"Love Like a Bouquet" directed by Yutai Doi and "A Rainy Day in New York" directed by Woody Allen have been shown in domestic theaters for some time. These two works are not strictly new films. "Bouquet" Released in Japan last year, Rainy Day is Woody Allen's work in 2019. Although they are old films, these two love films are placed in the domestic theater films that express love at the same time, and their fresh atmosphere is still worth watching.
"Bouquet" begins with the reunion of Yamane Mai and Yatani in a coffee shop. The awkward and calm expressions between the two reveal their past, and the time goes back to their acquaintance and love to their separation.
The two met because of the last subway that they didn't have time to catch. In order to wait for the first train, they came to an izakaya to kill time with a pair of young men and women who also missed the subway. When he heard the young men and women sitting across from them talking about each other's fondness for movies, and being elated about "The Shawshank Redemption" and the live-action version of "The Witch's Delivery Service," Shanyin Mai, a senior literary and artistic youth, sneered. He didn't notice this. Yatani Kin, who was sitting next to him, was as excited as he was seeing the film director Mamoru Oshii, and the spark between the two began to appear.
"Bouquet" presents an ideal paradigm for the unfolding of love: in this huge planet, there is a person who is just so right, and can resonate with your small world.
Next, they wore the same white canvas shoes, always knotted headphone cables, handbooks that recorded the works of the same writers, and tickets to the same exhibition. They all like to use movie ticket stubs as bookmarks. Boo Boo can win the stone... These details are showing us how amazingly they fit together, and this near-ideal perfect encounter makes us quickly predict that they will fall in love and love passionately. After all, meeting a person who is tacit and in harmony with them is probably the first beautiful longing for love for many people.
This is also an eternal question in love: Is love about finding someone close to you?
If you compare where the two films went from the start, the answer seems to be yes.
Woody Allen's portrayal of Gatsby and Ashley, who are already a couple, in "Rainy New York" is the opposite of the two of them. Although Gatsby, played by Sweet Tea, declares to us at the beginning of the film that he is hopelessly in love with his girlfriend Ashley. But when Gatsby excitedly tells Ashley about her plans for a date in Manhattan this weekend, Ashley's slightly absent-minded tone suggests that we care more about our upcoming interview than the date. Ashley, a famous film director, seems to be far from Gatsby in terms of personal interests and so on, in addition to the lack of Gatsby who grew up in a wealthy family in New York City.
Therefore, compared to the sweet display of Mai and Silk's encounter in "Bouquet", Gatsby and Ashley are more like talking to themselves. This kind of discomfort makes us feel that in the next On a rainy day in New York, the relationship between the two may have to experience an emotional washout.
With such a foreshadowing of the encounter, the relationship between Mai and Xuan quickly warmed up. They went to the mummy exhibition together, took pictures of each other in front of the huge natural gas storage tank, and chatted enthusiastically in the restaurant until they were about to miss the last bus again. The timing of their plans to confess to each other is so tacit.
So on this spring night with the cool breeze blowing, the blooming season of love has come. At this moment, its flowers are blooming so beautifully that Mai and Silk fall in love.
Gatsby, who arrived in Manhattan, did not expect that the originally planned weekend of their sweet love would turn out to be so twisted.
Gatsby wanders the streets while waiting for Ashley's interview, eagerly looking forward to the end of the interview and the start of his date with Ashley. It's just that the interview with his girlfriend did not end as quickly as he thought. After the originally agreed one-hour interview, director Pollard proposed to take Ashley to see his unreleased new work.
Faced with the invitation of the big director, Ashley naturally did not refuse, she immediately went downstairs and told Gatsby that she could not have lunch together, and that she would meet him in the hotel after watching the movie, although she was so excited at this time that she could not even meet him in the hotel. I didn't remember the name, and I forgot about Gatsby's plans for the day.
So on this gloomy, damp afternoon, Gatsby, like Jill in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris," wandered the streets of Manhattan, trying to find a place to kill time until Ashley returned. the place to go. It's just that Ashley isn't actually coming back, when we see her sitting in writer Ted's car and hanging up on Gatsby. The first glimpse into the lives of Hollywood celebrities has already left Ashley dizzy. Known to her as a geek at this time, her boyfriend Gatsby with a bit of Asperger's syndrome is about to become "a Kind of old-school, young boys we've dated a few times."
And Gatsby, who was walking on the street, whether it was meeting his high school alumni or going to see his brother to hear the unspoken relationship between him and his fiancée, there seemed to be nowhere in the city that Gatsby was familiar with where he could be rested. 's heart. When he went to the studio of his classmate Josh, who was making a short film because he had nothing to do, he ran into Tyrell, the sister of his ex-girlfriend Amy, and Gatsby, who was driven off the shelves because of the lack of group performances, wanted to meet Tyrell. Kissing in the movie.
In the bickering conversation between the two of them we can detect the spark between the two of them, and this spark gradually grows in Ashley's absence, despite choosing to go to the exhibition with Tyrell. It was Gatsby's choice to pass the time on this boring afternoon, but Gatsby had the same memories of New York City that was often shrouded in mist, tacitly talking about walking under the Draco Clock Tower in Central Park, Tyrell, who stops with him to appreciate Sargent's Mrs. Gautreau as he tugs East Lake all the way to Rainbow Park, clearly gives us a feeling that she's more in tune with Gatsby.
Compared with the sweetness of Mai and Silk at the beginning, in the rainy New York City, we have not yet witnessed the passionate love between Gatsby and Ashley, and we saw that because of the addition of outsiders (the Hollywood entertainment circle that made Ashley dizzy) Celebrity, Tyrell who gets along with Gatsby) puts their love in crisis.
And the sweetness of Mai and Silk in "Bouquet" could not last forever. After all, all love stories will face their twists and turns, and they seem to be facing an ancient love dilemma: the game between love and bread.
Mai and Suan's sweet love encountered a crisis when they were forced to change their social identities: after graduating from college, Mai, who initially chose to work as a freelancer and made a living by drawing and illustration, faced the opposition of Suan's parents and lost his father's assistance. He finally made up his mind to find a stable job while supporting the cost of living, and although he swore to the somewhat surprised silk that nothing would change between them, we still "combed his hair like an adult" from him. "The hairstyle changes, and the two people are aware of the upcoming worries in the communication that has obviously decreased after they were busy looking for a job.
And this kind of worry soon became a reality: after Mai found a job and became increasingly busy, we clearly saw the impact of the change in life on the two of them. Previously, a large number of two-person close-up shots were separated by the front and the back in the depth-of-field shot. Instead, they are no longer as close as they once were. They will no longer lie in bed together and watch comics and see tears. Today's Mai closes his eyes tiredly while watching a movie. Even in the bookstore when Silk is excited to bring a new work from a writer they once liked together, Mai stops at the Before the successful study of books. Mai, who accepted another set of disciplinary systems in society, finally spoke to the silk similar to what her parents once said to them: work is not fun, and life means responsibility.
When Mai came back from overtime, he found out that Su had resigned and changed to a new job, which he regarded as a child playing with her, and had a big fight with her. Saying "then get married" to Su sloppily, from this moment on, not only was surprised that this was completely different from the romantic proposal scene she imagined, we also knew from this that their relationship was heading for an irreversible breakdown. The fringe—marriage became the only solution Mai could think of to solve the dilemma of the relationship between the two, and this solution ironically verified the proverb: marriage is the grave of love.
The space full of sweet memories of the past is now just a container, the flowers of love in full bloom are gradually withering in the more and more asynchronous life trajectory of the two. Just nodding to the point where he didn't even want to say a word. Love dies in such daily life, there is no violent dramatic conflict, and some are the irreversible drifting away from life.
Just like Mai knows that even if he gives himself time to read "Golden Kamui", a comic that both of them once liked, he can't continue reading it. The change that has happened to him is irreversible, although this change may not be his. willing. In the end, the promise that Mai Zeng made to Silk: "My goal in life is to maintain the status quo with you" is full of irony at this moment. After all, the only way he can think of to maintain the status quo with her is to get married and use marriage to maintain the body of the relationship that the two once loved.
The two still have a tacit understanding, and they agreed at a friend's wedding that they would break up after the wedding, just as they initially decided to confess on that day. And the restaurant they chose happened to be the one they had established their relationship with five years ago, but when the last moment came, Mai finally didn't have the courage to say "Let's break up", he said again to the silk with red eyes, "Let's get married. "These five words, this scene is moving, Mai's ambivalence at this time tells us what makes Mai and Xuan persist for five years even when they know that they have no love for each other - it's that share. Memories of loving each other. And this memory weight will increase as the time of farewell comes, making it impossible to let go.
Mai tried to convince Suan to marry him with reasons such as "Aren't all couples in this world like this, they all forget the feeling of being in love and just live together", and his words also reflected the biggest challenge facing love in real life. Dilemma: After all, the dopamine of love will stop secreting one day, and the story can't just stop at the moment when the prince saves the princess and the two kiss each other. So is compromise an option for most people?
It was only when they saw a pair of youthful-looking young students wearing the same white canvas shoes sitting in the place where the two of them used to sit, chatting about the live performances they went to watch together, the same singers they liked, and their love for each other. Just like they had met for the first time, this scene made Mai and Xuan burst into tears.
The symphony of love has been played, and they can't go back to the beginning of the song. In the end, Mai and Suan chose to break up, and we, who witnessed Mai and Suan's separation from sweetness to the end, were deeply moved.
And Ashley and Gatsby's relationship also collapsed in the scouring of New York's long rainy days.
Ashley received a series of confessions from director Pollard, screenwriter Ted, and actor Vega at the dinner. Vega even brought Ashley to his hotel, but when the two were working on firewood, Vega's girlfriend Tiffany came back suddenly without notice, which instantly shattered Ashley's gorgeous dream and was forced to Embarrassed, he put on his jacket and fled in the rainy night.
And Gatsby, who found a call girl disguised as Ashley to accompany him to his mother's party, but in this rainy night that made him disheartened, he rarely heard his mother tell him about his unknown past. The opening of his heart gave him an unexpected harvest.
Although at the end of the night, Ashley returned to Gatsby's side, we know that the two people who have experienced this heavy rain can't go back to the past. The next day, when Gatsby blurted out the jazz musician Cole Porter's lyrics to Ashley complaining to him about the roar of the engine last night and Ashley thought it was Shakespeare, Gatsby laughed. Knowing that the two are not the same kind of people, Gatsby finally chose to say goodbye to Ashley in the carriage. He decided to stay in this gloomy and rainy New York. Although Ashley expressed confusion and surprise after Gatsby jumped out of the car , but soon she was more worried about the impending rain and urged the groom to pick up his pace.
The breakup of Gatsby and Ashley is not so sad, and even makes us feel that it is a natural thing, because Woody Allen has spent enough time telling us that the two are not the same kind of people, They lack the harmony of wheat and silk.
Next, Gatsby quickly came to the clock tower mentioned by Tyrell and him. The two met here and kissed in the rain. This looked like the beginning of a romantic love. After all, Gatsby met This "silk" that fits him more tacitly.
So Woody Allen's meeting with Gatsby and Tyrell, on the one hand, gave us a different romantic ending from "Bouquet", and on the other hand, wanted to prove to us the original question: love really needs two people Are they close to each other? And the answer to this question seems to be denied by Mai and Xuan's experience?
As the camera slowly pans as the two kiss in the rain, we see the Draco Clock Tower in the background, a prominent landmark in New York's Central Park, Woody Allen's true intentions are revealed, and he uses the rain to speak In fact, the focus of the complaint is still New York, which has always been inescapable in the sequence of his works.
Gatsby was born in New York as a son of a wealthy family, and his strict mother's education and expectations disgusted him. In his opinion, the literary and art salons that his mother was keen to hold and the group she represented were boring and hypocritical. It also explains why Gatsby could last so long when his mother arranged for him to go to Yardley College in the country after he dropped out of an Ivy League school. Here he can stay away from his mother's surveillance, like lying about the heavy workload in order not to go to a party organized by his mother.
It's just that his gestures and conversations can still see the influence of New York City and his family left on him: he is very familiar with the scenery of New York City, and his mouth is Ludwig Bemelmans, Danny ·De Rugmont These works of art and philosophy.
So we can also guess why he is with Ashley, just like he left New York, Ashley, who was born in a Tucson banking family, gave him a different freshness. But in the end, the rebellious Gatsby ends up back in New York, and after a rainy night in which he refreshed his knowledge of his mother, the knot that kept him away from the city he knew seemed to have disappeared. He chose Tyrell, not so much that he fell in love with Tyrell, but that New York kept him, because Tyrell, who also grew up in New York, came from the same circle as him, she understood everything about him, Just like Tyrell's contempt at the beginning of the story when the two of them met in the car and learned that Gatsby had talked about a girl from Arizona.
So the essence of this story has nothing to do with romantic love. Woody Allen has no intention of telling that love is about finding similar people. He presents the class proposition in love stories with a humorous attitude.
When we look at the moment when the relationship between Mai and Silk gradually collapsed in "Bouquet", we can also find that Doi Yutai told us from the beginning of the story that although the two have many similar interests and hobbies, they are actually not the same type. People: Mai is a person who is eager to have a sense of presence and be recognized by others. He will excitedly invite his classmates to watch because he accidentally finds himself appearing on Google's live map, and even if he wants to treat guests to dinner, he wants to get everyone's approval. . This also naturally explains why when Mai started working, he would gradually give up his hobbies, because he longed for the sense of accomplishment and recognition that his work brought. In contrast, silk does not have the strong desire to be recognized by others like Mai. Therefore, the two were initially attracted by their similar interests, but they gradually became indifferent due to the change of their identities.
As early as when Mai and Xuan went to the beach, Xuan revealed her pessimistic attitude towards love through the blog of her favorite blogger, suggesting the end of this love.
After all, reading the same books, liking the same movies, and listening to the same music doesn't mean they are soulmates.
In the end, looking back on the encounter and separation of Mai and Silk, and the encounter between Gatsby and Ashley on a rainy day, we will find that love is far more than the original question: to find people who are similar, after all, the word love contains emotions The power is too great, and there are many factors that affect it.
What's more, nature has never carved two identical leaves, can you really find someone of the same type and 100% similar to yourself? Even if you find it, will you really be happy? Looking for another person who can really become the ultimate ideal of love? Can it stop the irresistible law that the dopamine of love will stop secreting one day?
Both films present the end of a love relationship, with Woody Allen teasing the class proposition of love with a rainy day that seems to have a romantic ending, while "Bouquet" reflects on the eternal conundrum of how a love relationship lasts. It's just that for modern people living in cyberspace and reinforced concrete, it seems that it is no longer urgent to find love. After all, "love incompetence" is becoming a common mental syndrome of modern people.
After breaking up, Mai and Chuan saw a couple in the restaurant sharing a pair of headphones and wanted to correct their behavior. The shared experiences in the past still existed in them and made them grow.
(Because the left and right channels of the song are not copied during mixing, the song heard with only one earphone is not complete. This is what Mai and Jun were taught by a mixer during their love life)
So when Gatsby and Tyrell are kissing under the bell tower in the rain, referring to the separation of Mai and Silk, will they meet at this moment in a bouquet of love? Will the romance of this moment finally come to an end?
This kind of worry is not enough before the flowers that once bloomed. After all, there are thousands of love stories in this world. If you worry about the ending, they will never begin.
In front of modern people who are incapable of love, meeting a bouquet of love on a rainy day in New York is enough to inspire our pursuit of love, because in this world, what is always worth looking forward to and pursuing?
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