- Vince, a prison guard at City Island near Wovenage,
New York, who loves acting but is ashamed to confess to his wife Joyce, who has sons and daughters their own little secrets. Until Vince discovered that the newly transferred prisoner Tony was actually his abandoned son for more than 20 years, and brought Tony back home, hiding the truth from everyone, hoping to use parole to get him back on the right track. Encouraged by his acting classmate Molly, Vince participated in an important movie role interview. Unexpectedly, this caused Joyce's misunderstanding and caused a family crisis
to
break out... , this is what Westerners love to do. But occasionally enlightened Westerners, such as "Revolutionary Road" director Sam Mendes, let the old man in the last shot turn a deaf ear to his wife's chatter. He unfortunately tells you that in the family communication is useless! Yes, it is indeed a bit negative. But "City Island" expounds the opposite view of family and values. In fact, in terms of audiovisual language and directing techniques, "City Island" is a very good family sketch movie, but its artistry and philosophy can only stop there. A prison officer who loves to perform, a wife who secretly smokes, a daughter who is a stripper, and a son who has a special hobby for the opposite sex - the director himself subjectively limited the secret to such a special family, and disguised it as causing The murderer of their broken family, so when the night comes when the truth is revealed, the audience will unconsciously immerse in the thrill of "speaking clearly". But soon, people with certain life experience will realize that the so-called "truth is revealed" is only "partial facts" - it uses mainstream values to oppose maintaining family and personal secrets. And it's not wrong to have a secret, and the "secret" in the movie isn't really a secret, it's privacy.
If a husband who loves picking his feet hides his hobby from his wife, will it cause the family to break up? A seemingly conservative housewife collects erotic movies, will her husband slam the door and leave in anger? . . . In the family, everything that is forgivable and irrelevant to love is not a secret. Speaking of secrets, there was once a Korean movie "Everybody Has a Secret", in which a man fell in love with three sisters at the same time, and they were at peace with each other. It sounds like this is indeed contrary to current values, but if you have seen it, you will understand: it and "City Island" are very subjective, one dresses secrets beautifully, and the other confuses secrets with privacy, making it changeable Become the enemy of the family and are vulnerable.
If I had to cite an example of a "secret" in the family, it would be a cliché that everyone on earth knows: a husband who has a one-night stand after marriage returns home the next morning "weary from working all night." Don't say it, everything is business as usual, say it, the world is in chaos. Secrets should be so powerful. Of course, there are even better examples: a man who has been married for many years and has a happy family encounters the person he has been secretly in love with for many years on the road, greets each other and goes their separate ways. Don't say it, everything is business as usual, say it, and the world is in chaos. Maybe more people like the man in the second example. But in fact, these two men also paid a great price for the family, in order to keep the secret always a secret. Such is the strength of the secret holder. So, you can only watch City Island with the attitude of watching a dark comedy like Genet's Rhapsody in the Black Shop, not to get some philosophy on life from it. But then again, who says movies have to express some philosophy?
Secrets are double-edged swords
in "City Island". Compared with the mutual concealment between wives and husbands, the secrets of sons and daughters are more like secrets and more sweet. The son has a special preference for women's aesthetics, and the daughter has the experience of being a stripper during school. From the parents' point of view, this is very likely to ruin the children's bright future, but everyone who has been a child knows that as long as they are wrong Not so outrageous, it's easy for parents to make a fuss about most educational issues. The ignorance and impulsiveness, lies and costs of adolescence are the most precious memories in life. Everyone should have a youth secret, let it grow and age with you.
But that doesn't mean that the more secrets you have, the more fulfilling your life will be. After all, you can't lie too much for the sake of a secret. People live in too many lies, as if the murderer keeps walking into the crime scene, and he needs to remind himself not to leave any clues. Ordinary people can't afford this kind of life pressure. We can learn like Tony in "City Island". We don't reject or love secrets.
Truth behind falsehood
Yes, everyone loves the truth. Or, everyone avoids falsehoods. In "City Island", each character is bewitched by illusions, misunderstanding each other, and hurting each other. But in fact, the illusion is not an illusion. The pretence is the "partial fact" that is extremely horrific and deserves to go to hell, it disorients and even makes people hate the weekly bridge party; the truth is, bridge is a multiplayer table game, and my husband is having an affair The fake says, the bridge party, the husband's affair, . . . nothing matters. So maybe instead of running around looking for the truth, what we should do is recognize the falsehood before the sun rises, believe it, and wait for the truth to arrive without guesswork. Perhaps all the characters in "City Island" can't bear the torture of waiting, of course, a film that is intended to be light-hearted should not be so heavy.
In "Looking for Jay Chou", the heroine used "I'm broken-hearted" at the airport as the reason for "Why go to Hong Kong". The staff member said: "Look behind you, which of them do you think has never been broken-up?" Yes, We are always reluctant to admit that the falsehood or the truth is just our value judgment, but we are always desperately searching for the so-called "truth" in order to prove the result we want - but what is the truth?
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