I know Zhang Ailing is so good after seeing the first incense in the movie version
◎Tangshan
“He seemed to have an orange-red flower blooming on his mouth. The flower faded immediately, and it was cold and dark again…” This is the last sentence of the novel “The First Incense”. The so-called “orange-red flower” means that cigarette butts are shining and extinguishing.
Having seen the movie “The First Incense”, it is difficult to restrain the urge to go through the original work again. Only to find out that Zhang Ailing likes red.
According to Mr. Wu Fuhui’s statistics, 91 of the 16 works of “Legend” used colorful words, with “red” the most, accounting for 25.4%. As for “The First Incense”, according to scholar Yang Jiaqi’s statistics, 11 colors have appeared in the text, with red accounting for 22.3% and cool colors accounting for 72.1%.
The contrast between red and cool colors constitutes the color interest of the original work. The movie “First Incense” actually got it accurately, but sitting in the theater, how many viewers will notice this detail?
But this does not prevent countless bad reviews of the movie “The First Incense”, such as: it seems that Ma Sichun is more big-waisted and rounded; I thought it might be an ordinary and plain bad film, but I didn’t expect it to be so bad that it was worth the price; it was written by Ge Weilong. The history of corruption, but the title is actually Qiao Qiqiao…
On Douban, the movie “The First Incense” only got a poor 5.6 points.
This is a frustrating reality: after so many years, we are still so far away from Zhang Ailing. The movie version of “The First Incense” is like a reagent, accurately marking the gap between us and modern times, and marking how much tolerance, poetry and understanding we have left.
The movie shows the neglected Zhang Ailing
If I don’t watch the movie “The First Incense”, I can’t accept Zhang Ailing because she is “not profound enough.”
Yes, literature should be “profound”. Even if most people can’t tell, what is “profound” can only be dimly thought, and it should contain several points:
One is the sublime, which leads the flesh to be holy.
The second is to be critical and face up to the current predicament.
Third, philosophical reason, breaking through the confusion of appearance.
Fourth, a sense of morality makes readers more morally passionate.
In fact, these four points are from a typical male perspective. They are the posture of the emperor looking at the garden-pretending to be king over all things, pointing the country. This is why, many people do not read novels, but also criticize from these points, because this posture is intoxicating.
The movie “The First Incense” presents a neglected Zhang Ailing, which makes people suddenly realize: Maybe it is “profoundly” wrong, but Zhang Ailing is right.
From the “profound” point of view, “The First Incense” has little meaning: under the lure of the rogue aunt, the innocent girl degenerates step by step, showing the evil of bad society. It is nothing more than a high copy of “Salome” and “Biography of Flowers on the Sea”, an old story that has been told countless times.
“The First Incense” also has several “suffocations”: Qiao Qiqiao is so unreliable, but Ge Weilong loves him; after love disappears, she has to marry him; Ge Weilong obviously can escape, why he returned halfway… Unreasonable, all belong to the “collapse of realism.”
In short, every detail only thinks about “inevitability”, so that it does not collapse. This falls into the paradox: Throughout the ages, which life was not caused by accident? Accident is the greatest reality, but realism cannot be written.
Doomed to not understand it without changing the perspective
In fact, realism is just an excuse, and patriarchalism is the core—traditional realist aesthetics is actually an imitation of patriarchal society.
As a result, the literary world is divided into three, six or nine grades; there is also a pyramid structure from the common people to the emperor; each level has strong barriers and completely different contexts… Wearing such colored glasses, the “First Burning Incense” except for Zhang Ailing’s writing style Yes, nothing else. When everyone was looking forward to “Zhang Shidiren”, there was such a strange saying: The movie “The First Incense” is Xu Anhua’s “The First Incense”, not Zhang Ailing’s.
Without changing the patriarchal perspective, “The First Incense” is a bad story, and Zhang Ailing’s resurrection is also useless.
From a male standpoint, Ge Weilong lost her innocence and therefore lost value. Therefore, her heart must be depressed, and Qiao Qiqiao and aunt should bear the responsibility. This kind of sentimental thought is another kind of derogation of the dignity of women’s lives. How can this “Jinling Thirteen Hairpins”-style Low match Zhang Ailing?
In the movie “The First Incense”, there is no confession, no pure love, no infatuation, and there is no eye-catching with the joy of bedclothes. But it captured the soul of the original: even if she fell, Ge Weilong took the initiative, because her lust was awakened, she tried to fight, but was defeated, after all, this lust retained her true feelings about the world.
Want to tell the world what is falling
People in the fall cannot do without lust.
The beginning of the novel “First Incense” reads “Please find the mouldy green copper incense burner handed down from your family, and light a furnace of agarwood crumbs. Listen to me tell a story about Hong Kong before the war. You have finished lighting this furnace of agarwood crumbs. “My story should be over, too”, pulling out the shelf of “I’m going to tell a story”, but according to Fu Lizhong, a researcher from Zhang Ailing from Taiwan, the background of “The First Incense” is real, and the prototype of Qiao Qiqiao is Zhang Ailing’s classmate, Hongshen Ho, is based on her friend Yanying’s mother.
I wrote this novel because Zhang Ailing wanted to tell the world what is falling. Because of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Zhang Ailing had to interrupt her university career. Her future fell, and her city fell. Everything she had thought of had fallen.
However, Zhang Ailing only writes small things. She only believes in the femininity of the world and does not believe in its divinity. “I even write about little things between men and women. There is no war or revolution in my work. I think that when people are in love, they are more simple and unrestrained than when they are in war or revolution.”
The movie “The First Incense” accurately captures this core:
When Ge Weilong first entered her aunt’s house, what she thought in the novel was: “As long as I behave righteously and stand upright, I am not afraid that she will not treat each other politely. Outsiders gossiping, do what they say, and I will read my book.” Because there is a future. In the movie, the rigorous student uniform represents Ge Weilong’s self-discipline.
Ge Weilong soon learned that the rumors about her aunt turned out to be true, but seeing the Chinese clothes prepared for her in the closet, Ge Weilong “can’t help but lock the door and secretly try on one by one.” The novel has been taken in one stroke, while the film has given enough shots to show the director’s grasp of the original work.
In the novel, “After three months of work, she (Ge Weilong) has become addicted to life here. If she wants to leave here, she can only find a rich man and marry him”. In the movie, Ge Weilong’s dress and expression turned upside down. Ge Weilong’s active fall line is only a few words in the novel, and the movie is repeatedly rendered. The rainy season, the morning mist, and the gloomy aunt’s house…make this fall full of poetry.
Instead of criticizing, indulge in beauty
It is precisely because of grasping the line of active degeneration that Ma Sichun’s performance can be talked about-both being present and unconscious.
Ge Weilong embraced lust, but couldn’t believe it. In front of Qiao Qiqiao, Ge Weilong is not completely passive. She loves Qiao Qiqiao only because she fell in love with her own depravity, and Qiao Qiqiao is enough to contend with her aunt, which offsets the sense of loss of her boyfriend Lu Zhaolin being pried away by her aunt.
Fear of losing, and eager for better opportunities, Ge Weilong and Lu Zhaolin are actually the same. As Qiao Qiqiao derailed the maid and pierced Ge Weilong’s self-deception, she accepted an aunt-like life.
Is Ge Weilong really “framed up and embarked on the road to no return”? In the patriarchal discourse system, everything has been labeled, so there is no need to discuss “The First Incense”.
Zhang Ailing’s calmness and no judgment, this thrilling ambiguity is also the narrative demeanor of the movie “The First Incense”. Anti-majestic and anti-condescending, whether it is the original work or the movie, they refuse to see Ge Weilong and aunt with moral and social eyes, but cast an aesthetic vision, which contains great compassion.
Just look at the degenerate story of “The First Incense”, and then miss its coquettish beauty, and this beauty is the most touching part of Zhang Ailing.
The aunt who stayed in her own world as a small Queen Mother, Ge Weilong whose desires were activated, the healthy and reckless Sui’er, and the wild look…they are so diverse that Zhang Ailing later wrote: “Under the future wasteland, In Broken Tiles, there is only a woman like Beng Beng playing with a playlist, and she can survive…”
Time will eventually wash away everything, including hero dominance, but the beauty of decadence will continue to spread.
Just one sentence, “Smile and tell Rao”
In the face of beauty, the last thing you need is the Professor Zhao in “Stubborn Lord”, who was let go with the dream of derailment, but firmly said: I know that you young people suffer from mental pain and have a hollow heart. When the “young man” told him that he was not in pain, he felt incredible: “How can you not be in pain? This is illogical!”
In the history of literature, Professor Zhao is like a sea of stars. From “Pride and Prejudice” to “A Room with a View”, they are indispensable. They are invincible and suffocate everything with invincibility. . When Ge Weilong in the movie was stunned by her own desire, and wanted to hold on to it, but also wanted to repel it, a heroic voice suddenly sounded: Is the actress too fat…
For people who are accustomed to seeing the opposition between good and evil, the ending must have social significance, and just want to watch a good story, the movie “First Incense” is indeed a bit extravagant, after all, it presents the world from the perspective of feminism: eternity It is no longer important, what is important is the feeling at the moment.
The boundless desolation, the boundless terror. Her future, too, can’t be thought of, thinking of it is only boundless horror. She has no lasting plans. Only in the trivial things in front of her, her cringing and restless heart could get a temporary rest.
If the movie “The First Incense” is flawed, the sadness at the end is slightly abrupt. The world of fiction is still going on, and the movie wants to summarize it too much.
Wei Long said: “Originally, what is the difference between me and them?” Qiao Qiqiao controlled the roulette with one hand and covered her mouth with the other hand: “You talk nonsense again -” Wei Long said with a smile. : “Okay, okay! I admit that I said the wrong thing. Why is there no difference? They have no other choice, I am voluntary!”
The movie “The First Incense” presents a perfect tone, but “Laughing and Saying Rao” is the finishing touch, and Zhang Ailing is truly unsurpassable. It’s just that if you shoot like this, I’m afraid there will be even more scolding people.
Article source: Beijing Youth Daily
Editor in charge: Zhang Zhuhua