Humor in Wang Xiaobo's Foreign Films

Recently, I talked with friends in the film and television circle about movies, and I often mentioned Udi Allen. These friends say that Allen's films are difficult to understand because they are full of foreigners' humor. Humor is so profound that ordinary people can't understand it without such great knowledge. I said, I think these films are easy to understand. They said, "You are the most knowledgeable person. Just because I can understand Allen's movies, I earned such a high hat. There is a movie in Allen called Banana, which was also written by a fool. When you see someone backing up in the street, you go over and direct them to the wall. When you see someone sitting on the railing of the bridge, you have to push their chest and let them fall into the water with a long cry-such a guy who can make people happy joined the guerrillas and became a revolutionary leader in South America? Of course, it is not easy to stage this film in China, but there is no profound knowledge in it.

Allen also has a movie called Sex-What You Want to Know But Are Afraid to Ask. It can be seen from the name that this film is a bit meaty, not imported, but it is not difficult to understand. I studied as an apprentice in a street factory. It is estimated that the master of our factory can laugh when he sees this film. But some people don't want to laugh. After an English actor won an Oscar, the girl who is a fan is very enthusiastic about him because he is a man. He sighed with emotion: I just know now that he is in his forties, bald and pregnant (this is the image of his brother in those days), which is a sign of sexiness. I feel the same way: it turns out that "fools" and "things you want to know but are afraid to ask" are profound knowledge.

Recently, I watched the American film "Low-level Novel" (also translated as "Black Wanted Order"). There is a joke in it: during World War I, an American soldier bought a gold watch for his lover and gave it to her only after going to the front. He risked his life to take the watch and finally came back to give it to her. They got married and had children, and this watch became a family heirloom. The second generation of this family is a soldier, who went to Vietnam to fight with a gold watch, and was caught by Yue * * * and entered a prison camp. Yue often searched for prisoners of war, but the man thought, I want to hide this heirloom and give it to my son, so I hid it in my ass for five years until my unfortunate death. Before he died, he entrusted his watch to his comrades and asked him to give it to his son. This comrade-in-arms had no place to hide, so he hid in his ass again and hid it for another two years before he was released. Finally, when the third generation of this family was a child, one day, an officer (that is, the entrusted comrade-in-arms) came and told him the story, and put this baby with two body temperatures and seven years of color, smell and taste in the hands of the child. The child often saw this scene in his dreams until he was in his forties, and then he was awakened by a strange call.

Mr. Lu Xun also told a similar story: During the Republic of China, a young soldier of the former Qing Dynasty played with a precious national treasure-he took it in his hand and shaved his nose, but it was just in his mouth-it turned out that this national treasure was a stone caught in the ass of the ancients when they died. From the similarities between these two stories, we can see that humor has no national boundaries and can be appreciated without any profound knowledge. But if you are an old American officer, you don't like black wanted orders. If you are an old man in China, you won't like Mr. Lu Xun's jokes. In this case, people will say: I don't understand.

In addition to not wanting to understand, there are also cases that dare not understand. Young people in America often like to use such exclamations: Holyshit! Religious old ladies don't understand. The word sacred is often used in religion, as China people say: great, glorious and correct. Shit is shit. Even together, many people dare not understand.

In the United States, the church, the army, and the upper classes of society are often guilty of prudery because of the restrictions of religion and hierarchy, so they have become the objects of ridicule. This kind of humor is not found in China, but it is not difficult to understand. The reason why China doesn't have this kind of humor is obvious: the power here does not allow humor, but only prudes. Joking will get you into trouble. I like to tell a few jokes. People always say: You must be the rightist of 1957. 1957, many cartoonists became Rightists. Until now, China is one of the few countries in the world without political cartoons. As a result, humor has become an inscrutable knowledge in this country.

There is a film "The Name of the Rose" adapted from the novel of the same name, which tells a story: in medieval Italy, there was a monastery with a forbidden book hidden in it, and many young monks risked their lives to peek, and another old-fashioned man poisoned everyone who read it. The stubborn old man said that this banned book poisoned people's hearts, shaken people's beliefs and undermined the church's rule on earth-for this reason, he not only killed people, but also set fire to the banned book and the whole monastery. This is a gloomy and horrible story, and there is a suspense throughout-what book is this? As you can imagine, there must be something in this book that you want to know but dare not ask. At the end of the film, the title is announced, just like the heavy gold watch in a low-level novel, in your palm: it is Aristotle's second Poetics. This book only talks about one thing: what is humor. The background of this story can also be set in modern China.