When counting the realism masters in the film industry, Zhang Yimou only ranks eighth

I watched a feature film about Du Fu some time ago, and I finally understood why he can be called the "Sage of Poetry" and why can his poems become the "history of poetry"?

Because of his realism.

In addition to the height of the literature itself, the ideological and humanistic nature of realist literature has influenced countless latecomers.

The same goes for movies.

There are some directors who prefer to focus their cameras on reality and people at the bottom, and they happily make movies dedicated to ordinary people.

If you want to understand the racial issues in America, you must watch Spike Lee's movies.

Spike Lee's movies don't exude a strong smell of chicken soup like "Green Book". His movies can simply be described as dirty and messy.

Don’t get me wrong, dirty refers to the environment in the movie, not the quality of the movie.

Spike Lee has never shied away from the ugliness and evil of black people.

As a black director, he is well aware of the character, education and environment of black people.

So in his movies, black people are domineering, idle and causing trouble.

Some people’s attitudes toward black people have worsened after watching his movie, but you shouldn’t just take everything at face value.

Spike Lee’s movie seems to reflect American racism, but in fact, on a deeper level, the movie is about American class antagonism.

I compare black people in the United States to rural people in China.

"Unruly people emerge from poor mountains and poor waters". This is a phenomenon. So what is the reason behind this phenomenon?

What does "poor mountains and poor waters" represent? It is a poor material foundation.

How can we "know etiquette" when the material foundation is not guaranteed?

Therefore, what we should talk about is "Why poor mountains and bad waters breed unruly people" instead of blindly emphasizing "poor mountains and bad waters breed unruly people".

The Dardenne brothers are well-known fraternal partnership directors in the film industry. They are Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne.

The Dardenne brothers have won the Palme d'Or twice, once for "Rosetta" in 1999 and again for "The Child" in 2005.

We can compare them with Ken Loach, who also won the Palme d'Or twice.

The Dardenne brothers are very close to Ken Loach in terms of shooting techniques, such as camera tracking and almost documentary-style photography, but the themes of the movies are quite different.

Ken Loach is a typical left-wing director. His attitude toward those in power is to accuse those in power, and he is sympathetic to the people at the bottom.

The two brothers are not as radical as Ken Loach.

They pay more attention to exploring the characters' hearts.

Maybe he was once a "bad person", but he continued to grow through subsequent experiences and finally became a "good person".

Or, there is a fierce conflict at the beginning and middle of the movie, but by the end of the movie, this conflict turns from steel to softness.

Because of this, their films rarely end in tragedy.

This is true whether it is "The Child" which once won the Palme d'Or, or the recent "Young Ahmed".

Zhang Yimou's new work "One Second" is currently in theaters.

I probably had a prediction about the movie before it was released, "The Hawthorn Tree", and as expected, I guessed it right.

As a film with historical documentary significance, it neither reflects social reality nor portrays the characters deeply, so it cannot be said to be a failure.

But then again, this responsibility cannot be entirely attributed to Zhang Yimou. It is really impossible to see the glory of the National Master in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, not only him, none of us can return to that state. Time has passed (after all, we can’t turn back time).

Zhang Yimou of that era was indeed the backbone of Chinese cinema.

Zhang Yimou is a native Chinese. He has no background in studying abroad. He shoots stories about Chinese people. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the film director who knows the Chinese countryside best.

Among Zhang Yimou's films, my three favorites are "Ju Dou", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit".

These three movies are, without exception, masterpieces of realism.

The three films all accuse, accuse feudal ethics, accuse traditional families, and accuse modern officialdom.

For me, the most impressive of these three movies should be the "Coffin Blocker" in "Ju Dou".

After Yang Jinshan passed away, Ju Dou and Tian Qing had to "block the coffin" for him forty-nine times. Not to mention that they were looking forward to this man's death day and night, even if he was really a filial son and a virtuous grandson. Forty-nine times is too much! Completely tearing apart the hypocritical mask of feudal tradition!

To this day, this practical significance still has a warning effect on people.

There are two famous directors in the history of Taiwanese films, one is Hou Hsiao-hsien and the other is Edward Yang.

Hou Hsiao-hsien liked to photograph the past, while Edward Yang was keen on photographing the present.

If you want to understand Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s, you don’t have to experience it yourself (and you can’t), you can watch Yang Dechang’s movies.

I have always felt that Taipei at that time was very much like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou today, with rapid economic development, but what about the relationships between people?

Profit comes first, even between father, son and relatives.

If you don’t believe it, you can read "The Age of Independence". There is a "medical trouble" in it, which is simply a prediction of today.

"One to One" is Yang Dechang's most representative work, and the Eastern philosophy of life in it still has warning significance for us today.

The four "good buddies" in "Mahjong" live together, eat together, and even share their girlfriends, but when disaster strikes, they go their separate ways.

I liken Edward Yang's movies to a scalpel, which cuts blood. He treats society as a patient, and he is the doctor. Healing diseases means healing people.

If you want to understand Taiwan's past, you have to watch Hou Hsiao-hsien's films. If you want to understand Taiwan's present and future, I recommend you to watch Edward Yang.

At this year's Golden Horse Awards, a group of "disciples and disciples" presented awards to Hou Hsiao-hsien. Of course, this is what Hou Hsiao-hsien deserves.

But there is also a master who is on par with Director Hou in heaven, and we must not forget it.

Like the Dardenne brothers, Ken Loach is a member of the Double Gold Palm Club.

How much do I love Ken Loach? I once wrote an article specifically for him.

Who is Ken Loach? A director who only makes movies for poor people, a leftist director.

The protagonists of his films are basically single mothers, unsupervised children, alcoholic laid-off workers, gangsters, immigrants, etc., and the object of his accusation is "cold and ruthless" capitalism. government.

Because Ken Loach always shows the dark side of Britain to the world, he has also been attacked by British conservative forces.

Of course, he was not to be outdone. When asked in an interview how he evaluated the British government, he casually said: bastards (a bunch of bastards).

In 2014, Ken Loach, who was nearly 70 years old, announced his retirement. However, shortly after he announced his retirement, the British Conservative Party came to power, restricted the rights of trade unions, and ignored the voices of the people at the bottom.

So Ken Loach came back and "I Am Blake" came into being, followed closely by "Sorry We Missed You".

I re-watched "Sorry, We Missed You" at the library some time ago.

The second time I watched it, I still sighed in despair and burst into tears, but after sighing and crying, we should think more.

What is the reason for the injustice in this world? What should we do?

This is not only a question you should think about when watching Ken Loach movies, but also the enlightenment brought to us by all realist movies.

Another Cannes Double Palme d’Or winner, Japanese film master Shohei Imamura!

When it comes to Imamura Shohei's movies, the first thing that everyone may think of is erotica. Indeed, his movies are all very large in scale.

In addition to eroticism, of course there are other things.

Imamura Shohei's analysis of human nature is a leader in the film industry. In his crime-themed work "Vengeance Is Mine", he portrayed the image of a murderer with a complex personality, while the protagonist of "Eel" is a A middle-aged man who is frustrated in his relationship.

Likewise, his films also reflect society.

There is "Pigs and Warships", which shows the urban style of Japan after World War II, and "Narayama Setikao", which describes the backward customs of rural Japan. The former represents modernity, and the latter represents tradition.

When tradition and modernity meet, that is the plot of "Desire of the Gods".

The tragedy of individual human beings is due to the polarization of human nature, and the tragedy of human groups is due to the fierce collision between tradition and modernity.

This is my summary of Imamura Shohei's films.

There is a little knowledge worth mentioning. Imamura Shohei was once the director assistant of Ozu Yasujiro, but he himself was not very interested in Ozu Yasujiro's films.

During his tenure as Ozu Yasujiro's assistant director, he had made it clear that he could not stand the master's motionless style.

On the contrary, he regarded another master of the time, Akira Kurosawa, as his idol.

Imamura Shohei’s personality that is restless with the status quo determines his film style.

To understand Vittorio De Sica, you must first know what Italian Neorealism is.

Italian Neorealism is a film movement that emerged in Italy after World War II. It is characterized by concern for the struggle of human beings against inhuman social forces. It is shot on location with non-professional actors from beginning to end. All expressed with poignant realism.

The representative figure is Vittorio De Sica.

After the end of World War II, the backdrop of victory was the ruins and embarrassment of the people throughout Europe.

Thus Italian Neorealism was born.

In terms of form, most neo-realist films use real scenes and natural light, use non-professional actors to perform and pay attention to natural details of life. Compared with the pre-war closure and disguise, neo-realism Instead, the movie is more like a documentary, with an unvarnished sense of reality.

This technical approach influenced countless subsequent filmmakers.

Vittorio De Sica's most famous film is "The Bicycle Thieves".

A little man at the bottom, a migrant worker crawling in the mud for a living, a father who hopes to let his family and children live a good life.

The ending of the movie was well received. It seemed to be a non-tragic ending, but it did not reduce the tragedy of the film by half, but instead made the audience more desperate. This is the most realistic way of expression.

After 1930, the Chinese Left-wing Writers' Alliance and the Chinese Left-wing Dramatists' Alliance were established successively.

With the outbreak of September 18th, people's national sentiments rose, and left-wing films gradually replaced the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School as the mainstream of Chinese films.

At the same time, a large number of realist film directors were born, Cai Chusheng is one of the representatives.

When it comes to Cai Chusheng, you must be familiar with the children who did not doze off in history class.

Yes, he is a character written into history books.

The first Chinese film to win an international award, "Fishing Lights", was directed by him.

At the same time, he also directed "New Women" starring Zhang Ailing, and directed the epic masterpiece "A River of Spring Flows East" with Zheng Junli *** and many other excellent films.

They are all immortal classics in the history of Chinese films.

Cai Chusheng understands Chinese people very well. He has a famous "squatting" theory -

There were many good directors during the Republic of China, including Cai Chusheng, Fei Mu, Wu Yonggang, Zheng Junli and others. , both in terms of humanistic sentiments and technical techniques, are not inferior to Japanese directors of the same period.

It is a pity that in the 1950s, Japanese directors went abroad one after another to win awards in Europe;

And most of our directors died tragically in internal fighting.

In the Japanese film industry at the same time as Cai Chusheng, there were also masters such as Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi.

Compared with Ozu’s petty bourgeoisie and Kurosawa Akira’s Western expressions, Mizoguchi Kenji can be said to be a pure representative of Japan.

And all of his films are models of realism.

Mizoguchi Kenji’s theme is anti-feudal, which is related to the era in which they lived, which happened to be the transition period from traditional society to modern society.

Mizoguchi Kenji is good at making tragedies because his films emphasize the oppression of human nature in different systems and eras.

Death is more enlightening, so his movie must end with someone dead.

In the end of "The Tale of Chikamatsu", both the mistress and the male servant died for their love. Mizoguchi Kenji used poignant love to criticize the oppression and injustice of women in feudal society;

"Mrs. Musashino" In order to escape from the world, the heroine takes poison and commits suicide. Shortly after her suicide, Japan abolished the crime of adultery.

Also shooting women, Mizoguchi, Ozu Yasujiro and Naruse Miki each have their own merits.

Ozu’s family, Naruse’s emotional entanglements, and Mizoguchi is talking about the big era.

Whether it is Kenji Mizoguchi's realism or the "one shot per scene" he pioneered in photography, both are imitated by later generations.

French director Godard, who is also a master, particularly admires Mizoguchi Kenji. He said: "Mizoguchi Kenji's art lies in letting things show their original appearance, and this kind of 'simplicity' is exactly what is reflected in his films. The most complicated part. ”

The first master of realism in the film industry was probably Chaplin!

Many people know that Chaplin is a comedy master, but in fact he is also a realist film master.

There is a saying circulating on the Internet: The core of comedy is tragedy.

The origin of this sentence has nowhere to be verified, but I think the inventor of this sentence must be a fan of Chaplin.

Because all his comedy movies can be summed up in this sentence.

The first film Chaplin shot was "Making a Living" in 1914. From his second film "Between Showers", he "wears baggy trousers, large shoes, tight The image of wearing a blouse and a bowler hat was established.

With this image, he successively directed and starred in "Tramp", "Modern Times", "City Lights", "The Circus" and so on.

This is not only the image of Chaplin, but also the greatest image in the comedy film industry, and it is also one of the representative images of realist films.

When watching "Modern Times", we are reminded of 996;

When watching "Xunzi Encountering the Immortal", we are reminded of "The Little Match Girl";

< p> When we look at Chaplin, we think of ourselves.

What we laugh at is this absurd world, and what we are sad about is our own lives.

To this day, 100 years have passed, and Chaplin's movies are still timeless.

In addition to the ten masters above, Korean realistic films also often trigger discussions among netizens and audiences.

However, there is also another voice. They ridicule Korean movies like this, "You can shoot anything, you dare to shoot anything, but you can't change anything!"

This is absolutely true. .

Mr. Lu Xun has a dialogue with Qian Xuantong in "The Scream: Preface".

"Suppose there are no windows in an iron house and it is indestructible. There are many sleeping people inside, and they will soon be suffocated to death. However, from sleep to death, they do not feel that they are dying. Sadness. Now that you are shouting and startling a few more sober people, making these unfortunate few suffer irreparable death pain, do you think you are worthy of them?"

Qian Xuantong replied: "But now that a few people are up, you can't say that there is no hope of destroying this iron house."

This is probably the role of realistic movies!