The retired old couple lives in the country, and their daughter wants to bring her son-in-law back, but the grandmother refuses her, because she is not used to living with others anymore. The second son married a widow with a child, and the grandmother was quite complaining about this, but she was expecting them to add a baby soon. The old man worked his entire life for the whole family, but no one could inherit his business as a doctor. And what lingers around this family is the ghost of the eldest son who was drowned for saving lives.
On the surface of a friendly family gathering, the atmosphere is so strong that it can't get away. Going to the shrimp intestines, peeling the corn, pickling the green beans, under the meticulous observation of the camera, these things are fascinating. The housewives are all in the kitchen talking about the frying pan, the men are reading the newspaper under the fan to enjoy the cool, and the children are the most engaged, in this unattended time period, crazy and happy in the yard.
Gradually, the most painful aspect of this family gradually emerged. The second son, who would never be recognized by his father, took on unnecessary negligence and indifference due to the death of the eldest son. When he was angry and said, "Even if my brother is still alive, I don't know what to do." The atmosphere of the family gathering suddenly dropped to freezing point. But with the self-deprecating joke of my brother-in-law, everyone rushed back to normal again. All the pain seemed to be the aftertaste of the tip of the chopsticks, and the cobwebs under the eaves of the corridor were untrue.
Grandpa said angrily at his age: "I worked hard to build this house. Why do everyone just call it grandma's home?" But after thinking about it carefully, isn't grandma alone supporting all the key points of this family? She is responsible for cleaning, she is responsible for food and lodging, she is responsible for asking that she was saved by the eldest son, but now he is just a fat man who did not grow up. He comes every year on the anniversary of his death but only to punish his conscience. She will send kimonos to those who are not so pleasing to the eye. The daughter-in-law wins her over, and she will also put three toothbrushes to please her son but will not buy pajamas for children with a foreign surname to show that there is a difference between inside and outside. She can buy the performance record that she heard outside her husband’s lover’s room and inadvertently a few decades later. Tap it lightly, but treat it as if nothing happened. Grandma, grandma, only grandma is the god of this family, who controls everything. It's no wonder that when shooting a family portrait, Grandpa was squeezed on the edge, unable to find his place on the left and right, and finally left angrily.
Is this kind of grandmother too smart or too free and easy? Such old people are definitely not those who are faint and want to eat and wait for death. The old man in Ozu's film is tolerant and kind and gentle, but the old man in the film is full of vitality and quick thinking and independent. The times are different, right?
After the visit, the second son’s family wiped their sweat on the way back, saying: I won’t use it for the New Year. Such a visit once a year is enough, right? And the old people over there climbed the steps lonely and said: They will come again after the New Year! The comparison between the two shows that the Ozu style is particularly bleak.
Parents will eventually grow old and die, with their own dissatisfaction and regret, and with their children's unfulfilled wishes, life is always difficult to achieve. Like the long stone steps in the film, constantly walking up and down, the road of life is nothing more than that, generation after generation, spring and autumn, just keep moving forward like this, but even sad Opportunities are almost too late to have.
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PS: Uncle Kuan and Yui Natsukawa are so hard to get tempered in "Can't Get Married" In the end, he became the official match of Zhengguo. In this movie, he found a dull and prudent life after marriage. The two of them are really a harmonious match!
Hiroshi Abe is really an interesting existence in Japanese movies. There are not many actors of his height. In the picture, he always looks extraordinarily out of place because of his big size. The embarrassment that is blocked everywhere is very happy. He can act in drama, and he can act in tragedy. Putting away the exaggeration in the TV play, Uncle Kuan in this play also handled it properly and could hold the place. The big body in the small bathroom is so unsuitable and funny, I really can't think of anyone besides him who has this talent for comedy.
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