ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Film Review: Peacock: The Truth of Youth
By Li Shuting
Peacock is a maiden work of Gu Changwei, one of the greatest figures of the fifth generation Chinese moviemakers. Before this, he served as a cameraman for many years, enjoying successful cooperation with famous directors such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.
The story, consisting of three parts, is about the life of three children in a traditional Chinese family in the late 1970s. Each part deals with one of the children, and the three main characters have completely different attitudes towards life. Each of the three parts begins with the same scene--all the family members are sitting around the table having dinner silently.
The eldest son, with abnormally low intelligence, holds their parents' love and attention. The humiliation from other people consistently bothers him, but in the family he is considered the center and enjoys many privileges. Once there is a distribution of candies, he gets the biggest share and takes it for granted. When he learns to ride a bike, the whole family serves him. His huge and corpulent body is in sharp contrast to the extremely slim figures of his brother and sister. As for the younger daughter and the youngest son, love and attention from the parents are ideal but luxurious gifts that they never got.
Partly resulting from his special status in the family, the eldest son becomes an arrogant adult, who always faces difficulties innocently and optimistically. Life gives him humiliation and pain all the time, but all those sentimental feelings mean nothing to him--sadness only hits those who can think and feel. He is well protected, both by his parents and by his ignorance.
The younger daughter, with impressive beauty and courage, is an absolute idealist. She is able to protect her ideal and dream at any cost. Once she falls in love with a parachutist but fails to arouse his affection. In order to keep her romantic dream, she uses sheets to make herself a large parachute and ties it on her bicycle. When the large self-made parachute flies beautifully as a flower and astonishes all the people in the street, she enjoys the pleasant catching of her dream. Then a bully in the town takes the parachute, and she chooses to trade her virginity for it without any hesitation.
Her life is made of moments like this. She has never given up her ideal and dream, though they often have fierce conflicts with reality. She can always find beautiful sceneries in her lonely and simple life, and she has the courage to fight for them in spite of other people's opinion.
However, the youngest brother's life shows the tragedy of a pessimist. He is an excellent student, but a sensitive and lonely boy. For most of his scenes, he looks like a shadow, quietly and depressively. The fact that he has a low-intelligence brother burdens him with humiliations and makes his life miserable.
He hates his life and considers his brother the root of all his misery. He tries to break the stuffy reality through many ways. He pokes his brother with an umbrella in front of his classmates in order to deny their blood connection; he tries to poison his brother in order to get rid of the heavy burden. He has struggled but he has never succeeded. Finally a picture of a naked girl causes him to be banished from home. By the time years later when he comes back with a wife, his youth has already died. After all he has been through he loses the courage of struggling. His life has never been lively and his youth has never been colorful.
The setting of the whole movie is as melancholy as is youth. The three young people may seem to be abnormal; their behavior might seem to be exaggerated. However, youth is exactly such a phase, during which teenagers do not want to obey and feel confused about life.
Besides, the ending of the movie is extremely meaningful. The whole family goes to the zoo to see the peacock, but no matter how hard they try, the peacock does not show his beauty to them. Then when all the people leave, the audience sees a beautiful peacock in his pride. That is the truth of youth--it only shows its beauty after one passes it.
The sparkling points lie not only in the plot but also in the beautiful vision. Thanks to his experience as a cameraman, the director is good at handling the light and the pictures. Some movie critics regard his style as impressionism, which means that he can make his audience feel warm when he tries to shoot a sun. "I formed my style when I worked with Zhang Yimou (a famous director)," said Gu Changwei, "I have learned a lot from our cooperation."
So far, this beautiful peacock has already won the Silver Bear prize from the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. What is more important is it has declared the success of another promising director in the world of film.
Peacock is a maiden work of Gu Changwei, one of the greatest figures of the fifth generation Chinese moviemakers. Before this, he served as a cameraman for many years, enjoying successful cooperation with famous directors such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.
The story, consisting of three parts, is about the life of three children in a traditional Chinese family in the late 1970s. Each part deals with one of the children, and the three main characters have completely different attitudes towards life. Each of the three parts begins with the same scene--all the family members are sitting around the table having dinner silently.
The eldest son, with abnormally low intelligence, holds their parents' love and attention. The humiliation from other people consistently bothers him, but in the family he is considered the center and enjoys many privileges. Once there is a distribution of candies, he gets the biggest share and takes it for granted. When he learns to ride a bike, the whole family serves him. His huge and corpulent body is in sharp contrast to the extremely slim figures of his brother and sister. As for the younger daughter and the youngest son, love and attention from the parents are ideal but luxurious gifts that they never got.
Partly resulting from his special status in the family, the eldest son becomes an arrogant adult, who always faces difficulties innocently and optimistically. Life gives him humiliation and pain all the time, but all those sentimental feelings mean nothing to him--sadness only hits those who can think and feel. He is well protected, both by his parents and by his ignorance.
The younger daughter, with impressive beauty and courage, is an absolute idealist. She is able to protect her ideal and dream at any cost. Once she falls in love with a parachutist but fails to arouse his affection. In order to keep her romantic dream, she uses sheets to make herself a large parachute and ties it on her bicycle. When the large self-made parachute flies beautifully as a flower and astonishes all the people in the street, she enjoys the pleasant catching of her dream. Then a bully in the town takes the parachute, and she chooses to trade her virginity for it without any hesitation.
Her life is made of moments like this. She has never given up her ideal and dream, though they often have fierce conflicts with reality. She can always find beautiful sceneries in her lonely and simple life, and she has the courage to fight for them in spite of other people's opinion.
However, the youngest brother's life shows the tragedy of a pessimist. He is an excellent student, but a sensitive and lonely boy. For most of his scenes, he looks like a shadow, quietly and depressively. The fact that he has a low-intelligence brother burdens him with humiliations and makes his life miserable.
He hates his life and considers his brother the root of all his misery. He tries to break the stuffy reality through many ways. He pokes his brother with an umbrella in front of his classmates in order to deny their blood connection; he tries to poison his brother in order to get rid of the heavy burden. He has struggled but he has never succeeded. Finally a picture of a naked girl causes him to be banished from home. By the time years later when he comes back with a wife, his youth has already died. After all he has been through he loses the courage of struggling. His life has never been lively and his youth has never been colorful.
The setting of the whole movie is as melancholy as is youth. The three young people may seem to be abnormal; their behavior might seem to be exaggerated. However, youth is exactly such a phase, during which teenagers do not want to obey and feel confused about life.
Besides, the ending of the movie is extremely meaningful. The whole family goes to the zoo to see the peacock, but no matter how hard they try, the peacock does not show his beauty to them. Then when all the people leave, the audience sees a beautiful peacock in his pride. That is the truth of youth--it only shows its beauty after one passes it.
The sparkling points lie not only in the plot but also in the beautiful vision. Thanks to his experience as a cameraman, the director is good at handling the light and the pictures. Some movie critics regard his style as impressionism, which means that he can make his audience feel warm when he tries to shoot a sun. "I formed my style when I worked with Zhang Yimou (a famous director)," said Gu Changwei, "I have learned a lot from our cooperation."
So far, this beautiful peacock has already won the Silver Bear prize from the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. What is more important is it has declared the success of another promising director in the world of film.
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