Film Name: 一秒钟 / One Second
My grandmother once told me that she was a “heavy movie fan” when she was young: in order to watch a few more screenings of “Little Soldier Zhang Ga”, she followed the route of the projection team in the countryside, and traveled on foot to all the villages and towns in the vicinity. ……
As a movie-loving audience, I believe I can more or less understand my grandmother’s excitement and mood, and in the past, in those days, the special feelings and significance of “going to the movies” was precisely the most heartwarming splash of color in “One Second. -Although, this color does not have much to do with the real story of the film.
Just as Zhang Jiusheng (Zhang Yi) wanted to see that “one second” in the movie, he had to go through 91 difficulties, and the release of “One Second” outside the movie was also a bumpy road, of course, now we see the film is not complete, but even so, in the darkness of the night sky where the afterglow of the stars and the moon and the light of the projector could not reach, it still evokes a hidden pain in the heart. It still evokes a hidden pain in the heart.
This may be the best domestic movie we can see on the screen this year.
[Spoilers ahead].
On the eve of the movie’s release, the biggest selling point of One Second was the public’s “collective obsession” with the movie, which, objectively speaking, was a good idea.
This is director Zhang Yimou’s own “private cargo”: his familiarity with and nostalgia for film.
Self-taught photography in the 70s, but also rely on this into the Beijing Film Academy …… Whether it is “will wash the photo, learned to zoom” Zhang Jiusheng, or cut, wash, projection of all kinds of proficiency Fan film, they have Zhang Yimou’s shadow.
In fact, the film (movie) itself is the spirit of many film and television creators and fans of the trust of friends with this sentiment, will certainly be the film that is full of affectionate gentle strokes.
Of course, if you only focus on professionalism, it is only a niche self-high, “One Second” can really enter the hearts of the audience based on the fact that it captures the largest common denominator – the collective memories of the past when people were keen to watch movies.
Nowadays, I am afraid that some young audiences growing up in big cities have never seen an open-air movie, and even I can only understand and feel the “excitement of going to the movies” with my half-understood memories.
It was a time when the spiritual life was more scarce than the material life (almost none), the cultural level of the people was generally not high, and the output rate of the cultural works of the literary workers was low, so “going to the movies” was a way of cultural entertainment that could attract the largest number of viewers with the lowest cost, and even if it was a movie that had been watched for many times, it still made countless people enjoy it, and the open-air movies of Fan Film were a great success. Even if you’ve seen the movie many times, it still makes countless people happy, and Fan’s movie line “If I don’t stop, I can watch it all night long” is by no means an exaggeration.
It is true that there is the factor of “no choice”, but to be honest, who can deny the special emotional value of collective memory?
Therefore, I absolutely agree with the publicity strategy of One Second and the bright colors on its surface: the movie is a beam of light that can shine on the face and into the heart, and it is a dream that accompanies growing up and accompanies life.
However, these bright colors related to “movie sentiment” have little to do with One Second …… because the bottom of the film is precisely the darkness beyond the light and shadow, and in the place where it does not shine on the face, there is a darkness that has nothing to do with “movies”. “There is a story that has nothing to do with the movie.
One Second” is a very simple movie, and this simplicity is reflected in every aspect, simple story, simple scenes, simple characters, and a thousand words that can be condensed into a few words, a few expressions, a few actions.
Just like the barren spiritual entertainment life of the people at that time, the story of the movie also takes place in a land full of desert and Gobi, with only sand and stones between the first and second farms, in such an empty and dead environment, the words and deeds of Zhang Jiusheng and Liu’s daughter are even more questionable.
Later, we learn that Zhang Jiusheng, a reformed laborer, stole away from the farm and went through a lot of trouble just to see a second of his daughter’s footage in News Brief 22 before the screening, while Liu’s daughter, who sticks to the film like a sticking plaster and waits for a chance to steal it, is trying to make a lampshade to save her brother from being bullied.
Even for Fan, who is supposed to “love movies”, movies are more like a tool for him to establish his personal authority and maintain his supreme social status – none of the three people who play the heaviest roles in One Second show any pure and sincere love for movies. love of movies.
Why? Of course, the reason is not “they do not love to watch movies”, that year everyone loves to watch movies …… Therefore, there is only one explanation: there is something heavier, gloomy, suppressed, blinded their innocent eagerness.
Fan movie because of their own utilitarianism, resulting in their son drinking cleaning fluid drink bad brain, long-term power lust and remorse dominated, gradually distorted the original heart; Liu girl because of the parents are not, only and little brother dependent on the family environment, no heart also can not bear to go to the movies; as for Zhang Jiusheng, because the world only in the 22nd of the few films to see their own long time not masked and can not see their daughters again! ……
One of the most central changes in the public version of One Second is the omission of the information that Zhang Jiusheng’s daughter is dead (she was hit by a car while carrying the rice), which directly determines the emotional expression of the movie, and it is by replacing this piece of debris that many of Zhang Jiusheng’s words and actions can be self-referential enough for him to cry and say, “One second is too short. It’s not enough.”
The proof of the above statement is the scene in One Second that touched me the most: Zhang Jiusheng and Liu’s daughter, who are not related to each other, act as father and daughter in a split second, and then both of them are tied up by the security department, and they are “forced” to watch a performance of Heroic Sons and Daughters, with tears in their eyes. Heroic Sons and Daughters”, with tears streaming down their faces.
This is a very clever comparison and metaphor – what kind of family does Wang Fang, the heroine of Heroic Sons and Daughters, have? Her deceased birth mother was a martyr, her brother was a war hero who became a role model, and more crucially, her adoptive father Wang Fubiao was a national model worker (a representative of the working class), her birth father Wang Wenqing was a political commissar of a military corps (a model of a revolutionary soldier), and Wang Fang herself was very competitive. ……
Everyone envies and aspires to Wang Fang’s dreamy and heroic family, and Zhang Jiusheng and Liu Daughter are no exception, but at the same time, “family problems” are also the most unspeakable bitter pain point for both of them, they are the marginalized people who are not covered by the mainstream of the society, and they are not used to and don’t like to be exposed to the light, even if it is just a movie’s soft light and shadow. They are not used to and do not like to be exposed to the light, even if it is just the soft light of a movie, it may burn their bodies and minds which are already full of holes.
One Second tells the story of a non-mainstream character in a specific era, which is the main reason for its ill-fated life. …… This kind of story, just like the film of Zhang Jiusheng’s daughter, will disappear in a sea of sand in an instant, and if no one mentions it, some people may think that it has never happened.
I don’t think it’s complicated to say whether and how to talk about “suffering”: if it’s a matter of collective memory, the creators who “make a difference” should make it more than just a wound; and if it’s a matter of personal memory, we should allow the creators to have the right to go and hurt themselves. If it is a personal memory, then we should also allow the creator the right to remove the pain.
“It’s not as short as a second, it’s not as long as a lifetime.” At 70 years old, Zhang Yimou is still so energetic, so we, the young audience, who can tell right from wrong, can’t be more conservative than the old man.
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