The title "Elephant Sitting on the Ground" is very interesting and unforgettable. When the film won the best debut award at the Berlin Film Festival, let alone the award, we knew that the film had its own unique connotation and significance. So what kind of story does this movie tell?
The elephant in The Elephant Sitting on the Ground means that there is an elephant sitting on the ground in Manchuria. There is a surreal sense of destiny, and the looming elephant figure in the movie poster is enough to fit the theme of the movie. As we all know, movies are followers behind literature, and the trend of literature often affects the creation of movies and TV series. When harem novels flooded, TV was also full of rouge gouache of harem concubines. Similarly, The Elephant Sitting on the Ground is adapted from the short story of the same name in Paul Hu's collection of short stories, which is about "a failed and depressed life".
Just as some directors are born to tell us about the beauty of life, there will naturally be directors who have the talent to explore "why this life is so fucked up", and Paul Hu belongs to the latter. The four protagonists in the film all had an absurd day: in Yucheng, a friend committed suicide by jumping off a building because of an affair with his girlfriend; Weber, whom his father didn't like, mistakenly pushed the bully down the stairs to help his friend. Huang Ling suffered from the double blow of affection and love. Wang Jin was kicked out by her daughter, but refused to live in a nursing home. They all face the same problem and can't continue to live in such an environment. They all have a common goal-to escape from the city.
They finally chose the same destination-Manzhouli. Because they heard that there is an elephant sitting on the floor. The elephant here symbolizes "the beginning of a new life". But at the same time, they all know that even if they go to Manchuria to see elephants, it will not change anything, and the new life they dream of will not come. Yucheng is still a person, Webb is still not loved by her parents, and Huang Ling will face everyone's strange eyes and fingers behind her, and Wang Jin still can't enter her daughter's house.
"Elephant in Manzhouli" has become an illusory existence and a reason for them to escape from the status quo, so they still set foot on the bus to Manzhouli without hesitation. No one gives them hope, and they can't see any hope themselves. Only when they got off the bus in the middle of the night and kicked the shuttlecock in front of the dim light did they get a short-lived happiness, which has never been seen before and is the only light of hope in this movie.
At this point, the elephants came screaming and their joy came to an abrupt end.
Many film critics commented that "the screams of elephants became their last hope" and "this is a film where hope can be seen in despair". I don't agree. I think the sound of elephants is more like a wake-up call to their lives. Even if they can get temporary happiness, they still have to face this bloody life.
The elephant sat on the floor, just sitting there without saying a word.
This damn life is everywhere, and you can't escape.
Although the investment in "Elephant Sitting on the Ground" is very small, the camera sense is also very realistic. It is this realism that can make us deeply feel the helplessness of life. You can't watch the whole movie alone. Without any paragraphs, it is impossible to continue this "extremely depressed" style, which is probably why Paul Hu didn't want to cut the film into a two-hour version until his death.
If anything is done to the extreme, it will surely succeed. The elephant sitting on the floor is probably the same, in order to win the golden horse award for best film, right?