Looking at this excellent film with ideological theory, let's first look at what ideology is. Numerous individuals' vivid mental adventures and spiritual experiences have become an empirical and conceptual way of thinking and experience of a region, a country or an ethnic group through historical subjective screening and simplification. This is ideology. It is an abstraction of personal experience. Due to the unified and long-term social education, each of us has downloaded the previous ideological software, and everyone has been pre-installed with the established ideological program, which makes the interpretation of ideological regulations form a strong preconceived concept of the experience possibility of personal real life until it is stipulated that everyone feels the reality and explains the way, angle and conclusion of life. Therefore, the vast majority of people in our crowd often become staunch defenders of established ideas and rules, and often exaggerate their sense of historical responsibility and morality. However, it cannot be ignored that all ideologies are extracted, simplified and stable by subjective choice. The abstract established ideology not only persuades individuals to feel the real reality independently and discover the possibility contained in the real spirit of reality, but also uses its invisible sheep whip to bring everyone together in ideological groups to simplify concepts, which not only has its popular and old-fashioned Xian Yi explanation of historical events, but also has its smooth and sophisticated rhetoric about the ever-developing real life. In short, the ideology I understand is the social background of movies, that is, social history.
After Cheng Dieyi actor Leslie Cheung left us for more than two years, I had mixed feelings when I returned to my masterpiece Farewell My Concubine directed by Kaige. It's like going through a black journey with Xiao Lou and Die Yi, from arrogance to extreme depression, from people to ghosts. Farewell My Concubine is full of dramatic conflicts with strong feelings, twists and turns, and life and death. He invited several big-name stars to play, which is full of commercial elements, but at the same time contains profound cultural connotation, and is considered as "popular beauty, high melody and harmonious audience" This film, behind its brilliance, contains profound philosophy. The director's attitude is an obvious mockery of China's traditional culture.
The judges of the International Federation of Film Critics said: "Farewell My Concubine is a profound excavation of China's cultural history and humanity, with gorgeous image and delicate plot". The film uses the Peking Opera art with the deepest cultural accumulation in China and the life of its artists, and reflects a philosophical reflection on the traditional culture of China through decades of current events. The life experience of the characters in the film is like a "dream life". Chen Kaige chose the Peking Opera art with the deepest cultural accumulation in China and the life of its artists to show his thinking and understanding of traditional culture, people's living conditions and human nature, which is very ingenious and original. For people in China who are familiar with China's traditional culture, the connotation of this film is richer and deeper, and the tension of the screen image is more historical.
Duan Xiaolou, a man of steel, is a very brave man. In order to save master and impatiens, he hit his head with a hard object several times, and each time he succeeded. Saving benefactors and beautiful women from danger shows great pride. Moreover, during the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to hit his head with a brick. The brick was intact and his head was still bleeding. The metaphor here is quite clever. After the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, the Japanese occupation, the early liberation and the Cultural Revolution, he had the glory and wildness of being a "corner" and was always facing various dangers. With his courage and a little cleverness, he often saves the day. At the same time, we also witnessed the process of his personality change. Duan Xiaolou, who cried for the Japanese singing opera (although Dieyi was totally trying to save him), said to Dieyi during the Cultural Revolution, "When you are soft, that's not my overlord, your concubine", and she lost her stubborn character. How can this autumn not be heartbreaking?
In the face of Cheng Dieyi's feelings, he is "the fallen petal intentionally follows the flowing water, and the flowing water follows the fallen petal mercilessly". Duan Xiaolou always smiles, and still drinks his Hua San to find his own happiness. For him, drama is drama, and no matter how it is performed, it is fake. Even if the concubine on the stage is charming, she is just dressed up by men. This man is his brother, that's all, nothing else. In life, he takes care of his brother. He's right. He is just an ordinary normal person.
The genius of the director is that he didn't stop there, but hinted at the poison of the Cultural Revolution to human nature at a deeper level. That is, Xiao Lou was forced to kneel down in front of everyone to show his butterfly suit and draw a line with impatiens. Butterfly clothes and impatiens are undoubtedly the most precious people in the life of the small building. They are the people he would rather sacrifice his life to protect. But at this moment, they want to "expose" each other's injuries and scream with blood and tears in the beating of each other's muscles. That painful feeling is more painful than death. Men would rather fight to death than build the Great Wall. In this suffocating black day, the hopeless life completely numbed Xiao Lou's mind, making him not know why he was born and why he died, making him unable to fight and become a "living dead".
Every revolution and war brings endless physical and mental trauma to people. However, the physical trauma can still be healed, and the lost home can also be rebuilt, but this kind of mental trauma is the most difficult to recover.
Cheng Dieyi-No one can't be moved by it. Life is like a play, and a play is like life. In Xiao Lou's words, it is: "Die Yi, you are really not crazy, you can't live!" Leslie Cheung successfully interpreted Cheng Dieyi's tragic life. Compared with Duan Xiaolou, who was swallowed up by the fear of the Cultural Revolution, Dieyi was more calm. We don't know whether it is because Xiao Lou has impatiens and family as the support in her life (which is also its pressure). But Dieyi's life is only a small building except Peking Opera.
I really don't want to use simple "homosexuality" to describe Dieyi's feelings for Xiao Lou. From the moment he first entered the troupe, Xiao Douzi began to bear all kinds of bullying (at least without any worries). Later, because of the distortion of human nature, Grandpa Lu was completely immersed in the play to appreciate Butterfly Clothes, and even gave the banner "unparalleled youth", which gradually distorted Butterfly Clothes' character. "I'm a human being, not a Jiao E" or "I'm a Jiao E, not a human being", which is the true confession of Butterfly Clothes? "I am a human being", when his small voice finally failed to compete with the strong pressure, just when his weak body was crushed by Zhang Gonggong's huge body, he was helpless, he was desperate and had only "love" for his brother! His ambiguous feelings for his brother are also deformed! How can men love men! He is a Dan, a Dan who holds up half the sky. On the stage, he plays all kinds of women. Actually, that's him, the real him. In life, he plays the role of red and a man. In his mind, he has long regarded himself as a woman, a concubine, and fell in love with the overlord Chu! "In this way, can't we play farewell to my concubine all our lives?" He said this to his brother. The transition from "man" to "Nv Jiao guy" is an extremely painful process. It is hard for this man who came out of a brothel to accept the personality of a "Nv Jiao E". But the way he was corrected was to insult. He was forced to be a man, but he can't be such a man. His position is disordered, specifically, the disorder of sexual standards. However, Duan Xiaolou, who should be responsible for his disorder, can't meet the needs of his wrong love. This is a double depression and a double loss. But he didn't change his mind. He still loves his choice. And I finally reached the point where people and drama are indistinguishable, just like Master Yuan's sentence: "For a moment, I was in a trance." But Dieyi's love was betrayed, first by Xiaolou, then by Xiaosi. In this way, one is a person who recasts his personality, and the other is a person who has saved his life and betrayed him one after another. However, in front of the bosom friend Duan Xiaolou, he is the real butterfly suit, that is, the original little bean. * * * have experienced ups and downs from the bottom to the top, and only they can be soul mates and appreciate each other. From then on, I don't think it's out of line to see Dieyi refuse Impatiens. Judging from his attitude towards impatiens, at first he strongly rejected impatiens and wanted to forcibly send her back to the brothel. During the Cultural Revolution, he accused Impatiens of being "heartless" to the small building, but after the criticism, he felt helpless sympathy and appreciated each other's pity. It seems that we can sort out the change of Butterfly Clothes' attitude towards Impatiens through the change of its title from the original "Miss Impatiens" to the later "Impatiens".
After numerous ups and downs, Cheng Dieyi chose to stage a real "death of concubine" after the Cultural Revolution. This is a bloody accusation against the destruction and even destruction of human nature by the Cultural Revolution, which makes people no longer believe that there will be light in the world. The curtain of the stage has fallen, and the drama of life is over! Yu Ji died, with a touching smile, in front of Liu Bangwan and Ma, in the arms of the man she loved very much; Cheng Dieyi, with a hint of sadness, died on the stage of his life, in front of people he couldn't love.
In addition, some "trivial details" also left a deep impression on the author. For example, the suspicion of China people's independent thinking ability is shown in the film among the marchers. Whenever someone incites them, they will shout the slogan of following suit. It is true that the liberation of China and the victory of the revolution need fearless soldiers; However, how many times have those "soldiers" who have no judgment been used, resulting in many unnecessary sacrifices? At the same time, several props, such as nod and bricks, run through the film all the time, which have promoted the development of the film plot.
The breakup of the relationship among Juxian, Xiao Lou and Dieyi began with Xiao Lou's betrayal. The end result is that Juxian hangs himself and Butterfly Clothes hangs himself. This ending is shocking. This is very frustrating. Because we saw them go through the warlord period together, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. But you can't escape "cultural destiny". This is also an incisive criticism of the "Cultural Revolution"! !