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Lao Zhou
Abstract: Xu Zheng's latest realistic film "Reverse Life" was released on August 9. From the perspective of a deliveryman, this film reveals that the lower-class people encounter a series of crises in the middle and have to work as deliverymen. They run, work hard, and even struggle for a living...

Xu Zheng's latest realistic film "Reverse Life" was released on August 9. From the perspective of a deliveryman, this film reveals that the lower-class people encounter a series of crises in the middle and have to work as deliverymen. They run, work hard, and even struggle for a living...
The plot is very simple. It turns out that Gao Zhilei (played by Xu Zheng), a backbone of the business in Dachang, was suddenly dismissed after working hard for the company for eleven years, and his compensation was only 300,000, far less than the stipulated 700,000.
The 45-year-old middle-aged IT man was completely rejected by the workplace. At this time, his daughter was admitted to an international school with a tuition fee of 200,000 yuan. The father was overworked and had a stroke and was hospitalized because of his son's unemployment. In addition, the mortgage for the big house he just bought was 15,000 yuan a month. These three battles made him completely breathless, and he had to work as a delivery man.
It seems that the threshold for being a food deliveryman is very low, but it is not so easy to do it. I am not familiar with the route, I don’t know the house number, the security guard won’t let me enter the community, the auntie won’t let me enter the building, I will be deducted for overtime, and I will be deducted for bad reviews... I work hard for a month, but I only get 4,000 yuan, and I have to pay for clothing and electric donkeys. I work like a dog, but I only earn this little.

With the daily expenses of his family and a monthly mortgage of 15,000 yuan, Gao Zhilei had no way out, so he humbly asked other riders for advice, built good relationships with security guards, aunties, and restaurant waiters, studied and optimized routes, and used his expertise as a programmer to develop a small app for traffic conditions in his area. His number of orders began to soar, and he soon upgraded from the bottom of the garbage rider to a gold rider.
In the end, he was able to compete for the single king of the takeaway station. When victory was in sight in the last single, he was suddenly hit by a truck. However, he no longer cared about the pain on his body, and stumbled all the way and rushed into a bar in the midst of a carnival - this is a bit exaggerated, but film and television dramas always need dramatic conflicts.
After winning the single king, their monthly income reached 15,000 yuan, and they were finally able to pay off their mortgage. However, the next month, they moved and replaced their big house with a small one, so they didn't have to bear the heavy mortgage pressure.
The next month, Gao Zhilei's mini program attracted the attention of the platform... This is an open ending, which leaves a foreshadowing and also leaves room for the audience's imagination.

It should be said that this film is quite good in both character creation and plot design. Xu Zheng's 2018 "Dying to Survive" is a realistic work that can be called a god. It not only has a good reputation and box office, but also has far-reaching social significance and has promoted the legislation of relevant drugs. Later, although "Love Mythology" in 2021 is also full of grassroots fireworks, strictly speaking, it cannot be regarded as a realistic work. But this "Retrograde Life" is a veritable realistic theme. In today's society, it is really not easy to stick to the creation of realistic themes.
However, this film was booed even before it was screened, and some even called for a boycott. The reason is that this film is about rich people playing poor people, and it is a celebration of suffering. There is nothing wrong with "rich people playing poor people". Nowadays, all celebrities with some status are worth billions of dollars. Most of the roles they play, whether they are soldiers, police, lawyers, judges, or even executives of large companies, are "rich people playing poor people".
As for the saying that it "glorifies suffering", I cannot agree with it. To be precise, this film is "narrating suffering", using plain and simple lens language to narrate, with many details, such as the original single king Dahei, who never transfers orders, and never talks much with other riders, just focusing on running orders. Because he transferred an order to a young rider before, he got into a car accident and had one leg amputated, and he was fully responsible for violating traffic regulations. Dahei worked hard to make money to pay for the medical expenses of this young rider; for example, the stingiest Laokou, who only buys white rice and not Cai, only drinks tap water and not mineral water, and uses tape to fix anything that is broken, because he wants to save money for his son's leukemia treatment.

There is also the male protagonist Gao Zhilei. Because the customer wrote the wrong address, he was delayed. In order to avoid a bad review, he had to apologize to the customer. He exceeded the time limit, exceeded the time limit, and finally fell off the car. But at this time, the platform's "Smile Plan" also required verification of the smiley face. In such a situation, who can still smile? If the verification fails, the account will be blocked for three days!
Is this "glorifying suffering"?
It should be said that according to the plot, Gao Zhilei is not suffering, at most he is frustrated. He is still very lucky at the lowest point in his life. His wife never leaves him, and she also teaches drums and works in a nail salon to increase the family income. His daughter can't go to an international school, but she can comfort her father, "You have worked hard enough!" The old father had a cerebral infarction, but gave up going to a rehabilitation hospital for treatment, but recovered at home by himself, and encouraged Gao Zhilei that running takeout is still okay! - At least he has the understanding and support of his family, and because of his daily running exercise, his diabetes was cured without treatment. If his family disliked him and abandoned him, and he himself suffered from a terminal illness, that would be real suffering.

This film chose to cut in from the perspective of food deliverymen to reveal the hardships of ordinary people at the bottom. Food deliverymen represented by Gao Zhilei can be said to be the "Camel Xiangzi" of the 21st century. They seem to be at the bottom of society. But even if they work in a big market, wear suits and tie shoes, and work in a luxurious office building like Gao Zhilei did before, what is the difference between them and food deliverymen in essence? Are they drivers or drivers? It's not about whether they wear long shirts.
Just as the title of the film "Reverse Life", the life of people at the bottom of society is never smooth sailing, or they have to go against the wind. Every step is difficult, and they need to keep running, working hard, fighting and even struggling every day!
The only hope in my heart is that tomorrow will be better than today!
(The pictures in this article are from the Internet)