Shaohua's love for love, once it is given, will be overwhelmed.
——The inscription is
about Beth, a girl in her youth, madly in love with Yang, an underground worker who works in a field. She can't wait to marry Yang despite the objections of the town residents and her elders. But in that highly religious town, marrying a stranger is not allowed, so this marriage is destined to be blessed—just like a church without bells in the town. But Beth, who was immersed in love, could not care about this. During the wedding, in the small and cramped bathroom, Beth dedicated herself to Yang as she wished. The dark red blood splattered on the girl's white wedding dress, she was so crazy in love that she was destined to be hurt.
After the honeymoon, Yang had to go back to the construction site to work, but how could Beth endure such a pain of lovesickness. She prayed for her husband's return in church every day, and the almost neurotic love made this girl walk on the brink of collapse.
Maybe God heard the poor boy's prayer, and a few days later, Jan came back. But it was completely different from when he left——because of this underground accident, Yang was seriously injured, and he was completely paralyzed except for the head. Seeing Yang lying on the hospital bed, Beth cried so hard that she fainted. The crippled Young can no longer perform the responsibilities of a normal husband to Beth, so he asked Beth to go out to find a lover, have sex with him, and then come back and tell himself truthfully, replacing the protagonist with himself in Beth's narrative, Get spiritual satisfaction. "Without sex, I would die," Young said.
In order to save her husband, Beth put on sexy stockings and miniskirts, appeared in various sensual occasions with heavy make-up, and made peace with a strange man in tears. For Yang's sake, she kept shrinking and shrinking her soul without hesitation. However, to outsiders, all of this is disgusting - leaving her husband on the sickbed and having sex with other men. This was spurned by all. Beth is banned from the town church, and the town's children call her "whore" like she throws stones. In the face of everyone's scolding and contempt, Beth could only cry silently. In the end, on a cargo ship, Beth was tortured to death...
Maybe Beth really traded her life for Young's life from Death. After Beth died, Young made a miraculous recovery and was even able to walk on crutches. A grief-stricken Young and his friends stole Beth's body and threw it into the sea, hoping that she could be redeemed after her death.
The end of the film actually makes people feel a little warm in the sadness - the blue sky reminds of the peaceful church bells. Perhaps, the director wants to tell us that Beth's soul is blessed in heaven, and her neurotic love is forgiven by God.
"Breaking the Waves" is the first of Lars von Trier's films I've seen, but the heroine continues to act as a prostitute for her husband, and still goes to the town church when no one is there. Self-redemption, self-defeating in the face of sin and religion, this kind of pain and shame is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. The director focuses on the heroine, bringing it to the fore in a straightforward film.
In the film, when Jan leaves Beth to work, Beth sits in the phone booth all day waiting for Jan's call. In the evening, when I finally got Yang's call, Beth cautiously held the telephone receiver and said, "I can hear your breathing, can you hear mine?" This kind of panic is so delicate that it makes people feel distressed.
The fact is that love is never fair. No matter how much you give, you don't hesitate to give, and you don't know how to cherish what you have. It was not until I lost it that I realized my stupidity, but is it too late?
If love does not have a corner to live in, it will be exiled to the end of the world. Without you, you will be lonely everywhere. Without you, you will be just wandering everywhere.
——Postscript
2009.8.21
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