This "Next Stop, Heaven" is the director's second work after Hirokazu Kore-eda's early work and debut "Phantom Light". At present, the quality of the pirated resources circulating on the Internet is relatively poor, and it is naturally incomparable with the original film on the big screen in the cinema. The grainy texture of the film is intoxicating.
A director, especially a writer-director, whose first two films are crucial. The so-called "three-year-old watching old age", the direction that a director focuses on in the first two works basically represents the development direction of the entire director's career. Some people only make "one movie" in their life. All of Hirokazu Kore-eda's films so far have the delicacy and depth of the oriental people, and they calmly tell the sketches of daily life, about family love, about life, old age, sickness and death, and about social reality.
Most of Hirokazu Kore-eda's works are written and directed by himself, and the screenwriter of this film is also the director himself. I especially like the director's setting of the plot. The film depicts a pure and flawless paradise, which is peaceful and peaceful. The deceased took the train leading to the kingdom of heaven and came to a small station between the kingdom of heaven and the world for a short stay. Over the next week, they will try to recall the happiest moments of their lives, and then make a film by the staff of Heavenly Kingdom and show them as souvenirs. Then, they will go to the next stop, which is the kingdom of heaven, where they will always live in their happiest moments. And those who did not choose the happiest moment in their lives, they will work in this small station between heaven and earth, working for the next batch of "passengers".
Among those working at Xiaozhan are several familiar faces from Japanese movies. The male protagonist, Iura Shin, had a wonderful performance in "The Kingdom of the Family", with a restrained and restrained style. In this film, Iura Shin plays an untimely soldier who died in World War II. Due to his untimely death and the war, he couldn't find a moment, so he never went to heaven.
The heroine is the lovely Oda Eika. She plays a girl who has fallen in the flowering season. She has never been in love or recalled the happy moments in her life. She fell in love with the male protagonist in the movie.
There is also Kitano Takeshi's most loyal younger brother, Terashima Jin.
Their job is to know the happy moments of the "passengers". The deceased are either talking, or emotional, or silent, and the ordinary and warm little stories are slowly in the heaven like an autumn afternoon. flow.
Except for a few scenes in the movie, which were shot in brighter daytime, the rest were either dark or natural light was used, and the picture was always not so bright. I think this is the director's good intentions, in order to have something to do with the setting of the story. Reunite.
If you can only enter the kingdom of heaven with only one memory in this life, which one would you choose? This kind of attention to the details of life is the closest question to the essence. Life, old age, illness and death, love and affection, there is always a moment that will make you feel warm and happy. Isn't this what Hirokazu Kore-eda often expresses in movies? If you don’t have any nostalgia and memories of this life, you may lose the qualification and meaning of going to the next heaven.
At the end, the male protagonist Mochizuki saw the letter that Mr. Watanabe, whom he was in charge of, left him when he left. The letter said that Mochizuki was actually the ex-fiancé of Mr. Watanabe's wife, Ms. Kyoko. And the heroine Shiori helped Mochizuki to find the memories that Ms. Jingzi wanted to keep at the station after her death - sitting in a chair with Mochizuki, who was in love with her.
After reading this, Mochizuki was silent for a long time. He did not expect that his short life would become a happy moment in the memory of others. At this moment, he felt that this was his happiness, so he chose this memory. Mochizuki, who chose a happy memory, must go to the next stop in heaven, leaving only the sad Shiori.
I believe that many viewers will have instinctive thinking after watching this movie, what is the happiest moment in my life? Who will I be a happy moment in my life?
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