The scene structure of the film is excellent. There is no fairyland pavilion surrounded by clouds and mist in "Heaven", only an old, rigid old building. The doors and windows with mottled old stains, the creaky wooden floor, the creeping mountain tigers hovering like memory, everything in the heaven seems incompatible with the world. Here we are greeted and sent here every week, and the lives that have passed away are here to board the train to heaven, heading to the other side of life.
In the first half of the movie, Hirokazu Kee spent a lot of space on the process of 22 deceased looking for the "eternal moment", and this process was almost entirely a dialogue between them and the staff of the kingdom of heaven. These boring and lengthy details are really monotonous compared with the dramatic narrative in the second half of the movie, but the narrative of such a drama must be intentional by Hirokazu, because the display of this process allows us to see another kind of life. Form, a poetic form wrapped in memory. The discussion of "memory" has always been a favorite theme of film masters, and Alan Raynay is one of them. In Renai's "Night and Fog", "Love in Hiroshima", "Last Year in Marion Bard" and other masterpieces, we see that memory is no longer a driving force for the current narrative, but relies on "memories". Driven by ", the process of making emotions dynamic and visualized. Also in "Next Stop, Heaven", memory is not a sensational spice and a means of supplementing narratives. It is more like a force, a force to face death and welcome new life. Among the 22 people of all kinds, some people quickly found their "eternal moment", but some people were hesitant, and some even refused to remember or could not find a moment worth remembering forever, and this group of people stayed in the end. Here, I became the staff of "Heavenly Station", and these "memory collectors" are also the focus of the film. The hero Mochizuki has been fettered by the trauma of war for more than 50 years, unable to find the most beautiful moment. In fact, the process of "memory-memory-amnesia" also seems to imply the life philosophy of "pick up-settle down-let go". The memory is old, just like this old building, we don’t need to decorate or renovate it, its original appearance is beautiful enough.
At the beginning of the movie, I began to "wander away". I kept thinking, if my life ends at this moment, what kind of memory will I choose? This sense of substitution is so strong. When the staff in the film discussed when people’s earliest memories started, I began to desperately recall my earliest memories. I remembered the first time I saw bananas on the round glass coffee table at my relative’s house when I was 3 years old. Scene, what a wonderful movie-watching experience this is! This memory has suddenly become so clear now, as if it had just happened yesterday. Another point that shares the same feeling with the characters in the play is why human beings can always remember those bad and painful past events, but can't keep some good memories? In reality, we are always surrounded by worries and resentments. In the peaceful heaven, we find that our memories no longer belong to ourselves. It has changed us, turning us into numb and conceited robots. Recovering that short moment is like a baptism for the soul. On the journey to heaven, we finally learned to be optimistic and open-minded.
"The Next Stop, Heaven" is not just a film about "memory-memory". The shooting process in the middle of the film shows us that it is Hirokazu Kee's deep love for the film itself. It is with these old shooting props and original shooting methods that we can retain that beautiful moment. For movies, isn't it an art of preserving those beautiful moments? But the person who made the movie is the one who can't find the most beautiful memory. What about the audience of the movie? They saw themselves in the movie, and then these fragments became their memories and were taken to the heaven on the other side. It is Hirokazu Kee who is kind. Maybe all the actors and props in the movie are fake, but the emotions and touches are real, that's enough. In the scenes of the movie, when the lights of the cinema dimmed, I thought there would be sensational passages like "Paradise Cinema". Looking at the images on the screen, the audience cried, and then disappeared one by one, but Hirokazu Ke did not do so. It was a black screen for just a few seconds, and everything ended in a flash.
The most dramatic plot of the film is that the heavenly staff, Mochizuki, finally found a video clip of his fiancée, and he appeared in this clip. The years of emotional bondage are finally free, and he has to leave. But his video clips did not choose the same moment as his fiancée. This unexpected choice made the emotional expression of the film reach its climax. I can't write the footage of those tens of seconds. I believe that every audience who has watched the movie will remember this segment for themselves.
The movie is finally over, after sending away the last batch of dead, a new batch will come. Mochizuki also left, and the last group of people who could not find the memory stayed behind and became the new staff. The story in the heaven is peaceful and quiet, just like Anzhi's feelings for Mochizuki, which can only be concealed. We really need to thank the film creators like Hiroshi Edema. The "beautiful moment" they filmed contains something mysterious. Using a word in the film, it should be "proof of living". Suddenly found out that the original is alive. What a great and happy thing!
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