Worse than a small death

Marietta 2022-12-30 08:07:26

After waiting for a long time, I finally waited for the cooked meat. This is another film of Hirokazu Koreeda that is going to win the grand prize. Flag will be respected first.

When is the right time to see Hirokazu Koreeda? A relaxed Friday night after all the tedious work, a lazy weekend afternoon where you don't care where you go and who you see, a alone time without anyone disturbing you.

Let's put it this way, if the gimmicky Hollywood popcorn movie requires your left-handed cola and right-handed lover to laugh in the theater, then Hirokazu Koreeda needs you to crawl into your own bed quietly and watch him flow.

When I had just finished watching the movie and had not had time to sigh with emotion, my friend Haoji sent a WeChat message. "Have you watched Hirokazu-eda's new movie? Is it good?"

I replied, telling a story similar to "Never Stop".

Some people in the short commentary said that many directors only make one movie in their lives, and Hirokazu Koreeda is one of them. Because in all his films, you will feel as if he didn't say anything, only simple laying out and line drawing, no need to say more, but still unfinished. Family affection and intergenerational relationships are the eternal themes in his films. They are not grand, but they are never out of style. He will not rise to the world at every turn, but he is full of many thoughts on individual destiny.

Different from the past, this time it was Zhi who put the main body of the story on the middle-aged uncle Lianduo. Fifty years old, with a dream of literature, a poor man, not a decent job and income, a broken family. The whole person is just one word, mourning. The only one who can hold it all together is his elderly mother who lives alone. It is also the mother played by Xilin, a Japanese national treasure, who made this seemingly "mourning" life into a legendary little mourning. To tell the truth, in the middle of the story, many dreams of becoming a novelist reminded me whether this is the director's portrayal of himself, which is too unrealistic.

The film's calm as water narrative makes people think about the origin of the film's title. Until the night when the typhoon came, my mother was sitting in front of the old radio, listening to Teresa Teng's sweet and sad song coming from the radio, and suddenly said something "amazing" - but she would never love a person deeper than the sea. Points, full marks.

But looking back, the deep love left to the useless son who is over fifty years old is extremely profound. A son who is full of small mournings in his life, together with classical music, has become a small fortune in the later life of a lonely mother.

Speaking of which, the most dramatic "little death" scene in the film is when a lot of people took their sons to buy lottery tickets together, and said angrily, "If you win the lottery, you will get half of it. I bought it with money." Hey, every child will dislike such a useless father, just like many of their fathers disliked them back then. But in the end, when his father, who was addicted to gambling, died, he was also forced by life and began to put his life, his wife, his future, and everything on unreliable bets.

"Where did my life begin to be abnormal?" He, who has passed the year of knowing his destiny, has posted sticky notes on the wall like a middle school student, there is still fire in his chest, and there is still a dream in his dream. The heart of a child has turned him from a juvenile waste wood into a middle-aged waste wood, and even in the near future, he will become an arrogant and paranoid waste wood grandfather. You know, not every waste wood can become the big waste wood in your ideal.

When the typhoon passed, the mother got her wish and spent a stormy night with her son, a "family of three". It seems that many have returned to indecent jobs, earning a disgraceful income, and their wives continue to live with their sons and routinely ask many for the alimony they owe. Walking into the crowd, everything is the same as yesterday. It is still a small death, and there is no small luck. God, I'm so negative, but this is what I saw - the daughter encouraged her mother to go out to socialize, saying "making friends is just more people attending the funeral." There is no most mourning, only more mourning.

However, life is still moving forward smoothly. Perhaps the "family of three" panicked to find those scattered lottery tickets on the typhoon and rainy night. After all, it was "a dream that can be bought for 300 yuan"; , because he still has the persistence of a novelist who does not compromise with reality. But in the future, it will definitely be better than now, maybe even more mourning.

In fact, in the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda in the past, the mourning of Xiaozheng was the family inquiry in "Like Father Like Son", the cruel growth in "No One Knows", and the star-shifting in "Never Stop". It is those who are unable to resist, the most affectionate, the great, the humble, the trivial, the abstract, the most mourning, the warmest...family life.

It is an inescapable, unavoidable daily life.

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Extended Reading

After the Storm quotes

  • Shinoda Yoshiko: I wonder why it is that men can't love the present. Either they just keep chasing whatever it is they've lost... or they keep dreaming beyond their reach.

  • Shinoda Ryôta: The lottery isn't gambling.

    Shiraishi Kyôko: Of course it is.

    Shinoda Ryôta: No, it is not.

    Shiraishi Kyôko: What is it, then?

    Shinoda Ryôta: It's a dream. A dream you buy for 300 Yen.