August 25, 2023 11:14:06
Source: Heilongjiang Daily
Author: Fu Yao
“Hot”: A Story of Persistence and Sacrifice
Stills of the movie “Hot”
The theme of the movie “Hot” is very clear, and the story it tells is not complicated. The protagonist Chen Shuo is a literal “dream chasing boy”. He has a pure and sincere love for hip-hop dance. He will give everything for dancing, but unfortunately he is not the hero in the novel. He was born in an ordinary family, his father died of illness, his family was heavily in debt, his uncle was sick and needed to be taken care of, his mother was good at singing and dancing, she used to shine on the stage, but now she is confined to the kitchen day and night, opening a small restaurant to make ends meet.
Chen Shuo is in his early 20s this year. At this overwhelmed age, everything seems to be so unsatisfactory. He has to do several odd jobs every day, delivering food, washing cars, and running commercial shows with meager income to make ends meet. Always turn around, always rush on the road, always keep a low voice, always catch the last subway to go home, always like to say sorry first. He has the “admit defeat” of our little people after facing setbacks, and his heart is “fragile” polished by life. Fragility here is not a derogatory term. It represents Chen Shuo’s tenderness. He uses his body and mind to tolerate life, not complain, not cynical. Some people will become fierce and vicious or even sinister and cunning due to changes, but he just becomes more docile, more sensible, more caring for his family, and gentle and friendly to everyone. But at the same time, he is also very strong. Being strong means that he has not been overwhelmed by the accident, and he takes practical actions to take care of his family. When the movie shot first told him that he practiced silently in the restaurant in the dead of night, the soundtrack and the empty mirror hit my soul directly, and the wax figures looked at his dedication. This is his persistence to fate, and his inner enthusiasm is waiting to burn. And it is his persistence that makes his love continue to accumulate into a raging fire.
The other protagonist of the story is Ding Lei, a “dream-chasing middle-aged man”. When he was young, he dominated the dance world, but he always missed the championship. After breaking his leg in the national finals that year, Ding Lei ended his career as a professional dancer. He started a team as a coach, named it “Exclamation Point”, and continued to fight street dance to the end. Under his leadership, Exclamation Point quickly grew into the province’s No. 1 dance troupe. When you get older, you have more worries, your identity has changed, and the way you do things is naturally different. One of the differences between middle-aged and young people is that they are no longer pure.
Ding Lei and Exclamation Point’s champion dream needs money to realize, but Chen Shuo’s hip-hop dream must be sacrificed for the money. There is no right or wrong in the balance, only reality. The teenagers are confused, thinking that lights can jump out in the subway, in the square, and in every corner, but the middle-aged people have long since stopped believing in the light. From struggling to untie to surrendering to fate, if you don’t look forward to it, you will not be disappointed. And when the two understand and collide, the two sides of the sincere boy and the embarrassed middle-aged, or the blood is hard to cool, or no one applauds, or the tears are shed on the spot, or the chest is hit by a dream, the resulting loud noise is composed together. The most important is the summer memorial of “Enthusiasm”.
To be honest, this kind of growth story with an inspirational core is definitely not new, but Director Dapeng’s filming this time is really special. There is no good chicken soup, no self-touching preaching, no father-like success learning output, he just tells a story seriously, because the telling is sincere enough, so it is enough to touch people’s hearts.
In the movie, Chen Shuo’s mother said to her son: “It’s okay to not be able to.” This sentence made me choke up and cry. Many movies crazily emphasize individual efforts, emphasizing that man will conquer nature, so that people are full of unrealistic fantasies. But “Enthusiasm” is not like this. It tells you that you don’t have to be in a hurry, you don’t have to be radiant, you don’t have to be someone else, you just need to make your own choices.
Life is not only moving forward all the way, it is also a kind of life to hit a wall firmly, and it is also a kind of life to stop at the same place and hesitate. It’s not only chasing dreams that are enthusiastic, and it’s not only youth that are enthusiastic, but people who are crushed by life but still live hard. It’s you and me who are reading the article at the moment that make up us.
Written by Fu Yao