Film Review Guzhu: The Pain Of "Not Worth Mentioning"

The new work "Guzhu" directed by Zhou Hao, a veteran documentary, is not only a simple way to "uncover the scar", although the two protagonists Tong Meimei and Yao Shangde in the film have experienced untold sufferings in their past lives. At first glance, the starting point and the way to enter the protagonists of Guzhu are very traditional. The director starts with their current life and introduces them to the audience one by one in the form of long-term tracking shooting and face-to-face interviews.

Living in Qingdao, Tong Meimei had a rough life. When she was three years old, she experienced her father's suicide and depended on her mother. When she was middle-aged, her husband died of a car accident, leaving her with endless heartbreak. Yao Shangde, who was on the other side of the Strait, was invaded by a strange man because of his credulity in his childhood. From then on, he became silent and lonely. One is the departure of close relatives, the other is physical and mental injury. After suffering, the two choose to lick the wound and face the pain brought by psychological trauma together. After that, their life is a long process of self-treatment. They try their best to draw some courage from their daily good fortune, so that life will not be so difficult.

Together with the director, we slowly entered the daily life of the two. Tong Meimei runs between family and work. She chooses psychological counselor as her career. Every day, she not only provides long-term psychological counseling for patients who come to the consultation, but also often worries about the mother who is smart and often spends all kinds of unjust money to buy health care products. Yao Shangde, on the other hand, began his career as a mime performer. He expressed his emotions with his body on the stage and covered his face with thick white paint. The director carefully balances the structure of the film, and takes the two cases of Tong Meimei and Yao Shangde as a clue of their own, and makes their history clear.

Zhou Hao is indeed a master of documentary shooting. He seems to have the ability to stimulate the subjects' desire to pour out their feelings, so that the main characters in the camera can let their emotions go, laugh loudly or cry bitterly. However, at the middle of the film, the bright eyed audience can have a different feeling: is it really OK for the protagonists to talk about their past pain repeatedly and disturb their life's peace? Therefore, a question about the morality of documentary shooting was put on the table. The questions in the audience's hearts were quickly echoed in the film. Tong Meimei and Yao Shangde, as the shooting objects, began to express their dissatisfaction after living with the camera for a period of time. At this time, originally hiding behind the camera, the director also had to appear in the camera, and the protagonists began an emotional and rational confrontation. As a result, "Guzhu" from a character documentary, suddenly took a 180 degree turn, became a "meta documentary". In which, the director is no longer the master of absolute power. On the contrary, he accepts the suggestions, questions and doubts of the subjects, and sometimes even shows his embarrassment in the face of their aggressiveness. From a pure observer who is separated from other people's lives, he becomes a real witness. Through the shooting of Guzhu, he passively participated in the process of self psychological rehabilitation of Tong Meimei and Yao Shangde.

In this sense, "Guzhu" has the charm that conventional documentary can't match. The story behind the characters is simple and tearful, but the web of these stories gradually engulfs the recorder and the viewer, leaving us unable to be alone in front of the screen. If we say, when the lens turns to the weak, an unequal relationship of exploitation has already taken place. Then director Zhou Hao, who decided to film PTSD patients at first, must have expected that the shooting scene would be uncontrollable - the character's mood might be on the verge of collapse due to painful memories at any time. However, he still chose to take risks and began his sincere exploration. This is a process of repeated trial and game. There is a loss brought about by the sudden closing of an open heart. There are also emotions reflected by tears that flow unconsciously into the deep. The relationship between people will always change subtly in the process of getting along with each other. Zhou Hao changes with the trend, so that the documentary is no longer simply recorded, but always reminds people of the existence of "subjectivity", and frankly accepts the subsequent censure.