I wanted to write Xue Dingxun for a long time, because he was the assistant director of Iwai Shunji, and worked with Iwai in many works such as "Love Letter", "Swallowtail Butterfly" and "April Story". As a person with an Iwai complex, I also found something in Xingdingxun that is in the same vein as Iwai. Therefore, it is natural to like Iwai and Xingdingxun. It's like watching Ai Iijima's movie, and Maria Takaki's is also not to be missed.
Back then, "The Great Runaway" made Xing Dingxun famous, but "Let the Center of the World Call Out for Love" really made him one of the first-line famous directors in Japan. The film is based on Katayama Kyoichi's novel of the same name, which sold over 3 million copies in Japan. I checked the Internet and found that Qingdao Publishing House had published a Chinese translation of the novel in 2004, but it was sold out on the websites of "Excellent" and "Dangdang". It seems to be very popular.
Like all works that can earn enough tears, "Calling Love in the Center of the World" is also a story about love and death.
The male protagonist Sakutaro is about to get married, but his fiancee Ritsuko mysteriously disappeared after leaving a note saying "Don't worry". He vaguely realized that Ritsuko had gone to his hometown of Shikoku, so he set off immediately. Go after Ritsuko. But when he returned to his hometown again, he didn't find Ritsuko, but he was always entangled by an inexplicable emotion. Everything familiar in front of him brought his mind back to the high school days more than ten years ago...Sakutaro in high
school fell in love with Aki, a girl in his class. Aki is the most popular girl in the class, she is not only outstanding in appearance, but also excels in academics, sports and so on. Being able to fall in love with Aki is a very happy thing.
Like all love, the first love is the sweetest. Together, they contributed to the radio program, recording each other's heartfelt words on what now seems to be an ancient single player. They also travel together to an uninhabited island, which is actually the furthest place they have ever been. The first time you go out, you can be with your loved ones. There is nothing in the world that is more memorable than sweet. But the smooth sailing love will eventually be replaced by a mediocre life. In that way, no matter how beautiful things are, they can't beat the triviality and mental exhaustion of firewood, rice, oil and salt. So, without too much imagination, someone has to die in this story. Such a film must be tragic. Because only tragedy can make great love be remembered by the living.
Aki suddenly fainted on a large rock on an uninhabited island, leaving dark red blood in her nostrils. She was diagnosed with leukemia.
Although, she has a huge fear of death; although, she has infinite hope for life, but fate has repeatedly joked with her. Everything collapsed in an instant, and the laughter of the past had to be replaced by tears of disappointment and panic. She tried her best to be brave, to keep herself alive, but all her beautiful hair fell out in one fell swoop. Sakutaro knew that her biggest wish was to go to Australia, because Aki believed that the center of the world was there. So, Sakutaro decided to make Aki's dream come true. The two sneaked out of the hospital and rushed to the airport. Aki thought she was really going to the center of the world, she seemed very happy, this might be her last chance. To achieve this wish, even if she leaves, she must leave with a smile. But a sudden typhoon on the 29th broke her last wish. Due to the weather, the plane could not take off, and the disappointed Aki fell on the cold floor of the waiting hall.
Xing Dingxun uses a combination of forward narration and flashback, and the camera constantly shuttles between the past and the present. And Sakutaro is also struggling to pursue again and again between memory and reality. As he himself said, he cannot forget the past. Facing the upcoming marriage, he doesn't know how to face the past and face the present. This ambivalence made him so painful that Ritsuko felt very guilty. Because Ritsuko was the little girl who passed the tape between the seriously ill Aki and Sakutaro, and it was because of her accident that Aki gave Sakutaro the last tape, which was handed over to Sakutaro seventeen years later. hand. Ritsuko actually never knew that Aki had passed away.
There are many scenes of Sakutaro holding a Walkman and headphones in the film, which makes me naturally think of the boy in "All About Lily Zhou". In addition, the tone of the entire film is also very similar to that of "Love Letter" and other films, because the film is held by Shunji Iwai's royal photographer Shinoda Shinoda, and this film is also Shinoda's posthumous work. In a movie about death, not only the heroine in the movie dies after the movie, but also the photographer also leaves, which adds a bit of fate to this already sad movie.
In fact, we have seen a lot of love stories about death. Such films are, without exception, someone falls in love, then someone dies, and finally someone remembers. It is said that shooting such a routine once or twice is enough to excavate all the materials, but why are movies, novels, etc. based on such a story so often new, and they must be a hit when they come out? The reason is to capture the most vulnerable things in people's hearts. Non-vegetation, ruthless Practice makes perfect. In the face of the death of the most intimate lover, I have to admit that all people, including the most ruthless and heartless, will not remain indifferent in their hearts. Humans are the most intelligent beings, and it is precisely because of this wisdom that they can experience ups and downs unlike animals. Therefore, human beings are often troubled. Movies or novels just amplify these most common human emotions, reproduce them through images and words, and make them powerful.
Why must someone die in love to appear true love? Why can't people who love each other be together in the end to make love worth remembering? The deceased can be gone, and can no longer see the sorrow of the world; but those who remain in the world have to face the memory of the deceased and the tearing memory of the past. Just like Sakutaro, even if he was about to get married, he still couldn't let go of Aki, who died far away in the kingdom of heaven.
At the end of the film, Xue Dingxun left us a bright tail: Sakutaro and Ritsuko came to Australia together with Aki's ashes. On the rocky mountain, they blew Aki's ashes into the wind. The camera started to revolve around them, then slowly moved away, farther and farther, until finally they became two little white dots on the screen. This is the most beautiful moment in the movie.
In the movie, Sakutaro and Aki did not have any physical contact, and the only time they kissed was through glass. Perhaps the things that cannot be easily obtained are always the most precious and the most beautiful. If at the end of the film, Sakutaro and Aki really come together, then the entertainment of the film will be enhanced, but as a poignant love story, its touching point will naturally disappear. But I still feel that even if Sakutaro and Ritsuko get married, Aki will still live in their lives. Aki will always be a name that their lives cannot escape. After all, for many things, just using the excuse that "time heals everything" is not convincing. They can never be erased from memory, they have melted into the blood, they are destined to haunt you for a lifetime every sleepless night.
The world has no center, it's just a beautiful fairy tale imagined by Aki in order to survive.
So, again, holding hands is not easy, and cherish the people in front of you.
Don't let others down easily, and don't let yourself down easily.
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