How to evaluate the movie "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers"

Why are there such mountains and rivers?

Article/Dream Poems

Literature and art are never a pretense, and the feelings of mountains and rivers are not blindly judged through a rough lens. To consume the poverty of the lower class, Jia Zhangke's "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" can no longer see the intriguing truth of his early works. Instead, it is full of contrived hypocrisy and self-righteous emotions. What we see is just a director's fantasy to please the West.

This time, Jia Zhangke focused the film on the emotional changes of a family over more than 20 years, starting with three nodes: yesterday in 1999, today in 2014, and tomorrow in 2025. But at first glance, there is something about the mountains and rivers. It relies on nostalgia, but in fact the characters lack reality and the emotions feel empty. The long and unbearable narrative only shows the director's blind exaggeration of the poverty at the bottom of the county. In this, the heroine Zhao Tao of Yesterday in 1999 lingers Due to the love triangle between the coal mine owner and the miner, he finally chose the coal mine owner. Today in 2014, the former miner became seriously ill and will soon die. Such a plot is nothing more than an attempt to convey a sense of the times in the movie and to express himself in the West. The film dares to present the image of a warrior in ancient times, but in fact, what it does is just like a complaining woman ignorantly complaining about the vagaries of fate. The perfunctory plot lacks inner depth.

Tomorrow in 2025, the director’s fictional future, the unfolding of the children of coal mine owners immigrating to Australia, is full of bloody gimmicks, a love affair between an old man and a child, which is shocking. This kind of There is no foundation of emotion, and the large-scale passionate scenes completely destroy the remaining trace of nostalgia for the mountains and rivers and the hometown in this movie. The thunder is rolling in the sky, but at this time, it is still arrogantly placing its hope in exploring the future. The transmission of emotions is only seen through realistic shots, filled with empty emotions. It is so delicate and false, making it unbelievable that he is the Jia Zhangke who was able to make films such as "Platform" and "Three Gorges Good Man" in the past who truly understood the times.

The root of the criticism of "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" is that the film only stays at the level of formalism. The mixture of sad and desolate tone and realistic context is still the Jia style of the past, but the plot The complete failure with the characters is its unconcealable flaw. In the majestic background of the times, the movie failed to form a true story-based story. No one will say no to a good story, even if it is a tragedy. The success of "The Melting Pot", which dares to expose the country's darkness, is the best example. However, "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" is just a briefing-like piece of several stories. The characters and plots are illusory, and the emotions they try to express have become That's not enough for the Tao.

Revelation of true feelings or pretense to trick people, this kind of good or bad is decided immediately in the movie, when the abundant emotions from the profound era turned into hypocrisy, so Why do mountains and rivers come from people?