Anyone have a review of the old movie {Bashan Night Rain}! I need it urgently. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

It's almost impossible to really read "Night Rain on Bashan" in the context of 1980. This is despite the fact that the movie won the Ministry of Culture's Outstanding Movie Award in 1980, as well as five awards at the first Chinese Golden Rooster Awards, including the Best Feature Film Award. In order to read Night Rain on Bashan, one must read about Wu Yonggang in the history of Chinese cinema. As a Chinese film artist who came from the 1930s Chinese movie scene, Wu Yonggang is unique. This movie director, who was born as an artisan, has an understanding of movies that is not shared by ordinary people. Whether in The Goddess (1934), The Waves (1936), or Night Rain in Bashan (1980), Wu Yonggang always pursued the "mood". In this way, the troubled city and the grieving young woman in The Goddess, the lonely island and the misty white sand in The Wave of Sand, and the dandelions and the sad and beautiful Bashan Night Rain in Bashan Night Rain are not only Wu's favorites, but also the most moving parts of the film.

Because of this, Wu's films are often on the edge. That is to say, the love of "mood" makes Wu Yonggang most likely to deviate from the mainstream discourse of Chinese cinema, and also makes Wu Yonggang and his films very vulnerable to unnecessary harm. The tradition of Chinese cinema, which emphasizes the importance of carrying the Word and narrative, once caused people to disregard the glory of The Goddess and misinterpret the true meaning of The Wave of Sand; and most of Wu Yonggang's films, due to the lack of soulmate's ****sing, finally led to a long period of annihilation and lack of visibility. Only in the "Bashan Night Rain", Wu Yonggang let people really appreciate the "mood" charm.

Since 1959 or 1960, Wu Yonggang has been working on Bashan Night Rain (not from the perspective of a play, of course). Because the Cultural Revolution had not yet begun, the context in which the story of "Night Rain on Bashan" was set would not take place until 15 years later, and the next movie that Wu Yonggang had in mind in 1959 or 1960 had to have a "mood": it was a woodcut that the director had seen. Once saw a woodcut, the painting of the little girl is obviously a poor child, she put a small bamboo basket around, the little girl kneeling on the ground, puffing cheeks blowing dandelions, so innocent, childish.

Fifteen years later, Wu Yonggang waited for Night Rain on Bashan. Everything has changed significantly, only the "mood" is still in the heart. Although from the story level, "Night Rain on Bashan" is given so many coincidences and coincidences and so heavy history and reality, but the director still did not make it into a "legend". In order to pursue the "mood" for decades, Wu Yonggang chose to be lyrical.

The main character, Qiushi, is a poet. Under the director's policy of "acting without acting", Li ZhiYi's performance is a bit mute due to his introversion, but it does not affect the overall effect of the movie. In Wu Yonggang's view, the main character, as a poet, is in fact the best vehicle for the lyrical tone of the movie. First of all, the poem "Dandelion" written by Qiu Shi in prison has been used by the director four times in the movie, playing a better function of structuring the movie and expressing the meaning; secondly, the director can freely create a creative environment through the poet's point of view. Thus, in addition to the main story line, the movie not only succeeds in editing the majestic Ba Mountain and the Yangtze River together with the silent Goddess Peak and the rolling maelstrom, but also succeeds in interweaving the lonely flying eagle, the swaying beacon and the dream-like love memories in the story time and space, which makes the movie itself add a rare humanistic depth and a rich lyrical atmosphere. Wu Yonggang even gave up the humanistic critique in The Goddess and The Waves in order to make the movie finally lead to a beautiful "mood". Needless to say, Qiu Shi is an image of purity; even Liu Wenying, the female agent, the film needs her "transformation", and Zhang Yu, the actress, was chosen by Wu Yonggang precisely because of her "childishness"; Li Yan, another agent, reveals his true colors at the last moment, and he is also the mastermind behind the rescue of the poet Qiu Shi. Li Yan, another special agent, reveals his true colors at the last moment, and he is also the mastermind of rescuing the poet Qiu Shi; the whole passenger ship, from the captain to the passengers, are all good and kind people. Until the end of the movie, when Qiu Shi and his daughter go ashore, the passenger ship makes a long sound to bid farewell to Qiu Shi's father and daughter, at which time even the passenger ship itself is endowed with a kind character. Of course, ugliness and darkness certainly exist, but in the movie, Wu Yonggang prefers to push them completely into the background, so that they can accept the judgment in absentia in the court of morality. It is also here that the director's unique talent is demonstrated.

The desire for "context" has given Wu Yonggang a "little dandelion girl" complex that has lasted for more than a decade since the establishment of New China; with the end of the Cultural Revolution, the "little dandelion girl" complex has become the most popular one. With the end of the "Cultural Revolution", the "beauty" implied in "Little Dandelion Girl" should and did rise to become a negation of "ugliness" and a rejection of "evil". The "beauty" contained in "Little Girl with Dandelion" should and has been elevated to the negation of "ugliness" and the criticism of "evil". However, Wu Yonggang did not intend to follow this line of thought, but prematurely left reality and tended towards "romanticism". Admittedly, as Wu Yonggang himself said, there is nothing wrong with having more good people in the movie, not to mention that at the end of the movie, the shot of Xiao Juanzi blowing dandelions is the director's own image that has been brewing for years, and it is not possible to give it up so easily; the depth of the movie lies in the fact that when the protagonist, Qiusi, leaves the passenger liner with his daughter and walks on the forested mountain road, Qiusi only reveals a fatherly smile for a few moments, and most of the time, he is in a somber mood; The daughter runs to the mountains with laughter, blowing up dandelions, which float in the wind in the blue sky and white clouds, all of which are shown through Qiu Shi's sad sight, coating the "beauty" of the "little girl with dandelions" with a layer of melancholy and bleakness. The penultimate shot of the whole movie still stays in the close-up of Qiu Shi: Qiu Shi, who has regained his freedom, faces his daughter who has just returned to him, and decides to put away his heavy heart and smiles calmly, but his smile instantly transforms into sadness. The poet's emotion hovers between great joy and great sorrow. As if unable to bear witnessing all this, the camera dangles away, framed in the vastness of the mountains. Relying on this ending, Wu Yonggang sticks to his own aesthetics. Indeed, Wu Yonggang has never been a "realist" in the strict sense of the word, and "reality" has been chewed into a hard core in his works, which is ubiquitous but intentionally hidden; at the same time, Wu Yonggang has never been a "romantic" in the strict sense of the word. At the same time, Wu Yonggang has never been a "romantic" in the strictest sense, and it is not his purpose to indulge his mind in a time and space beyond reality. The "mood" that he pursues is the profoundness of his own thoughts, but it also brings out the unique beauty and charm of the movie screen.

Just like the end of The Night Rain on Bashan, despite the lack of human criticism, the motivation to reflect on history is written in the beautiful "little dandelion girl" and the vastness of the night rain on Bashan.