Chapter 396
The Hero's Legacy: On Narrative Strangeness and the Audience's Subconscious
Hou Yuanfeng's luck is indeed quite bad. Among the 22 films shortlisted for the main competition unit of Cannes this year, at least ten are award-worthy works, but there are only eight awards in this unit in total.
Although "The Hero's Legacy" is also considered a good work by Ling Suisui, she still needs to convince others. In this highly competitive year, other judges may not share her views.
Sure enough, when Ling Suisui suggested that the Grand Jury Award could be given to "The Hero's Legacy", most people disagreed.
One judge said bluntly: "This film's use of narrative trickery is not advanced, let alone innovative. It is lucky to be nominated."
Narrative mystery is a narrative method that originated from detective novels. The creators deliberately lead the audience to have a wrong perception in some way, and finally make a reversal at the end.
Ling Suisui replied: "This film is not simply a narrative trick. Or, if we think it is just a narrative trick, then there is another layer of irony outside the screen."
After hearing what she said, several judges paused their discussion of other topics and shifted the focus of the discussion to "The Hero's Legacy".
The plot of this movie is not difficult to summarize - the world-famous masked hero has passed away, and various sects in the martial arts world are eyeing the martial arts skills left behind by the hero. The hero knew that his young disciple could not keep the inheritance, so he simply wrote a will in advance: the martial arts will be given to whoever can build a tombstone for him.
If you want to inherit the hero's legacy, you must first erect a monument and engrave a biography for him so that his reputation will live on forever. In the context of traditional Chinese culture, this is a very reasonable request, and one can even say it is part of one’s job.
But there is a difficulty in this matter. No one knows the hero's name. The only person who knows the answer is the hero's apprentice, but she can't speak or write, so she can only respond to other people's questions by shaking her head or nodding.
In order to obtain the martial arts secrets in the inheritance legitimately, each sect had to take the disciple with them and embark on a journey to find the identity of the hero.
A group of people from the martial arts world came to the hero's hometown and asked many people about the hero. They asked the common people, the soldiers, and the merchants who came and went... In the process of narration with different identities and angles, the hero's past was gradually pieced together.
Some people say that the hero has a tragic fate and a life full of hardships, while others say that the hero does not cherish his good days and insists on wielding swords and guns. In their description, the hero is kind, friendly, and helpful, but at the same time selfish, heartless, and ruthless.
People in the martial arts world were talking about this hero, saying that he was really an odd person. What on earth did he do to receive so many contradictory and opposing evaluations?
After going through untold hardships, the apprentice finally led them to find the hero's family.
They searched through the family tree and tried to describe it as best they could based on all the information they had found, but they could not find the exact name of the hero.
This dynasty was not peaceful. First there was war and chaos, then natural disasters and man-made tragedies. People in the family who were familiar with the hero had already died, and those who were still alive had very vague memories of the hero.
No one could find the name of the hero, and the various sects were in turmoil, no longer able to maintain the friendly appearance of fair competition. A very small incident triggered the conflict and became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Since the task of erecting a monument is impossible to accomplish and no one can morally and perfectly obtain the secret manual of martial arts, there is no need to pretend any longer. According to the rules of the martial arts world, whoever has the bigger fist will own the martial arts.
As for the hero's last wish and his disciple's thoughts... they are not important at all. She's just an orphan, how can she turn the tables? Giving her food to eat and raising her until she gets married would be considered a kindness.
They were fighting and killing each other, but the apprentice, forgotten by everyone, quietly lit the fuse.
——She was collecting materials for making gunpowder along the way. The next second, the blood-thirsty gangsters and the ancestral hall that they chose as their battle site and destroyed wantonly were all blown up into the sky.
At this time, the memories are flashed back, and the mysterious hero finally unveiled his veil in front of his apprentice.
She is a woman. A woman who has no name and will not appear in the family tree. The journey that the underworld people take out of greed is destined to be a desperate journey with no answers.
What the judges understood as narrative paradox is that each sect always searches for the name of the hero according to the identity of a male, because they are all male. Even if the apprentice was a girl, they never considered the possibility that the hero was a woman.
How can a woman be so good at martial arts? The apprentice played by Ji Shuyan was more like the "maid of the hero" in their eyes. She was just given the title of a disciple. After all, she knew no martial arts at all.
At this point, Ling Suisui also explained to other judges why it was difficult for others to know the name of the hero since she was a woman.
There are two situations here: one is that it was not taken, and the other is that no one remembers it.
The former situation is easy to understand. The era background of martial arts is ancient times, and many women did not have names. When they are at home, they are x girls, x girls. After they get married, they are x wives, x ladies. After having children, they become xxx's mothers.
As for the latter, Ling Suisui gave examples of the roles he had played. Princess Pingyang Zhao was a general whose name has not been passed down, and in many versions of history books, her military achievements were attributed to other people, and her existence was directly erased.
Ling Sui-sui went on to say, "I don't think the director is really describing a mystery. It's just that in this kind of martial arts environment, when the heroes who appear in the martial arts sects are basically all male, the audience has a preconceived idea that the first gender of the hero is male. If it is not specifically emphasized that it is a female hero, then the hero sounds like a man."
She mentioned the topic of "society first", and several judges seemed to be thinking deeply.
The reason why Ling Suisui thinks Hou Yuanfeng has no narration is very simple, because Director Hou did not imply that the hero is a man. In "The Hero's Legacy", people's memories of the hero do not actually have any gender color.
They talked about the hero's martial arts, his character, and the way he dealt with people... Hou Yuanfeng never took the initiative to blur the hero's gender, and never guided him towards any masculine characteristics. Her portrayal of the hero was full of the flavor of the martial arts world, and was also very neutral.
However, if the two sides of a line are not of the same length, choosing neutrality means standing on the longer side.
Ling Suisui also explained to the judges that in Chinese, "she" representing women and "he" representing men have the same pronunciation. This third-person pronoun increases the difficulty for each school to find people.
Apart from this, there is only “Master” in Chinese, and “Master’s wife/Master’s mother” usually refers to the master’s spouse. The use of words under this patriarchal system is not intentional by the director to create a weird narrative, but is a cultural background from ancient times to the present.
This is what Ling Suisui thinks is the most exciting part of "The Hero's Legacy". The plot of the movie is a bit thin, but the audience's subconscious fills in the key link. Who can say that this is not an excellent innovation?
Another judge said: "I also agree that this film can win the Grand Prix. It does have some technical shortcomings as you mentioned. After all, the director is still very young. If it weren't for these, I would recommend it to win the Palme d'Or."
"The setting of this apprentice gives me the feeling of playing Turtle Soup. If I ask her for more information, maybe I can get the answer, but unfortunately they don't have such patience."
After all, erecting a monument for a hero is just a way for people in the martial arts world to build up a reputation for themselves and maintain their personal image. Who really cares about the matter itself?
Ling Suisui rested her chin on her hand and said: "She can't speak or write. In fact, she is also expressing that women's voices are often not heard, and their opportunities to receive education are slimmer."
Regarding this point, Ling Suisui does not need to explain the historical background specifically. Several hundred years ago, women in no country had a good situation.
After pondering, one judge said: "Is this considered a counterattack by the sexy lamp? If there is a narrative trick in this movie, it should be on the apprentice. She seems to be obedient and has no opinion. She is just a tool throughout the whole process, but she makes a shocking reversal at the end."
Everyone here is a professional in the film and television industry, so there is no need to explain the definition of a sexy desk lamp. Simply put, if a female character's existence can be replaced by a sexy lamp and has no impact on the plot, then there is a big problem with her characterization.
"I like this angle." Ling Suisui said, "If there is no counter-killing moment in this one minute, this movie will only get 50 points out of 100."
However, from her perspective, she thought that Hou Yuanfeng's portrayal of his apprentice was a bit thin. This is also the reason why Ling Suisui only considered the Grand Jury Prize and did not strive for the Palme d'Or.
She continued her analysis of the movie - if you consider the hero as a man, he has suffered a lot in life, but if you consider the hero as a woman, her situation is actually lucky among women.
It is true that the hero helped the weak and fought against the local evil forces. It is also true that the hero struck a heavy blow to her family who wanted to sell her in exchange for a dowry. As a person, she is brave, resourceful and charitable; as a woman, she is obedient, submissive and even rebellious.
Someone asked curiously: "So, is the legacy that the hero left to his apprentice really a secret manual of martial arts or a secret recipe for making gunpowder?"
This is not mentioned in the movie. While the martial arts sects were fighting, the apprentice completed a performance of "Explosion is Art", and then the film ended.
Ling Suisui doesn’t know the answer to the question, but she thinks that there should be fans who would ask the creators questions.
Thanks to her persistent argument, the jury finally reached a consensus. Although not everyone voted in favor, since the majority agreed, they did not raise any additional objections.
One judge grumbled that the number of feminist films winning awards has increased significantly in recent years.
Ling Suisui asked him very humbly, then what is a "masculinist film"? Is there a definition for this?
The judge changed the subject and Ling Sui snorted in his heart.
After all, they still have to work together in the future, so she doesn't have to dig into the matter and embarrass others.
Ling Sui was very happy to win a relatively high-quality award for "The Hero's Legacy".
Only a small part of her joy came from the voice that her status brought her, but most of it was because she was happy about the movie. She did it, Hou Yuanfeng did it, and Chinese films did it too.
If we look at this long road ahead from a macro perspective, this is just a tiny, insignificant progress.
But Ling Suisui, who is equally insignificant, is very satisfied with himself for taking this step.
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