Bobby Chen got involved in the underworld in his early years. In order to help eldest brother get back the blood debt of his killed son, he embarked on the road of crime and spent nine years in prison. His sick wife died a year before he was released from prison, and so did his elderly mother. Brother Foreigner had an argument with Bobby Chen over the property left by his mother. He learned from the drunkard that his nephew Weiwei was "sold" by foreigners, and the old doctor in the clinic asked Bobby Chen to bring the keepsake to his lover whom he hadn't seen for years. Bobby Chen embarked on a dream trip to Zhenyuan.
On the surface, Picnic by the Road tells a story of searching. Judging from the spatial transformation of the story and the way the protagonist's wish will be realized, the main plot is biased towards a "road movie".
Ex-wife: Bobby Chen's ex-wife Zhang Xi died before she was released from Bobby Chen prison. There are three scenes about ex-wife in the whole film. The first time the old doctor mentioned his lover, the second time Bobby Chen and the old doctor told their dreams on the roof, and the third time after breaking up with the barber shop owner who looks like Zhang Xi in Dream of Dumping Wheat. In the first two shots, the wife's face didn't show up. In the last shot, Zhang Xi's face showed up-exactly like the face of the barber shop owner. The progressive use of three time montages finally implies that Bobby Chen has finished his search for his ex-wife in Dream of the Mad Men.
Mother: The image of mother in the whole film is a pair of blue cloth shoes that appeared in Chen Shengmeng's Dream of Kaili Clinic. The hero in the film dreamed of his mother's blue shoes and the sound of Lusheng for the first time. However, after the trip to jilt wheat, another scene about blue cloth shoes was deleted, suggesting that Bobby Chen's long-cherished wish to perfect the image of his mother in his memory was further realized.
Monk Flower: In the billiard hall, Bobby Chen and a foreigner had an argument with Wei Wei over their mother's tombstone. The lens complements the picture of Bobby Chen working for his eldest brother "Monk Flower" in his early years. The use of montage here illustrates the necessary human relations and paves the way for his later trip to Zhenyuan.
Roadside picnics can be divided into three scenes: Kaili-Dangmai-Zhenyuan. They also take care of the hero's three moods: sadness and depression that were unattainable in the past, loss and resentment that are unattainable now, and peace and willingness that are unattainable in the future. The first half of the whole story happened in Kaili. At this time, Bobby Chen was confused and depressed. The old doctor in the clinic entrusted him, his mother's last wish, his wife in memory, and Wei Wei, the grinding brother who was taken away by the monk, all pushed Bobby Chen in one direction-Zhenyuan.
The use of long shots, such as Bobby Chen riding a motorcycle on Panshan Highway and driving on Panshan Highway after he was released from prison, is the long shot of the protagonist riding a motorcycle in Hou Xiaoxian's Goodbye to the South, which is a subjective expression. The latter explained the story background of his wife, mother and savage through chat radio in the car. The most important thing is to use a long lens in the part of throwing wheat, which separates the original linear time and space and restores the world in Chen Shengmeng. This part of the characters, such as Wei Wei, Yang Yang and the proprietress of the barber shop, seem to have lost their original storytelling perspective with Bobby Chen as the main body. In fact, they completely constructed a "swinging world" through the activity tracks of different characters, and at the same time completed the reconstruction of Bobby Chen as the main body.
Different from the ingenious use of long shots in Birdman, the 40-minute long shot of Wheat Wandering on a Roadside Picnic shows a fictional dream in a documentary way, with mysterious overlap of time and space, and the unity of dream and reality, thus constructing a "wheat wandering space" that only belongs to Bobby Chen.
Clocks and watches: Clocks and watches symbolize time. Wei Wei's clock carved on the wall originally stopped, but the minute hand moved forward under the flow of light and shadow, which is a metaphor for the time when Bobby Chen slowly disappeared in Kaili; In "Wheat Swing", the watch drawn by Wei Wei, an adult, is the time of pause, and the time drawn in his hand symbolizes the time in "Wheat Swing Space"; In Zhenyuan, the clock time shown in the monk's window is slowly going backwards, and the clock time described by chalk on the train passing by the terminal is walking backwards. All these symbolize that Bobby Chen's self-search is not over yet, and he is still lost in memories and dreams, unable to tell whether "this world is my memory or I am just a fantasy of this world".
Train: The train is a good time transition. When the monk took Weiwei away, the train on the wall passed from left to right. On the way from Kaili to Bobby Chen Zhenyuan, the train is coming towards the camera; Finally, the train in Bobby Chen leaves from right to left. This is not only a continuation of time, but also reveals a trace of "absurdity" seen and heard in this "journey to Zhenyuan".
Poetry: Throughout the film, * * * appears eight times. In the roadside picnic, poetry is both a static image and a necessary dynamic plot. For example, I lived for nine years without a heart is a kind of care for Bobby Chen's nine-year prison trip. Poetry plays a small role in the whole film, and it has a shadow in paving the way for stories and connecting characters. Different from the obvious poetic mysticism in Yang Chao's Map of the Yangtze River, Bi Gan's poetic application in the film is more inclined to tarkovsky's The Stalker-poetry is a looming connection with the fate of the characters.
Dolphin and flashlight: When Mai met Bobby Chen, the barber shop owner, it was obviously a subconscious reflection of Bobby Chen's impression of his ex-wife in his dream.
Bobby Chen's regret for his ex-wife, Zhang Xi, and his lack of emotion as a lover for nine years or even his whole life made Bobby Chen feel at home with this little-known barber shop owner, so he told her a story: a friend of mine's wife died a year before his friend was released from prison. Before that, they wrote to each other every year and exchanged their happiness. My wife said in her last letter that she wanted to see the sea. The proprietress of the barber shop said, I also want to see the sea. There are dolphins in the sea. Have you ever seen dolphins? What do they look like? Bobby Chen didn't speak. He asked her to get a flashlight, and then grabbed Zhang Xi's hand and turned it on. At this moment, the band outside is playing Farewell to Li Taixiang.
Flashlights and dolphins are expressions of desire, dolphins symbolize love, flashlights symbolize male genitalia, and through the "hand of fate".
Old crooked, drunkard and dog: old crooked is Bobby Chen's undeserving younger brother, who hangs out in the underworld; As Wei Wei's father, he lacks care for Wei Wei; Hatred of Bobby Chen and unfair distribution of mother's inheritance. As a madman, an alcoholic is out of the social system, and his dog wanders around Kaili like the shadow of an alcoholic. Foreigners, drunkards and dogs are not only characters in the story, but also images independent of the superficial plot. They are the externalization of Bobby Chen's inner personality. One is that Bobby Chen's personality wandered in the past, and the other is that Bobby Chen's personality was punished as a criminal.
Savage: Savage is almost an image that runs through the roadside picnic. The savage news broadcast on TV, the vague savage story told by drunkards, the savage who Wei was afraid of, and the way that adult Wei Wei resisted the savage all mentioned the savage, but the image of "savage" did not play much role in the whole story series and seemed dispensable. But as a mysterious element, it is independent of the whole story frame. In the Space on the Swing, the dreamer reveals the horror and mystery of the savage through the narration of the adult Vivian, and takes this mysterious element as the emotional end.
Seeking and Farewell
In my opinion, the motif of roadside picnics is "seeking" and "farewell". Bobby Chen's dream answered all the objects he sought and bid farewell to: the Wei Wei he sought has grown up, bid farewell to his childhood, but still retains childishness and cowardice; The ex-wife subconsciously looking for overlapped with the proprietress of the barber shop, and Bobby Chen left the tape to the proprietress when saying goodbye; When I first met the proprietress in my dream, Bobby Chen subconsciously put on a floral shirt, which was a token entrusted by the old doctor and represented the old doctor's pursuit of love. The old tape sent to the wife of shop-owner in the dream is not only Bobby Chen's farewell to his love, but also indicates the farewell of the old doctor. In the end, the news of Lin's lover, who played Lu Sheng, just took care of this farewell. After experiencing this seemingly absurd but reasonable dream, Bobby Chen completed his search for himself. So he bid farewell to the past, took a boat to Zhenyuan, saw the really young Vivian, and saw a newborn calf like Vivian and himself. After fulfilling his long-cherished wish at this stage, Bobby Chen embarked on the train home, gradually fell asleep in a trance, and lost himself in the constant search and farewell.
Death is a grain of sand in time.
"The patient is ok, and he will get sick. No matter how busy our doctor is, it is useless. " The old doctor hit the nail on the head and saw through the essence of life. The Diamond Sutra, the opening of the roadside picnic, is also the essential expression of "the past experience is not available, the present experience is not available, and the future experience is not available". The song "Farewell" at the end of the film once again conveys "the original returns to the original, and the future returns". By telling the life feeling of the protagonist Bobby Chen, the destiny individual-"the original thing returns to the original, and the future returns", the roadside picnic embodies the life expression of all mankind, and is an example of the answer given to our audience by the roadside picnic.
Some people say that Bi Gan is the second Jia in China. However, unlike the northern regional characteristics of Jia's film narration, Bi Gan is a director from the south of China. The humid and cold southern climate, the Miao culture and dialect characteristics in southeastern Guizhou, the changes of cities and the remnants of rural cultural footprints have great influence on the poetic expression of the overall plot of roadside picnics.
Influenced by Buddhist culture and Tarkovsky's film aesthetics, coupled with the application of movie master's film production skills such as Hou Xiaoxian, Bi Gan, who grew up in remote areas of southeastern Guizhou and graduated from Shanxi Media College, has his own film discourse system.
However, although there are many remarkable places in "Roadside Picnic", there are still many shortcomings, such as the failure of the lens, the familiarity of the lens narrative, the grasp of surrealism, the scene scheduling of the long lens and so on. This is also the lack of director Bi Gan's skill. I hope to see more breakthroughs and innovations in Bi Gan's future film creation.