Once crowded by fans of the film, this year's best director in Cannes, the high scores of the critics, next year's Oscar shortlist, one after another halo, it is a fatal temptation for everyone who loves shadows. This is his new work-"Tong Tian Pagoda" is
another lively scene of multi-clue group drama. The intersecting and irregular narrative structure of multiple clues seems to have become the director's label. In terms of structure, the film is more similar to the director's famous work "Love is a bitch". Compared with "21 Grams", which is more irregular and irregular flashbacks, the film can also be roughly divided into four relatively independent stories. Among them, the two stories in Morocco are relatively closely connected, or can be regarded as one story, and several stories are mutually exclusive. The chronological order of the movie is chaotically matched, but each short story itself is narrated linearly. Because of this, although the movie has many clues, it is not confusing and it is easy to sort out the plot. This narrative method was also used in the previous "Love is a bitch". However, compared to "Love is a bitch", the scope and themes of this movie are more ambitious.
The director is very fond of finding topics in an emergency and arouses attention to the encounters of all relevant characters. Perhaps car accidents are the most common emergency. Therefore, the previous "Love is a bitch" and "21 Grams" are composed of one Stories from sudden car accidents. But this time the director finally jumped out of his life circle and entered the world, setting the emergency into an accidental shooting incident, and the people involved were all over four countries, three continents, and more than a dozen people. Crowd.
In emergencies and multiple clues, the director always expects to dig out some in-depth thinking. After discussing the topic of love and salvation before, this time the director puts his perspective on communication. Due to multiple clues and multiple characters, the topics discussed in this film also cover the communication between parents and children, the communication between husband and wife, and the communication between brothers. The communication between people in different occupations, beliefs, and regions, and up to the communication between everyone. Misunderstanding, discrimination, conflict, and self-isolation make communication extremely difficult and impossible. Morocco, the United States, Mexico, Japan, and the small stories scattered all over the world are telling the same truth. The seemingly simple communication turns out to be so difficult.
In Morocco, the American couple played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett embarked on a North African vacation in order to save their dying relationship. They held and released their hands, implying that the exchange was so. Difficulties. The accidental bullets forced Pete to have more communication and exchanges with the locals, tourists in the car, and his wife. He was impatient and did not understand each other, and eventually cursed and clashed with each other.
In Mexico, the police at the border station insisted on thinking that Garcia had a problem. The inherent discriminatory views aggravated the misunderstanding between the two sides, and eventually Garcia fled in a racing car.
Still in Morocco, a pair of little brothers beat each other after being reprimanded by their father after getting into trouble. The subsequent gun battle with the police also originated from a kind of status discrimination and mutual misunderstanding.
Finally, in Japan, the deaf-mute girl Chieko became more autistic after her mother committed suicide and communicated with her father less and less. The daughter would rather express her love to every man she met in order to warm and close her heart, but she refused to communicate more with her father.
It turns out that communication is so difficult. Even if there are no racial differences, no geographical distinctions, and no belief issues. There will also be a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings. Everyone is rubbing against each other as an individual.
The director wrote at the end of the film: "I would like to dedicate this film to my children. The darkest night, the brightest light." In the last part of the film, each short story has entered a dilemma due to communication problems, namely The darkest night began. The Moroccan child picked up a gun and shot it at the police. Pete looked at the tourist bus going away, Garcia from Mexico drove away, and Chieko from Japan walked down the streets of Tokyo in despair. Every story goes in the direction of pain. But the brightest light also appeared. The Moroccan child forgot the previous fight with his brother, and remembered that the two were blowing on the mountain. Blanchett is rescued and reconciles with Pete. Although the Mexican nanny was expelled, she embraced her son. In the final scene, Chieko and his father are naked in the dark night. Three very important hugs, bringing a little bit of light to the night. Just like the last shot at the end, the lens is zoomed out. Although the night is dark, there are still occasional lights. No language is needed, just embracing each other, the most sincere communication, the only hope for rebuilding the Tongtian Pagoda.
Compared with the previous "Love is a bitch", this film is not very close in the connection of several stories. If the story of Mexico is still affected by the sudden shooting incident. The Japanese story is really dispensable, because the sudden shooting incident has nothing to do with them. We can set this story in any corner of the earth at will, it can be Australia, it can be Britain, France, Germany, Italy, etc. . Although the Japanese short story itself is still talking about communication, it always feels a little messy during the viewing process. If the degree of integration is higher and the influence on each other is more, then the movie may be more compelling.
Except for the last paragraph, the four stories are always intersected in the order of Morocco-Mexico-American tourists-Japan. From the scene, the scenes, the desolate Morocco, the noisy Mexico, the bustling streets of Tokyo, and the music is also a North African folk song from time to time. , Sometimes Mexican guitar, sometimes popular in Japan. Different sights and cultural atmospheres are cross-moved by sight and hearing. The most memorable passage is that of the Japanese girl in the ballroom, where the subjective and objective perspectives are constantly changing, sometimes noisy music, sometimes silent, with the flashing colorful lights and the passionate crowd, the kind of closed in Chieko’s heart The pain is very touching.
There is a short story in Genesis of the Bible, with the general idea as follows: In the past, the world spoke the same language and used the same script. When people migrated eastward, they came to Hina and settled down. They all discussed and said, "Come on, let's make some bricks." They used bricks as stones and asphalt as mortar. "Come on," they said: "We will build a city for ourselves and a tower with a cloud at the top to be named for future generations. Otherwise, we will be scattered everywhere and have nowhere to go." Soon, God came down to inspect the world's construction. He said: “They are a race that speaks the same language here. Now they are starting to build the castle. From then on, as long as they make up their minds, they won’t be bothered by anything. Come, we Go to them and mess up their language. In this way, they will not be able to communicate with each other." So God scattered them all over the world, and their construction of the city and tower was abandoned halfway. This is why this city is called Babel, because God is there to make the language of the world into a voice that cannot be understood by each other. From there, God scattered all the people on the earth to all corners of the world.
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