At first glance at Li Cangdong's "Poems", it tells such a story. Yang Mija, played by the veteran Korean actress Yoon Jung-hee, also seems to be a little contrived-she loves to write poetry, always deliberately looking for materials that can be used in poems, the dishes to be washed in the sink, the apples in her hand, and the trees. The sunshine that leaked from time to time, she opened her arms as if she was ready to welcome the "poetic" that came at any time, and she was really "seeking" worry for the new poem.
If she was really just such an arty old lady with no poetic talent, then she would really be able to write a few poems that could still be seen. But the problem is that she does have a sensitive heart and compassion that ordinary people can't match. Her inability to write poems is not exhaustion of poetry, but deep love, and even speechlessness. But Mrs. Yang herself did not realize this. She was full of affection and guilt, but she was sensitively aware of what it meant to the dead girl if she put this emotion into a poem? She has been unable to write to directly face the matter.
This kind of emotional experience of Yang Meizi has actually been summarized by sages long ago, "After Auschwitz, writing poetry is barbaric," Adorno said. In the face of the great grief of others, the first problem your art faces is not a creation problem, but an ethical problem. This is different from Du Fu's "article hate fate". The former refers to facing the suffering of others, while the latter refers to ignoring one's own life. Only then did we discover that this movie, called "Poetry", and most of the plot also revolves around "poems". In fact, it has nothing to do with how the protagonist writes the poem or how the poem is written, or even has nothing to do with the poem itself. big. The story that seems to be a secondary line, that Miko's grandson raped the girl to death, is the core of the whole story. This superficial and inner alignment of the main and auxiliary lines shows Li Cangdong's superb screenwriting skills-it is no wonder that he won the best screenwriter in Cannes this year.
Let's start with the main line on the surface of the film and see how these two lines are connected together. In the film, Miko has a notebook to record her insights in daily life. In the film, she took out a total of five times. The first time she learned about the crimes of her grandson during a meeting with the perpetrator's family. Miko didn't say anything at the meeting, and the unrepentant words of other perpetrators' family members made her feel like sitting on pins and needles. She got up and went outdoors, facing a cluster of cockscombs, and wrote a short line of "blood-red flower". The resentment, confession, and contempt in this, it seems that any direct accusation seems too weak, and it has almost become the last helplessness for everyone. Just like when Xin Qiji "has a taste of sorrow now", he can only "but the sky is cool for a long time". At this time, the ethical issue of "Auschwitz" has found a solid emotional foundation here, because there are certain things you cannot do, but this inability to do is not brought about by external ethical constraints. On the contrary, these ethical constraints are jointly constructed by hundreds of consciences. Just like Miko, she never knew the twists and turns, but her emotions and conscience told her instinctively that she could only care about it.
In the next episode of the film, every time she took out her notebook, it was when her soul was shocked by this kind of shock but could not express it freely. This kind of self-restraint to the soul is exactly the confession she made for the dead girl. The second time, when she came to her grandson’s school and saw them playing football without any shame and care, she wrote: "Bird's song, what do you sing?" This is almost a question of heaven. The question expressed her confusion and confusion-she couldn't understand what these teenagers were thinking, why they could be so "free" after killing them. Of course, the answer is not given in the film, but Li Cangdong is obviously quite critical of TV. The dull grandson in the film spends most of the time watching TV.
The third and fourth sentences can be read together. When the doctor told her that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, she wrote "Time is passing and the flowers are withering." At this time, she really felt the approach of death. So she came to the bridge where the girl jumped and came to the river where the body was floating. She seemed to have some kind of supernatural communication with the dead girl. She took out the notebook, concentrated, and held the pen, but finally it was blank. The sky also knew that words were incompetent, so it rained, dripping onto paper, like human tears.
The climax of the whole film appeared in the scene where Miko and the teenage mother met. This is also the most "poetic" passage in the film. At the request of other family members, Miko went to visit the victim's mother, a farmer in the suburbs, to persuade her to accept the compensation. But the girl's mother was not at home and was doing farm work in the field, so Miko walked towards the ridge. On the way, she saw an apricot tree with branches full of apricots, and the ripe ones had fallen to the ground. Miko picked up one and put it in her mouth. At this time, she wrote the fifth sentence: "Kyoko fell to the ground and was willing to be trampled on for rebirth."
At this time, Miko was impressed by the beauty in front of her, and her soul hopes to be able to get it at the greatest price. free. After guilt and confession, what is needed now is the price. But it's not as simple as money.
Miko ran into a woman in the field with a dark complexion and plain appearance. They quietly talked about the weather, the harvest and the apricots, and the sun shines into every heart with the window open. Everything is so peaceful that they can create a quiet and beautiful idyllic poem based on this theme. But the cruelest part of the director is also here: this woman is the girl's mother-the most beautiful scenery contains the greatest grief in the world. Miko realized this after saying goodbye. It was Miko's subconscious that didn't let her recognize the person she should apologize for. She only dared to go to see the school where the girl had studied secretly, and secretly write these unreasonable "verses". She had confessed countless times in her heart, but when she met real people, she couldn't say the sorry sentence-this era Sorry has become as cheap as writing poetry. She would say this sorry with action.
Miko's final decision is to hand over her grandson to the police. She also gave her grandson a chance. She put the portrait of the girl in front of him, hoping to arouse his active confession, but he didn't. He continued to watch his TV. The final result is what he deserves, just as a poet in the film said that the death of poetry is what he deserves.
At the end of the film, Miko wrote her first poem: "Can you receive the letter I dared not send? Can I give the confession that I dared not make..." A poem with simple and simple poetry and simple technique, it is a tragic song deeply brewed by Miko. Miko is not a poet, she does not have the gorgeous rhetoric and superb poetry skills of a poet; but she is a true poet, because of her sensitive and compassionate heart, because she knows the boundaries of poetry, and because of her courage to redeem herself.
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