After "Face", Director Wu made another excellent work. Director Wu is very talented but has produced very few films. He has only directed two films in 20 years, but this one is a masterpiece. I watched "The half of it" twice within two days and was moved by its emotional description. Originally it was for Ji Pian, but what was most moved was Paul and Ellie's friendship. The following interpretation of Ellie and Paul's emotional line contains spoilers.
Paul and Ellie are two circles that never meet. At the beginning, Paul's circle of friends only consisted of his football brothers. Ellie, as the only Asian and non-Christian in the town, only had herself in her circle of friends, and her only social relationship with her classmates was by writing essays for others. Make money, and she's very good at it as an honor student.
The beginning of the story is also the accidental intersection of the two of them. Paul wanted to follow the school beauty Aster and planned to write a love letter, but he felt that his literary talent was not enough, so he asked Ellie to help. Ellie initially only planned to write a love letter for Paul and ended up with no expectations for what happened next. And she has several layers of selfishness to help Paul write love letters. The first is to make $50, because she has to help her family pay $50 for electricity. The second is that Paul was unintentionally provoked, because Paul said to Ellie "you have never been in love", Ellie said very well, "Do you want a love letter? Then I will write you one!" The third is Because she likes Aster herself, the brief conversation with Aster in the hallway stimulates her desire to talk to Aster and it's a good opportunity to express herself, even if she needs to pretend to be Paul.
Ellie, who thought it was over with a love letter, didn't expect Aster to reply, and Aster's very brief reply wrote that he also liked Wim Wenders, and said "but I won't copy him".
Presumably Ellie copied the sentence from the movie she watched with her dad in her first love letter. I don't know if this movie is from Wim Wenders, it's just speculation without verification.
Ellie then regarded this as a game and challenge, and played on with Paul, which was the beginning of their revolutionary friendship. Then help Paul write love letters, help Paul use ghost messenger to chat with Aster. If it wasn't for Paul's boldness (1st bold stroke) to ask Aster for dinner, Ellie might have chatted with Aster forever. After all, in Ellie's opinion, chatting online is also a date hahaha.
The first time Ellie thought Paul was good was because Paul used stones to drive away the students who bullied and laughed at Ellie every time. They shouted "chuga chuga chu chu" using Ellie Chu's surname and the relationship between her family and the train station. Yes, it probably means "the chu chu train is about to start". Ellie had been alone for so long, and it was really touching to suddenly have someone help her out, a boost to their revolutionary friendship.
Ellie was deeply moved and even helped Paul to chase Aster. Then Ellie and Paul analyzed Aster's preferences in various ways, including movies, books, actors, food, following Aster to the supermarket, cinema, and peeping at Aster's dinner with binoculars.
The first emotional resonance between the two was when Paul (2nd bold stroke) suddenly asked Ellie why her family came to the village of Squamish Ten. Because he didn't think Ellie and her dad were happy here. Ellie was very annoyed by Paul's question at first. On the one hand, it may be that the two of them were talking about Aster. They were surprised that Paul suddenly asked this question, and felt that he did not take Aster seriously. On the other hand, Ellie felt that she was really unhappy. But why did she explain to Paul, who seemed happy, why she was unhappy. But Paul said he also felt trapped in Squamie Ten. He wanted to open his own shop, but he didn't dare to improve the secret recipe of ancestral sausages. This echoes their previous discussion of being trapped in hell (even if one is talking about the greatest philosopher of the 20th century being trapped in hell, while the other says his grandmother is trapped in Minnesota, which seems like a cliché and riba It's actually the same). At this time, they all felt trapped here and wanted to run away.
After this time, the two of them naturally hang out as friends, including playing table tennis, eating together, getting to know each other, such as where they come from and what they like to eat. Paul has always wanted to promote his taco sausage, he wrote to a newspaper asking for someone to try his taco sausage but no one paid him any attention. Ellie asked him if his family had tasted it, and Paul said the family had not. Many times we think that other people's lives are smooth sailing, but we don't know the struggle behind the other person's back. Paul's family has many children, so naturally we can't take care of each child completely. Then Ellie and her dad were the first diners to try Paul's taco sausage. So sometimes it's not necessarily your family that supports you the most, it may also be your good friends.
Then they discussed the couple chasing the train, Paul thought it was romantic, Ellie thought it was stupid. The two often disagree on various matters, but it does not prevent them from enjoying each other's company and slowly accepting each other's differences.
Paul heard Ellie play the guitar one night through the window. I thought Paul might have a little bit of a crush on Ellie, maybe it was just a friend, or there was something else he didn't know about.
Then Ellie accompanied Paul on his second date with Aster, and Paul was grateful that Ellie had been with him and cheered him on. This scene is very sweet, but as soon as Paul left, Ellie said she thought he was finished hahaha. . . A good friend is that even if I have no confidence in you, I will cheer you up in person.
Then hang out at the clothing store, Paul helps Ellie choose the clothes for the concert. Director Wu, I remember that you also had the scene where the two female protagonists visit the clothes store in "Face". Director Wu really loves shopping and vending machines.
At the concert, Ellie was teased that the piano was broken. Paul took the guitar from his classmates and handed Ellie to Ellie to play his own tune. The tune she sang fits the emotions of the last year of high school and touched everyone, and Ellie became popular in the whole school. So people's feelings are often very similar.
After that, Paul took Ellie to the celebration party. Ellie was liked and accepted by her classmates for the first time. She had a lot of fun and accidentally drank too much. Paul was afraid that she would drink too much and immediately took her home and handed her a hangover the next day. medicine.
Paul stood up for Ellie when she was bullied, helped her out when she was embarrassed, and took her away when she might be hurt. He is really a very caring and kind good friend. And Paul suddenly found out that Ellie was helping him write letters to food critics as Paul, probably recommending Paul's taco sausage, and was also very moved.
Then Paul went to the football game. Ellie told Paul that Aster wished him a good game. Paul asked Ellie to come too. At this time, Paul was already very caring for Ellie.
I was super happy to see Ellie on the sidelines cheering him on, even happier than seeing Aster present and waving Ellie frequently.
After the game, they met again at Director Wu's favorite vending machine. Ellie asked Paul to feed himself a Yakult, and Paul did. Then Paul suddenly leaned in to kiss Ellie, who hurried away. Paul asked Ellie, "Don't you want me to kiss you?" Paul thought it was a hint that Ellie asked him to feed her Ledo, and Ellie thought it was normal for a friend to feed her. Even the same behavior can be interpreted differently by different people.
This scene was hit by Aster, and then he threw his sleeves away angrily. The two people he liked were actually kissing! !
Seeing Ellie's expression, Paul finally understood that Ellie liked Aster. Although he questioned it once before and was fooled, this time he finally confirmed and affirmed, so he blurted out: "This is sin." and left. Paul was also frightened. In this closed and very Christian town, he never thought about homosexuality. As a Christian, he was also taught that homosexuality is sin and will go to hell.
The next scene is very interesting, quoting Sartre, other people are hell. This sentence couldn't be more agreeable. We are judged by various people, labelled, demanded to be homogenized, and poisoned by poisonous snakes. At this time, it is true that others are hell.
Paul and Ellie haven't spoken since the vending machine incident, and both of them are disappointed. Very close friends, suddenly lost contact because of unpleasant troubles, and the feeling of breaking up is actually quite similar. Paul went to check the question "How do you know if you're gay?" (another bold stroke) that every jerk may have checked himself. As a traditional Christian, he is willing to learn about being gay for his good friend. Even if you are beyond my understanding, you are my good friend and I am willing to try to understand.
Next is the particularly impressive chapel. While Trig was still citing biblical descriptions of love, both Ellie and Paul took issue.
Paul realizes that there are many kinds of love, and he finally understands that he wants to love others in his own way, not in the way that the other party expects him, and not pretending to be others to love others. Ellie, on the other hand, thinks that love is not a disguise, it is a bump, and she wants to touch each other, messy, and bold. Love is willing to destroy a good painting in exchange for a great painting. Here is the theme of the film, which is to explore the polymorphism of love, so as to express Director Wu's understanding of love.
Finally Ellie left the town, Paul brought him his own special sausage, chased the train and wanted to see Ellie one more time, and used his actions to explain his understanding of love, even though Ellie once said that chasing the train was stupid. I also burst into tears at this scene.
I think "The half of it" is better than "Face", it explores the various forms of love intriguing, and the ending is more open and real. The story of Paul and Ellie comes from the personal experience of Director Wu. She had a very good male friend in college. The two were very intimate but not boyfriend and girlfriend. We temporarily call him P. P always accompanied Director Wu when he was confused about his sexual orientation, and was also a close friend. Later, after P made a girlfriend, this girlfriend didn't like P's contact with Director Wu, even if he knew that Director Wu was gay, the reason was that he didn't like the close relationship between P and Director Wu. P gradually became estranged from Director Wu. This incident had a great impact on Director Wu, and it also contributed to her script for the film.
We know that Ellie and Paul must love each other in the movie, but what is this love? It is different from the boyfriends and friends we usually see. The two of them are. I like to eat, chat and play with you very much. I will be there as soon as you have something to cheer you on. I care that you don’t want you to be hurt, but there is no sexual impulse between me and you, at least Ellie is right. Paul didn't. This relationship was a bit confusing for Paul. It's understandable, after all, if we have strong feelings for another person, we probably don't even know what those feelings are. Later, Paul knew that Ellie was gay and chose to understand and accept her, and there was also the scene of chasing the train station. So what is this love, I don't think I know, but if I were Paul I would chase the train too. I think Director Wu is just showing us different people's definitions and expressions of love. As for how we interpret it, we have different opinions.
The reason why I like this line very much is because it is very similar to my personal experience. So what is soulmate? what is love? We are accustomed to using various labels to define ourselves. When we were young, we felt that we were a proper Ji guy. As we got older, we realized that queer might be a better label. This definition is also closer to my feelings of love for different people. We may love someone without sex, or we may love someone with sex without love. We might think that thinking about someone day and night is love, but that might just be deceiving ourselves. It is also possible that we once loved someone deeply, but only realized that love after many years of separation. Love may or may not be romantic. Love may be inclusive and great or selfish and narrow. But in any case, each love is so unique, which contributes to the unevenness of love in the world.
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