Film Review of Wandering in Beijing

After reading it, I feel that these people who are engaged in art on the edge of society are not as arrogant as we thought. They are as busy as we are for their own livelihood. Only in their eyes, material poverty has become a secondary thing, and art has been integrated into their blood. They can give up everything for painting, photography, writing or directing. For them, the value and significance of life lies entirely in their artistic life, which is what they think is the real state of life. I don't see the slightest affectation from them. What moved me was not only their "dedication" (the word they used was inaccurate), but their sincerity, or the presentation of the real state of life. Perhaps this is the only "purpose" to maintain their existence (although the word flashes a utilitarian smile). In these seemingly unadorned objective lens languages, the tension of individual life is shown internally, which gives me a kind of "realistic" power. What shocks me is not the simple and dull daily life, but the living "soul" behind these "realities" that may be dull or helpless. Wu should have contact with them, which is why he is so considerate and "true" (in reason)

Just after watching Wandering in Beijing, a personal documentary made by Mr. Wu more than ten years ago was shocked: extremely personalized language narrative, dim scenes and lighting, crooked composition, such a true description and portrayal, no story, only monologue, or a kind of narrative. These people are the epitome of an era and a crowd, representing a kind of pursuit, a way of life and a state of life ..... Mr. Wu is also a drifter in Beijing and has a similar mental journey with the five "vagrants". He himself said, "I had a similar life with the characters in the film, hope and disappointment, suffering and happiness, innocence and madness." It is my simple idea to record a special group of artists like China, and at the same time, I want to play with what I think is the real recording method for the first time without any constraints and interference. After the film was finished, this page has been turned over to the whole 1980s. For a kind of China youth, it may be the end of a romantic dream era, and the 1990s will be completely different. Even the characters in Wandering Beijing, their artistic life may become the art of life. Of course, this is what I am thinking at the moment, and during the filming process, I just think about how to record them honestly like a real bystander. " I think, maybe this is the real documentary.

Wandering in Beijing is an unfinished misty poem, while Wandering in Beijing is an exploratory novel with no ending.

Wandering in Beijing tells the story of five freelance writers, Zhang Ci, Zhang Dali, Zhang Xiaping, freelance photographer Gao Bo and freelance drama director Mou Sen, seeking their dreams in Beijing. In this process full of hardships and contradictions, there is no result and exploration will continue.

Wandering in Beijing has a subtitle, the last dreamer. Due to the reform and opening-up, various western ideas have flooded into China. In the 1980s, college graduates and educated young people pursued freedom more than ever before, not only in politics, but also in artistic creation. Although their dreams did not conform to the social reality at that time, they never stopped pursuing them. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was a period when young intellectuals turned from advocating dreams to paying attention to reality. This is also the age recorded in Wandering in Beijing. Those five vagrants became the last true dreamer.

Beijing was an ideal stage for young people at that time. They think that when they come to Beijing, they can do what they want and give full play to their talents. Zhang Ci finally chose to come to Beijing, because he couldn't stand the indifference and dullness of Yunnan Gejiu editorial department. The reason why Zhang Xiaping came to Beijing is that Beijing is the capital, and the word Beijing is very attractive. In fact, what attracts people is her own ideal of Beijing. Zhang Dali came to Beijing because he couldn't live without painting. Gao Bo stayed in Beijing because he wanted to take some photos of himself. He said that wandering is freedom, and everyone should have some wandering. Mousen dreams of owning his own troupe and performing his own plays in Beijing.

However, there is a fierce conflict between their dreams and reality. Zhang Dali felt that he was beginning to hate the artistic atmosphere in Beijing, and he didn't know what he was going to do among a large group of people who were busy and trying to make a living. Gao Bo's understanding of vagrancy is contradictory. He thinks he feels insecure in Beijing, but because he has a Beijing ID card, he doesn't have to worry about the hukou problem like others. Mou Sen, like Gao Bo and Zhang Dali, sometimes lacks economic resources and has to make a living everywhere. He also summed up a set of tricks to make a living. When Zhang Ci told me that she lived near Peking University, she cried. Peking University was both her canteen and her bathhouse, because she didn't have a truly stable home. Zhang Xiaping suffers from severe depression. As the saying goes, artists are crazy. Because of life, she thought of suicide many times. In the social environment at that time, being a freelancer meant facing the uncertainty of life and a series of other problems. While pursuing their dreams, they have to cope with the heavy pressure of life, so in their hearts, matter and spirit are struggling fiercely.

An important manifestation of the struggle between matter and spirit is their attitude towards stability. They hope to have a stable life, but at the same time they don't want stability, because it will affect their creation. Their mood is extremely contradictory. In such an ambivalent state of mind, they have different understandings and different treatments on the commercialization of art. Taking Zhang Dali and Zhang Xiaping as examples, Zhang Dali thinks that it is understandable to sell paintings, while Zhang Xiaping thinks that paintings are their inner expression, art and cannot be bought or sold. He would rather sell them than sell them.

The pursuit of art and the persecution of material life make these wandering artists split in personality and spirit, and some people can't stand it and finally go crazy. ......

Someone commented on these people like this: "People with ideals have to go through hardships. Good people have to go through more hardships, and they may have regarded these hardships as a kind of happiness and an indispensable part of life. "