Film Name: 好东西 / Herstory / Her Story
The 9.1 rating on Douban, before the movie is even released, will put “Herstory” in a public opinion storm with both revelry and censure – this movie, which has been getting rave reviews since its release, but is actually not very popular, is destined to receive a more rigorous scrutiny.
I’ve always advocated not to take ratings too seriously, because all ratings in the world are the result of countless subjective evaluations (“Herstory” more or less takes advantage of the high degree of overlap with Douban’s user base), and the best way to evaluate a work is to feel it with your heart and draw conclusions.
I’ll start with my own opinion: it’s a good movie for sure, although it has its shortcomings, but its strengths are more rare and precious, and that alone is enough to deserve the praise.
The strength of this movie is that it breaks out of the increasingly homogenized and rigid “gender genre” and starts to unravel the incorrect and seemingly correct gender issues, which gives it an extra sense of sophistication when compared to its peers.
The qualities of “Herstory” inevitably remind me of last year’s “Barbie,” but this film is lighter, more natural, and more localized than the backhandedness, banter, and directness of “Barbie,” and the “looseness” of its stance and expression (a term that’s been played up nowadays but I’d still like to say it) is still very much a part of the contemporary landscape. This “looseness” (even though the term has been spoiled, I still want to say it), on top of a stable stance and expression, is still the rarest quality in domestic movies nowadays.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
In order not to sound too braggadocious, I’d better talk about the shortcomings of “Herstory” first – the main problem of the film is that it is too “decentered”, so that the whole film can be a bit fragmented and suspended.
I have to commend writer-director Shao Yihui for his previous work “B for Busy”, although the main character Lao Bai is weak, he is able to weave in more details of life and character relationships, and both the tension of the characters and the structure of the plot have more texture and chewiness.
In contrast, “Herstory” is much simpler and flatter, with typical characters and straightforward relationships, which makes those life words lack space for precipitation, while the obsession with line effects and point of view output will occasionally make the movie stray into something more like a large-scale live-action talk show. ……
In terms of “movie sense” alone, Shao’s “Herstory” is a step back from “B for Busy”.
Here comes the “but” – but yes, “Herstory” has moved up several notches in terms of content delivery. It’s humorous, comprehensive, precise, and sharp, slightly pungent but not pungent, slightly questioning but not serious, and it’s both intuitively emotional and thoughtfully clever. It’s also a bit of a questioning but not a serious one, both in terms of intuitive emotion and thoughtful subtlety, and it’s all very enjoyable, with the famous “Guess the Voice” being an excellent way to get to the heart of the matter.
In part, this is also due to Herstory’s decentralization: as a work based on women’s issues, the film truly has “no villain”.
The same kind of work is all too fond of using men as antagonists; after all, it’s only by creating characters that symbolize patriarchal oppression that you can logically fight it, and “Like A Rolling Stone,” which also scored high marks a while back, is a perfect example of this.
Herstory” removed the villain, the protagonist Wang Tiemei on the scene is a full-grade player, do not need to go against who, to defeat who (even if there is an enemy is invisible), as for the two male characters enough to play the role of the role of the more like a “traditional female victims”.
Honestly, I laughed out loud every time I saw the rivalry between the ex-husband (Zhao Yuting) and Xiao Ma (Zhang Yu), because their comedic baggage is both reversed and positive.
The first time the two met at Tiemei’s house, the ex-husband brother began to be jealous, they then began a completely in accordance with the stereotype of female competition to interpret the exchange of words, the general competition between men is not like this, but into the tone of the “male competition”, the sense of contrast effect immediately came out.
However, their persona is not simply written for women, they still have male problems and dilemmas.
Ex-husband brother was originally a family man (mainly because he did not want to go out to work), and capable Wang Tiemei partner, life is very good, but under the influence of “men must be successful in their careers”, he divorced with Tiemei to go out to make a living, and then regretted to come back to work all day as a feminist performance artist.
Xiao Ma was driven by similar ideas when he was young, and was forced to learn music. He never experienced motherly love before or after losing his mother, which led to his lack of love, lack of discipline, and the fact that he couldn’t help but talk about it, and he blindly learned the technique of tearing off his clothes from a small movie in order to show his masculinity, which is so passive that it’s a complete mess.
See Zhang Yu and Song Jia, I can not help but think of four years ago, the movie “Back to the Wharf”, although that film is not good, but the passionate scene is good, these two people touch together is able to show sexual tension, but “Herstory” chose a more playful anti-climax to film the hemming and hawing, can be seen that its focus is not on the “hello and I am good” pleasure. But “Herstory” opted for a more playful anti-climax to film the sex, showing that its focus is not on “hello and hello” pleasure.
PS: Jang-woo is really on the road to being a “doggy man” ……
“Herstory is very clear: men are also victims of gender bias and oppression, and even if they are the relative beneficiaries, that doesn’t change the fact that men and women shouldn’t just be rivals, but should strive to be teammates in the pursuit of affirmative action.
As for what the ideal of feminism/affirmative action looks like, Herstory never gives an answer, but keeps denying it – the first to be shot down is the pseudo-feminism that “stirs up male-female rivalry”, and the opening of the mouth is the “structural persecution”. The “structural persecution” and “vested interests” that Chizuko Ueno is always talking about, and the kind of people he symbolizes by shouting slogans, are also a joke.
Seemingly free and bright Xiaoye, life has been in the “loss”, the landlord usually give a little favor is willing to pay 2,000 more rent, “Sea King” Xiaohu will say flattering words, she would rather pretend to be free but also to maintain the relationship.
Xiaoye should be the most typical female narratives in the opposite, lack of love since childhood, ingratiating personality, always think it is their own fault, and always habitually apologizing, everyone in the sadness of its misfortune will be even more angry at its not fight.
This is one of the things I like about “Herstory”, it doesn’t treat Xiaoye as a person in need of rescue, but tries its best to understand the basis of the “sober love brain” happy backstabbing, recognizes that she is more courageous, more capable of love, and then hopes that she can be more self-loving, to become better.
This respect and tolerance also greatly eliminates the non-black and white killing and hostility in many women’s narratives today.
The smartest and most valuable aspect of “Herstory” may be the portrayal and attitude of the protagonist, Wang Tiemei, whose limited critical dismissal of the film achieves a greater degree of liberation.
Contrary to Xiaoye, Wang Tiemei can be regarded as a T0-level female representative in the current version, self-confident, self-improving, self-referential, able to get into the hall and out of the kitchen, proficient in all 72 martial arts, there is nothing she won’t be able to do from the family to the workplace, and she’s also a single mother who doesn’t sell her misery, doesn’t feel sorry for herself, and doesn’t have any dead angle from top to bottom, living as a model of a woman who has awakened to a new era.
But the movie did not give her the courtesy of an absolutely positive portrayal: her strong and rigid to overcome rigid, certainly worthy of admiration, but also in exchange for more predicaments and enemies; her anti-success and encouragement of education, indeed, let Jasmine Wang have love, know how to do things, but also inevitably make her mature to the point of self-doubt ……
“Herstory’s slightly labeled portrayal of Wang Tiemei is not all bad, as it shows the two sides of the dilemma of those who are always in a “fighting mode”.
Therefore, when Wang Tiemei admits before the end of the movie that she is not a good mother and that she has failed in life, another invisible rope is untied, and Xiaoye’s consolation and affirmation of her at the back also has the meaning of breaking down and standing up afterward.
Since it’s wrong to do anything, is it okay to not do anything, to curl up and not move forward? Of course not.
Jasmine Wang is easily overlooked in the film, but she certainly symbolizes hope in “Herstory”.
When she was young, she wrote “I don’t fantasize anymore”, she was young and old and full of negative energy, it doesn’t matter, just take a step and see what happens; she tried to learn how to play the drums, but she backed out before she went on stage, it doesn’t work, how do you know the result if you don’t do it; she found out that she prefers to be an audience member after the performance, it doesn’t matter, you can continue to look for your own fun.
You can continue to find your own fun. Don’t get wrapped up in it, don’t judge it, try it and believe in yourself.
“Herstory” negates all the answers, because there is no one-size-fits-all answer in the world, and only through trial and error and experience can we find a way to live that suits us.
So, do whatever you want to do.
Want to go out to do business can, want to lie flat can; want to single can, teammates give force want to do a housewife can; want not to have children can, want to give birth to the third child can also be …… We do have a lot of oppression around us and not as good as, but ultimately, can make a decision, only their own.
Good women’s work is often good affirmative action work, “Herstory” may be a small step, not enough, but every step along the way is invaluable.
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