Taming the Horse

Canada | 124 minutes | 2017 | Documentary | Mandarin Chinese | English Subtitles | 14A
加拿大 | 124 分钟 | 2017 | 纪录片 | 普通话 | 英文字幕 | 14A
Toronto Premiere 多伦多首映

Growing up on the wind-blown plains of Inner Mongolia, Dong developed an unbridled spirit and a belief in the virtues of simple living. When his family, like millions of others during China’s economic reform, migrated south seeking opportunity, Dong’s spirited ideals were at odds with the values of a rapidly modernizing society in the early throws of consumerist frenzy. More than a decade later, Dong is a dreamer who has lost his way, a loser in derision, spiritually alienated and socially troubled—a listless young adult battling bouts of depression and substance abuse without a sense of place or purpose in his own society.

When an old friend and filmmaker returns to the city with a video camera in hand on the eve of Dong’s 30th birthday, something in him stirs and he begins pouring out his most intimate thoughts. Over the course of a year, filmmaker GU Tao accompanies Dong in his struggles with family and society, sex and love, identity and survival as a young man in modern China. The resulting portrait is of a difficult and divisive young man; a sympathetic record on the human condition in contemporary China; a raw cry for truth, a longing for a better life.

作者古涛为了履行十年前的一个约定，计划带着摄影机陪伴他的朋友冬冬返回他远在北方呼伦贝尔大草原的内蒙故乡海拉尔。临行前他在中国南方城市昆明、广东近一年的拍摄记录下冬冬在他生命的特殊转折期所面临的家庭伦理、金钱、生存、性与爱情的困境。

一个失去故乡的边缘人，一个生活中被贬抑的失败者，一个对理想有偏执幻想的做梦者。渴望精神上“不惑”的生活，却深陷现实和人性的泥淖无法自拔。

这是一部人物颇具争议性的纪录片，是一个当代中国青年的特殊切片，也是一个颇具时代特征的生动镜像。片中的每一个人物也代表了当代中国不同年龄阶层在时代潮流下的生态，以及他们颇具人性温度的人生姿态和尊严。

作者与人物冬冬的返乡之途，是友情和情义的践约，也是对过去生活记忆的回溯。在碎片化时代击碎了每一个人的记忆和心底的家园的境况下，返乡之途与人物冬冬的命运一样注定是困难的，作者古涛在整部影片的旅程中描绘了一个充满悲剧隐喻的人生过程：驯服即命运，命运即驯服。