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After a four-year absence, he returns to direct.

As a result, it topped the popularity list right away.

It also almost confirms its position as the most competitive film in the second half of the summer season.

Who are you talking about?

Come on, old friend——

Retrograde Life

Xu Zheng's latest work as a director.

To be honest, Sir was actually sweating before watching the movie, feeling that this movie was full of a lot of variables.

For example, after five years, the film market is no longer the same as it was back then. Can Xu Zheng's commercial film logic still work?

Or the controversies that arose before the screening, such as "Why watch rich people play poor people?", etc., always make people worry that this is just a suspended inspirational comedy.

You can finish watching the movie.

Sir can say responsibly that these concerns do not exist at all.

Because "Reverse Life" is not trying to fill everyone with a bowl of toxic chicken soup as many people expected.

It presents a real life.

This kind of reality is extremely rare in the field of commercial films in the past two years.

01

How realistic is "Retrograde Life"?

Let me talk about personal reasons first——

Sir seemsI saw myself in another parallel universe in the movie.。

I believe many people have this situation:

I have been working in a job for more than ten years. Now that I am middle-aged, I don’t have any extravagant expectations for my life. I just want to go to get off work and come home peacefully, use the money I earn to pay off the mortgage and send my children to school, and live a peaceful life.

But, what if, I mean what if, the company lays off employees?

Gao Zhilei (Xu Zheng), an older programmer, encountered such a thing. He had never thought that layoffs would affect him, but not only did it happen, but his father also fell ill, which made things worse.

what to do?

Like many of Sir's friends, he took the compensation and retired from society, living a life beyond his means ever since?

It seems that he can survive.

In other words,He is just a middle-class person with a good appearance.

A detail.

The opening scene of the movie: Gao Zhilei sleeps on the sofa after staying up late at night. His wife (played by Xin Zhilei) gets up early to prepare breakfast for him. His father and mother who go out for a walk try not to disturb his rest until his daughter calls him to get up.

He got up, ate breakfast quickly, and took the subway to go to the company...

Behind the “winner in life” lies the huge mountain of family.

This is also the reason why he had to rush and devote himself to the food delivery industry.

What?

You said that there are too many elements in the film, such as midlife crisis, unemployment, illness, bankruptcy..., which makes the film feel speculative?

Actually it’s okay.

First of all, most of these pain points are encountered by many people and are unavoidable.

This is the true background.

Secondly, Xu Zheng is more attentive. He usesLots of real life details, dispelling the perception of "dramatization".

For example, the character status -

There is a scene in the company that is very dramatic. Because the overall environment is not good, the company employees gather together to smoke and are full of anxiety about the future.

In the smoke, behind every uneasy look there is a similar fear, and Gao Zhilei is of course the most typical one.

But what did he do?

Even though I'm nervous, I still have to help the newcomer.

It’s not that he hadn’t thought about being laid off (in fact, he even calculated the compensation), but for someone who strives for stability in the workplace, such an attitude was almost subconscious.

Or the plot development——

At first glance, the movie goes to great lengths to force a "winner in life" like Gao Zhilei to deliver food by setting up so many hardships for him.

But there is a job-hunting scene in the film, which clearly explains why a 45-year-old man, a graduate of Tongji University, and the head of a development team in a department of a large Internet company, cannot find a job.

The interviewer said:

What position would you assign to him after I recruit him? How would you pay him?

Yes, most Internet companies are "trading lives for money", an industry that requires physical strength and energy. Can a middle-aged person endure this intensity? Even if he can endure it, how can the company operate if such an "old man" is treated as an intern?

This is the real dilemma that unemployed middle-aged people have to face.

In terms of character psychology, Xu Zheng also grasped it well——

There was a scene where he was delivering food and received an order to go to his former company, but he didn't want to deliver it at all.

Why?

Due to the limitations of traditional thinking, manual laborers have always been at the bottom of the contempt chain, and the service industry among manual laborers is at the bottom of the bottom.

Once Gao Zhilei was discovered delivering food, it would be tantamount to saying goodbye to his past social circle and being completely sentenced to death.

So embarrassing.

What's more, he is a junior leader who has been working for more than ten years.

This gap will kill the self-confidence and dignity of this "winner in life".

So did you find out?

The good thing about "Reverse Life" is that it captures the true inner state of the characters instead of deliberately stimulating the audience's anxiety.

It asks for areal。

So when Sir was watching this story of the middle class falling back into poverty on the screen, he couldn't help but feel sympathetic and wondered what he would do if such a day ever happened to him.

But the problem is.

If I deliver food, does that mean I lose?

02

Of course, as a movie with deliverymen as the main character, the truth cannot be just about the protagonist.

And it should be this industry.

Whether the film truly depicts the life of the deliveryman is the most important criterion for judging.

Xu Zheng also achieved this.

Sir believes that most people’s understanding of takeout is limited to many stereotypes:

One type is the person who causes trouble in his or her own life by delivering the item too slowly or damaging it, or by not obeying traffic rules on the road.

The other type is the exploited "grassroots" of society who are "trapped in the algorithm", have a hard life, and need tolerance, sympathy, understanding, and kindness.

After all, he's delivering food, isn't he worthy of sympathy?

But the fact is, whether it is disgust or sympathy, under the filter, most people's impression of deliverymen isStereotypeWe have overlooked the fact that behind their professions, people are just ordinary people.

In other words, these one-fifth of practitioners also have families, parents, relatives and friends, social interactions, and joys and sorrows. It is impossible and should not be framed through the same set of "filters".

They may need sympathy, but not just sympathy.

This time, "Reverse Life" at least provides a window to truly understand them.

Gao Zhilei, who lost his job, had to become a deliveryman in order to support his family. Starting as a novice, he tells everyone step by step about the daily life of a delivery rider and the path to upgrading.

Yes, even for a deliveryman’s job, there are career thresholds and growth paths.

even.

You can think of it as a “Guide for Delivery Drivers”.

for example,Junk orders。

It’s not about delivering garbage, but for new deliverymen, many of the orders assigned to them at the beginning are of long distances, remote locations that are hard to find, and have low reviews, or at least are not on the way and are inconvenient.

More importantly, the unit price is low.

If you keep giving gifts like this all your life, it will be useless even if you work yourself to death.

But for deliverymen, completing tasks, meeting target rewards, and gradually upgrading their levels can effectively avoid such junk orders.

Just like in the game, upgrading from Bronze to King can effectively improve the cost-effectiveness of running orders, and becoming the King of Orders will bring you generous rewards.

How to upgrade your rank?professional。

When Gao Zhilei first entered the industry, he almost took the audience through all the pitfalls that could be encountered:

The easiest thing is to be unfamiliar with the location and route.

What should I do if the restaurant is slow to pick up the food? What should I do if the mall does not allow parking? What should I do if the neighborhood does not allow entry? What should I do if the phone call does not go through? What should I do if the customer is difficult to deal with?

What if you find the seat but forget to pick up the takeaway?

Each of these issues can cause delays, unhappy customers, and ultimately bad reviews.

How terrible are bad reviews?

You can earn a few dollars by running around for a single order, but one bad review will result in a hundred dollars deduction. Not only is the day's work in vain, but if the number of bad reviews increases, you may also be restricted from logging in and may even be forced to close the business for a few days.

(Now you know why deliverymen are so sensitive to bad reviews)

What’s even more frightening is that the customers are all kinds of weird, the rules are extremely unreasonable, and it’s extremely tiring to serve them.

Of course, deducting money is only a material punishment, what is more important is:

Traffic safety.

Almost every character in the movie has encountered traffic safety problems, riding fast, running red lights, and fighting wits with traffic rules in order to save time.

The consequences may range from a fine to death.

Contrary to what most people imagine, it is easy to do delivery work, but the threshold to do it well is very high.

Even top students from 985 universities, middle-class white-collar workers in society, and former pillars of society like Gao Zhilei, may be completely in the dark when faced with this unfamiliar field.

"Reverse Life" presents the daily life of deliverymen in the most realistic and concrete way.

Not only did the entire crew actually deliver takeout, but they also set up a set next to the takeout station, replicating the movie's takeout station one-to-one. The requirement was authenticity.

So we can see all kinds of deliverymen in the movie:

Some people have to do this to pay off their debts, some are desperate to save money for family medical treatment, and some are temporarily unable to find a job...

There are also young people who don’t want to work in factories, single mothers with children, and older migrant workers who think it’s easier than working on construction sites.

They are ordinary people fighting for their lives.

so.

After putting aside the stereotypes, the movie allows the audience to see the most realistic work and life of a deliveryman through Gao Zhilei's setbacks, mistakes and growth.

Yes, see.

Compared to sympathy, they need to be seen and respected more.

Be treated as an ordinary person and have your ordinary job respected.

There is nothing shameful about being a deliveryman. People who struggle for a living should not be ridiculed or discriminated against no matter what job they do.

03

"Realistic characters" and "realistic professions", how long have we not seen these words in domestic blockbusters?

This should be the premise of a work.

But when domestic films turn their attention to foreign countries and turn the story into one that is emotion-driven, such a premise often becomes a wish that no one cares about, which can be heard but not seen.

The greatest advantage of "Reverse Life" lies in this:

It has restored the attitude that domestic reality-themed films should have.

But is that all?

No.

Sir thinks the film is worth talking about not only because of the authenticity of these technical aspects, but also because it tells us on a larger level——

Life is falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.

for example.

Why did Gao Zhilei refuse to sell the house in the film? Was it just because he would lose millions? Was it just because his wife said the house was her bottom line?

Sir thinks so.

The most fundamental reason is actually Gao Zhilei's falling life.Unwilling。

to be honest.

985, middle-level manager of a large company, the pride of his father, the support of his wife and daughter, the pillar of the family... He has always worked very hard and has done nothing wrong, so why has he "fallen to this point"?

Gao Zhilei didn't understand, so he stumbled a lot.

In this regard, the webmaster played by Jia Bing questioned:

He took off Kong Yiji's gown, but still did not consider himself Camel Xiangzi.

but.

How can the changes in the overall environment be influenced by personal will?

The high salary in the past was not entirely due to my own efforts; it is also difficult to blame personal responsibility for my current unemployment and career change.

But many people don’t think this through clearly.

Just like there was a video a few months ago that was very heartbreaking.

The husband lost his job and became a delivery man. When his wife found out the news, she got angry, but she was not angry about her husband’s failure, but about his concealment of the truth.

And this scene was almost completely reproduced in the movie.

Faced with Gao Zhilei's concealment, his wife almost went crazy for the same reason.

Although he has a family, he wants to shoulder everything on his own, moving himself to the limit.

He probably doesn't expect to change his fate by delivering food, and he works hard to make money to pay off his mortgage, just hoping to slow down his decline.

But no matter how slow you go, you're still falling.

And what happens after the fall?

In Sir's opinion, "Reverse Life" uses Gao Zhilei to pierce the fear behind this layer of unwillingness——

Instead of wasting time worrying about the inevitable decline, complaining about yourself and complaining about the unfairness of fate, it is better to adjust your mindset, face it bravely and make positive changes.

The latter is the true life spirit of the Chinese people today after exposing the online resentment.

for example.

Big black.

What kind of person is Dahei? Many years ago, he caused an ambitious young man to get into a car accident because of a transfer of orders. So for many years, he never rested for a moment to figure out the city routes, wrote them down in a "secret book", and held the position of "order king" for many years.

No other reason.

Just because Danwang will give an extra reward of 2,000 yuan, he can help the young man pay off the surgery fee earlier.

But...

When he heard that Gao Zhilei had designed a "Lulutong" app for free to help deliverymen become familiar with the routes, he hesitated for a long time before finally sharing his "secret" with him.

In Dahei's eyes, helping one person and helping everyone is not a choice.

So you see.

There is no doubt that Gao Zhilei and Dahei in the film have fallen to the bottom of their lives.

They endure the pain and try to smile, taking risks just to earn a few dollars, but at the same time, they will not complain about themselves.

Because they know.

Whether we are unwilling or do not understand, the key issue should always be what we should do when we are in a retrograde period in life, not whether there is any way to avoid retrograde period.

Instead of avoiding or fearing, it is better to face it bravely.

And give each other a little kindness.

And this is the power that supports us to go further.

So in the final analysis, is "Reverse Life" just about the story of deliverymen?

No.

In fact, these are stories about “us” one by one.

In the "story", we all experience a period of retrograde life, which may be failure in an exam, difficulty in finding a job, relationship problems, or a family crisis.

Even health, accidents, birth, aging, sickness and death, joys and sorrows.

But how do we deal with adversity?

Perhaps a downward spiral in life will not usher in the legend of a comeback.

But at least.

We can calm down and face it bravely.

And tell yourself out loud.

There is no shame in working hard for your life.

Life won't always go backwards.

We deserve a bright future.

The pictures in this article are from the Internet

Editorial Assistant: Gilmore's Gyro