The director of the film, American independent film director Jia Muxu, the film has a very obvious minimalist style, fragmentation, showing a strong sense of alienation, and tonight’s "Paradise Moying" is like this (this sentence or the next sentence may These are all over-interpretation by the editor), and as a black-and-white film, it embodies this sense of alienation to the extreme.
The first scene of the film is that the heroine Eva gets off the plane and stands in the empty "wasteland". After that, the male protagonist appeared in the camera. Through his phone call, we learned that his cousin from Hungary was coming to his New York home to stay for ten days. The male protagonist did not welcome the arrival of his cousin and was a little angry. In these ten days, the two did not have too many topics when getting along, he was too lazy to introduce too much knowledge about the "quarterback", and Eva thought it was a stupid game. At the same time, when Billy and his friend Eddie go out to play, he will not take Eva, which is exactly the same as the three people on the trip to Florida later in the film.
The second time I saw it, I found a point, the male protagonist is from Hungary, perhaps as an immigrant, anyway, to New York, he is a stranger. And the male protagonist also changed an American-style name: Billy, whose original name was Bella Morner. Because I think for Billy, he is trying to integrate into New York and the United States. He wants to be an American, so he eats TV meals and watches American football.
The easing of the relationship between the two was when Eva brought cigarettes and other things to Billy, and he began to think that Eva was a good person. However, on the last day of leaving, Billy bought Eva clothes for an American girl, but Eva thought it was an ugly dress and threw it into the trash after leaving.
After that, Billy and Eddie won a sum of money because of their gambling. They went to Cleveland to meet the outside world (I am an avid Cavaliers fan under the broadcast), and they can also see Eva. However, Cleveland's days were still boring. Billy, Eddie and Auntie play cards. Eva thinks Cleveland is a boring place, Eddie thinks Cleveland is no different, the lives of the three are so purposeless. Here is a very interesting point. Auntie likes to speak English first and then Hungarian again!
In the end, it was the day when the three of them went to Florida. The fatigue of the journey made the anticipation less, because Billy and Eddie Greyhound lost all their money and the three had a quarrel. And in the end, Eva planned to fly to Europe alone after getting a sum of money by accident. There was only one flight to his hometown of Budapest that day. Billy and Eddie Racing won the money but found that Eva had left the motel, and Billy bought it. I got the flight ticket and got on the plane to retrieve Eva, but Eva got off the plane and rushed back to the motel.
This is probably the case for the whole film. It seems simple to write (very shamelessly almost spoiled), but the process of watching it is really a different feeling, although it does not have the ups and downs of the commercial popcorn blockbuster. But the narration of living conditions coupled with black-and-white images is enough to make some viewers fall deeply into it.
In my opinion, Eva and Billy are not in the same place from beginning to end, maybe only when they are both from Hungary and are cousins, they have a short time together. Unfortunately, Eva did not integrate into the United States, and Billy But he thinks he is already an American, and he doesn't even want to hear Hungarian. The American alien from Hungary has become a stranger with his Hungarian cousin?
Among the three, two young men did not have a job, and the way to make money was nothing more than gambling. Even though Eva had a job in Cleveland, she didn't like it. She wanted to escape Cleveland. What the three of them have in common is that they don't have a clear destination in their hearts, and they come in full interest when they go to Florida. Eddie kept talking politely. He never went to Cleveland but said that it was beautiful because there is a big lake, but when I went to Cleveland, I found nothing special, snowy, and so was the lake. He has never been to Florida, but he heard that there are beaches and trees, so he also thinks it is beautiful. This is the common state of the three people. It is completely random. Their lives have never had a destination and are full of boredom. They know friends who don’t have too many topics in common. Friends are still in this world, heaven does not exist, everyone is an independent stranger.
Just like Billy and Eddie were friends, but they didn't seem to get together all the time. The topics in getting along are nothing more than gambling, horse racing and later dog racing. After talking about these topics, they can only drink beer. Or Eddie is driving and Billy doesn't want Eddie to talk too much. Billy should have been in the United States for a while, but Eddie, as a friend, never knew he was a Hungarian.
Is Billy really American? Maybe it was, but in the end, he got on the plane to Budapest by accident and returned to his hometown of Hungary. Eddie must drive the same way back to New York if no one can wait. Eva can't find anyone in the motel, so she can only go back to Cleveland. Fortunately, she has some money. The encounter of the three persons with no purpose in their hearts is nothing but an "X"-shaped story, coming from a distance, and after crossing each other, they are separated again and again.
Even if Billy has been merging into the United States, he may have a long way to go, but unfortunately he never knows how to go, so he walks around and finally walks back to the original point.
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