The first time I saw this film directed by Chen Yingying, I was deeply impressed by the greenness of the blockbuster and the beautiful aura of the heroine Mei. The whole film did not have a strong storyline or intense dramatic conflict. There are very few lines, but the director successfully captured the summer scenery and daily scenes with the lens, which makes people feel the scenery of Southeast Asia and the delicate and soft feelings of the East, and slowly convey the freshness and tranquility of the summer. . If you want to recommend a movie with a summer flavor, "The Smell of Green Papaya" must be on the list.
[Summer is hot, summer is quiet]
In real life, the hot summer sun is always annoying, but when watching this movie, the whole feeling is the endless softness and beauty of summer, like sweating from the heat, but When the summer wind blows, it feels very cool.
The summer in the south is humid and sultry, but it is also covered with large tracts of green, showing a unique lush vitality in summer. The huge green plants spawned by the scorching summer also cast a large shady shadow for people who are unbearably hot. Crickets and cicadas are the natural background music in the film. , sending gusts of fresh air to the napped child.
The director took the sultry summer to be quiet and beautiful. The sultry heat was completely dissipated by the large green plants and the heroine's aura, and the rest was as fresh and tranquil as the smell of green papaya.
The protagonist of the story, Mei, is a maid who has worked in a big family since she was a child. She looks very similar to the daughter of the hostess who died. In addition, Mei does not speak much and acts well, so she is deeply loved by the hostess. Most of the film describes the daily work of Maid Mei: in the early morning she is often woken up by an older maid, who always likes to ramble on. In the open kitchen, she taught Mei how to cook and cook, and when she had free time, she would tell Mei the story of the owner of the family. Mei spent most of the time listening quietly and doing things quietly. The young master in the family is still at a naughty age and often plays pranks on Mei who is working.
Working as a maid must be busy and hard work, but Mei always finds her own little pleasures in her busy free time. Lying in front of the window, she sniffed the fragrance in the air, and found that milky white papaya juice was dripping on the papaya vines, drop by drop on the leaves, and the fragrance was emanating from the papaya juice. She was squatting in the kitchen to eat lunch, and saw the ants not far away carrying scraps of food. She went over and squatted aside with a bowl and watched it carefully, her clear eyes curved into a smile. She was afraid of the lizards that the young master often used to scare her, but she made a small cage to keep the grasshoppers and put them in front of the window of her room. She often added some leaves and water to them, and watched them quietly through the cage. . She picked a green papaya, washed it with water, peeled it, put all the papaya shreds on a plate, and finally cut the remaining papaya in the middle to reveal the tender white seeds, she stretched out her index finger to touch, Feel the novelty, the fun that belongs to her...
The summer is sultry and sweaty, and sweat wets the broken hair of the heroine. Mei concentrates on the work in her hand, and it is too late to manage the strand of hair. The summer wind blows, and the strands of hair sway gently in the wind. It has a rustic and fresh aesthetic.
【Love that grows in summer】
The film involves a total of three emotions. Whether it is sadness or joy, the director expresses the emotion gently in a subtle and restrained way.
The first love story is that of the mistress. The owner of Mei's house, the male owner is an artist, he once ran away with all the money in the family, and he never came back for a long time. On the eve of the curfew one day, the male host took the family's money again and never returned. The hostess manages all the affairs of the house by herself, while figuring out how to make money to buy food, while having to endure her mother-in-law complaining that she does not know how to please her husband. Like many women in that era, the hostess's love was a tragedy, she worked hard without complaint and swallowed her voice, but in the end she could not achieve a complete success.
The second love story is Don's. He is the master's mother-in-law's admirer. He would ask Mei about his mother-in-law's current situation through the fence, and he would go home happily when he learned that everything was fine. His mother-in-law had rejected his pursuit, so he followed her silently all the time, and he was satisfied when he saw it from a distance. The mother-in-law had been chanting scriptures upstairs because of her granddaughter's death, and Tang had not seen her for seven years. She could only judge whether she was well by listening to the sound of the wooden fish knocking every day. Mei quietly took him upstairs to take a look at his mother-in-law. That day, Tang was wearing a neat suit and a top hat. He stood on the stairs and watched his mother-in-law chanting the scriptures. He smiled very happily.
The third love story is May's own. The love between Maid Mei and Mr. Hao Ren, a rich boy, can be called the Vietnamese version of "Cinderella". Mr. Haoren is a friend of the eldest son of the host family. Mei had seen him at home when he was young. Mr. Haoren's handsome appearance and gentle and refined temperament made the young Mei moved. When Mei grew up, the hostess sent her to Mr. Haoren's house to work as a maid because of financial difficulties.
It is a blessing to be under the same roof with the sweetheart, and Mei, like ten years ago, does not speak much, quietly and wholeheartedly doing the work that she should do. She would wake up every morning and open the windows one by one, and turn on the lights one by one in the evening. Listening to the piano music played by Mr. Haoren, she silently organized the room and packed the master's clothes. She prepared each meal with love, and brought the food to the table with a faint happy smile on her face, and placed it carefully, just like when she learned that Mr. Haoren was coming to the former host for dinner ten years ago. He proposed to the older maid to try cooking, then put on clean and beautiful clothes, and served the food to the banquet with excitement and care, because Mr. Haoren glanced at her inadvertently, and on the way back, she hugged her with both hands. The tray serving the dishes, pursed his lips, his eyes sparkling, a smile he couldn't hide.
Mei has become a beauty with a classical temperament. Compared with his fiancee who disrupted his work rhythm inappropriately, Mei's quiet and indifference made Mr. Haoren find himself more and more fascinated by Mei. At first, it was a portrait of Mei hidden in a drawer, and in the end, it accumulated one after another, from the polite look and smile to Mei, to the obsessive look at Mei's dressing, Mei's love for Mei. Mr. Haoren's silent secret love for many years has finally responded.
Regarding Mei's love, I have no intention of judging whether the final outcome is good or bad, but according to the pictures presented in the film, I think they will develop in a happy direction. Mr. Haoren patiently taught Mei to read and write, and held up in time when Mei lowered her head to write. Her face reminded her to look up. After Mei was pregnant, Haoren played Qin Mei to read, and both of them were working hard to conceive a better life.
The flickering colors at the end of the film, the silent but loving interaction between the two, let the audience see the warmth in their hearts at the end. This quietly rising emotion grows in the summer sunshine and rain. The papaya will eventually ripen and have a sweet taste.
(This article was first published on the public account: The realm of colorful hearts, and may not be reproduced without permission)
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