Film Name: 老枪 / A Long Shot
I went to see the newly released niche movie “A Long Shot” out of the excellent reputation (the audience was really small, and it was a one-person package), and I felt that it was really worth the trip.
The biggest feeling I got from the movie was that it made me reacquaint myself with the value and significance of “Northeastern Pain Literature” – a never-ending mine of literary creativity: why is it that this subject matter is so often the subject of Why do literary creations of this subject often produce good works? It is because that era and that environment inherently contains the theme of “loss”, and everyone in it, with their uncertainty, struggle, change, and perseverance, is able to write a story with a slightly bitter and different flavor.
In the past, this kind of work often had one or several layers of filters added, either sadness, romance, grief, or bittersweet, and the creator’s own attitude would naturally give the story a special tone and flavor.
And this is also “A Long Shot” can give me a deep impression of a major reason: it almost all the color and rendering of the filter are removed, leaving only a section of the reality of the narrative, but also different from the documentary-style real and boring, the film is filled with from petty theft to robbery and murder of all kinds of criminal behavior, and even ended with a fierce and full of gunfire to the end.
This kind of “unconscious” realism and the interpretation of the genre, the movie has a rare atmosphere, dark, cramped, cruel, more painful than similar drama, but also more human than similar crime films.
Let’s talk about “A Long Shot” with spoilers.
The movie is set in an old factory in Northeast China in the late 80’s. Gu Xuebing, the protagonist, is an officer in the factory’s security department, a man who is completely out of touch with the times.
This “failure to keep up” is reflected in two aspects.
On the small side, Gu Xuebing is physically handicapped. As a retired shooting champion, he suffers from a hidden disease called deafness, which does not seriously affect his life but occasionally causes him to go deaf;
The big picture, is Gu Xuebing from the psychological to the world of passive and “backward” in all aspects, the factory can not pay wages, everyone is at risk, change of heart, around the people either in the thief, or in another way, even the security section is often “with the convenience of others”, only he still stubbornly. Only he is still stubbornly devoted to his duties, the original normal people, but became abnormal that …… work to attract suspicion, life is no fun, not good for a mouthful of food and drink, the face of the willingness to accept their own women Jin Yujia also dare not pick up the stakes.
Such an upright to the pedantic, good to the wimpy people, only in the gun, hold the gun will glow to, the gun is able to make up for Gu Xuebing physiological and psychological mutilation of the prosthetic limbs.
However, the gun in Gu Xuebing’s daily work life is useless, the thief punks with fists and feet can be subdued, more often, those thieves and rats will be used to subdue him with banknotes, phone calls and strips …… suffocated Gu Xuebing can only become even more powerless and provoke the white eyes.
But “A Long Shot” is not really a “honest man in the repression of the outbreak of” cool movie, because the premise of this kind of story is “people have to have a breath of fire”, and Gu Xuebing heart does not have that fire, he is like the epitome of that era, confused, dark and anxious, lack of energy, and then slowly lost in the silence of the activity. He is like the epitome of that era, confused, anxious, and weak, and then slowly loses his activity in silence.
Speaking of which, we have to mention those people in the movie who “know how to change”, they are both Gu Xuebing’s stark contrast and an essential part of the narrative.
The most capable Zhao Yongqiang, has been back and forth to the south to pour clothing and other commodities, the next point of the black three, took the line of the Soviet Russians, from the thief turned into a boss, Jin Yujia also learned a variety of ways to make money, not far away from the run and not capable of theft, corruption, and use of power for personal gain.
And we all know that the world is always the most incompetent people, so “A Long Shot” in the most, or those who steal the assets of the factory’s children – they actually have a similar idea / reason: the factory can not pay wages, the day can not go on, this is the factory owes me.
Not to mention Ma Eryong, who wants to “steal back his father’s pension”, the most saddening part of the movie is Tian Yonglie, the head of the security section, who has similar persistence as Gu Xuebing, but knows more about the world, and who is able to hold on to his post because he still has hope that “the factory will get better. He can stick to his post because he still has hope that “the factory will get better”, and because of this, when his hope is dashed, he will be stimulated by the villainous Black Three to anger from the heart, and evil from the side of the guts.
Laotian still has a wife with a broken leg at home, and he wants money to buy a prosthetic leg. Compared to Gu Xuebing, Laotian is the one who has that fire in him, and in the end, he chooses a more radical workaround, copying a gun and going to a factory to rob the payroll.
In fact, Gu Xuebing isn’t exactly an elm, but his workaround is simply to carry a bundle of wire back to tie some hangers, compromising and begging for mercy under the director’s and factory manager’s rhetoric of looking at the big picture – even if he doesn’t want to move, circumstances will push him forward.
The only thing that can make Gu Xuebing move, is the “cheap son” Geng Xiaojun: he saw in Xiaojun and his own similar things, such as obstinacy, recognize the truth, but he valued Xiaojun body have their own things, resourcefulness, righteousness, as well as vigorously refreshed vitality.
Go and factory manager theory, to stop Xiaojun stealing guns hurt people, is Gu Xuebing few active to do things …… everyone has their own thoughts, even if they do not go to the treacherous fishing, at least will think of payday to eat a meal of pot meat, for the children to save money, and Xiaojun became Gu Xuebing’s motivation and hope.
However, this positive can not be directly linked to the end of the film shootout (Gu Xuebing and Xiaojun were not in the first scene), Gu Xuebing back to the security section, just because he heard the gunshots, as a member of the security section of the duty is just.
This is a huge difference in mood from the previous episode, but it perfectly follows the brutal, depressing, and downward spiral of “A Long Shot”.
Of course, we can find many reasons for Gu Xuebing’s shooting, such as guarding the wages of all the factory employees, avenging the death of a colleague, fighting against foreign robbers, ensuring that Xiaojun won’t be harmed, and so on, but no matter how many reasons we find, it won’t change the fact that his blood-soaked victory “won’t bring about any change”.
The people/era that has fallen behind will eventually die a slow death.
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