In 2008, Xu Tong filmed a documentary about prostitutes.
The hero of this film is Xin Wei, a sex worker in her early twenties, a Baoding girl who often greets her elders.
I don't know how "Xin Wei" agreed to be interviewed, whether it was the novelty of being the protagonist or the release of inner loneliness, or just for a little reward like serving other customers. I don't know if it is like me, but what is certain is that Xin Wei tells us the ups and downs of another world through the lens, and the world is bleak.
The length of the film is 99 minutes, but I searched the whole Internet and only saw the 82-minute abridged version. What was taken in the deleted 17 minutes? Perhaps this is Xin Wei's deepest secret.
The first scene of the whole movie is Dingxing, Hebei Province, Xin Wei's hometown, which may have somewhat swept the audience's interest in expecting sensitive topics. In this 10 minute shooting, the pride of a real rural area in Hebei, a young man who returned to his hometown to earn money, was directly displayed. There is not much conflict and excitement in this movie, just like the whole movie, everything seems to be like this, and there is nothing thrilling and insincere. During the filming of 10 minutes, there was a shot of Xin Wei's father. The old father praised Xu Tong in a slightly proud tone, because his daughter is flexible and aggressive. Ironically, when the father finished a compliment, the camera turned to Xin Wei, who was bargaining with impatient customers. I think the old father is happy, and it is his blessing to think of his daughter as a good boy with ambition and ambition. And Xin Wei, I think she is lonely. She can't mention her work to her family, even if she receives perverts and sex addicts, she must bear it silently. She is also uneasy, afraid that there will be a fellow villager among the guests, and tell her all this to break the illusion of her family.
With the camera switching, Xin Wei and his sisters sat in the shabby gun room, chatting with women sitting in the sun on the road, but there was no shortage of food and carrots, not the price of customers and services last night. From the bystander's point of view, these sex workers are not as despicable as we thought. In their eyes, providing sexual services is no different from those of us who work in offices. This is just a job. They complain that some sex clients are too sexy and some abnormal clients are rude. Isn't it just like we are complaining that the company is working overtime and the leadership is incompetent? Xu Tong showed the working environment and attitude of sex workers from the first perspective, without any processing or coloring, so it was laid out in front of the audience.
Xin Wei seems to have had love, too, a young man from Shandong named Xu Jinqiang. As we expected, Xin Wei's boyfriend is her former guest, a migrant worker who operates a tower crane at a nearby construction site. I don't know whether Xin Wei's heart needs comfort or Xu Jinjiang's impulse to have free sex. Anyway, two people came together. This is the smell of love. When Xin Wei was with her boyfriend, she lost her arrogance at work and became more shy. "Sometimes he can make three or four calls a day, and he just doesn't say anything." Hong Miao said with a smile. And the result? There was no result, as Xin Wei finally said: "He went whoring and found someone else." What an ironic sentence, as if Xin Wei knew the ending from the beginning. Prostitutes have no love.
Awei, step aside. This is not the beginning of a new story. Xin Wei and her sisters relax. Just as we eat and drink after work, they also need to find a place to vent their emotions. No one here knows their occupation, and they are no longer prostitutes who can vent. Here, they live more truly and more like themselves. Xin Wei explained why he went to find the duck. "There is no real thing, they don't know what we do. In their eyes, we are just guests, so we are happy to go. " Maybe when the soul doesn't exist, it needs stimulation to go deep into the numb heart. That feeling is beyond words.
The last scene of the film is helpless crying in Xin Wei's shabby rental room. Then the picture went black, and her favorite song "Folk Song" sounded.
The biggest feeling after watching the movie is a kind of truth wrapped in taboos. Prostitution is something that many men want to do but dare not do. Men will wonder what kind of women are engaged in this kind of work and what kind of life they live. This movie gave me the answer. Like the general public, they have nothing to do with ideals, morality and fate, but live. In this movie, Xu Tong gave me the feeling that she was kind to her with cold eyes. In the whole movie, Xu Tong only plays the role of eyes and ears, without any comments. Today, some people may discriminate, insult and despise Xin Wei, a prostitute, but how many people, like Xin Wei, put down their dignity in front of money and let others vent. There is no essential difference between us. The so-called right and wrong, just the focus of our relationship with others is different. "Wheat Harvest" is a cruel movie, and it is also a real movie. In the face of rolling turbidity current, if you can't fight all the time, can you choose to fight occasionally Dare not take the initiative to fight, can you still choose to fight passively? If you can't express bravely, can you choose implicit expression? If you dare not express implicitly, can you choose silence? You can disagree or ignore it, but please accept these people who are stigmatized, trampled, blindfolded and gagged with cold eyes.