杀马特我爱你 We Were Smart

导演: 李一凡

主演: 罗福兴

类型: 纪录片

制片国家/地区: 中国大陆

语言: 汉语普通话

上映日期: 2019-12(广东时代美术馆)

片长: 125分钟

片名: 杀马特，我爱你 / Sha Ma Te I Love You / We Were Smart

IMDb: tt13809752

Director: Li Yifan

Starring: Luo Fuxing

Genre: Documentary

Country/Region of Production: Mainland China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Release Date: December 2019 (Guangdong Times Museum)

Duration: 125 minutes

影片简介：

影片通过对“杀马特”文化的深入研究和呈现，反映了底层工人在城市化进程中的文化焦虑和生存状态。这种亚文化的流行反映了底层工人对于身份认同和自我表达的需求，同时也反映了他们对于消费文化的追求和压力。这一现象说明了文化与经济的密切联系，在市场经济的推动下，消费文化成为了底层工人在城市化进程中的一种表达方式和逃避现实的手段。 《杀马特，我爱你》通过深入记录中国底层工人的生存状态和文化现象，揭示了现代化进程中的底层群体所面临的困境和挑战，具有深刻的现实意义。

2017年，李一凡开始拍摄杀马特。他从深圳开始，在深圳、广州、中山、惠州、重庆、贵阳、黔东南州、黔西南州、毕节、安顺、昆明、大理、玉溪、曲靖，以及红河州，共计完成杀马特采访67个，网络采访11个。在拍摄期间，李一凡又从杀马特和其他工人手中，通过直接购买手机视频等方式，收集了工厂流水线及工人生活录像915段。 这是一次详实且残酷的调查梳理行动。五颜六色的头发下面，李一凡重新检讨了城乡关系里，关于社会底层工人的生存代价和权利困境的根源。当越来越多的杀马特消失在人们视线里，而曾经或依旧是流水线工人的他们，和今天仍然不断涌入城市的打工者一样，依然面临着实质上的权利不平等，依旧笼罩在制度性排斥的阴影里。 杀马特音译自英语“smart”一词，泛指一种中国城市年轻工人中曾经风靡一时的亚文化潮流，以夸张而廉价的服饰、发型著称。艺术家、纪录片导演李一凡花费数年时间实地接触和研究“杀马特”群体，最终用访谈和工厂场景创作出一部长片，并在展览现场用数百部二手手机播放购买自工人自拍的生产场景。

Synopsis：

The documentary delves into the rise and decline of the “Shamate” (杀马特) subculture, once a vibrant expression among China’s young migrant workers. Through its portrayal of this phenomenon, the film reveals the cultural anxieties and precarious living conditions faced by workers at the margins of China’s rapid urbanization. The popularity of Shamate—marked by exaggerated, low-cost hairstyles and clothing—embodied a deep yearning for identity, self-expression, and participation in consumer culture, while also exposing the pressures and contradictions of that pursuit. In this sense, Shamate became both an outlet and an escape for those excluded from mainstream narratives of modernization.

We Were SMART documents the lived realities of migrant workers, highlighting the struggles and dilemmas of those at the bottom of society amid sweeping economic change. By tracing their cultural practices, the film underscores the intimate ties between culture and economy, offering a profound reflection on inequality, exclusion, and survival in modern China.

In 2017, director Li Yifan began filming Shamate, starting in Shenzhen and expanding his fieldwork to Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Chongqing, Guiyang, Qiandongnan, Qianxinan, Bijie, Anshun, Kunming, Dali, Yuxi, Qujing, and Honghe. Over the course of the project, he conducted 67 in-person interviews and 11 online interviews. In addition, Li collected 915 video clips directly from Shamate participants and other workers—purchasing mobile phone recordings of assembly lines and daily life.

This meticulous and often brutal investigation re-examines the costs and rights of China’s working class hidden beneath their flamboyant appearances. As the Shamate gradually vanished from public view, many of its members remained, or still remain, factory workers—like countless others who continue to flood into cities. They face persistent inequalities, trapped under the shadow of systemic exclusion.

The term “Shamate,” a transliteration of the English word “smart,” refers broadly to a once-popular subculture among young migrant workers. Director and artist Li Yifan spent years engaging directly with this community, combining interviews with industrial scenes to create a powerful feature-length film. In exhibition spaces, he extended the work by playing hundreds of second-hand mobile phones, looping the factory footage shot by workers themselves—a haunting archive of labor and expression.