pure reproductive tool.

However, without cows, or women raising them, men cannot become human beings.

Therefore, in this man's play, Yanni's appearance is four or two thousand pounds, and in a group of rough men who are killing to the death, the appearance of the cow always seems warm and silent.

What's even more rare is that Guan Hu successfully embellished the color of black humor in the heavy tragic narrative, and this technique of laughter with tears has almost become a mastery of Chinese films after Liu Zhenwei's decline.

But in the previous life, when "Bullfighting" was released, many people still jumped out and made various criticisms of this movie, and many people thought that the plot of "Bullfighting" was too protracted, and compared with "The Devil is Coming", it seemed too narrow.

However, in fact, "Bullfighting" is not comparable to "The Devil is Coming".

"The Devil is Coming" brings national and human nature to a certain extreme, while "Bullfighting" aims to describe two "unbeatable Xiaoqiang", who survived tenaciously in the face of external invasion and internal traitor.

What national righteousness, what good and evil, in the world of Niu Er, men and women weave, eat and dress warmly is the king, whether he is roundabout or numb, in life, there are not a few people who just want to "live well".

As the saying goes, if you are good, you will help the world, and if you are poor, you will be good to yourself, such a simple sentence can only be understood by a reader, and the highest culture of small farmers is only to the extent of understanding male farmers and women weaving, how can they be required to help the world at the same time, and be righteous in front of the gun.