Film Name: 逆行人生 / Upstream
There are very few films like 《Upstream》, which is filled with topics far beyond the film itself before its release, making me a bit apprehensive before watching the film……. As a result, I couldn’t help but mutter after watching it: what the hell, this film can be cursed as well, is it an embarrassing blackout or a play on abstraction?
Xu Zheng’s “sensitivity” to the changing times and social issues is still online, and I saw a lot of painful points of the times displayed in the film.
Admittedly, Upstream can’t be considered as any kind of super-sized film, but it brings out the appropriate issues and dilemmas in a way that’s comprehensive enough that viewers can more or less relate to it.
And I think the best thing the film does is that it captures the qualities of many ordinary people who have lost their voices in mainstream opinion: every day is a struggle to live, so how can they have the time and energy to shout about being tired and talk about meaning?
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
Although Upstream is about Gao Zhilei, a small leader in a big factory who works as a delivery boy after losing his job, I’d like to start with a much more interesting undercurrent.
The film opens with 45-year-old Gao Zhilei being laid off from his job at a major Internet company where he had worked for 11 years, in other words, he jumped ship at the age of 34: it’s reasonable to imagine that Gao Zhilei was the “King of the Rolls” back in the day, and was at least a P6-P7 when he first joined the company (and may have been jumping ship with a group of people), but he has never been able to roll with the younger generation until now. But now, he can’t roll with the younger generation.
Before the staff made a mistake, Gao Zhilei took the initiative to take the blame on himself, see he is confident that the company can not leave their own …… results, he is proud of the set of “efficiency optimisation algorithm” boomerang, or smashed in his head, no exceptions.
Algorithm” is hidden in the “Upstream” behind the scenes of the big boss, because “respect algorithm”, Gao Zhilei had to leave the big factory, and even if you do takeaway, the algorithm is still the tortured goblin.
Gao Zhilei just started to run a single, bad reviews constantly, but also repeatedly returned orders, busy dead busy work also did not earn a few dollars, this is certainly because of his lack of experience, but also with the “food delivery” platform algorithms: a primary budding new rider, will always give priority to the allocation of far away, less money, difficult to send (other people are not willing to send) a single, rubbish single and rubbish rider! A vicious circle is formed.
However, there are also a few people who are the favourites under the algorithm, such as Dahei, who gets the “single king” every month.
Because of his familiarity with the road, fast cycling, plus the courage to work hard, can break through (red lights), Dahei’s efficiency in delivering orders is extremely high, so he also gets more high-quality orders, and the continuous positive feedback has made him a success.
However, the outstanding performance of the big black, but also corresponding to pull up the platform for all the delivery of single requirements and performance standards of the delivery staff, a person more than 1,000 yuan behind, may be ten people less than 500 yuan …… so there will be other delivery staff to make things difficult for the big black.
This phenomenon actually exists in all walks of life, in recent years I believe that we can feel more or less “more and more volume, but not many people forward” – the pursuit of efficiency and the supremacy of the interests of human society is always the mainstream, the algorithm is the best helper of this principle, trapped in the algorithm! And it’s not just take-out workers who are trapped in algorithms.
In Upstream, there is also a plot of fear: Gao Zhilei, in order to deliver takeaways more efficiently, developed a small programme called “Lutong”, which is more crucial than building such a set of algorithmic systems, and feeds a large amount of data, so Gao Zhilei shared it with all his colleagues in the station, and the more people use it, the better the programme works. The more people use it, the better it works.
In the short term, Gao Zhilei’s move helped himself and others, and their station also got back to the top of the platform ranking; but in the long run, if this applet is promoted by the whole platform, what will be the result behind when all the takeaways can use it?
In addition to this, the film also touches on a number of widely publicised social issues.
I found that Gao Zhilei’s persona is really too typical: there are (sick) old people, children (studying), economic pressure to death, he is sick because of overtime work all day long, the optimisation of layoffs in large factories, age discrimination in the job search, financial products, financial products, the bubble of housing prices, losses and so on all the good things have let him run into it.
Like Gao Zhilei this kind of middle class back to poverty, in recent years there are a lot of people, they or active or passive accustomed to high income and high expenditure, can not afford much change.
The rapid socio-economic development of the past few decades has given many people the illusion that life will always get better in the future, not worse, right?
The answer, of course, is no. Upstream draws on the experiences of Gao Zhilei to examine their respective positions in this era of renewed slowdown.
After Gao Zhilei lost his job, he submitted thousands of CVs that were dropped into the sea, and was cheated of 30,000 yuan by a black intermediary with the offer of a job at P7, because it took him two months not to realise and accept the status quo – what companies are most in need of is middle and senior leadership, and his value for money is not as good as the younger generation. He can’t compete with the young people, and besides, is he really willing to lower himself to knock on the code with the young people?
So, Zhu took one look and said that Gao Zhilei, who hadn’t lowered his stature, couldn’t work as a deliveryman.
The first step Gao Zhilei has to take is to throw away all his original dignity and arrogance and start again.
The film’s field trip into the take-out industry is a bit of a dry run, for example, when it comes to getting food, every restaurant has different habits, some require the delivery person to take the initiative to get the food, some require them to wait outside the shop, and some have to find it themselves, which requires a lot of experience, and practice makes perfect.
Seriously, the life of a delivery man in Upstream is as “typical” as his family’s situation – strange customers, security guards, being towed for parking violations, running red lights, flipping over and falling down, bumping into other people, being hit by a big car, and all the rest. It’s so typical that it’s slightly distorted.
On second thought, however, this is a film that is all about focus and exaggeration, and the above scenarios are a constant reality, so I’m relieved.
Aside from Gao Zhilei, the film also draws on what he sees and hears to observe the multitude of ordinary people in the current of the times, which is one of the things I most approve of in Upstream.
The old gouge is usually very stingy, gouge to the leg is banged up want to use tape to tie, their family lives in a small house on the side of the shared bicycle cemetery, crazy to save money just to give the child to do surgery.
Xiao Min, who looks youthful and capable, actually carries a son who is inconvenient to send samples to, and at night when there is really no place to put them, she takes her son with her to deliver takeaways.
Dahei looks like an unsympathetic delivery machine, but in fact, he has been carrying something in his heart, and has been repaying the debt he owed several years ago for “transferring orders”.
The most interesting supporting character is Yang Dashan, who can’t keep quiet.
Whether or not he’s delivering, Yang Dashan spends all his time doing live broadcasts and shooting videos – he’s certainly not a big money maker, but that doesn’t stop him from sharing what’s going on around him anytime, anywhere – sunbathing on his paychecks, looking at the street scene, and re-tweeting the “Spicy Hands Destroying Flowers” video. ……
This buddy is also a cold and raw no fear of familiar, just because Gao Zhilei inquired about a sentence, he grinningly brought a casual acquaintance of the uncle into the industry, very righteous.
Yang Dashan also talked about a long-distance girlfriend, usually hard delivery, the goal is that the traditional, vulgar to nowadays not many people are willing to say “save money to get married”.
Have you found it, if according to the current Internet discourse to divide, like Yang Dashan such a boy, almost in the “contempt chain” at the bottom of the …… But in terms of his usual state of life, he will not know, not to mention care, every day in addition to the The day in addition to sleep time, are stuffed full, which have time to think about other?
Including the previously mentioned old stingy, he had a car accident and death rubbed shoulders, the first time to think is also to continue to deliver orders, as well as to find the driver to pay more compensation, until the night completely idle will feel the fear.
When I watched Upstream, I thought of not only the delivery men on the screen, but also the thousands of ordinary people who work in the hard work industry, such as those who run couples’ shops, set up street stalls, deliveries, shipments, street sweepers, construction site workers, and so on and so forth.
Even if a bit of free time, brush the short video, watch a live broadcast, play a game of handheld games, busy chores on the past, there will be no extra time, energy, mood to the days of hard work to tell what the reasoning, and even more force in the online shouting what lie flat or struggle, they are just working hard to live for every day to live a little better just.
These ordinary people who rarely speak out are the backbone of our society.
All those who are trying to make a living are worthy of respect – the fact that Upstream has captured these words is enough.
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