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I believe that many people have seen comments like this recently:

"Rich people play poor people in movies and ask poor people to pay for tickets to watch the movies."

"They are pretending to be poor, but we are really poor. I don't want to see them exploiting us."

... Such criticism is aimed atXu ZhengNew work——

《Retrograde Life》

What kind of movie is "Reverse Life"?

Let’s draw a conclusion first: it is not a masterpiece that will go down in film history, and it is indeed far from the status of “Dying to Survive”.

But overall, it inherits many of the advantages of "Dying to Survive", such as being real enough and shocking enough to the soul, and it is still an excellent reality-themed film.

The content it expresses does not "expend the poor" but rather strengthens understanding and reconciliation between people. It is worth watching by anyone from any class.

At this point, some people may want to say:

"Xiao Luo, Xu Zheng is so rich, but he still plays a poor man. Isn't this exploiting the poor?"

I want to say, first of all, Xu Zheng is indeed very rich, but he doesn’t play a poor person.

Gao Zhilei, the male protagonist of "Reverse Life"(Played by Xu Zheng), graduated from Tongji University, is a typical IT elite.

How elite are they?

After falling into trouble, Gao Zhilei wanted to sell his house, but the real estate agent told him that if he sold it now, he would probably lose 3 million yuan.

In Beijing and ShanghaiTaking school district housing as an example, a house that can result in a loss of 3 million yuan would cost about 10 million yuan when it was purchased.

In other words, before the disaster—

Gao Zhilei's annual salary is about 500,000 yuan;

His total assets are approximately 5 million.

This level is already ahead of most people.

Furthermore, who Xu Zheng is has nothing to do with what role he plays.

Morgan Freeman is also a rich man. In the 1980s, he won the Oscar for Best Actor and became a Hollywood superstar.

In 1994,The Shawshank Redemption”, Morgan Freeman played a prisoner at the bottom of society.

In the classic inspirational film "The Pursuit of Happyness", the male protagonist is poor and destitute.

He lives in a shelter every day and uses the bathroom in the subway station. His wife ran away, and he depends on his son for support.

Will Smith, who plays the male lead, received $20 million in salary, plus a $50 million share of the box office revenue.

on the contrary--

Before Zelensky entered politics, he played the president on television;

Although Gu Yue was born an orphan, he made his screen debut playing a great leader;

Stephen Chow has also played a poor man.Zhao BenshanI also played the role of the boss.Andy LauI also played a fat and ugly...

What's the meaning?

An actor is an actor. It is a profession and a job.

An actor’s background has nothing to do with him. As long as he can portray the character well, he is doing justice to himself and the audience and deserves respect.

Forcibly dividing actors into rich and poor categories is a kind of bandit logic, and it also creates unnecessary confrontation and contradiction.

What "Reverse Life" wants to express is precisely to promote understanding between people and reduce opposition and contradiction.

The movie opens with Shawni（Xin Zhilei Decoration)I opened my phone and saw Gao Zhilei’s former colleague live streaming and selling goods.

Xiao Ni asked Gao Zhilei: Isn't this person a key member of your company? How come he was fired?

Gao Zhilei replied with disdain: Our company has only one backbone, and that is me, your husband.

Then, Gao Zhilei arrived at the company and complained to everyone about his colleague Sun Fendou, saying that he was Fendou’s grandson.

Later, Gao Zhilei was "optimized" by the company, but he was still arrogant and looked down on the coffee delivery man.

As an elite student from a prestigious university, Gao Zhilei believes that he is isolated from those "losers" and that they are of a different species.

Just like some viewers, they believe that rich and poor people are incompatible, isolated, and different species.

But in reality?

Except for a few exceptions, there are few Chinese who can withstand the onslaught of the three mountains.

Medical care, housing, education.

After being "optimized" by the company, Gao Zhilei was unwilling to accept the 300,000 yuan compensation and wanted to go through labor arbitration.

Until his father was suddenly admitted to the ICU and urgently needed imported medicine, forcing him to ask the company for help.

This was the first time he let go of his arrogance as an elite from a prestigious school.

Afterwards, Gao Zhilei sent his resume to various IT companies, but was rejected everywhere because he was too old.

At a roadside stall, Gao Zhilei overheard that a deliveryman could earn up to 15,000 yuan a month.

At this time, Gao Zhilei seemed to be a little moved, but due to his status and face, he did not respond.

Until Xiao Ni told Gao Zhilei that the mortgage was about to be overdue and the child would soon go to an international school.

The difference in money is exactly fifteen thousand.

This was the second time he put aside his arrogance as an elite from a prestigious school.

Do you think this is the end?

After becoming a delivery man, Gao Zhilei thought that with his superior conditions, he would soon be able to win the title of "Single King".

However, Gao Zhilei often exceeded his time limit due to reasons such as not being able to find shortcuts and not knowing how to build relationships with restaurant waiters.

What’s even more frustrating is that because he refuses to lower his stance, he is often targeted by customers who order food, and receives bad reviews and has money deducted.

After working for a few days, I didn't earn any money, but instead lost several hundred dollars.

As a result, the mortgage was overdue and the children could no longer go to an international school. Gao Zhilei could no longer bear it.

He first smashed the client's flowers, then quarreled with the client, and then took his anger out on his family.

When he typed "I quit" on WeChat, he actually wanted to preserve the last bit of his pride.

However, Gao Zhilei was unable to maintain his last bit of pride.

Why?

In order to avoid being a burden to him, his father came up with an extreme idea.

The sudden change in his current situation finally wore away his arrogance and forced him to learn to "treat people with a smile".

Magic?

In my opinion, "Reverse Life" is a realistic film that is highly relevant to today's society.

In the movie, the turning point of Gao Zhilei's collapse was when a customer pointed at his nose and insulted him, saying, "You deserve to be a delivery boy," and then threatened him to give a bad review if he apologized.

In reality, just now, a delivery man in Hangzhou had his car keys taken away by the security guard and was asked to "kneel down and apologize" because he stepped on the railing crookedly during work.

And the delivery man, just like the workers in the movie, chose to compromise in order to avoid overdue orders.

In the movie, Gao Zhilei originally had a middle-class income, but due to successive blows from the external environment, he lost everything in an instant.

In reality, there have been too many such incidents in recent years.

I don’t know about other industries.

But as far as the film industry is concerned, after 2020, many of my friends chose to change their careers.

Which line of work should I change to?

Delivering food, running logistics, driving Didi, doing renovation...

There was even a director who once earned 3 million yuan a year, but had to work on a construction site because he couldn't afford his child's 5,000 yuan tuition.

There are still some critical voices about "Reverse Life".

The general idea is that Xu Zheng blamed the deliverymen's plight on the customers' sarcasm and ignored the crimes of capital.

I think that those who hold this view have probably not seen or understood this movie.

Why was Gao Zhilei's life so difficult?

On the surface, it was due to factors such as investment failure, falling house prices, and his father’s illness.

In fact, he lost his income due to age discrimination in large companies, the ruthlessness and indifference of capital, and the involution of the algorithm system.

A detail in the movie -

Delivery man Dahei(Played by Feng Bing)Being crowned the "Single King" for two consecutive years caused dissatisfaction among colleagues.

Colleagues criticized Dahei: If you keep taking orders like this, it will raise the platform's expectations, and then the platform will make us run according to your standards and increase our workload.

Dahei replied: Is there anything wrong with me taking Danwang? I just want to make more money. Don’t you want money? I just want to make my life tomorrow better than today!

Who is right and who is wrong?

Not a colleague, nor Dahei.

The harder you work, the more tired you become; the harder you roll, the more Darwinian you become…

On the issue of "the plight of working people", "Reverse Life" is critical and reflective.

Of course, its intensity of criticism and reflection did not satisfy some demanding audiences.

But what we need to think more about is...

If its criticism and reflection are really so powerful, can we still watch this movie?

Just like this article of mine, if I write further, it will easily touch certain boundaries.

Finally, let me say one more thing.

On the short video platform, I saw some people who like to use Wang Shuo’s famous quote to criticize Xu Zheng:

“The most shameless thing in the world is to glorify the suffering of the poor and praise it as an inspirational story.”

It must be admitted that this statement is very true.

But the problem is——

"Reverse Life" does not eulogize the suffering of the poor, but implicitly describes the darkness of capital.

At the end of the movie, Gao Zhilei borrowed Dahei's work notebook, wrote the small program Lulutong, and became the king of singles.

Logically speaking, he has already completed the 15,000 yuan task and no longer needs to sell the house.

However, in the final easter egg, Gao Zhilei still sold the house and his family moved into the old and dilapidated house.

Why?

In my opinion, it’s because of another Easter egg——

The staff at the platform headquarters handed over Gao Zhilei's "Lu Lu Tong" to their boss, Mr. Wei.（Yu Hewei Decoration)。

Afterwards, the employees asked Mr. Wei: Do you want him to come to work at the headquarters?

Guess what Mr. Wei’s answer is.