------Written for "China Business News". . .
A movie called "Poem" tells a story about how to write a poem. I am afraid that only Li Cangdong can have such patience and such skill to tell such a slow and deep, such a fascinating story, and with this film, he won the best screenwriter award at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Last week, the "Korean Film Festival" came to Beijing again. The year before last, people watched his "Miyang" on the big screen. This year, you can watch this latest "Poem".
The full rise of Korean movies is obvious to all. From the "New Wave" movement back then, there are not only a variety of genre films, but also blockbuster films for pure art films. As a young cadre of the “New Wave of South Korea”, Lee Cangdong has always maintained and carried forward the old-school style of movies. The number of movies he made is extremely limited, but each one is a fine product. In his lens, women always show incredible power, whether it is "Mints", "Miyang" and the latest "Poetry." The most notable thing about "Poem" is also the heroine Yoon Jung Hee, who has been off the screen for 15 years and was once a goddess-like actor in the New Wave era of Korean movies.
In the movie, she plays an old lady Yang Meizi who is 65 years old and still has a heart of innocence, loves beautiful things, always dresses stylishly, and pays attention to cleanliness. She and her grandson depended on each other-after her daughter divorced, she left her grandson with her and went to Busan by herself. She relies on subsistence allowances and working as a carer to raise her grandson in the small town, and her life is not easy. She is still beautiful, but gradually becomes forgetful and suffers from Alzheimer's disease. After she went to the hospital for an examination, Lu met a mother who had just lost her beloved daughter. The latter's daughter committed suicide. On the way home, she came across a poster of a poem writing lecture. Although the registration time was closed, she tried to join in. The kindly poetry teacher taught her to look at life from a different perspective, even an apple.
Like all families where grandson and grandson live in separate generations, grandson is the little overlord of the family, and her greatest satisfaction is to let grandson eat big mouthfuls. If the story goes on like this, it is just a story about an "out-of-time" senior "literary and artistic youth" learning to write poetry. This is where Li Cangdong's skill lies. He is able to pass on his delicate patience to the audience, and even such a plain and watery life allows people to keep watching.
She strives to find inspiration for writing poems, is full of curiosity and care about the beautiful things in life, and has a sensitive and delicate heart. But there is not so much poetry in her life. It is not only trivial, but even sinful—the girl's suicide was given by her grandson and her best friend. The parents of several boys gathered together to discuss how much money could be used to seal the mother's mouth. In the eyes of these people, she was just a strange old lady. When they were discussing the future of their son with money, Yang Meizi took a small notebook and looked for the inspiration of poetry against the blooming flowers.
Religion is a very important background for Li Cangdong. Yang Meizi is the only one among all the parents to attend the memorial service for suicide girls, but she always seems to be slow, or she is always alienated. At the memorial service in the church, people stood up and sang hymns, but she was still sitting. Is it from a sense of guilt in your heart? Or is it hesitated not to know what to do? Yang Meizi in Li Cangdong's lens has the qualities of a protagonist in Russian novels at the end of the last century and the beginning of the last century, just like the characters in Dostoevsky's works. It's just that the ups and downs of crime and punishment did not show up in the church. She just left a drop of tears, quietly took the photo of the girl at the door, and stumbled away.
She put the girl's picture on the table in her home, hoping that her grandson would wake up from indifference. But grandsons and buddies as if nothing had ever happened, it seemed hard to tell what was moving when seeing the girl's photo. Parents even feel curious about their children, "Why do they fall in love with such a rural girl". She was used as a lobbyist by other parents to persuade the girl's mother to accept their price. Yang Meizi found her in the field, but did not say what she was asked to do.
The plot after that was not too unexpected. Yang Meizi used her aging body to trade with her declining employer in exchange for the money requested by other parents. She still stubbornly pursues beautiful things, and is deeply angry at poetry lovers who say pornographic jokes at the gathering of poetry friends. The police eventually took her grandson away, and there was no clear process like the instructions. Li Cangdong once said in an interview that he wants an open story that allows people to think for themselves. So we don't know whether Yang Meizi reported her grandson, and how she chose her life in the end. The only thing I can know is that she kept looking for inspiration and finally wrote her own poem: "How is your place? Is it still that beautiful? Can you receive the letter I didn't send..."
Some people think it is " The opposite of "Miyang", because the heroine in "Miyang" is always seeking forgiveness for the murderer who killed her son, but Yang Meizi in "The Poetry" has been trying to atone for her grandson. But in the end, both women are actually seeking self-salvation. Yang Meizi’s salvation is probably more difficult than the heroine in "Miyang" because there is no man around her who loves her almost regardless of gains or losses. There is only a coldness around her. Only the pursuit of poetry and nature accompany her. Beauty.
If it weren't for the main line of poem writing calmly to find inspiration, the story of salvation might become strange and strange, reminiscent of Bong Joon-ho's "Mother" last year. At that time, "Mother" was equally amazing, but compared with "The Poetry", it was still too focused on suspense, and a little lacking in confidence. But without Li Cangdong's skill and Yin Jingji's acting skills, this movie might also slip into the same different state. Yin Jingji interprets everything convincingly. She is old but still has incredible beauty. She always seems to stay in the fantasy girlhood, and she is always gentle to people, gentle enough to obey her words. Orientals are probably better able to understand the forbearance and dedication in this movie. The emotional ups and downs that are not spoken or filmed are just like the blanks in ancient landscape paintings and poems. They are not there, but there is a heavy heart in their hearts. Feel. Movies nowadays often have to face the temptation of over-information, always adding too many causes and consequences to the dialogue, but there is very little historical explanation in "The Poetry". Who was Yang Mizi's daughter born to? What kind of story has she had? Why are you alone? There is no explanation for these, but only by Yin Jingji's performance, this person's state is very full and not aggressively highlighted.
Over the years, suicide has become the most frequent news item in South Korea. Both former presidents and entertainers often make sacrifices. Former President Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff last year, was a person Li Cangdong believed very much. During the campaign, he canvassed for Roh Moo-hyun's platform and later served as Minister of Culture. Yang Mija’s story reminds people of Roh Moo-hyun who committed suicide because of his wife’s improper behavior. Thinking about it this way, this "Poem" is also very much like an elegy written by Lee Cangdong to Roh Moo-hyun. This sturdy culture of shame used to be a very important part of Eastern culture, but now some people say that it is virtue, while others say it is fragility.
Yang Meizi’s poem comes out at the end of the film. A series of empty shots seemed to be her subjective shots, all the way to the bridge where the girl jumped. At this time, the girl's voice and image were added, as if the girl in her heart and the girl who committed suicide merged into one. The combination of this series of empty shots and voice-overs will probably be recorded in film history in the future. The flowing rivers and the running trains seem to be telling something, but you can't tell what it is at all. You just feel like there is a rushing river in your heart.
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