"Chongqing Forest" is the work of Wang Jiawei in 1994 .
That year was a carnival of filmmakers, and many great works were born: "Forrest Gump", "Shawshank's Redemption", "Pulp Fiction", "The Years of Love", "This Killer Is Not So Cold" , "Diet for Men and Women", "Living", "Sunny Day"...
Among them, Quentin Tarendino, the director of "Pulp Fiction", is an iron fan of Wong Kar Wai.
After watching "Chongqing Forest", he couldn't help crying and commented like this: "Unexpectedly, this movie actually made me cry, not because of how sad it is. I have always been a man who sees tragedy as a joke. . the reason I cried because how this movie is so good, how would there be such a good movie in this world. "
From Quentin's words, we can see the charm of "Chongqing Forest".
Although there are many good movies in 1994, "Chongqing Forest" is definitely the most unique one of them.
The eternal theme of Wong Kar-wai's films is loneliness and the alienation of people.
Most of the characters in his films are like this: trapped in the past, unable to see the future, and unable to grasp the present.
Whether it's Li Yaohui and Ho Baorong who fell in love and killed each other in "Happy Together", or Zhou Muyun and Su Lizhen who are trapped by love in "In the Mood for Love", or the self-pitying angels in "Fallen Angels"... They are ordinary people, even society. People on the margins of, but have real sorrows and joys and similar predicaments.
The same is true of "Chongqing Forest".
The film consists of two stories, telling how two frustrated men and women can free themselves from their past love and start a new life.
The focus of these two stories is different. They portray the two emotional states of urbanites: lost and lonely .
Below, let's look at them separately.
Lost
The theme of the first story is about "Lost".
In this passage, Wong Kar-wai frequently uses " shaking shots " to show his inner loss. So we saw that He Zhiwu and the blonde woman were constantly shuttled among the crowd. They kept looking and running, just like two people who lost their way in the urban forest, looking for a way out in a panic.
Lost, because of innocence, because of deep affection.
He Zhiwu didn't want to believe the fact that his girlfriend had left. He still waited in the shop patronized by his girlfriend every day, making phone calls to harass her family members, and mistaken every call for his girlfriend's intentional temptation.
He became nervous and bought a canned pineapple that expires on May 1 every day, his girlfriend's favorite food, to reminisce the sweetness of the past and pray for the continuation of love.
This young boy was lost in the second morning of the broken relationship.
In another parallel timeline, the blonde girl is lost in the adult world of love.
Many people think she is a killer, but in my opinion, she is not. She is just a woman who "recklessly seeks everything and works hard for her love" for love.
The object of her love is a foreign man in a bar (hereinafter referred to as "bar man").
Regarding this love, Wong Kar-wai's expression is extremely vague. However, we can still see clues from two details:
In the first detail, the bar man is getting ambiguous with a dancing girl, and the dancing girl voluntarily put on a golden wig before making love.
In the second detail, the bar man asked the dancer to buy cigarettes for himself, but it was raining heavily outside , and the dancer had to return in anguish.
do you understand?
Let's think about the golden wig on the head of the "Blonde Girl" , and think about the yellow raincoat that she does not change all the time , is it a bit eyebrows?
That's right, the information that Wong Kar-wai wants to reveal is: the blonde wig on the head of the blonde woman is just to please the bar man.
And what she said: "I don’t know when it will start. I become a very careful person. Every time I wear a raincoat, I will wear sunglasses, because you never know when it will rain or when the sun will appear. ."
This "careful" stems from excessive care for love. The blonde girl hopes that she is a woman who can satisfy a man, no matter what he needs, and no matter when he needs it. She is even willing to risk her life to help the bar man sell drugs, help him hunt down Indian drug dealers...
From this, we saw the infatuation of this woman. Although she is cold on the surface, but in order to love someone, she is willing to change everything about herself.
This infatuated woman was lost in the unrestrained support of love.
However, just like the meaning conveyed by the most important prop "canned food" in this story, it reveals the two desperate characteristics of love: people's tastes can change, and love always has a time limit.
You cannot hope that love will never degenerate like He Zhiwu; you can't be like a blonde girl, in order to satisfy a man's love, wear a wig today, a raincoat tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow will take his life.
These two people who lost themselves finally met in the bar.
And that night, nothing happened. It's just that she is sleeping; while he is watching Hong Kong TV dramas and eating salad.
He let the tired her fall asleep peacefully; and she let the young and green him get the first greeting on his 25th birthday.
In this way, these two depressed people gave each other the simplest comfort.
After that, He Zhiwu decided to bid farewell to the past. He ran in the rain, which was a ritual he had to complete every time he fell in love.
The blonde woman found the bar man and shot him in the alley.
I saw that she turned around smartly, tore off the golden wig, and became who she was.
Finally, they found the gleaming exit from the loss of love.
lonely
The theme of the second story is about "loneliness".
Unlike the "shaking camera" in the first paragraph, this time, Wong Kar-wai uses the " contrast between fast and slow camera " to express his inner loneliness. In the picture, 633 was standing next to Affi's shop, slowly raising the paper cup and drinking coffee, while the people around them flashed quickly one by one.
Between silence and movement, it seems to be saying that in a lonely person, time seems to slow down and it is difficult to kill . Compared to the lightness of others, these two men seemed to be trapped, and every movement seemed extremely difficult.
Loneliness is to indulge in the beauty of the past and ignore the good in front of you.
Constable 633's flight attendant girlfriend left a letter without saying goodbye, leaving him alone, trapped in memory.
He began to talk to every object in the house: he blamed the "soap" for losing weight every day; he complained about the "towel" for washing his face with tears all day long; he also advised the "teddy bear" not to be angry, and his girlfriend would eventually change his mind.
And these words are actually spoken to myself.
Is there a more lonely monologue?
A Fei is a waiter in a small shop frequented by 633. Inadvertently, she falls in love with this desolate and melancholy man.
Regarding Affi’s original experience, the film does not explain it, but it must be a sad story to come.
Her favorite song is "California Dreaming". It tells that a person who walks in winter misses the sunshine of California, which is a warm yearning for the world.
A Fei always plays the music loudly by herself, covering the sound of the world around her, so that she can hide in the world she imagined and protect herself carefully.
This is an action that can only be done by someone who has been hurt.
In this way, she kept her distance from others and refused to establish any intimacy .
Even if she falls in love with 633, Affi's view of love is lonely: " I love you, but it has nothing to do with you ".
When she came to buy food at 633, she would hide behind the glass and watch him quietly; she would find the right time and pretend to meet him every time she happened to eat at the roadside stall at 633.
What's more interesting is that when 633 is not at home, she will sneak into his residence and help him replace all things related to memories: sheets, slippers, towels, soap, teddy bear...
She wanted to help the poor man out, but she also restrained herself carefully not to walk in.
These two lonely people are actually people trapped in the past. Just in front of the good, 633 turned a blind eye, and Affi chose to escape.
However, just like the image "airplane" that frequently appears in this story, it symbolizes 633's nostalgia for old love, but it is also a desire to escape.
Gradually, under Affi's secret and attentive care, 633 walked out of the haze of the past.
One day, he ran into Affi at home. Just listen to Affi's scream and rush out. And all the thoughts flooded into the man's heart with this sound.
At that moment, 633 suddenly understood what he had missed in these muddled days.
The latter plot makes people feel even more warm.
Fearful for a while, Affi chose to leave and went to California. She wanted to give this relationship a time for confirmation.
One year later, when she came back again, she had become a flight attendant. This time, she no longer feared to show her "love him": if 633 can't get out of the past, then she is willing to become that past.
And 633 has also quit his job and contracted the small shop where Affi used to work, bid farewell to the past and start a new life.
These two lonely people both took a step forward bravely, bringing each other closer.
Finally, Affi picked up paper and pen and wanted to draw a ticket for 633. She asked: "Where do you want to go?"
633 looked at her with a smile: "Whatever, go wherever you say you go."
0.01 cm
The film is called "Chongqing Forest", one is because the filming location of the film is Chungking Mansion in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
There are more than 5,000 people of different skin colors from more than 100 countries living here, and it is like a condensed world.
Every day, people of all kinds appear here, passing each other, nodding and smiling or just being silent.
The meaning of the word "forest" is both urban and natural; it is made of steel and concrete, and it is also natural.
This is like a love situation.
Love, originally a primitive desire and a natural need, has been alienated by city life, and has become a kind of extravagant hope that is difficult to achieve.
In the city, the emotions between people are becoming more and more alienated, even if they are close at hand, they seem to be far away.
And what "Chongqing Forest" wants to tell us is exactly the sentence at the beginning of the film: " Every day you have the opportunity to pass by many people. You may know nothing about him, but maybe one day he will become Your friend or confidant. "
Love, the same is true.
Whether it’s lost or lonely, don’t take too long, because the person who belongs to you—
Maybe it's the next person to walk into the bar; maybe it's the next person to be knocked down by you; maybe when you are closest, there is only a 0.01 cm distance, and after 57 hours, you will love each other.
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