That afternoon, the day before the video installation/performance “14 Lullabys for Two People” was set up at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Exhibition Hall in Hong Kong, we held a warm-up sharing session in the empty space. That is, before a story begins, tell the story that precedes it.
While choreographing this “story within a story” flow, it reminded me of a deep feeling I had a week ago while watching a movie called “Three Thousand Years of Longing”: how many people are engaged in theater The creators really understand that the “talking” of “talking about the ancients” and the “narrative” of “narrative” are two attitudes towards “ancient” and “things”?
Talking about the ancients is to clearly describe the events one by one, and the time is flat and single in the process of this five-by-one. Therefore, no matter how twists and turns the plot is, the causal relationship is still in line with expectations.
Narrative, the difference is that things are not the point, but how to tell them. Events are only catalysts, but the timeline that can be extended by the narrative itself is not limited by the opening and ending. That’s why the narrator played by Tilda Swinton in “Three Thousand Years of Desire” is so lonely: the price she pays for “the story” is that few people want to accompany her through the thousand Mountains and waters.
Talking about the ancients is to keep the theme firmly locked in the center. If it is a drama, it is the center of the stage. Everything starts from this position. The stage design, the performance of the actors, and the perspective of the audience all focus on the center. Such a specific treatment will stop the time. But Tilda Swinton is not a storyteller, but a storyteller. Time is for her, not to fill her own shortcomings, but to get to the bottom of it and help herself and others understand where they come from and where they go. Time, in her life, is not a guide of practical value, such as when to do something to achieve something, but to fold that long, crepe, hard and thick piece of cloth with all her might. .
Time is for her, she can get to the bottom of it and help herself and others understand where it comes from and where it goes.
If speaking of ancient times is an omniscient point of view, narrative narration is the physical practice demonstrated by Tilda Swinton in “Three Thousand Years of Longing”: let the story flow around like water, walk in it, feel the upstream and downstream , and then reflect them truthfully. Therefore, narration is a super-perspective that can only be learned through life experience, which is different from straightforward narration or vivid narration.
Why would I want to put a film directed by Yang Dechang on stage? Where is this good to start with? Although, the first time I heard his name was in 1983, the first time I saw his movie was in 1983, the first time I saw him was in 1984, and the first time I wrote a film review was when I watched another of his movies, It was 1987, the first time I played with him (Golden Horse Awards) was 1994, the first time I played with him (a table and two chairs) was 1997, the last time I saw him was 2002…but these numbers , check the narratives one by one, and they are just talking about ancient times, because in the world, in history, behind every encounter and farewell with Director Yang, no one will know all the causes and consequences.
To talk about why “One One” was changed into “One One Trilogy” in Yunyun’s film, it must also be related to admiring Yang Dechang as a narrator instead of talking about the ancients. The “Reunion and Farewell” of “A Day at the Beach” begins. The mystery of time has become the most attractive knowledge in his films, and then in the “old and new” of “Childhoods”, “the real” in “Terrorist”, “the change and the same” in “Guling Street Teenage Murder” , the “generations” and “individuals and groups” of “The Age of Independence” and “Mahjong”, to the “growth and aging” of “Yiyi”, I saw that events are no longer direct light, but multiple reflection and refraction. Therefore, each of Yang Dechang’s films does not provide an answer at the end. Even the most optimistic “Yi Yi” is just a wish to be realized. We all know that it is more “story” to be explored by later people. .
Choosing Yang Dechang’s “Yi Yi” is an attempt to imitate his perseverance in exploring the meaning of time in reality, starting by asking himself to be a qualified narrator. And, one must be someone who tells the story of time in images, not words.
