Why do I like sunny weather in Mongolian grassland?
The theme of Mongolian grassland, beautiful weather and sunshine can be interpreted from many angles. First of all, most of the scenes in the film are closely related to Pujie, a Mongolian girl. She is photographed riding freely on horseback at a young age, helping her family to look after livestock and do housework, and has her own ideas and future wishes, showing us a chic, naive, witty and charming girl image. Although Pujie's mother lost a lot of livestock at home, she still insisted on sending horses to Guan Ye. Grandma Pujie's warm hospitality and kind words all reflect the simple and hospitable character of Mongolian herders. However, their lives are also very difficult. Natural and man-made disasters are constantly breaking the beautiful picture that has just been established. The death of heroes full of human beauty has brought a profound impact on the audience's psychology, which makes people think about whether this natural nomadic life should continue in modern society and the real embodiment of the problems in Mongolia's own development on the weak individuals. And these, on the whole, give people a sigh that things are impermanent and beautiful things are fragile.
Judging from the relationship between planning and creation, this documentary belongs to the process documentary, that is, the creative team can't predict the direction of their fate in the process of tracking and shooting this family. In terms of subject matter, it belongs to the social humanities category and takes people as the main shooting object. Genre, an objective documentary feature film, emphasizes tracking the recording process and paying attention to the live sound, with only a few words as explanations and no background music.
This film can give people a strong emotional impact and has strong authenticity. I think the authenticity of the film is mainly reflected in three levels.
The first is the truth of shooting and editing techniques. Judging from the shooting, although Guan Ye Qing Ji appears frequently and has been interacting with the Pujie family, all the interactions are not deliberately arranged for shooting, and the normal life and actions of herders have not been particularly seriously disturbed. Mother gave Guan Ye a horse, and grandma treated him with milk tea. These are their true feelings. In editing, although the material is selected, the content that these materials want to express after combination is true, rather than a deliberate construction to reflect some values or viewpoints. For example, at the beginning, Pu Jie's wildness and stubbornness were reflected through a set of shots taken with her face, which were all records of her real reaction to the shooting team. Including the death of mother, the performance of each family member is also very different. Pujie's unspeakable sadness, uncle's calmness and grandmother's strength are all their natural expressions, and they don't deliberately use fragments to render sad emotions.
Second, in the subject, the author can accurately grasp the life form of the subject through in-depth observation. As can be seen from the lens, the shooting team's observation of herdsmen's life is very accurate. For example, how to move the camera when shooting horses and herding sheep, and how to shoot the demolition of yurts are all very professional. At the same time, the lens language is also very particular about expressing the relationship within the family. For example, for grandpa who doesn't work and has no sense of existence, he rarely sends glasses; When my mother comes out, she often takes photos of her and Pujie in the same frame, which reflects the contrast between Pujie and her mother from a handsome little adult to a clingy little girl, and also reflects the close relationship between her and her mother. These are based on the author's in-depth observation and personal experience.
The third is the truth of history, and the shooting content truly reflects the times. The social problems reflected and analyzed in "Mongolian Grassland, Beautiful Weather" are true. Because of the lack of local medical resources, Pujie's mother was forced to go to town for treatment, and the ambulance was delayed, which delayed the best treatment opportunity; Because after the transition to the market economy, medical services were no longer free, and she was driven out of the hospital, which was in line with the real social situation at that time, and her experience was certainly no exception. In this way, the documentary will have a broader real space, and people will feel the chilling real problems at the social level behind it.
In the way of expression, non-interference shooting and interview are mainly adopted. Although there are many interactions between Guan Ye and Pu Jie's family in the content of shooting, they all happen naturally in the process of communication, rather than in cooperation with shooting. About the theft of Pujie's horse, the living conditions of her family and the last period of her mother's life were all obtained through interviews. At the same time, it also uses a certain combination of reality and reality to supplement some materials that cannot be told by objective video records, such as the letter written by Pujie's mother to Guan Ye in the form of text scrolling, thus showing the good relationship between the two.
There is no doubt that Mongolian grassland and sunny weather are a beautiful work. This kind of beauty is layered, perhaps not exquisite, and the way to reach it is not straightforward, but the more profound the taste, the more complicated the feelings when reflecting on the fate of the characters.
As mentioned above, all the characters in the film have simple and true human beauty as their breath. Just from Pu Jie's point of view, she has gathered all kinds of beautiful qualities such as perseverance, kindness and innocence. Sister Pu knows who the mother of each lamb is. She sat on the edge of the sheepfold and directed the adults to find the sheep: the gray one, not this one, but the one with long hair. Then she simply jumped down, twisted the ewe's horn and dragged the ewe to the lamb. After a snowstorm in winter and the death of many livestock, I returned to the grassland in spring, and the lens began with a cluster of green buds and slowly extended. A pale yellow flower blooms on the ground. Sister Pu walked on the grassland and turned to smile: The flowers are really beautiful. It's a pity that the sheep ate it. The details make people feel complicated. All the characteristics of Pujie are reflected through the splicing of details and the rendering of artistic conception. This "silent feeling" is the most touching.
Although Pujie's death happened objectively, it has certain symbolic significance. Because the strong and capable mother died unexpectedly before her, reminding people that life in the grassland is as tough as grass and as fragile as grass, Pujie's death seems to be included in a fatalistic cycle. In this endless regret brought about by the sudden stop, people reflect more strongly on the meaning of life shown by Pujie's short life, which is unparalleled.
The film has a good grasp of the relationship between man and nature. On the grassland, the fate of herders is closely related to the fate of livestock and grassland. The description of this primitive relationship presents an artistic sense of primitive totem. Mother's death, in essence, should be attributed to the loss of horses; Under the snowstorm, dying livestock shed blood and tears, echoing people's difficult life; People ride on the night of the Yuan Dynasty, as if they were integrated with heaven and earth. The Pujie story is not empty. They share the same fate with the grassland. Movies always remind us of this through the language of the lens.
At the same time, the cruelty of society is also brought into the film in an aesthetic way. It often plays the role of setting off the characters, but it also has certain artistic significance. Life on the ranch is not poetic, and there are shameless horse thieves; Because of institutional reasons, people overgrazing, and the consequences are unimaginable. The camera recorded these in a more forbearing way (except for the close-up of a dying black horse), and did not shy away from threats, making them seem to reflect the truth of art and arouse people's reflection-when did man and nature become enemies? When can people not be enemies with themselves?
In photography, the use of long lenses in this film is impressive. On the one hand, the long lens is used to photograph the changes of characters' expressions. When shooting Pujie's facial expressions, we often use a long lens to track and shoot, showing the rich and ingenious facial expressions of the little girl, which is very touching and can make people really feel her inner emotional fluctuations, with a strong sense of reality. On the other hand, people's images on the vast Yuan Ye are shot with long lenses. Because of the vast scene, people and animals walking slowly in the vast space can be represented by long lenses, which can better express the artistic beauty of Mongolian grassland.
In the use of long shots, some sports shots are quite dramatic. For example, it is a vision at first, and then it is closer to people's faces, which makes people see the specific state of Chu Chu, which is sometimes funny in this film. For example, when Guan Ye visited again after his mother died, a shot was enlarged from the whole mountain until Barcelona, who had just stood, appeared in the center of the shot, looking at people, which made people laugh. Similar shots are often used in this film, from shooting the whole body to shooting the micro-expression.
On the recording, the film has no soundtrack at all, and it is mainly based on the actual sound, which is very realistic. At the end of the film, after telling the death of Pujie, there is no sound in the film, which reflects a mourning mood. At the same time, it also means that Pujie and his mother are no longer alive, and they have changed from real people to an image.
There are many things that moved me in this movie. In addition to the most heartbreaking, the mother and daughter who shine with beautiful humanity in the film have passed away one after another, and the details buried everywhere in the film can directly hit people's hearts. For example, my cousin Barcelona, who was only two years old, wanted to help repair the axe at home. When Guan Ye said he was leaving, Pujie couldn't hide his unhappiness. On the first day of school, my uncle was anxious to give Pujie candy before school started ... If what moved me most was Pujie's precocious thinking and worries about the future. "There is no future for herding cattle." She said to Guan Ye, "But I don't even know what school teaches." . Later, she had the opportunity to go to school. At school, her face was even brighter than when she was riding a horse-she was really happy. Perhaps influenced by Guan Ye, she wants to learn Japanese and become a translator in the future, but I prefer to believe that it is because she wants to realize her life ambition in a wider place, which is in sharp contrast with the traditional, closed and hard nomadic life. All these let me see a girl's stubborn and pure soul.
No matter from the aesthetic, narrative, documentary, practical significance and critical thinking, this documentary is almost impeccable. The photographer is involved, but the degree of participation in the film is equivalent to the degree of actual interaction. If there are any shortcomings in this film, I think it may be that the section where cattle and sheep died of hunger and cold due to natural disasters is a bit too long, which does not well show the influence of this phenomenon on the life of Pujie family, and it seems a bit lengthy and abrupt.