Reprinted from Douban!

"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog, That Road, That Life"

Movies are often a product of considerable tension and elasticity. The theme expressed in a certain movie A little bit of eccentricity will make the corresponding audience smaller. For example, if you play "Sin City" and "Pulp Fiction", there will definitely be people who don't buy it. But there is a type of movie that everyone will definitely cheer for - such as family movies like "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog".

A young man who failed the college entrance examination returned to his original small mountain village unwillingly, and reluctantly took over his father's job. The first postal journey with the nature of reincarnation began with my father.

I originally said that this is equivalent to China's "road movie" or to be precise, "mountain road movie". The story continues to unfold as the father and son travel through mountains and rivers. The barrier between father and son continues to dissolve. You sit quietly in the movie theater, and what unfolds in front of you is a scene that is so moist that water will flow out if you pinch it, and the silent love between a father and his son. Moved, that's what it should be.

About the screen. . . . . .

It is said that Huo Jianqi was born as an art designer, so it is not difficult for you to understand why this movie fully encompasses all the mountains, waters and shadows. At dusk when the Dong girl appeared, the picture blossomed into exquisite beauty. If the green mountains and green bamboos in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" can be regarded as elegance and pride of a scholar, and the background of the fight on the waterside pavilion in Zhang Yimou's "Hero" implies the freedom and tangle of contradictions of the world, then, I would like to say that the background of Huo Jianqi's film has the style of Xiaojiabiyu and the texture of life.

This is meant to be a quiet movie, with no heroes to save hostages, no highway car chases or you-eat-nano, I-was-clone sci-fi shenanigans. It's a movie that's so plain that you have to be patient to listen to it. Therefore, the picture language also serves the film content in this way.

About contradiction and balance. . . . . .

There was a conflict between father and son, but this conflict was resolved in the end. The relationship between father and son has gone through four levels. When going out, the father saw his son saying goodbye to his wife intimately, and he was cute and jealous. But when he started to go on the road, his son and his father were far away from each other. The son walked nonchalantly along the way and kept singing along with the radio. The father He constantly reminded his son to pay attention to the mountain road at his feet.

They entered a village and sent the fifth wife a letter that was sent regularly but did not exist at all. Here is the first level of sublimation.

After entering a Dong village, they met a Dong girl and attended a Dong wedding. Here the father implicitly talks about love with his son. This point can be regarded as the second level.

Finally, at the river bank, the son insisted on carrying his father across the river. The father discovered that his son had become very strong and tall at some point. The father lay on his son and began to choke. This is the third level.

At the end, when walking through the wind and rain bridge, letters are flying and falling. The father, son and dog collect letters together. This is the last level.

The conflict between father and son involves a third person, the son's beautiful mother. The son complained that his father always asked his mother to wait at home. The father slowly revealed his love for the mother. The film's recurring son's monologues and flashbacks of his father's memories avoid the cumbersomeness of telling the mother's story, making the morphemes concentrated and simple.

There is another contradiction between the son and the lifestyle in the mountains. The son seeks a sense of self-identity in the world outside the mountains, but does not find it. The gap between the environment in the mountains and the sense of identity he seeks creates conflicts. Finally, I passed through my father’s ceremonial letter-delivery journey. Finally, this contradiction reached a balance.

I also want to talk about the conflict between my father and the world outside the mountain. This idea is a genius for the movie. My father is a product of the mountains, simple and without any scheming. He is one-way insulated and opposed to the world outside the mountain. But what's interesting is that at the end of the film, the son scolds his father for accepting the world outside the mountains, and tells his father to pay attention to getting along with the people in the village. My father complained: The mountains are still so complicated. The son unexpectedly gave the answer: "Life is complicated." The father discovered that his son had actually grown up. So the father remained silent. Accept it silently.

Here three pairs of contradictions are intertwined. The three pairs of contradictions finally reached balance.

About the meaning of journey. . . . . .

This is a lonely and lonely journey with no scenery to see. The film only excerpts footage of the three-day journey between father and son. But this journey definitely has a different meaning.

This journey was a ceremonial trek undertaken by the father in order to familiarize his son with his future postal work. After this journey, the son will be the real successor. And my father is also retiring. My father has been trekking on the mountain road for decades. Retirement is always tragic, but my father is not sad, but shows a little nostalgia at the end. The film does not talk about "sadness" here. After this trek the father will retire and the son will inherit the job. Such maintenance and inheritance are meaningful in this ritualistic trek.

This journey is the son’s imitation of his father’s life and the father’s reenactment and summary of his own life. It turns out that the son has never accompanied his father on such a journey. During this journey, he experienced his father's hard work and his father's silent love for him and his mother. And he will live like his father in the future. This is a copy of my father's life. During his father's last trip to the mountains, he kept recalling the past, and all the details seemed to be vivid in his mind. However, this kind of life will no longer exist in the future. So this is a recap and summary.

This journey is still a kind of reincarnation and continuation. The journey is cyclical. When you leave home, you have to come back again. The father has been trekking on the road for decades, and the son will continue to trek. The son once visited the world outside the mountains, and now he has returned to his original place. Just like what my father said in the movie: Why do people in the mountains like to live in the mountains? It's like putting your feet in shoes and feeling comfortable. The son is the reincarnation and continuation of his father's life, as well as the reincarnation and continuation of his father's work. The proposition of the film about human existence is once again emphasized here.

A few of my favorite scenes. . . . . . .

As I said at the beginning, the movie is Hamlet, and there are as many Hamlets as there are people watching it. Here are a few excerpts that I find interesting.

When the son and his father were about to start their journey, the son said goodbye to his mother cordially, but ignored his father. The father said angrily and jealously: "Mom, damn, call me." Gotta kiss!" The father's honest and lovely appearance came to the fore.

Secondly, the father said to his son when he saw a beautiful Dong girl in a Dong village: "Every time I go into the mountains, I think of you whenever I see her; I say in my heart, maybe one day it will be my son." After seeing you, I will definitely not be able to move forward." This is the first time that father and son discuss love. My father said it implicitly and honestly. The son complained a little and used the example of his mother and father to answer. At this time, the father and son were getting closer.

The Dong girl told her son with an innocent smile: Put the bowl on the radio, this will be a stereo. The son is numb. The son's sense of abruptness in the mountains was broken by this girl. Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile.

The part where the son is sent across the river by his father and the father and son are picking up the letters is almost the climax of each section. There are many such highlights in the film, but that does not mean that this is a film that pays attention to small things to win. The smoothness and smoothness of the macro tone truly make this film a success.

In this movie, although the name is Nashan Naren Nagou, the dog only appears as an anthropomorphic sidekick. There are a lot less places worth rendering.

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been watching this movie for a long time, so I almost look at it purely objectively, so the language lacks a lot of beauty.

"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog"

The rain is silent and the wind is silent

The road is nurturing and you are quiet

The hands are rough and the feet are tired

No matter the hair is messy, you are still quiet

The noisy dream outside continues

I am attached to you I am waiting

The song is still singing, the world has changed

I always think that you are still quiet in the distance

That mountain, that person, that dog, very literary changed name. The first time I heard about it was from a communication teacher's nonsense. I don't want to think that today, two or three years have passed by in a blink of an eye. The popular sentence patterns that were fashionable back then are rarely mentioned anymore. The rush of work often makes people exhausted, and they have no time to have leisure time for divergent reading like they did in college. Even the time to calm down and watch movies seems so precious. So I was afraid that encountering those bad words and images would ruin the beautiful mood of a night.

Fortunately, this movie that my friends call my favorite is good. After reading it, I couldn't help but think of Xiangxi, a region that was originally mystified in Mr. Shen Congwen's "Border Town", as "foreign" and otherworldly. The whole film is beautiful and poetic, full of green and full of warmth, flowing quietly with the flickering images. It's like tracing a long scroll of freehand ink painting, chanting the pastoral poems of Tao and Xie. Afterwards, the body and mind are cleansed, and you can't help but feel refreshed, and you can forget the good and the bad.

This is almost a paradise that has survived under the iron heel of modern industrial civilization, with lush green mountains and forests, bright springs, filled with mist, and rising smoke. A fellow postman who is about to retire takes his son on the postal route he has traveled thousands of times, blending so harmoniously with the environment. They were born and raised here, and the ceremonial handover begins in the morning light. . There are no abominable teachings or earth-shattering events, only walking. Walking is not only the most basic fact, but also seems to be a clear and clear clue, connecting their own memories and experiences, as well as the lives of the recipients.

It is precisely because of the strong local atmosphere revealed in the film from beginning to end that those ordinary, simple and sincere stories moved us.

The image of a father is traditional. In our minds, a father is just like this. He travels around all year round in order to make a living. Therefore, a father is strange and stern, something to look up to and admire, and even make people fear him. Mother represents the traditional image of perseverance and waiting. Mother and child are naturally connected, so mother is plain, kind, and diligent. There are actually very subtle differences in discerning children's feelings towards their parents.

The image of the son is also traditional. At first, the son was alienated from his father and the generation gap reached the point where he refused to call him "Dad". However, this time he inherited his father's business, but it gave him a deep understanding of the profession of rural postal service and his father. Chance. Liu Ye, who plays the son, is not as handsome as Chen Kun. He is not as romantic and smooth as him, but he has more vicissitudes and toughness, and is simple and cute.

The father and son traveled through mountains and rivers step by step, and their hearts got closer step by step. Countless touching details touched our susceptible hearts. The father shed tears of emotion when his son was carrying his father across the river, but pretended to be calm to cover up the past when facing his son; the son stared at his father's lonely back on the top of the mountain, and smiled understandingly; the father was blown away by the wind while chasing. When he wrote the letter, the son called him worriedly; the son washed his feet with his father, and put his legs on his father's lap like a child in his sleep, and the father showed a generous and loving smile; and the father watched him off at the end. The son's high-spirited expression as he pushed the dog in the direction his son was walking alone. The emotions expressed between men are undoubtedly more subtle and deeper. The two men's mutual understanding finally converges on their understanding of the woman they love equally deeply: their mother. At the end, the sentence "It's not easy for her either" contains a lot of deep affection and consideration.

My favorite is the memory of my father interspersed in the middle of the story. The love between the young father and mother is really cute. Those beautiful pictures created with light and shadow make people think of Iwai's image language. There are endless old topics and old stories, but they are irreplaceable classics and timeless. It even feels like the film deliberately incorporates those characters and stories that best embody cultural charm. The peaceful old woman, the simple country boy, the beautiful Dong girl. They are all waiting quietly for a letter. A person, or a new world. Life with hope is so full of vitality.

I am not surprised by the criticism from those who attack the closed small-farmer mentality and patriarchal authority, and those who claim to hold feminist beliefs. They'll jump out and hammer home the clichés. However, raising these objections to "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" goes against our true intentions. Every time we talk about life with others, our ideal lifestyle still cannot escape from Lao Zhuang and Zen Buddhism, and we cannot escape from returning to the fields and seclusion in the mountains and forests.

The film is full of philosophical questions about the way of existence itself. Aren’t the son’s doubts also the moviegoers’ doubts?

——Why do mountain people live in the mountains? It is said that mountain people are the descendants of gods, but my mother said that because people living in the mountains are as comfortable as their feet in shoes.

——Father said: The human heart is more tired than the legs.

——Isn’t it boring for a rural postman to walk so many miles all day long? My father said that it is not boring if you have something to think about. If you think big, it's ideal.

I really want to be able to live in this earth poetically with a peaceful heart. As Heidegger said, "living on the earth with work", "dwelling on the earth skillfully", "living on the earth freely", especially "dwelling on the earth with an aesthetic attitude towards life". Here, my father’s plain language has explained everything.

Interpretation of the Oriental movie "The Man and the Dog in the Mountain"

Title: "The Man and the Dog in the Mountain"

Director: Huo Jianqi

Starring: Teng Rujun, Liu Ye, Zhao Xiuli, Chen Hao

Screenwriter: Si Wu

Original work: Peng Jianming

Producer: Li Chunhua

Photography: Zhao Lei

Artist: Song Jun

Music: Wang Xiaofeng

Awards: 1999 Golden Rooster Award for Best Drama and Best Actor

Most Popular Film Award at Montreal Film Festival, Canada

Best Actor Award at Peking University Student Film Festival

Top Ten Best Film Awards of the Year by Shanghai Film Critics Association

< p>First place in the 2001 Japan Mainichi Film Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

"The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is a film full of artistic conception. The film fully displays the oriental sentiment and cultural connotation, so I think "That Man That Dog" should be a representative oriental movie.

When watching the film "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", looking at the beautiful scenery of western Hunan and the story in the film, people will think of Shen Congwen's article. Although the Xiangxi shown in the film "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" through film creation and expression techniques is not as simple and moving as Shen Congwen's words, the expression in the film is different from the way the words are expressed, so in my opinion It seems that the beautiful scenery of western Hunan and the way of telling stories in "Nashan, That Man, That Dog" through film techniques still have an aesthetic atmosphere.

From the information I found, it can be seen that after the film "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" was filmed, it did not cause much response in the domestic market, and no film company was even willing to It was released and released, and only one copy was sold in China. On the contrary, the film was widely welcomed in Japan and achieved good box office results. Some people say that this film is a film that blooms inside and outside the wall. This may be closely related to the fact that Chinese film distributors have only focused on commercial blockbusters in recent years. Although the distributor's lack of attention has prevented the audience from learning about this film in time to a certain extent, when I checked the information, I found that there are still many people in China who like this film. It was screened on CCTV a few years ago. After this movie, many people expressed their love for this movie. The first time I watched this movie was when it was broadcast on CCTV. After watching it for the first time, I was very moved. I really liked the style of this movie. In the plain narrative, it showed a kind of aesthetic beauty. style. This time, probably because I wanted to write a film review, I found this film and watched it carefully twice. I felt that this film is different from many commercial blockbusters today and is a film worth remembering.

Next, I will analyze this film from several aspects of its narrative style and use of lens language, and share my own views on this film.

1. Narrative style of the film

"That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" tells a story about a father and his son. The father, as a rural postman who is about to retire, lives in the vast world. He had been sending letters for a lifetime in the deep mountains. Because of his illness, his son had to take over the job of delivering letters. When his son delivered a letter for the first time, his father was worried about it, so he and his son embarked on a journey to deliver the letter. In the process of delivering this letter, the many years of estrangement between father and son were eliminated. The young son finally understood the hard work and significance of his father's postman job for decades, and the father also understood his son's waiting and helplessness for so many years. Therefore, among the green mountains and green waters, the conflict between father and son was resolved.

The film "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is accompanied by the resolution of the conflict between father and son. At the beginning of the film, there was a conflict between father and son that had accumulated for more than 20 years. This conflict was caused by the fact that the father had been delivering letters abroad for many years and had insufficient communication with his son. In the process of the father accompanying his son to deliver the letter, this contradiction was resolved. The resolution of this contradiction followed a step-by-step process. At the beginning of the film, we can see that the son and his father are far apart on the road, but by the end of the film, the distance between the son and his father has become very close. From my own analysis, the film mainly helps the son understand his father better through the following things. The first time was when I first entered the village, at the home of the village secretary. The village secretary said: "Every teacher, doctor, saver, and police officer who comes to our place from outside can be a model worker or a cadre. Just you, just leave." Let’s go, it’s been so many years…” From the village secretary’s words, the son learned about his father’s hard work and dedication over the years. After the village secretary left, the son asked his father why. In his father's answer, the son gained a deeper understanding of his father. When the two were about to leave, everyone in the village came out to see the newly appointed postman off. This should also have allowed the son to understand the respect he received as a postman and gain a new understanding of his father's work as a postman. After that, from the time when the father sent a letter to the fifth wife to comfort the fifth wife, the villagers specially set the wedding on the day when the father went into the mountain. The villagers threw ropes to prevent the father from rolling down the mountain again, and nearby villagers spontaneously poured water on the postal road. Through several events such as filling water bottles, the son's understanding of his father gradually deepened, and the years of estrangement between father and son were also eliminated. The film uses a progressive approach to eliminate the gap between the son and the father, which should be a good way.

From a narrative point of view, the film "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is narrated in the first person. According to convention, if there is a stream of consciousness in a film narrated in the first person, Flashback shots can only express the subjective consciousness of the narrator. However, in the film "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog", there are more than once flashbacks of the father's subjective consciousness guided by the son's narration. Although this method is somewhat inconsistent with the first-person narrative of the movie, it does not give people a messy feeling, and the audience does not feel that the cloth is smooth. This may be related to the theme of the film, which is the relationship between father and son. The rough feelings are repaired on the way to send the letter, and the repair of this kind of feelings requires the joint efforts of father and son to complete. Therefore, inserting footage of the father's memories in a son's first-person narration makes the restoration of the relationship between father and son appear more objective and reasonable.

2. The use of lens language in the film

1. The color of the film

What makes a profound impact in the film is the natural beauty of Western Hunan. When looking at the natural beauty, natural colors are well used. What has a profound impact on people in the film is the vast swaths of green. The green fields and mountains give people a sense of tranquility and simplicity, creating a beautiful artistic conception. In addition to the extensive use of green, the use of golden glow in the evening also fully demonstrates the beauty of nature.

2 The use of light effects in the film

When the film was shot outdoors, natural light effects were mostly used, while when the film was shot indoors, dramatic light effects were mostly used.

Using natural lighting effects when being in nature fully reflects the beauty of nature and the director's intention to follow nature. For example, when the father and son walk in the fields in the early morning and the fields in the evening, they use natural light effects.

In terms of the use of dramatic light effects, it is mostly used indoors. For example, when a father helps his son sort out mail parcels, he uses dramatic lighting effects. The light hitting the character's face can depict the character's expression and psychology in more detail. In addition to this section, at the end of the film, when the son was telling his father what he should pay attention to when returning to the village, he used orange lights. The use of this light effect not only portrayed the expressions and psychology of the characters, but also hinted at The gap between father and son is eliminated and mutual understanding is enhanced. At this time, the use of light effects has been integrated into the film's narrative.

3. The spatial composition of the film

In the film "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", the director uses the lens to show us two spatial forms, one is open nature space, and the other is a closed indoor space.

When shooting nature, the director showed an open natural space. If a fixed lens is used, the first thing to be photographed is that the father and son's bamboo hats appear from the bottom of the mountain, then enter the camera and then go away. Another highlight is that after meeting a Dong girl, three people walked through the fields. The camera zoomed further and further away, and finally the three people gradually disappeared into the boundless fields. The use of these lenses can enable the audience to better integrate into the artistic conception of the film when watching, highlighting the characteristics of the film.

Compared with the open natural space, the part where the director shot indoors showed a closed indoor space. For example, when a father is helping his son pack a parcel, and when the son is explaining to his father what he should pay attention to when returning to the village, they were all shot indoors, showing a closed space.

4. The use of lenses in the film

The use of many lenses in the film "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" had a profound impact on me. Such as the use of depth of field shots and slow motion.

In terms of the use of depth-of-field shots, for example, at the beginning of the film, the foreground is the father collecting mail packages for his son and the conversation between the father and the son, and the background is the mother cooking outside the house. The use of such a depth-of-field lens not only allows the main characters to appear in the first place, but also clearly explains the relationship between several main characters. In addition, the most common use of depth of field shots in the film is on the road, with changes between close shots, long shots and medium shots. In the lens, the character is walking from the upper left corner of the screen, getting closer and closer. At this time, the camera has completed the transition from long shot to close shot. At the same time, the camera position does not move. The camera rotates with the movement of the character, and the character moves closer and closer. The further away you go, the lens completes the transition from close-up to long-range.

The most obvious use of slow motion is when the father is chasing the letter that was blown away by the wind. The use of slow motion here profoundly shows the father's professionalism as an old postman, and this scene also deeply moved his son. In addition, slow motion in the film is mostly used in recalling scenes, such as the mother and son waiting for the father's return, and the father carrying his young son shopping on his back, all of which are expressed in slow motion. The use of slow motion in recalling scenes can express a sense of history and has a very good effect on expressing the long-lasting feelings in the characters' hearts.

In addition to the above analysis, there are also some shortcomings in the film. First of all, the director may not be familiar with rural life, and when showing some details, there is a certain deviation from the actual rural life. For example, when a father and son walk into a village, the villagers they meet would naturally ask if they have any letters from their families, but this is not shown in the film.

Secondly, in terms of the use of music, although the film uses light music very well, there are problems with the use of some popular music. For example, the song "That's why you go away" played in the film was a single released in 1995, but it appeared in the film in the 1980s. This has to be said to be a mistake.

It can be seen from the above analysis that although there are some mistakes in the details of the film "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog", it has a strong oriental feel in terms of artistic conception, style and expression. Color, so I think this film should be regarded as one of the representatives of Eastern movies.