rock and roll, and
crazy excitement;
old age is for lament,
elegy, and
desolate sadness...
David, a scholarly and erudite professor who was over sixty years old, spoke gracefully in a university class. When analyzing the works of literary masters, it would be unreasonable if the students (especially girls) in the audience did not spontaneously admire them. Such an old man is a cup of old wine, at least in the eyes of Kang Xiuweila, a female student who is not so young but is far from familiar with the situation.
There is an instinctive attraction to each other: David's approach to Kang Soo Weila is measured, tepid but targeted. In David's eyes, the temperament of Kang Soo Weila's classical Latin beauty is Goya's "Nude Maha" (Interestingly, David did not think of "Maha in Clothes" from beginning to end), it is the provocation and attraction of primitive instinct; Kang Xiuweila's closeness to David is natural, from the heart but passively submissive, David's vicissitudes of life The face is a book she hasn't opened yet, "reading you a thousand times will not get tired, reading you feels like spring". When Kang Xiuweila leaned against the wall and faced David's tenderness, the flickering between her eyebrows was interpreted as the most innocent provocation in the eyes of the man.
The youthful flesh itself is a static attraction, like the oil painting on the wall, which creates ripples in the viewer's heart. At this time, if there happens to be a half-old Xu Niang scratching her head and acting like a dancer on the stage, the elegance and the common will stand out. Therefore, even if David's former student and old lover maintains a good figure and grasps the proportions properly, there is absolutely no advantage at all. Since ancient times, youth has been invincible, and new joy has always surpassed old love.
David didn't think it was love, and Kang Soo Vera couldn't be sure. Assuming that the authorities are fans, bystanders should always know. Therefore, when David's long-time buddy, the poet George, like a prophet, he finally persuaded David to pull back from the precipice and seize the opportunity to cut through the mess, David thought it was very reasonable. However, there is a small door in David's heart that can never be closed, and the original intention of breaking up is completely shattered by the plan for a bright future for the two.
The plan certainly has nothing to do with marriage, at least according to David, who has been married once but is more used to the freedom of being single. If nothing else, the thirty years between the two of them is an insurmountable chasm. You can never define a woman as middle-aged or even old when her youthful and plump breasts are not shriveled and sagging. David didn't have the courage to voluntarily give up Kang Xiuweila, and he didn't have the confidence to have her all the time. Although he desperately told himself to keep this woman, when this woman began to pave the way for the future of the two, David was timid. This woman exists more in his heart, in the little dark room of his house, and in the film camera he stubbornly insists on. The future of the two of them is more like the digital camera he has always refused to use, because he is worried that it will not work, and he does not even have the courage to try.
Kang Xiuweila was disappointed, no matter what others said, she hoped to walk with him all the way. Since there is no future, there is no point in entanglement. Life cannot stand still. Disappointed, Kang Xiuweila stopped contacting David, and there was no news. Only then did the lost David realize that this time he missed not only a youthful body, but also a soul above the body. In the passionate kiss of his old friend George who mistook his wife for his lover before his death, David sees the true soul conversion of George who seems to have returned to his marriage.
Two years later, on New Year's Eve, when Kang Soo Vila came with the news that she was suffering from breast cancer and was about to undergo surgery, the two lonely souls approached again. When Kang Xiuweila told David that she felt old, lonely and helpless overnight, maybe David was more relieved while pity? The surgical removal of Kangxiuweila's double breasts was a symbol of Kangxiuweila's youth and beauty in David's eyes. The loss of breasts is an elegy for the end of youth. There is nothing that can stop him anymore, and the road to the future can finally walk hand in hand with the two of them. The price of this year-long love is a bit cruel.
The film is beautifully shot and the pacing is soothing and gentle. The performance was too good to be said. BEN KINGSLEY is no longer the Gandhi he was many years ago, but an old man who truly lives in love. I don't know if it was the fourth marriage that made him the perfect choice for David? The beautiful Spanish girl PENELOPE CRUZ is not the image of the desperate and neurotic divorced woman in "Midnight in Barcelona", she uses her eyes to express her inner feelings, and her acting skills are worthy of the Oscar statuette.
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