Is the real 80s always over-glorified? After removing the filters of fireworks and poetry, her eyes were devastated.
A rare period drama, Sir has finally arrived.
Beginning.
One shot brings us back to the familiar 1980s.
Dance hall.
Fight.
More importantly, the protagonists here are a group of passionate teenagers who are determined to make a name for themselves in this city.
That’s right.
People and eras that are rarely touched upon in domestic dramas are now truly appearing in front of us.
The background is not small.
The producer is Wen Muye of “I’m Not the God of Medicine”; the director is Han Xiaohan, the screenwriter of “Miracle: Stupid Kid”; the starring role is Han Dongjun of “The Pretend to Be Apocalypse”.
A period drama about a hidden past:
Time flies like fire
To be honest, Sir has been looking forward to this drama for a long time.
Sir watched 11 episodes in one go. If he could evaluate it in just one word, it would be:
Live up to expectations.
You can even say that.
It fills the gap that domestic dramas have never been able to fill.
01
Back to the 1980s
When was the last time you saw the 1980s in a domestic drama?
“Children of the Qiao Family”?
In the play, the mother passes away and the father fails to live up to expectations, but the brothers and sisters still support each other and live in harmony and warmth.
“Dajiang Dahe 2”?
In the play, Song Yunhui ranked first in the county in the college entrance examination, was admitted to university, became the backbone of Jinzhou Chemical Plant, and started a counterattack in life.
But I don’t know if you’ve noticed that when we talk about the 1980s, it’s always related to the vitality of the early days of opening up. It always reveals the beautified unreality through a yellowing filter.
The real 1980s was a “mixed” era, at a time when the old and the new were changing.
Bright and cold, with a gray tone.
There is such a scene in “Time Like Fire”.
In the video room.
Several teenagers who were secretly watching pornographic videos were discovered by their elder brother and ran away.
sunny.
In slow motion, everything looks beautiful.
Look carefully, along the way, what we see are mottled walls covered with torn paper, moldy black bamboo poles drying trendy and fashionable clothes, and a piece of bricks that were too late to be built, with the words “Long Live Understanding” written on them. But the graffiti that no one cares about…
Anyway.
The new has just arrived and the old has not gone away, creating a chaotic scene.
That’s right.
In the real 1980s, there were not only vibrant spring days, but also scorching summer nights, bleak autumn winds, and cold winter nights. It was like the four seasons of the year were mixed together, making them indistinguishable and dark.
This kind of atmosphere of the times is exactly the social outlook between the old and the new.
The story tells the story of five teenagers.
The male protagonist Xu Weibiao (played by Han Dongjun) is “ignorant and has no skills” and is very loyal. He hangs out with his two little brothers Lin Zhihua (played by Zhang Yaoyu) and Zhang Peng (played by Gan Yuchen) all day long, earning pocket money and fighting. , is a typical boy in the 1980s.
This day.
By chance, they met Wang Lei (played by Jia Hongxiao), a gangster, and Zhong Yunan (played by Zhang Youhao), the son of a gangster boss.
So something went wrong.
The five people were involved in a bloody storm that changed the underground world.
But before that, the creator first put a lot of effort into the “sense of the times”.
Yes, “Time Like Fire” is good.
The first is that its lens does not let go of the old and new things of the 1980s.
old:
A bungalow with tiles falling off its roof.
Rusty and peeling door.
new:
Television sets, “28” bicycles, mobile phones, and radios are all trendy items in the 1980s.
Discotheques with feasting and entertainment, video parlors where you can only hide and watch secretly with your family behind your back, Leslie Cheung’s newly released movie in the cinema, underground boxing matches that cannot be seen in public, and karaoke OK where people sing to their heart’s content.
But are these just “appearances”?
No.
The real background of this mixture of old and new is actually the young people who are in the transition between the old and the new. They can’t wait to abandon the old and welcome the new.
A detail.
As soon as the “five-person group” led by Xu Weibiao got rich, they took off their old-fashioned school uniforms and put on the most fashionable clothes at the time, including jeans, floral shirts, bell-bottom pants, and black sunglasses.
At that time, Lao Jianghu was still simply wearing a black suit.
Although Xu Weibiao and others were young men, they dressed more “fashionably” than many old Jianghu men at that time.
When new trends emerge in society, it is difficult for the younger generation to hold back their own impulses and enthusiasm.
The “new” in the 1980s was not just the upgrading of clothing and daily necessities, but also a new social form:
A hundred schools of thought can contend, and a hundred flowers can bloom together.
only.
When hidden corners are also growing quietly, how will the young and energetic people choose?
“Shanghai on the Beach” was playing on the TV. Fa Ge, dressed in a suit, rushed into the wedding of his beloved woman, showing off his “big brother” style.
Xu Weibiao, who was eating with his family in a bungalow, looked at Fa Ge with fascination.
soon.
He announced his lofty ambitions to Fa Xiao:
Get involved in the world, become the boss, and make your way.
It was an era when something was created from scratch. “Jianghu” was still an emerging thing at that time and even developed into an industrial chain.
But Jianghu is not that easy to mess around with.
02
What is “righteousness”
Jianghu also has its own rules.
“Righteousness” is worth a thousand pounds.
However, “Time Like Fire” first lets us see what “jianghu” means.
It would be a gang fight among teenagers at the age of fearlessness and ignorance.
Xu Weibiao and others robbed the gangster’s customers and made a lot of money, but what happens next?
In a narrow alley.
They were immediately taken in and intercepted by the gangsters.
Xu Weibiao took out the hammer, Lin Zhihua picked up the bricks, and a melee ensued.
There will also be social gangs planning to divide their territory in invisible corners.
How to divide?
They used branches to indicate each person’s share of the territory. Later, they boiled water with branches and everyone drank the water from the branches to show their approval of this division.
Even if you are not convinced.
but.
The most important thing is actually this line in the play:
Righteousness is a lifelong problem.
It is not simply about loyalty, but about the struggle and understanding of the word “righteousness” in a dramatically changing environment.
in front of the times.
Those old rules will eventually be wiped out.
Take the main axis of the plot, Xu Weibiao’s two rescues of Zhong Yunan as an example.
first.
What we see is traditional loyalty and passion.
What would you do if you saw a playboy you never knew being kidnapped?
Stand idly by?
What Xu Weibiao and others did was to promise to send Zhong Yunan home, who was in a fever and coma.
Why?
There is only one word: loyalty.
As a human being, you must not do unjust things, and you must do what you promise to the end.
then.
Lin Zhihua became a “smart star”, making plans and laying out plans at all levels. Xu Weibiao and Zhang Peng became the vanguard, first deflating the opponent’s tires, and then diverting the tiger away from the mountain to lure the opponent away.
Wang Lei, who had the highest force value, became the “defender” and pulled a tricycle to transport the unconscious Zhong Yunan home.
These young calves are not afraid of tigers.
Relying on “a promise worth a thousand dollars”, even if he was shot or besieged, he still persisted until the moment he sent Zhong Yunan home.
The brotherhood and chivalry seen in old Hong Kong films are reappearing in domestic dramas.
But what about the second time?
What we see is the cruelty after the collapse of order.
The reason was that He Erqing (played by Liu Yang) kidnapped Zhong Yunan.
Why?
Because the “small society” in the small town is an alliance, and each has its own territory. On weekdays, they abide by the rules of the gang and live in peace, just like a calm lake.
However, once stones are thrown in, the lake will no longer be calm, ripples will appear, and even waves will rise.
He Erqing is this stone.
He was betrayed by his brother and fled to the Northeast. Now he returns to the small town and breaks all the rules.
So not only did he kill Zhong Yunan’s father.
It also turned Zhong Yunan into a “lost dog” that even his uncles once avoided.
In this “big reshuffle”.
We actually saw the appearance of all living beings:
A loyal father, a “benevolent and righteous brother”, but a brother who betrayed his brothers and his son.
The uncle is kind on the surface, but he still covets and seizes the loyal family’s territory in the past.
Benefits are current.
“Righteousness” becomes complicated and difficult to distinguish.
In the early days of reform and opening up, the market economy had just been implemented, and many people were waiting and watching.
Some people follow the old concept, the so-called “scholars, farmers, industry and commerce”, and businessmen are always looked down upon. Others follow the new concept and start to “go to sea” and make their first pot of gold.
When old and new ideas begin to collide and entangle with each other.
The wild growth begins.
03
lost memory
Therefore, probably because he is getting older, Sir often thinks back to those stories from the 1980s when watching dramas.
In my memory, I remember a stubborn boy wearing a plaster cast.
Or the childhood “enemies” whom we met by chance many years later and could only exchange pleasantries with.
Those memories that were almost buried suddenly jumped out and announced their existence.
Why do we miss the 1980s?
Of course it is inseparable from “Let a hundred flowers bloom”.
Compared with the resumption of the college entrance examination in the 1970s, the “laid-off” and “off-the-job” craze in the 1990s, and the rapid development after the millennium.
In the 1980s, when opening up had just been implemented, the situation was broken but not yet established, like a seed that had just been planted but had not yet taken root and sprouted.
It can easily become a passing background, making people ignore its vitality.
But actually.
A long time ago, scholar Chen Pingyuan summed up the entire 1980s in twelve words: mud and sand were falling, everyone was noisy and full of life.
This “anger” is the vitality and bold rebellion that breaks all rules.
young people at that time.
Just like the three Ma Qing people in “The Stubborn Lord”, they dared to collide with depressed middle-aged people on the street.
Conflict with those stereotypes, those authorities, those realities.
They are fearless.
They feel that the future has endless possibilities.
As Chen Danqing said, “The 1980s were a decade of excitement and turmoil.”
but.
Just passion, just fearlessness, just exuberance?
it is known.
Behind the vitality is actually pain.
one example.
There is a “symbol” that appears many times in “Time Like Fire”:
Father.
What does father represent?
In traditional societies, that’s order.
When order breaks down, demons will dance wildly, just like in “Sunny Day”. As long as the father is not present, a group of children will have no fear of anything and will join society without any scruples.
And if we find out.
Is the order in which we believe in itself defective?
Just like in “Time Like Fire”.
The screenwriter arranged different “fatherless” backgrounds for several teenagers.
but.
Neither is a death that can be talked about openly.
Xu Weibiao’s father died in a war to aid Vietnam.
This was an action rarely mentioned in history, and the people and events involved gradually faded into dust.
Zhong Yunan’s father died in an underground fight.
This makes him not only unable to become a “hero” (the loser in a gang fight), but he cannot even become an innocent victim (a promiscuous member has a criminal record), and can only “disappear into thin air”.
And what about Wang Lei’s father?
We don’t know, but from his mixed social background and Wang Lei’s avoidance of talking about the matter, we can know that at least it will not be glorious.
The same experience of “losing a father”.
The same secret pain.
This seems to be the confusion faced by a whole group of young people in the 1980s after ten years of catastrophe.
Of course we all know what this means.
then.
Under this premise.
They write scar literature and reveal their wounds for others to see; they love poetry and look for answers in the notes of words.
They accept foreign culture in an all-round way in order to be reborn from the blood; they sing and dance to their heart’s content, using the smell of hormones to cover their uneasy hearts…
Just like Cui Jian at the Workers’ Gymnasium, he opened his voice and sang “I” like never before:
I kept asking when will you come with me. But you always laugh at me and have nothing!
It’s also like Liu Zifeng’s low lament in “The Black Cannon Incident”:
I will never play chess again.
Just a pity.
The 1980s, when chaos revealed vitality, savagery concealed hope, and brightness concealed pain, were rarely mentioned for a long time.
It has a soft filter applied to it.
Gradually being blurred and forgotten.
So from this perspective, when Sir first saw “Time Like Fire”, he was actually more excited than anything else. In that forgotten era, the growth of those teenagers in the dark, he intuitively felt that it had filled the gap. It has filled a gap in domestic dramas.
Even from a rational perspective, “Time Like Fire” still has many imperfections.
but.
It is also precious enough.
It not only shows a real history, but also a group of flesh-and-blood people, telling us that they once existed and shined.
It is also a form of respect.
After all, no matter the era or the people, it has its original appearance.
They should not be tampered with by filters.
It is also worth looking back today to think about what was left after the bloodline was so violent.
The pictures in this article come from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Unruly 8 Treasure Rice