Tradition is like a poisonous snake, ubiquitous, cold and impermanent. It seems that this moment is still lurking quietly in the grass, and the next moment it suddenly opens its mouth and reveals its fangs, quickly taking a life.
"Taru Mountain Festival" is a complex, profound and all-encompassing Japanese film, which can be viewed and interpreted from various angles. Here I will only talk about the points that impressed me the most.
The story takes place in an extremely poor remote mountain village. People there are extremely difficult to live in. Even farming and weaving women can’t meet their food and clothing. So it is natural that an unwritten rural custom has formed here, that is, as long as the elderly of which family arrives. At a young age, he must be carried by his own children into the mountains (Zunshan) and discarded. This will not only reduce the burden of family life, but it is also said that the soul of the elderly can also be accepted by the mountain god and ascended to heaven. This custom has been passed down from generation to generation, and has been passed down to the generation of A Ling's mother-in-law.
Alingpo
A Lingpo is a very traditional village peasant woman.
She was diligent and kind throughout her life, hoping that she could enter the deep mountains peacefully in her later years and ascend to heaven. She is very superstitious about the slightly horrifying ceremony of "Baishan". Even if her sons are not willing to abandon her, she still insists on it, even taking the initiative to knock off her front teeth and pretend to be silly, so that her body looks more old. The purpose of "Worshipping the Mountain" as soon as possible. And many of her behaviors are also very traditional, even seem terrible to understand. For example, the younger son’s Yuezhang’s family is a den of thieves, and the villagers collectively decided to "destroy the family". A Lingpo not only did not want her daughter-in-law to survive, but Instead, she deliberately set a trap for her to be buried alive. Because as long as it is the village's rules, no matter how cruel things are done. She kept saying, “The rules of the village cannot be violated for any reason.” It can be said that she is the embodiment of the tradition of this ancient mountain village, and everyone praises A Lingpo as a good woman.
But I think A Lingpo is a terrible woman.
Her "good" is actually strictly abiding by the traditional village rules and people's conventions, and unconditional obedience without any reason. So everyone admired her and thought she was an example of obedience. In order to obey the traditional power, she opposed all those who disobey the tradition from the bottom of her heart. For example, A Lingpo called her husband a "scum" all her life and hated him deeply, even though he has been missing for many years, she still hates him. This was just because her husband did something "shameful" that made her "cannot hold her head up in the village". What's the matter? It was when the husband's old mother (that is, A Lingpo's mother-in-law) reached the age of "worshiping the mountain", and the cowardly husband disappeared overnight in order to escape this cruel "tradition". People said he had escaped. The truth was not revealed until the eldest son Chenping confided the truth many years later. It turned out that the son killed his father and threw the body into the pond. The reason for Chenping's killing of his father is also straightforward and terrible—because the father did not carry his grandma back to the mountain to perform the "mountain worship" ceremony... I thought that when she heard this kind of rebellious behavior, A Lingpo would angrily teach her son a lesson, but she didn't expect She even calmly comforted her son and said, "I love your father Liping, but he is a shame to the village. It was not you who killed him, but the mountain god killed him. "
This kind of "stupid loyalty" to the traditional behavior is really chilling.
Even though the villagers, including many viewers, thought she was an amiable and harmless old woman, she still made me feel terrified inexplicably. As the villagers joked, A Lingpo is like a "ghost". She is scheming. All her so-called "good" is purposeful, not for the sake of others or her own children, but just hope that she can be liberated as soon as possible, and her soul can successfully ascend to heaven. That's why she defied everyone's opposition and insisted on going to the "mountain worship". And she was definitely not as simple as "one less mouth to eat" as she said. She was really superstitious. In order to be able to ascend to the fairy world early, she deceived everyone, and even believed what she deceived.
This reminds me of my grandmother's house. In the remote rural village where my grandmother lived, the locals didn't care much about how to live, but were extremely concerned about things like cemetery feng shui, even to a perverted level. The old man there had already prepared the coffin board for himself as soon as he was 60 years old, including the style of the shroud for the site selection of the cemetery and so on. Grandma is no exception, so when I was playing next to the coffin at my grandma's house when I was a child, I curiously asked the adults what it was for, and the adults kept me from asking. Later, when I grew up, my mother told me that it was grandma's coffin. When grandma left us, it was already more than 20 years later.
It seems that in the hearts of old people, there is a mysterious power in the world that can lead them to heaven, and they never think that it is a kind of superstition, but a firm belief, a tradition that must be followed , and no one is allowed . Questioning and obstruction. Not even the closest person. Because it was an agreement between her and God.
Tradition
The tradition that everyone regards as sacred as a god is actually not as perfect as imagined, and it is even full of brutal violence and naked blood. Whether it is the collective action of the villagers to bury the rain house family alive, and then divide the family’s property, or scramble to abandon the old man in the mountains and wait for the wild animals to eat, whether the old man wants it or not. This all shows one thing- tradition will kill people.
In the backward areas of the wilderness, because there is no law, tradition is the law. As long as the villagers jointly decide things to be correct. Therefore, many wrong decisions turned out to be village rules and traditions.
And often, the poorer and backward the place is, the stronger and more stubborn the traditional force is, and it is almost impossible to change the traditional force. At the same time, sticking to tradition often leads to more poverty and backwardness, and breeds all kinds of ignorant and cruel atrocities. And in many backward places, many sensational and absurd things often happen. For example, the horrible scenes of dead babies in "Tarushan Festival Kao". In order to get rid of poverty, the locals keep reproducing, because girls can sell for money, but boys are not wanted, so as long as they give birth to boys, they drown or abandon them...Finally, poverty is the root of all evil.
Masahira Imamura's movies are easy to use metaphors, and there are no fewer than dozens of metaphors used in "Taruyama Festival Kao". For example, weasels steal chickens, snakes mate their tails, owls hunt, female praying mantises eat male praying mantises... and among them, the snake that appears the most often from the beginning to the end is the snake. Venomous snakes are almost everywhere by the bed, by the haystack, and on the eaves of the villagers' homes throughout the year. Just like those traditional forces hovering over the mountain village.
Tradition is like a poisonous snake, ubiquitous, cold and impermanent. It seems that this moment is still lurking quietly in the grass, and the next moment it suddenly opens its mouth and reveals its fangs, quickly taking a life.
son
The eldest son Tatsupei is a very complicated person.
He was an ordinary farmer on the surface, and he looked as traditional and ordinary as his mother. But he is the most inconsistent person in the whole movie. His honesty stems from his fear of traditional power. In fact, he is skeptical of everything in his heart. For example, he does not approve of letting his mother "worship the mountain" too early, and even struggles to oppose this bloody tradition in his heart. And his "father killing" behavior even shows that he has a tendency to rebel against tradition, that is, the "Oedipus complex." But living in such a traditional and backward environment, his "anti-tradition" is very mild and deeply hidden, and there is even no sign at all. Besides, his mother is such a traditional person. In order to satisfy his mother, he finally agreed to "worship the mountain" with her on his back.
It's just that this climbing process is extremely difficult, which indicates Chenping's inner struggles and twists. He stumbles all the way and his life is hanging on the wall, but his mother still hopes that his mother will give up this superstitious idea. There is a scene in the film where he turned around and suddenly found his mother was missing. He whispered to himself, "Maybe she went home by herself ", with a gratified smile on his face. And he happened to encounter a wounded tit, he carefully held it in his palm, and then let go with a smile, as if his heart knot had also been untied. It's just that he didn't expect to meet his mother again, who stared at him with complaining eyes, and he realized that his mother's heart was so determined.
When he finally sent his mother to the top of the gloomy and cramped mountain, he hesitated again. After parting with his mother, he left in pain with tears on his face. The scene waiting for him to encounter on the way back further deepened his inner confusion and suspicion. That was a rascal in the same village who pushed his old father off the cliff abruptly, even if the father cried like a child and didn't want to. He once again witnessed the bloody scene of traditional killing, like seeing a poisonous snake devour a life. When he was walking on the road, he suddenly encountered a heavy snowfall. According to the traditional saying, snowing is the manifestation of the mountain gods. If the "worship" meets snowing, it is good luck. Chenping turned around and ran back to his mother, and reported the good news of the snow to his mother who was sitting cross-legged and waiting for the "ascension". His mother opened her eyes and responded with a smile. At that moment, he felt relieved again-maybe there is a "mountain god"? Mother will definitely go to heaven too, right? This is a good thing, I should be happy...
But when he returned home from the "worship", he saw a scene that puzzled him. The youngest brother brought back a woman, even stepped up to buy new clothes for her, and announced to the family that she would live at home from then on. Since then, the family has opened more mouths, and the pressure of life has increased again. So it seems that the mother’s departure did not actually reduce the burden on the family. Life is still the same. He began to be confused again, and he began to doubt the tradition again-is the mother's self-sacrifice worthwhile?
Then a viper hovering around in the darkness appeared. Finally, the movie ended with a weird and gloomy sound of music.
"Tunshan Festival" is such a complex, profound and heavy film. It is a classic Japanese film that is unique in every country. Even though it is unique and unique in the history of film in the world, I don't have the courage to watch it again. After all, life is already like this, so why bother to grow gloomy again and again? Throughout the whole film, I still prefer the passage where A Lingpo leads her daughter-in-law to learn to catch fish, which represents a kind of inheritance and hope. And hope is not sadness.
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