Keywords: Korea, gangsters, youth, Zhang Dongjian, Liu Wuxing, Guo Jingze
Lines: Between friends, there is no need to apologize!
Youth in Anda Chong's pen, is the quiet youthful joyful innocence. Childhood childhood sweethearts in Anda Chong's writings are light, reserved, caring, vague fate and delicate feelings. In Anda Chong's writings, friends are the strong backing of lifelong opponents and silently support. These are beautiful.
In Jiang Wen's films, youth is a period of repressed and absurd years, a history of a society's gradual change from institutionalization, and a stage of youth sprouting. In Liu Weiqiang's Bewitched Boys, friends are brothers who are struggling together and supporting each other on the fringes of society. These are flamboyant, dashing, and turbulent.
Youth in "Blue Door" is the struggle and questioning of inner emotions, the gradual understanding of self, and the bright sunshine in large chunks. These are delicate.
But in "Friends", youth is a painful exploration of the path of life and a difficult choice for lifelong best friends. Friends, who used to be partners who ran together and chased each other on the way to the cinema, brothers who pursued beautiful girls together, and rely on to fight against the tide of conflict, but in the end they became enemies to kill each other. In the story of such an epic chapter, we slowly see the growth of teenagers in a turbulent and changing society, as well as their desire to return to the age of innocence and the pain of being unable to return to the past. Under those deliberately yellowed shots, the scorching sun, and the old Chinese tunic-style school uniform worn by Jang Dong-gun made me feel as if I went back to the past and recalled my childhood.
Yuan Rui, Dong Su, Shan Tai and Rong He grew up together since childhood. Yuan Rui felt very distressed and disturbed that he was the son of the eldest brother of the underworld, but at the same time he obviously inherited his father's strong character and leader's temperament. Dongsu's father is a funeral director, which makes him feel very inferior. He always hopes that he can get rid of his father's life and not always spend it in mourning. For Yuan Rui, he always has an attitude of respect and obedience. Shan Tai is a typical good student who yearns for loyalty among friends. Rong He, on the other hand, is a pistachio who laughs and giggles all day long.
After experiencing the joy and ignorance of childhood, the four entered middle school and are about to choose their own paths. A woman named Zhenshu becomes the trigger for their first conflict. Shan Tai fell in love with the lead singer of the chorus at first sight, and listened to her songs repeatedly during self-study. Yuan Rui helps him get to know Zhen Shu. However, Dong Su, who also secretly likes Zhenshu, expressed anger towards Yuan Rui for the first time. He questioned whether he was just Yuan Rui's follower or even a slave, and he never received the friendly respect of Shan Tai. This became the starting point for a lifelong conflict between the two friends.
When Shan Tai finally persuaded Yuan Rui and Dong Su, who had clashed with their teachers, to return to school, Rong He proposed to go to a movie to celebrate and race to the cinema. The four of them were running on the street indifferently, the wind whistled past their ears, and they sang briskly. They were laughing and running with each other, and the sun was shining on their innocent faces. At that moment, it was the happiest time of the whole film and the four of them, and it was also the happiest and brightest moment of the soundtrack.
Happiness is fleeting. Yuan Rui and Dong Su eventually got involved in a large-scale inter-school tussle in order to protect Shan Tai, who was in conflict with students from other schools. In order to make up for his friend's pain, Shan Tai secretly took the family's savings and ran to Yuan Rui to run away from home to Seoul together. But Yuan Rui refused, he didn't want to drag down his friend's future. At that moment I could clearly see the huge weight that friends occupied in Yuan Rui's chest. He is proud of it.
The lives of the four people finally began to be completely separated here: Yuan Rui experienced a short period of drug addiction and degeneration after the death of his mother, and gradually became a strict gangster with the support of his father's old subordinates. He firmly believes that even gangsters must have a righteousness to do something or not. In the end, Dongsu was reluctant to take over the job of his father's undertaker, and joined another more despicable and cruel organization. Through unscrupulous threats to extort drugs and other means, he slowly became the main force in it. At the funeral of Yuan Rui's father, the two finally separated completely. Under the dim light in the dark night, Dong Su turned around and finally smiled and waved his hand indifferently. He turned around and dragged the long black reflection away, leaving all his past and even his friends behind, which was embarrassing. Shan Tai and Rong He both went to college, and Shan Tai even went abroad for further studies. And Zhenshu has already become Yuan Rui's wife.
The large-scale anti-gang action in South Korea caused heavy losses to Dongsu's organization, while Yuanrui's organization, which had already transitioned from a conglomerate to Baidao, was rarely involved. In order to survive, Dongsu began to be ordered to seize Yuanrui's site and enterprises, and the war between the two officially began.
Although Yuan Rui has always been reluctant to confront Dong Su, the unauthorized actions of his subordinates eventually led to the outbreak of Dong Su's hatred of Yuan Rui. Perhaps he has always hoped to replace Yuan Rui as the leader or even become Yuan Rui. His family background made him always feel inferior, so he had more resentment towards others and society. After Yuan Rui's last long talk and advice to his friend, we can feel that the friend began to draw a question mark in Yuan Rui's chest.
In the heavy rain, Dongsu walked out of the pub and was about to get into the car, but was suddenly assassinated by an undercover assassin behind him. He started running in a panic, but there was always an assassin who rushed up to stop him and stabbed the sharp Japanese knife into his lungs. These killers, these knives, and even the parts of the assassination have been repeatedly trained by Yuan Rui. All we could hear was the sound of a knife stabbing in the chest, and Dong Su slowly collapsed under the telephone pole, exhaling his last breath. The immature assassin was still stabbed ecstatically, the blood and water mixed in the rain and flowed slowly, the sad music slowly sounded, and the friend's road finally came to an end.
In the end, Yuan Rui was also willing to be executed because he could not face the self-blame of killing his friend. Only two other friends left in pain.
The story culminates in a childhood quarrel between four friends at the seaside innocence. The blue sky, the sparkling sea, the dazzling sun, when we started to slowly recall the simplicity of our childhood and sighed how good it would be to never grow up and not be changed by society, the ending song slowly sounded.
Years later, I will still recall those yellowed images and memories, the relationship between men and the changes in human nature in the changing times. I will still believe in my friends, I believe in the sincere feelings between my friends.
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