In order to create the image of a seven-or eight-year-old child, about two-thirds of the shots in the film are subjective shots of Eiko, and everything that Eiko can't see is not taken. For example, Eiko listened to Xiuzhen's story about the first time she and Si Kang met, which were all empty mirrors. There are only houses and windows in the yard, only Xiuzhen's voice, no music and stereo. Because Eiko has never seen Si Kang, she can't imagine such a meeting. Xiuzhen's love memories, her father's illness, and the relative silence between Ma Song and her husband all happened in Eiko's sight. The two long shots of Eiko bidding farewell to thieves and Ma Song crying are also Eiko's subjective shots. It is precisely because of the use of subjective lens that the audience has a clearer contrast between Eiko's world and the real world, and is more aware of the beauty and purity of Eiko's world and the absurdity and ugliness of the real world.
Structurally, the film can be divided into two parts around Xiaoying's activities. The first half focuses on Xiuzhen and Niu, describing their miserable life experience and painful life. Kindhearted Xiaoying kindly took the girl to recognize Xiuzhen as her mother, thinking that she had found a precious child. As a result, they died. The second half focuses on the story of the thief and Ma Song, describing their different misfortunes: the thief doesn't want to steal, but there is no way; Ma Song loves Eiko and her younger brother as much as her own children, but she can only ignore her own children. Young Eiko, who didn't understand the changes in the world, kindly and childishly asked Ma Song a question: Why did you give the money you earned to others? Why does that girl come to our house to be an old maid without her own mother? She also asked her father why the thief stole and whether her mother was her own. Eiko is too young to understand these unreasonable social phenomena in the world. Eiko's innocence and kindness are in sharp contrast with the complexity and ugliness of society.
Repeated montage is used in many places in the film to string together the easily dispersed details into an organic whole. The first film repeats the scene of Jingwozi, winter, spring, summer and autumn, and the four seasons flow along the river of time. Westerners are still playing "Laughter of Foreigners", water delivery people are still delivering water, people live in tiny days, and Eiko grows up in the flow of time; The next part repeats the scene after school, spring, summer, autumn and winter. This kind of repeated lens position remains unchanged, and the scene remains unchanged, suggesting a vulgar and ordinary life. It is in this trivial life that people gain the meaning of life.
If the repetition of the two details of Jingwozi and School is intended to be narrative, then the repetition of music in the film is not only for the integrity of the film structure, but also an important means of emotional rendering. The film chooses the popular "Pian Ge" as the theme music, which not only conforms to the historical truth at that time, but also closely follows the emotional core of the film-parting. "Outside the pavilion, by the ancient road, the grass is green. The evening breeze blows the flute, and the sunset is beyond the mountain. The horizon, the horizon, intimate friends are half scattered. A pot of turbid wine is full of joy. Say goodbye to Meng Han tonight. " The feelings of parting expressed in the song are integrated with the overall artistic conception of the film.
The film used this song seven times in the beginning, the end and the subtitles. It is played with different instruments and different ways, which has a long meaning. For example, after the thief was caught, the music began, starting with the close-up of the piano keyboard, pulling out the panoramic view of the teacher's performance, then shaking it to the middle scene of the students singing, and then pushing it to the close-up of Eiko. The students are singing, but her mouth is closed and her eyes are full of melancholy; At the end of the movie, Eiko went to the hospital to visit her sick father, and then her father died. The next scene begins with music, but the picture does not directly show dad's death, but is full of red leaves, gorgeous and rich, which makes people cry. The audience's mood was suddenly pulled up and lifted up, and then the camera turned to the Taiwan Province Provincial Cemetery, Dad's tomb, and the Eiko family standing in front of the tomb, and the music gradually faded. When Ma Song's donkey was gradually lost in the smoky Qiu Lin and the music was strong, Eiko looked back from the seat of the carriage, melancholy and sad, and the carriage was getting farther and farther away and lost in the gorgeous autumn leaves. The picture and music are perfectly matched, without a line, but full of emotion and incisively and vividly.
The use of color in the film is also very particular. "Old Things in the South of the City" is the author's childhood memory and the story of the old times. Therefore, the film is based on black, cyan, gray and cool colors, and decorated with bright colors such as red and white, creating a simple, warm and sentimental artistic conception. The clothes of the characters are black, the walls are blue-gray and the snow is white. Eiko's clothes are warm in cool colors, such as orange hat, small fried chicken and red leaves. The overall effect is old, the old is the background color, just like an old photo that can't be reshaped. Parting is painting, depicting one by one, nostalgic, sad and beautiful. This is not only the author's own childhood, but also everyone's childhood buried in the depths of memory.