Poverty is not the same as suffering. Recently, I have read many reviews about “Hidden in the Dust and Smoke”, and the majority of them are bitter, among which the most classic is: there is no mention of a word bitter, but it is bitter out of the sky. I was wondering how I did not feel the bitter? But poor, really poor, also dirty, clothes never seem to be washed clean.But poor is poor, dirty is dirty, what does it have to do with bitterness? There is no causal relationship between poverty and suffering. Poor is poor, and it is material poverty (or spiritual poverty). But these do not directly lead to suffering. Bitterness is an inner feeling, and it has nothing to do with material wealth. No matter if you are born in a poor family or a rich family, if there is a lack in your heart, you will suffer a lot.
I didn’t even shed a single golden bean during the whole movie, knowing that my eyes are very shallow and will tear up anytime I watch a film or TV production. But unfortunately, I did not have a tear for Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying. In the end, I was even angry. Because Guiying’s death, I have no grief, only anger.
Poor, you can roll up your sleeves and work. Just like Ma Youtie, from nothing, even a person who is disliked, to the end and Guiying, a person who is also marginalized, within a year together to work hard to have their own house, have a harvest, all the debts are paid off and there is a surplus.
Two useless people who were ridiculed by the neighbors in all directions could slowly make their lives prosperous. If this is really the case in our Chinese countryside, I think it is worth celebrating. You know, the two worst people in the whole village can live a good life on their own, so what is there to worry about for the others or how can they suffer out of poverty?
Is it bitter if you can’t eat eggs? Is it miserable if you can’t wear good clothes? Is it miserable if you don’t have a TV to watch? Is it bitter if you don’t have a nice house to live in? That the top gentry look at us who feel that the horse has iron bitterness will also feel that we are so bitter: although there are three meals a day, but can not shark fin gargle; although there is a stable job, but the 9 to 5, or even 996, no freedom to speak of; although there is a suite, but a few families crowded in less than 100 square meters of snail’s pace; and travel without the front and back and no luxury rides But I have no bitterness, I have three meals, enough; I have a snail’s pace, family safety, enough; I do not have a high income, but a stable job, enough; I do not have a luxury car, but I have a shared bike in the near, far from the light rail or high-speed rail, enough.
Who can tell me how you see the bitterness of this movie? Is it because my heart is too cold? Or is it just that you guys vicariously let Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying “be bitter”.
The real reason for hiding in the dust and smoke is that this pure soul is poor, really poor, but not comparable to suffering. True suffering is not something that anyone is qualified to endure. For example, Ma Youtie, whose suffering began with Guiying’s death. And all the things before that are just poor. A person who can endure poverty is not the same as a person who can endure hardship. Otherwise, Ma Youtie would not have chosen to go with Guiying after paying off all his debts.
When I saw the movie, the only feeling I had was that a wooden man, clean and pure, was lit by a flawed woman, but when the fire went out, he died too.
Because his heart had been warmed and filled, yet suddenly it was cold and empty, and this huge drop was what caused the source of his unbearable suffering. Not that so-called poverty or being taken advantage of, those things are like dark clouds in a clear sky to him, no, not even dark clouds, dark clouds can still block a ray of sunshine to him, but poverty or being taken advantage of can’t block his sunshine, not even a hint of wind.
Ma Youtiao is capable, when he broke away from Sango’s family, he was completely independent to make a good life for himself. Using the universal values of our current society, he could not only get out of poverty, but even be more successful than those village people who resented him all day long for taking advantage of him.
But he never had that chance because he could not stand the cold after the warmth, nor the emptiness after the filling. Therefore, the real suffering is not anyone is entitled to bear.
The real suffering is the awareness of knowing that it is not possible to do it, and what is not known is not suffering. For example, poverty is not bitter to Ma Youtiao, but the sudden loss of Ma Youtiao after he had Guiying is bitter. This kind of suffering was so painful that he could not bear it, and that was the reason why he went into the dust and smoke.
Therefore, the hidden smoke has nothing to do with the poverty of the countryside, and still has nothing to do with the prosperity of the city. Such people, whether in the countryside or in the city, are destined to disappear into the dust and smoke, like me, like you, like Ma Youti. After all, how many immortal people are there?
And really withstand the suffering of people, such as the resistance to the suffering of nirvana, and has the rebirth of the beauty of the phoenix, and only such people may have the opportunity to be immortal. Such as Wang Yangming, after a thousand hardships and deaths, he left behind for future generations a masterpiece of spiritual learning; such as Chairman Mao, who endured the life and death of many loved ones in exchange for the final success of the revolution?
I don’t think it has any positive meaning to put such a story, which can happen anytime in the city or the countryside, in such a poor and backward place, and then put it on the screen with a specious name.
At least, the director said that the original intention to let people see and help 500 million poor peasant brothers will not be realized, the people watching the movie just saw, but only when watching the movie to see it. What is the practical significance for the poor farmers? For future generations to understand the life of the contemporary ordinary people, well, understand, when the ordinary people are living such a humble and weak life, but for future generations and what inspiration or touch? In that case, let the film, as its name suggests, disappear into the dust, perhaps its true meaning.
