The movie "Reverse Life": Writing about the dignity and glory of workers in the new era
2024-08-10
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Original title:
The movie "Reverse Life": Writing about the dignity and glory of workers in the new era
Workers' Daily-China Workers' Network reporter Su Mo
Before riding an e-scooter, Gao Zhilei (Xu Zheng), the protagonist of the movie "Reverse Life", was like many urbanites. His daily contact with food deliverymen was only through mobile phone apps: placing orders on his phone, checking the order status on the app from time to time, and answering the phone to receive the goods. The food deliverymen were just icons moving on the map.
"But if you really get into this industry, you'll realize that the entire delivery process is very complicated, and you may encounter many difficulties. Especially when you see an address, it's actually difficult to locate it all at once. There's a big difference between arriving at the address and actually being there point-to-point, whether it's delivering or picking up." According to the film's director Xu Zheng, before filming, the actors actually went on a delivery run and felt firsthand how difficult it was.
The life shown in the recently released film "Reverse Life" is closely related to each of us. Director Xu Zheng shared the original intention of creating the film and said: "The food delivery industry is the most familiar to everyone, but at the same time the most unfamiliar." But it is this group of people who are most closely connected with the real world.
Through Gao Zhilei's "reverse journey", the movie allows the audience to truly see the huge group of "delivery men" that is closely connected with life, as well as the vivid people in the group.
"As an actor, I think it's more about observing the character's state. For example, how to hold a morning meeting? How many orders can be completed? What are their biggest concerns? What pressures do they have? Have they ever collapsed? We all need to understand." At the same time, as the leading actor, Xu Zheng also did a lot of advance preparation.
From the day Gao Zhilei was "optimized", he was suddenly overwhelmed by the burden of his mortgage, his father's rehabilitation expenses, his daughter's tuition, and the family's living expenses. Even with the joint efforts of his wife, Gao Zhilei still needs to earn 15,000 yuan a month to keep the house and his family.
"He suddenly fell to a low point, and actually felt overwhelmed and powerless. But Gao Zhilei relied on his own kindness, hard work, the support of his family, and a new understanding of his identity to fully integrate into the busy life. In the end, he calmed down and accepted it. He knew that reality was not easy, and then he found himself again and found the relationship between him and his family." In Xu Zheng's view, Gao Zhilei hopes to be a good son, a good husband, and a good father. To some extent, it is because he has that kind of forbearance. There are many people like Gao Zhilei in today's society who have a difficult life and have to support their families.
"Lao Kou" who uses tape to stick everything together: The family lives in a shabby and simple house, saving money to save for the surgery of his daughter with leukemia. The cracked "electric donkey" is a metaphor for his living conditions, but he uses cheap and easy-to-use tape to stick together the various broken things brought by life.
"We really saw a car like Lao Kou's on the street. There was also a rain cover cut out from a mineral water bottle in front, which was almost exactly the same as Lao Kou's." According to Wang Xiao, who plays Lao Kou, he was moved by a long letter sent by Xu Zheng and decided to play this role.
"Because 'Retrograde Life' is not about a certain person, or a certain profession, we just use the perspective of the deliveryman to tell the life of this group of people and their living conditions. Every industry has a retrograde life and a retrograde stage. It is not scary to go against the flow in life. What you need is courage, because you have to make a turn, and then turn again. There may be a slowdown in the middle, and slowing down is the process of your thinking. Then when you have recognized the direction and pointed the front of the car in the direction you should go, accelerate with all your strength." Wang Xiao said.
"Lao Kou is the representative of all living beings. He is not a person with a sad face, he is the complete opposite. He is always joking and stingy, and he doesn't care about his own face. One day you go to his home in the ruins, you will find that he is actually a very brave man. He supports his whole family by himself, using his most tired body to support his whole family, and he is a person who can pick a small yellow flower in the ruins and say, 'I'll give you a small yellow flower'." Xu Zheng said.
This film allows the audience to truly see a huge group of people. On the surface, it is about food delivery workers, but in fact it sincerely reproduces everyone who works tirelessly for life, and effectively demonstrates the dignity and glory of workers in the new era. What is more far-reaching and valuable is that as a kind of literary and artistic creation, the film can connect with the public through the screen, and more intuitively let all sectors of society pay more attention to and even help solve the career improvements that this group of people need to obtain, thereby promoting the entire social ecology to change in a more harmonious direction.
As Xu Zheng said, "Our entire film is actually about this theme, including what Gao Zhilei said when he accepted the award in the film, 'Everyone I see works very hard. We fight for life, fight for our families, and run for tomorrow. We deserve respect and deserve a better life.' I think this is what our film wants to convey to everyone: This film is dedicated to everyone who works hard to live."
Source: Workers Daily Client
