Film Name: 我的姐姐 / Sister
During the past Qingming holiday, the most popular movie in theaters was the drama Sister, which, to a certain extent, was considered “out of the loop”.
The reason why the movie has gained so much attention is that, compared to the quality of the movie itself, its typical “family theme” has struck a chord in the hearts of too many Chinese people.
Most of the current discussion about Sister centers around the choice of ending and the many real-life sorrows, difficulties, disagreements and thoughts.
What I want to say is that, in the current climate of domestic movies, I hope that we can properly give more objective factual judgments to this kind of thing rather than simple value judgments – of course, a movie and its viewers cannot be free of subjective value judgments, which reflects the special value that the movie possesses: no matter what era we’re in. There will always be a need for good realistic works.
[Friendly reminder: some spoilers below].
First, let’s talk about the movie itself. If we look at it purely from the perspectives of story design, pacing control, camera language, filming techniques, and so on, Sister is considered to be a middle-of-the-road movie, not great, but not bad either.
Everywhere in the movie, there is the “symbiosis” of two sides of the same coin.
For example, the daily details of the deepening bond between sister An Ran and brother An Ziheng fully demonstrate the process of An Ran’s transition from resistance to acceptance, and An Ziheng’s transition from helplessness to dependence. The advantage is that the bickering and clashing are typical enough and in place, and the narrative effect is full, while the disadvantage is that it is too intentional, and to a considerable extent, it loses the white space and resilience.
Another example is the conflict and understanding between An Ran and her relatives, especially her aunt An Rongrong, which is clearly aimed at stirring up the audience’s nerves and emotions; whether it’s good or bad doesn’t matter, it works.
The value of “Sister” is reflected in its distillation and presentation of the real society, and it is precisely because of this that the movie has ample room to chew on.
I have to admit that the design and encapsulation of family members, family conflicts and social phenomena in this movie are too typical, including but not limited to: the inheritance of patriarchal thinking, the generation after generation of the “help my brother demon”, the male right to speak in a patriarchal society, the good old aunt who is busy with relatives, the uncle who isn’t a bad guy by nature, the young uncle who is a wimp, and the young man who is a good friend of the family, who is not a good friend of the family. The uncle who is not a bad guy, but just doesn’t show up on the stage. What is getting fainter and fainter among the younger generation, always with resentment, is affection, and what is remembering the bitter and sweet, full of love, and constantly in a mess, is also affection. ……
An Ran’s family and what she sees and hears may be “bizarre”, but in the context of China’s big society, you can more or less always find the shadow of your own life in the movie.
In our land, there are millions of “sisters” who are similar to An Ran, as well as parents, brothers, aunts and uncles who are very different but share the same path – by virtue of this common denominator, “Sister” has indeed triggered so much empathy and discussion among so many people! empathy and discussion.
In other words, in the film a moment stacked a sensitive buff, not moving on the emotional G point, such a classic “composite” story, we often can only be in the knowledge of the Q&A, gossip groups, emotional programs / columns / forums, ** chat groups to see, but this time in a movie to see a one-time enough, how do you think that “Sister” will be a topic of conversation, but also the “Sister” will be the most important part of the film. Sister” will be a conversation piece.
Precisely because the movie tells a universal story, most of its plot directions can be seen at a glance.
For example, An Ran’s all-consuming but fragile relationship: if her parents hadn’t died in a car accident, the future An Ran would have been an “ideal” daughter-in-law who wouldn’t have been dragged down by her family of origin; and when Zhao Ming didn’t dare to propose to her parents that she would go to Beijing for graduate school, she would have eventually broken up with him regardless of whether or not there was a major change in An Ran’s life, because strong and stubborn girls like her often have only one or the other option. Because for a girl as strong and stubborn as her, it’s often a case of either/or determination.
But this kind of “certainty” is not a bad thing. Since the movie is trying to reflect the story of several generations of “sisters” in China, the fewer “surprises” the safer it is.
Under the protection of a lot of plot settings that are not critical but at least realistic, the story of Sister is smoothly told, and as long as you more or less see something familiar and are touched by it, then the movie is a success.
(By the way, Zhang Zifeng in “Sister” always reminds me of Zhou Dongyu in “Better Days.” …… For a 20-year-old Zhang Zifeng, that’s a compliment, isn’t it?)
Finally, I’d like to talk a little more about my thoughts on domestic reality-based movies. The controversy over the choice of the ending of Sister is so great that it has somewhat overshadowed the original sharpness of the movie. …… It’s good to have a controversy, which shows that the movie’s design narrative is on point enough, and that everyone has their own distinctive positions, but I still don’t want people to easily affirm or deny a movie’s value because of mere value judgments. Value.
Enron abandoning her brother will make some viewers high-five and applaud; Enron raising her brother will make the movie “safer” – no matter how the choice is right or wrong, because we are not the parties involved, we can’t tell the good or bad of other people’s choices. …… this time, the process is often more valuable than the results.
It’s a testament to the success of the movie that so many people are not talking about or criticizing the ending of Sister if they weren’t fully involved in their own experiences or perceptions.
There have only been a handful of films of this type in the past few years, with Dying to Survive being the only one that stood out, and more like Einstein & Einstein, which passed by without making much of a splash……. In this way, Sister has another positive meaning that others can learn from. In this way, “Sister” has another layer of positivity that others can learn from. We need more realistic works because they often have value beyond the movie: they are mirrors for the seen and unseen aspects of life.
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