The two-hour movie, without a one-second fast-forwarding, or opening any webpage halfway through, just finished watching it quietly.
My standard for starring movies has always been: the story is good, but I can’t help but fast forward to finish it, three stars; the story attracts my attention, and it didn’t let the person with ADHD do anything else, four stars; if Let me read it completely, and if I don’t want to do other things after reading it, but thinking, five stars.
"Central Station" is such a movie.
I haven't watched any synopsis before, and I don't know anything about it. It just happened to hide in my hard drive, and it happened to be opened by me double-clicking on a boring night. It was like an encounter.
So when I saw Miss Dora sitting quietly writing after the crowds at the station, I thought she was probably a kind old woman. In my imagination, this should be a movie about secrets: a lonely old woman, living in other people's letters and feelings, or like a lovely Miss Ai Mei, collecting things from others with emotional imprints.
How wrong! When Miss Dora tore up the letter casually or threw it into the drawer, I thought this old woman was really bad. How can you treat other people's letters so casually, not just letters, but also trust. Look at the expression on her face, cold, selfish, hard, and inaccessible. His eyes widened, he looked like a witch.
Then came an understatement of murder. The murderer seemed to pinch an ant to death. From this moment, I noticed that the movie began to change. Everyone's attitude towards the killing is so indifferent. Obviously for them, catching the next train is much more important than a thief who was killed. The picture is still bright, as bright as the sun in the sky, dazzlingly bright. The sun always looks at everything innocently, not caring or pitying. Miss Dora packed her things and squeezed onto the train to go home. Yes, she only needs to write those letters that she won't send to support herself, how can she have so much time to manage other people's nosy.
When Joshua appeared, he felt that the little boy's eyes were extraordinarily precocious. This kind of eyes that seemed to be able to see through everything did not come from the training of acting skills, but was really honed in life. It is said that the little actor was selected by the director from more than a thousand children, who was originally just an ordinary shoe shine boy. No wonder. Children who grow up in a superior environment will not have such clear and stubborn eyes. There are also those natural restraints and shyness (such as the first time I went to Dora's house), which is very moving.
Halfway through the story, I thought of "Kikujiro's Summer". The two stories are so similar that there is no way to not link them together. "Central Station" was taken in 1998, and "Summer of Kikujiro" was released in 2000, so I concluded that Takeshi Kitano must have seen "Central Station".
The same story about searching. Dora and Joshua, Kikujiro and Masao. Joshua looks for his imaginary father, and Masao runs to his imaginary mother. Dora is indifferent, and Kikujiro is irritable. Dora has a sad story about her father. Kikujiro's mother lives alone in a nursing home. They were all wandering on the highway, and met some people, who had no money and took a ride. They all failed to achieve the ultimate goal of searching but achieved self-salvation on the road and regained the ability to love and trust.
The difference between Walter Sellers and Kitano is that he is more ambitious in mastering this subject. Although Kitano is used to expressing the content of the film in violent ways, in the "Summer of Kikujiro", Tetsuhan also became tender, played with a little sensational, and used some lovely details to unfold the story, such as angel schoolbags and bells. , Robot Dance and primitive people. It was funny but moved by the little warmth. Walter Sellers was not, he handled the search process more calmly. The use of bright tones from start to finish makes the picture impactful, rough and direct. He even asked Dora to sell Joshua to intensify the conflict between the two at first. When Dora's conscience was resurrected amidst the sound of the rumbling train, she rescued Joshua and took him on a journey, so she looked for Start in a strong mistrust of each other.
For Dora, she was not willing to go on the road. On the one hand, conscience has a slight advantage in self-confrontation, forcing him to make this decision; on the other hand, he has no choice. After he rescues Joshua, he gets into big trouble. If he doesn’t leave, he will probably be beaten like a thief. die. (She sold Joshua to the guy who shot and killed the thief in the previous article and had nothing to do. Therefore, the death of the thief was not only a revelation of social reality, but also a foreshadowing.)
Joshua could not trust her at all. . Mother asked Dora to write the letter, but she never sent it out. Later he was sold by this old woman. How to trust? However, there was no one to believe besides her, and her mother died suddenly, and she did not even know where she was buried. The only person who can be trusted is his father. The father is in an unknown distance, and the only person who can take him to is this cruel woman with protruding eyes and wrinkled faces. No choice, so I went on the road.
The truck drivers who met on the road are worth mentioning. A good old man, living in a car, his partner is the road. (Well, I admit that I found a similar guy in Kikujiro's summer, that is, the bald head who drove around in the car.) The interesting thing is that the director deliberately designed a bridge here, so that Old Dora fell in love with it. The guy who drives the truck. I think from this moment, Miss Dora's image is completely three-dimensional. She is also a woman and needs to be loved and loved. The long-term single life is not because of coldness and ruthlessness, but because of the inability to obtain emotion. When the right person appeared, her desire became eager and anxious, and finally scared away the person alive. The indifferent old woman suddenly became a poor single old girl who no one loved. Even though the lipstick was brightly painted, she could only sit silently on the roadside, accompanied by a nine-year-old child. In particular, the child pretended to be mature and said that the way you wear lipstick is pretty good. Poor Dora.
A ritual with a strong religious color, the devout worship of everyone, Joshua's running, and Dora's fainting in the small room all have strong symbolic significance. Dora fell asleep on Joshua's lap. He gently stroked her hair. She woke up, smiled at him, and hugged. It is not so much the fusion of the relationship between the two as it is the awakening and peace brought about by religion. Quiet long lens, as always, bright tones look very warm.
When I write to make money again, everything is different. Perhaps it is God's credit. Everyone has a serene and satisfying affection on their faces, and the sentences spoken are about gratitude and care. Dora and Joshua kept smiling.
Joshua's act of throwing a letter is actually an expression of trust. After he began to understand Dora's feelings, he had recognized everything about her, whether it was right or wrong. However, trust is often interactive. Dora learned trust from Joshua, so she resolutely went to the post office. At this moment, there were mixed feelings. Dora’s battered heart finally healed. From the moment the letter was sent, the meaning of search was realized, and the redemption was completed. Whether the search can be completed is not so important anymore. .
However, the accident is yet to come. I have to sigh the director's ambition again.
Father Jesus is missing? Two brothers, Moses and Isaiah? (A name with a religious connotation that cannot be ignored) I thought the story could no longer go on, but in a letter I found another story about searching. The hero of the story is the father, and the heroine is the mother who has died. The letter is so beautiful and sad, it looks like a fairy tale. At the end of the film, the search becomes waiting. Joshua and his brothers are waiting for his father's return, no matter how long the wait will be.
And Dora left alone, waiting for a new life to rise from the horizon like the dawn. She finally regained the ability to love and be loved, and finally learned to believe, and finally saw hope. Even though that hope is faint, like the glimmer that cannot be captured before dawn, it is here after all.
So Dora's tears, I thought it was happiness.
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