Once made papaya stewed milk.
When you cut the dark blue papaya skin with a knife, the orange-red papaya flesh will seep out milky white juice, cut in half, a belly full of crystal clear papaya seeds, which is soft and sticky when you touch it. Papaya does not taste as dull as its Chinese name, on the contrary, its sweet and slightly greasy taste, and the fragrant milk smell, reminds people of a girl, a girl who is about to grow up. It grows in one path, and tightly wraps beauty and fragrance like secrets.
Green papaya is not so fragrant. Its flesh is white, and its seeds are also white. It is conceivable that its taste must be sweet, refreshing is the main, sweetness is slightly sweet, if there is no trace. "The Smell of Green Papaya" is such a movie. The plot is slow and the details are full of beautiful pictures. It seems tasteless. In fact, it attracts people to watch it all the time, and is immersed in the atmosphere created by the movie after the end.
In Saigon in the 1950s, the 10-year-old Xiaomei worked as a maid in the family. In this family, the old lady is a young widow, rejecting infatuated suitors, and raising her son. The son spends all day playing musical instruments in the room. When there is a chance, he will swept away all the property in the family and go out to squander it. On the shoulders of the daughter-in-law (wife), the couple originally had three sons and a daughter, who died of illness a few years ago. The wife misses her daughter, so she loves Xiaomei, who is about the same age.
The first time Xiaomei saw the eldest young master Ah Zhong's friend Haoren, she secretly fell in love with him. She is diligent, careful and kind, earnest and contented life, ants, frogs, toads, crickets can make her happy and smile.
The young master ran away from home with the family's money again, making it difficult for the family to maintain their livelihoods. Fortunately, there is a loyal mother and a diligent wife, so that the family will not be hungry. Not long after the young master came back, he was seriously ill, and his wife sold the property and asked for a doctor to prolong the medicine and eventually died.
After 10 years, the family is even more distressed, and the family property has been sold to almost nothing. The wife can only cruelly agree to the proposal of the eldest daughter-in-law and send Xiaomei to the pianist Haoren's house to be a maid. Haoren has a fiancee who is now a pie, but is gradually attracted by the quiet and gentle Xiaomei. The green papaya has matured unknowingly, and the tone of the film has changed from cold to warm yellow. Haoren pushes Xiaomei's bedroom away, and the girl in the gauze on the bed turns over and sits up, hiding the fragrance for ten years, under the moonlight. like a painting.
The ending of the film is beautiful. Warm yellow tone, Xiaomei's belly is bulging, she has learned to read and write, she is reading, Haoren is playing the piano.
I always remember Eileen Chang's words: May the years be peaceful and the present world stable. What a quiet wish this is, but it is really not suitable for Eileen Chang.
Today's women (including me, especially me) are often anxious, talk too much about changing their fate, often focus on the shortcomings in daily life, and want to correct them; they think too much about the future, and worry about the gains and losses all the time; they also care too much about the gains and losses, Thinking about the effort and return, is it worth it... I can't sit down and read a book, watch a movie, listen to a piece of music, and my eyes are full of frustration and mediocrity.
Chen Yingxiong's film, whether it is nostalgic or celebrating traditional women, the camera seems to be lingering on the old cloisters, warm vases, and dense incense, playing with the aesthetics of the past, in fact, the calm and still shots have It's life attitude.
Anxiety is undoubtedly another kind of waste.
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