After Alice's City Walk, I watched Wenders' Highway Trilogy Part 2 in a film appreciation class.
This kind of film with almost no coherent story, we always spend a little more time discussing it after class. Some people questioned, what the hell is this filming? As if nothing was conveyed. And I think in this film, the director seems to be trying to convey too much information. Even if there is a protagonist, there is no deliberate tendency to focus on one focus, so it appears scattered. And when I put together these pieces of information, I can't help but sigh that it's not easy for a director to observe people so far and make a movie in this form.
The Japanese title is "まわり道" (detour), and after more than 100 minutes, I have almost forgotten this title, but I can think back and think about it, the title has already summed up the core of the whole movie.
From my personal understanding, I give each person key words to describe their respective detours.
[The following are personal interpretations]
The key word for the male protagonist is [dream].
He aspires to be a writer, but instead of honing his pen, he embarks on a journey, with more drama in his life, eager to be stimulated by inspiration. This story can be said to be advancing step by step under his expectation. Obviously, someone who only records what happened can't be a writer, and his inspiration is quickly drained. So when the group of them lived in the apartment, everything was no longer romantic but a piece of chicken feathers, no longer full of uncertainty but long repetition, he proposed to leave again, this time to climb the snow mountain. (In fact, it doesn't matter where he goes...because he can't achieve his dream anywhere)
The keyword for actresses is "love".
In this film, the situation of her workplace is not reflected, and it also shows that she does not focus on the identity of an actress, but as a woman's desire for love. She looks like a beautiful and lovely woman most of the time, but she has an unrealistic vision of fate. I came across a writer by chance, and the first date alone was followed by two light bulbs, and at first I also asked for the two of them to be alone together. After that, I slowly got used to it and started to act and live with these people.
At first, she felt that the writer's indifference fascinated her, but when she was frustrated with her work, the writer still buried her head in her work without hearing it, and even said, "If you want to kill people, do it. I can just do it. As a reference material for writing." She shredded the article he was typing and pointed a knife at him. In the eyes of a writer, there is always only himself and his writer's dream. He's with her, too, just to experience the "actress falling in love with a chance encounter" plot. It's like he called her for the first time, just anxiously expecting what kind of voice an actress would have.
The old man's keyword is [war].
Another person who lied about his identity. He claimed that he was a singer, and the little girl he followed was an artist he cultivated. Will start his harmonica performance on any inopportune occasion. Whether it's a train running or a bustling road, or when the entrepreneur hangs himself in the house (interrupted by a slap from the male protagonist). One morning he sang a ballad out of time, and he said it was a song that the Jews had sung, and he killed the man who sang it. The nagging conductor on the train was once his subordinate. Living in a daze, numb to death or interpersonal relationships, seemed to be a state of mind after the war. There is no repentance and reflection here, a hint of how war affects everyone. War and human civilization spared the long journey, and brought only a large number of wounded souls.
The keyword for the little girl is [growth].
The girl doesn't have many lines, I'm not sure if I'm distracted, because it doesn't seem to explain her life experience. Appears to be the most unidentified person in the group, but no one particularly cares as he is no threat to anyone. She can start a handstand on the train without hesitation, performing acrobatics in the middle of the street. Give all the money you get to the old man. She pretended to be an actress and kissed a writer late at night, and the writer slapped her when she found out. But it didn't seem to change her in the slightest, she was still the relaxed girl. Obviously, no one was going to educate her about right and wrong, and this group of people allowed her to watch TV until she fell asleep, and allowed her to do whatever she wanted.
The key word for chubby glasses is [timidity].
It's a bit interesting here. The previous few had dreams, love, and growth, but what I want to say here is that the character makes people go a long way. Because of his timid personality, Fatty is always one step behind others every time.
When he heard the male protagonist's poem, he was amazed and wanted to show him the poem he had written, but he couldn't say it, so he just kept his mouth open; when he picked up something for the girl and handed it over, others I left, so I just raised my hands like this; I followed the male protagonist and his group all the way, and shared his poems at inappropriate moments; in the morning everyone gathered to chat about their dreams, but he couldn’t remember them for a while, so he thought about it for a long time. And at an inappropriate moment, he insisted on pulling someone to tell the dream that he finally remembered.
It's a bit hard for me to describe here, it's timid, it's close to submissive, and sometimes aggressive, in short, immersed in one's own world. If other people have their own obsessions and heart problems. Then this old man is the second fool in the eyes of others. Always at the wrong time, in the wrong way, with the wrong content.
The key word for entrepreneurs is [die].
When a group of people broke into his house following Xiaopang's inaccurate information, he was about to commit suicide, so he was rescued by a trace of survival and left a group of people to live. In the messy living room, in the beating of the fireplace flame, he confided the loneliness after the death of his wife. Discussed what loneliness is (forgive me for not remembering this specific line). During the conversation with the writer, he poked the tip of the pen into the palm of his hand unconsciously or intentionally. The uncle's symptoms appear to be severe depression. The night passed, when the morning came and a group of people walked nearby, he seemed to be shooting with a shotgun (no camera is given here, the main camera has been following the conversation between the male protagonist and the people around him, only the sound of gunfire from time to time in the background ). When the male protagonist sees him suddenly getting on his motorcycle and rushing back home, he guesses what's going on (in pursuit of the dramatic writer's instinct). Entrepreneurs with depression, despite being temporarily disrupted, have uncontrollable episodes. So when they rushed back, they only saw the body hanging on the beam.
What is it that has been spared a long way here? It turned out to be dead. I should have committed suicide the night before, but after talking to people all night, the family was also brought in a lot of freshness, but it still didn't change anything. Presumably he himself suddenly realized in the early morning of hunting, the inferiority and fragility of this kind of talk and companionship.
Inferiority and fragility, that's what I feel throughout the film. This weak connection tied several people around. When the writer said goodbye to the actresses, they soon met the acrobatic duo who asked him to help with the video.
Going on the road again, the partner may have changed a group of people, but it is still the symptoms of deja vu.
Everyone who goes on a long detour is always obedient to inertia and tames occasional doubts by inertia.
A group of people embarks on a journey together, and their pursuits are indeed farther and farther away.
The node that made me stunned was not the place where the entrepreneur hanged himself, but the scene in the second half where the male protagonist tried to push the old man down the river on the ferry. First of all, there is a foreshadowing in the first half. The actor once asked the old man if he can swim, and the old man said I can't, and the male protagonist replied "that's good". At the time I thought this answer was weird. It turns out that the male protagonist has already held a key at this time: the key that can make his story more dramatic.
Facing the male protagonist's killing intent, the old man first thought he was joking, and pretended to struggle while saying that he should not be joking. Unexpectedly, the male protagonist was really determined to kill and silence, the old man only screamed for help at this time, and then fled in a panic. From the natural and meticulous performance of the actors, it is not difficult to see that the director has a very accurate grasp of the relationship between the characters in the film, and the actors also clearly know what they are playing. This makes a slightly absurd scene seem so real.
In my report last semester, I wrote about the value of art cinema. If "entertainment films" are meant to pass the time, then art films exist to make us think. Presumably different people will have different understandings.
Because I only read it with Japanese subtitles in class, please forgive me for any omissions. However, there are not many people who have seen this film. If you are interested because of this film review, you might as well watch it.
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