The image of an old man appears repeatedly in the play: his hair is gray, but he shows a certain noble temperament: he falters, but he has awe-inspiring dignity: passers-by often light a cigarette for him to show his respect. "Sixth Master" cares most about this detail. Every time I see an old man, I have to repeat the ceremony of lighting a cigarette. Before going to the appointment of life and death, he solemnly put the cigarette in his mouth, lit it and sent it to the old man's mouth. In this unique farewell way, he silently expressed his subtext: no matter how the characters in the rivers and lakes change, what remains unchanged is the "rules" of people-one of which is awe. This is of course from Confucian ethics, but it is also his spiritual weapon against the mainstream-maintaining the order and morality of the people outside the logic of power and money. In old Beijing, this is "exquisiteness". It sets the bottom line: even if you have the right to have money, you can't despise human dignity. For the "six masters", what is insurmountable is not the level of power, but the ethical order of the people.
Obviously, this set of rules is not only inconsistent with the mainstream, but also not strictly observed by marginal communities. When the "Sixth Master" almost defended it, his tragic fate was doomed: finally, he joined the war and fell on the frozen lake. For the people, this is a necessary sacrifice: if all the laws that protect the weak fail, the marginal culture will also disappear. In other words, "Liu Ye" sacrificed his body, but defended the people's subjectivity: the spirit that makes people feel sad is still alive. In Mr. Liu, folk subjectivity has been suppressed, but it has never been defeated. Even the death of the "Sixth Master" does not mean its defeat. On the contrary, before the play was over, a group of "Mr. Six" walked out of the detention center, all sunny and radiant. This is a meaningful mirror metaphor, suggesting that folk subjectivity still exists. When Xiaobo named his bar Juyitang, the audience saw a spiritual relay spanning several generations. When he taught the new parrot to say "dad", I was completely relieved: the precious blood was passed on and the "folk" would not die. From this point of view, Mr. Six is not about how small fresh meat defeats "old things", nor is it the "last romance" of the fifth generation directors. On the contrary, its "soul" runs through time, forming an endless spiritual pedigree.
In contrast, when Xiao Fei and other flower-like teenagers appeared, I didn't see the post-90s generation, but only the accessories of power: without the protection of power, Xiao Fei and his messengers would become "passers-by". Their existence should belong to the past tense. Here, intergenerational relations have nothing to do with timeliness. Youth doesn't mean the future at all. Because of this, "Liu Ye" rightfully protested the logic of small fresh meat: "How did you get to 50, even half a year old?" The play subverts the linear pattern of past-present-future: young and old, young and old; Compared with the "Mr. Six" who loves freedom, "Three Rings and Thirteen Less" is just a diaojiao building attached to the power system, without the independent feelings of the latter; When Liu Ye ran across the lake, his opponent Xiao Fei suddenly admired him. It can be seen that if Mr. Liu is reduced to a game of intergenerational replacement, its real theme will only be blurred and its deep clues will not be restored.
In fact, the "small fresh meat" in the film doesn't belong to the same destiny at all, and it can't be attributed to "we" who are against the older generation: Xiao Fei and other playboys are parasitic in the power system, while Wavelet grows up in the noisy alley. An invisible border separates them: on the left is the gray area derived from power, and on the right is the oppressed and unyielding people, whose interests are often sharply opposed; The two occasionally overlap, either cynicism or swords and shadows. What forces created this boundary? According to the film, Xiao Fei's father is "the governor of a southern province". Although the latter did not appear, it decided Xiao Fei's identity. He is the real game object of "Liu Ye". They are the same age, and they symbolize two worlds: power and people. Relying on the slightly weird bottom wisdom, the people did not lose the whole battle. As far as superficial clues are concerned, it has won at least a temporary victory: at the expense of the "six lords", the Xiao Fei family system collapsed and the trees fell apart; When the "governor of a southern province" was imprisoned, the remaining "Mr. Liu" was released. This is another contrast: the creative staff carefully conceived the triumph ceremony of folk subjectivity to relieve the audience's pent-up nerves and release their accumulated psychological energy. This is a double catharsis, whether in or out of the play: in the cinema, I obviously felt some isomorphism-most of the audience formed a temporary alliance with Mr. Liu, looking forward to the liberation and carnival of the same people. At the moment, they have the same name: folk.