Special feature of 1905 film network Takeaway is a digital and systematic cross-section of contemporary life, with tens of millions of takeaway riders on various platforms stringing together the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people.
The movie goes from a takeaway rider who became a monk halfway — — Gao zhilei cut in, when the burden of life weighed on his shoulders, he started again on the "retrograde" road full of tempering, recovered his lost courage and belief, and redefined the new direction of life.
In this programme, we invited Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher of the Central Institute of Culture and Tourism Management, to talk with us about the movie "Retrograde Life" being shown.
Go deep into reality
Movies from movies to "Retrograde Life" focus on realistic themes. "Xú Zhēng’s films have a very clear evolutionary path, and he is constantly trying to go deep into reality." Sun Jiashan said.
Man on the Road — — It is difficult to return home during the Spring Festival.
Synopsis: Zaler Xu (Xú Zhēng), an executive of the company, decided to go to Thailand to find a boss to solve this problem in order to compete for the management right of the company. On the trip, he met Wang Bao (ornaments) who went to Thailand to plant a healthy tree for his mother with Alzheimer’s disease, and a series of funny stories happened.
Sun Jiashan: "People on the Embarrassed Road" pays more attention to exaggerated jokes, and its connection with real life is relatively shallow.
Dying to Survive — — It is difficult to see a doctor in hospital
Synopsis: It tells the story that Cheng Yong (Xú Zhēng), the owner of Shenyou Store, jumped from a male health care product vendor who could not afford the rent to the exclusive agent of Indian generic drug "Glenin".
Sun Jiashan:Dying to Survive, the benchmark work in the summer of 2018, has made a very profound exploration of real life. The film once attracted the attention of anti-cancer drugs at the national level.
Life in Retrograde — — It is difficult for older people to find employment.
Sun Jiashan:The problems presented by Xú Zhēng in "Retrograde Life" are more complicated. The presentation of the crowd setting such as take-away workers focuses on the new production relations under the digital economy in China. For example, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently announced that it plans to add 19 new occupations, including network anchors. This means that under the guidance of China’s current experience, there are many new social divisions that need to be identified and expressed, reflecting the pain points, urgent needs and high-frequency realistic problems of ordinary people in daily life, which is also the greatest significance of our discussion on realistic movies.
A/B noodles of takeout staff
Every character’s branch line in the film is covered by "home". Takeaways are not just Facebook-based "food delivery machines". They race against time to serve customers while carrying heavy burdens in family responsibilities.
"Ruthless single king" — — Dahei (decoration)
In the film, Dahei has always been a "cold-faced rider". He constantly refreshes his delivery record and is ridiculed by his colleagues as "ruthless king of grabbing orders". But behind the seemingly heartless, it is the big black who silently dedicated himself to his brother in order to make up for his small mistakes …
Economical rider — — Laocai (decoration)
Old man, as the name implies, is a thrifty rider. However, all the digging, searching and frugality are to save the cost of surgery for their children.
Laughter webmaster — —
The stationmaster played by Jia Bing is a typical "two-faced". When he was the captain of the security guard, he said that no takeaway was allowed to enter; After becoming a take-away stationmaster, he made a bold statement that no security guard would stop him.
Sun Jiashan commented: "In real life, the delivery clerk is very busy and tired, and the appearance of the humorous and witty stationmaster played by Jia Bing has played a very good role in lubricating the narrative of the whole film."
Sunshine rider — — Yangdashan (decoration)
Yang Dashan is a vivid representative of flexible employment in contemporary digital economy and a typical "sunny and cheerful boy". He once worked as a hairdresser and played NPC ….. and found his own life value in the process of serving as a takeaway in 360 lines.
As a realistic film reflecting the pain points of society, Retrograde Life does not exaggerate suffering or make unnecessary sensationalism, but tries to show the creator and guardian of a better life, focusing on reflecting the joys, sorrows and self-growth of ordinary people in life.
Resonate with the times and the audience
After the film was released, some viewers disputed the setting of the film’s plot, arguing that the film was "tragically designed" and that "only asking questions led to thinking, but there was no conclusion" …
In this regard, Sun Jiashan responded: "The group of takeout workers has only formed such a scale in the past five or six years, so when related films touch on such issues, there is an unavoidable question:’ Do you know enough about the daily life of this group’, which obviously needs to be explored continuously. In recent years, the focus of film and television works on the new production relations of our digital economy is still shallow, and Retrograde Life is an important exploration.Our present beautiful life is jointly created by different social division groups under the digital economy, so the film and television works with realistic themes must resonate with social life at the same frequency and fully interact with the broad audience. "
