Who can make some comments on the movie Scarecrow directed by Tong Wang?

Scarecrow: Absurd History and Historical Absurdity

Watching a good movie (at least to your taste) will make you excited for a long time, and the gloom and unhappiness accumulated in your heart will soon disappear. A few days ago, a night's dream made me dizzy during the day. In the season of rivers of blood, I wandered around the city like a bachelor, walking through leaflets and killing, my life was as fragile as a paper towel, and inexplicable fears spread overnight. I seem to be an old man who has experienced bullets and vicissitudes. I spend my precious youth reliving the past that I have forgotten or remembered, but I can't figure out why such a dream was reflected. I remember waking up in the morning with the only thought of "May the world be peaceful forever", as if I were subconsciously in a "distant" war era. Maybe now I suddenly come across a history full of wars. For me who has never experienced the war personally, this should probably be a terrible thing. All the imaginations about war come from written history books and corresponding war movies. War is like a quiet historical term, lying comfortably in the memoirs written by the stakeholders who won the war, or on a two-dimensional screen. Living in a relatively peaceful season, I sometimes even "naively" look forward to the coming of war. The heroic ideals and impulses contained in this adolescence have repeatedly encouraged me to dream of venting and acting as a hero in the war, but in the realistic dream of war, I shuddered at it and turned my head and ran away, which became the triviality and embarrassment that I laughed at in reality after waking up, as if I had not encountered danger and death, but the whole atmosphere made me feel not heroic awe, but fear of life (the excuse of "holding a knife to my neck" became a modern man's life-saving. A strange dream this season, I can't figure out what it indicates. Maybe it doesn't make any sense at all, but I don't want to cater to the laziness of thinking with the sophistry of "meaninglessness is also a kind of meaning" Fortunately, I seem to have found the answer from the movie I saw yesterday. Maybe this is just a way and possibility to convince myself to explain or understand.

Tong Wang, a director of Taiwan Province Province who we are not very familiar with, read his Scarecrow, and I seem to think that he may be a director who has been absent or neglected in the history of Taiwan Province Province (however, it doesn't matter. For those who are familiar with various histories, those who are "omitted" by contemporary people are likely to become masters of later generations, and later generations are extremely willing to "dig" such masters to make up for the current academic gaps or explain the predecessors' works. As for the ranking, it is not up to us to decide and decide. According to the poet Cang Di, such things should be left to history (it seems that history has naturally become a just God, is it true or is it shelved after we have no choice), so I won't rap here. The Scarecrow is a very good-looking movie, which easily presents the serious war era with very absurd brushstrokes. Although there is no heavy or direct surface depth, it is all tragic and sad in the play. Instead of telling us an absurd historical picture, it presents an absurd history.

The lovely scarecrow tells us what it knows straight away, because it believes or seems to its straw bag head that everyone around it is the same as it, "wearing the same clothes, dreaming the same dream and waiting for the same tomorrow." A clever director hides the camera behind a scarecrow who will never lie (he can't even speak, and of course he won't lie). The high-spirited story and the birth time of the story can easily be presented in a tone like a real and exaggerated camera, and the scarecrow has just become a legal person to describe the absurdity.

Afa and Kuanzui had to suffer from color blindness because of their mother's hard nourishment with cow dung, and became quasi-healthy disabled people, so they fortunately escaped the sacred responsibility of fighting for the emperor and lived happily in the countryside. The closed environment is in good order under the control of the Japanese. There was no Japanese massacre, because there was no guerrilla resistance and no visionary to fight the Japanese devils. In addition to the American plane with "long hair and big genitals" (Japanese instructors describe demonized American devils to women in the village), there are no guns with blood except time bombs that can be exchanged for marine fish. Of course, there will be no sacrifice except being called up to fight in Nanyang. By combining all daily life with relaxed and happy music, the director rendered the mood and rhythm of narrative. In the cruel war, the funny scenes temporarily paralyzed the audience in these quiet lives. From the ceremony when the local people solemnly handed back the urns of several fallen soldiers from Japanese soldiers with the brisk Japanese military songs, funny performances and music basically accompanied the whole movie. Obviously, the relatively heavy theme was expressed by the director in an extremely absurd way or perspective, and the tears of suffering and misery were replaced by unconscious smiles. Apart from the bitterness of poverty, it seems that people can't find the shadow of war described in movies and history books, and there is no resistance and conflict, let alone the contradiction and struggle between ourselves and the enemy. However, it seems that the tragic war it refers to has not been weakened at all because of the external absurd form, and every picture is branded with the shadow of war or occupation.

Afa's sister Narcissus, with a big mouth, is the most beautiful girl in the village. Her husband was drafted into the army the day after they got married. It seems that her husband was killed before his brand-new bridal gown was taken off. Poor Narcissus became a crazy widow and wore that red skirt when she got married. Tea dancing in the green field, like the ghost of death, appears on beautiful pictures from time to time and becomes a symbol of war victims. Interestingly, the time bomb thrown by an American plane that Afa and Hirozui found underground was foolishly put in Narcissus' room. A crazy woman sleeps with a bomb, which is as powerful as the person who killed her. This kind of unconscious frolic (nonsense) scene is clearly a fictional coincidence to create a strong tragedy. The existence of daffodils, like a virtual lamp swaying in the dark night, has always been a disturbing and frightening factor in the whole movie. The director didn't use her madness to create a comedy effect. Obviously, she became a serious reference. I clearly remember that the only scene in the film where she didn't make a hullabaloo about was that she caught a deserter stealing food from his house in the dark. He said he was taken away as soon as he got married. It's not that he doesn't want to work for the emperor. He sang Japanese military songs in a hoarse voice to prove his loyalty to the emperor, but he couldn't give up his pregnant wife. The kind Afa family took out the food that was already tight for him. In the dim environment, Narcissus kept staring at the deserter who was covered in stolen goods and folded his hands in horror. I don't know what kept her calm for a moment about such a lively scene. Maybe the clothes of the deserter reminded her of her new husband. I think this is the only tragic scene in the whole film.

What makes me feel particularly cordial and gratified in the film is the innocence and kindness of farmers in China, which may be as simple as the earth cultivated through thousands of years of agricultural culture, and no culture can change it. Afa's boss (I wonder if the boss here only represents the name of the city people) is also a relative (the boss's wife and Afa's wife are sisters). In order to avoid the war, Afa, who was poor, underfed and not warm, entertained his guests with the best food (specially sold a fish) and enthusiastically arranged for his boss's family to live at home. This simple warmth still remains in the rural customs of Chinese mainland. But the boss from the city sold their land to the sugar factory without consulting with the Afa brothers (maybe it belongs to the boss, but this land is the lifeblood of the Afa brothers). When the boss told Afa and Kuanzui, who were farming in the field, the director used a long-distance lens and put three people in the same frame. The boss on the left stood peacefully on the ridge, and the two brothers on the right stood in the ground with their heads down. In the distance are misty mountains, and the sky is dark. The whole picture is very depressing, which is a rare gray tone in the film, as if the pressure of war did not bring them too much fear and deprivation.

From the film, we can't see any fiction about the country or the nation. The farmers live a basic life as usual. It seems that no matter who rules, the land must be planted, the food must be eaten, and the young men must be involved in the war. Whether it is fighting the Japanese for the Kuomintang or fighting the Great East Asian War for the Japanese, it is not much different for isolated and peace-loving farmers, but the reputation of fighting is different. A dazzling hero who may bring about the survival of the country and a farmer who may be loyal to the emperor and have the same medal of honor are indistinguishable. Perhaps, as Afa said, the award flag returned from the war is not enough to make a pair of underwear. This is not to say that they are unconscious or not noble, but that in the face of the honor and fantasy of survival, underwear may be more real than the award flag (although underwear is also related to honor and civilization to some extent, it is estimated that our ancestors did not wear underwear, and now it seems to be the result of the expansion and globalization of civilization). The Japanese mobilized farmers to fight against the United States under the banner of the Emperor and launched the Great East Asia War. It seems that they are not the same concept as our anti-Japanese war, but the same passionate propaganda has unconsciously aroused people's passion and excitement about whatever it is. Their effect is the same, which is nothing more than bringing more people into the game of war, so that each side can annihilate the so-called "enemy" of the other side with just courage. Soldiers or conscripts farmers are only divided into different war sequences unconsciously or uncontrollably according to the region (who rules and who manages, of course, the region seems to coincide with the nation to some extent), and their sacrifices are as random as sparrows in the field. Judging from the opposition between justice and fascism, it is obvious that Taiwan Province people were recruited by the Japanese to wage the East Asian War. But for those who joined the army, what is the difference between justice and injustice? It seems that the tragic consequences cannot be measured by clear value judgment. In my opinion, justice and injustice in war are evil to mankind. Although sometimes "good for evil" becomes the legalization of just cause, revenge is not so much "punishment" as "imitation" of evil people

For Taiwan Province Province, which lives between China and Japan, it seems that the embarrassment and ambiguity of geographical position have caused the springboard or victim of confrontation between the two sides, and become the use weight and transformation object in their struggle. In fact, I deeply felt the infiltration of civilization from the movies. During the relatively stable 50 years when Taiwan Province Province was occupied by Japan, the education and culture of daily necessities made Taiwan Province Province almost a quasi-Japanese region. In the film, the local "adult" (the chief executive in charge of the villagers) is Japanese, and the education of children from childhood is also carried out in Japanese, and even the children have changed their Japanese names. In a teacher's training, we saw that the teacher asked a child to aim a magnifying glass at the sun, and then lit a blank sheet of paper, which showed that the emperor shone on us all the time like the sun, and only by uniting like a magnifying glass could we exert greater energy. Such an attractive national education is nothing more than laying a basic spiritual fortress for the rule of totalitarian era. In the cultivation of this juice, the people are unconsciously shaped into materials that can be easily used under the banner of glory. This way can be found in any totalitarian society and culture, except that Japan borrowed a powerful "emperor" that will not be easily overthrown when shaping the "Yamato nation", instead of a realistic leader or an illusory paradise. Facts have proved that the emperor has more historical charm than Hitler and Stalin.

The last absurd story in the film tells that the Afa brothers found a time bomb underground under the guidance of adults. Of course, the director won't let the bomb explode on the road, which has a tragic ending. Instead, he wisely asked them to drop the bomb into the sea under the pressure of the sheriff and then explode. Although they didn't get any prizes, they unexpectedly got a lot of dead fish (the fish floating on the water were exaggerated a lot, just like the magical realism story in "Deep Chocolate" in which tears dried up and turned into salt), and they also returned home full of food. Accompanied by the scene of their family happily eating fish in the dim light, Afa's mother gave a beautiful expectation that "if Americans can bomb once every three or two days, then we will have fish to eat every day", and the reflected light gradually became smaller and smaller, disappearing into the darkness, and the movie was over.

The Scarecrow was once praised by Jiang Wen, and it is said that there are many references to the Scarecrow in his new film The Devil Comes. I think Tong Wang's uniqueness lies in his attitude and perspective towards war-related films, which can touch national feelings in a less serious and painful way, that is, he tells the story of war in another way. We find that its parody and absurd treatment have not concealed the power of reference and criticism at all, and even brought something more vivid than direct presentation. Although it is not the truth of history and has no strong narrative desire, it can stimulate people's imagination and see more real "emotions" hidden by history books and the usual methods of narrative history. The "emotion" here refers not only to personal emotion, but also to history and the past. That is to say, we should not treat history as a cold "plasticine" that can be fiddled with casually, but treat it with the same feelings as people. Therefore, I think Tong Wang's narration in The Scarecrow is very tense or pleasant.

If we can play Lenovo, similar scenes seem to be found in some foreign movies. 1987, British director Boehlmann filmed Hope and Glory, and looked at the scene of London being bombed by the Germans during World War II from the perspective of children. Because children don't have much ideological influence, so in their eyes, many interesting things may happen in the war, such as picking up shells in the ruins (of course, it's not as exaggerated as the children in the scarecrow picking up bombs with baskets). Not as magical as the Afa brothers sending bombs to catch big fish from the sea. For example, the landing of parachuting pilots aroused the curiosity of children and residents. It seems that the cruelty of movies is dissolved in silent daily life, and war without blood has tragic power. I wonder if Jiang Wen's Sunny Days can be used for reference. ). 199 1 year, the Mediterranean directed by Italian director Gabriel Salvato exiled several soldiers to distant Greek islands, and the soldiers who didn't fight lived happily with the locals, as if the cruel World War II had also given many absurd and romantic stories. To some extent, this narrative strategy resists the way that mainstream discourse restates history, and brings us another kind of war imagination full of joy or daily warmth, but it is by no means a whitewash but the same understanding as positive reflection.

Back to the beginning of the article, the dream battle scene may be regarded as a way to feel the war. For us, the feeling of war or history may be more of an emotion, or they give us a kind of imagination and atmosphere, rather than the reproduction and dry record of empirical evidence determined by reason and textual research. The memory of history is not only the majesty outlined by solemn reasoning or grand national narrative, but also should have its own personal interpretation and even fiction, because such history has distinct vitality. The absurd history may only be a historical existence, but the absurdity of history is a vague memory in my dream.