This is the first sentence of the documentary "Zero celsius • Spring Reappearance", and the narrator is Wong Kar-wai, the director of "Splendid Spring". This movie, which is more extensive in "Outland" than "Happy Birthday", is undoubtedly a good news for those who love "Happy Birthday".
Starting from the above seemingly random Wang's words, perhaps we can vaguely touch the banishment and daze of "Spring Comes Together". Like most of Wong Kar-wai's films, the film was filmed and then added the name "Happy Spring", which is quoted from the Chinese translation of the novel The Buenos Aires'Affair by the Argentine writer Manule Puig, which Wong Kar-wai likes. .
In this piece of land farthest from Hong Kong, two Hong Kong people entered the country like "desperate mandarin ducks". The film begins with a series of shots explaining the appearance of the protagonist. On May 12, 1995, in Hong Kong, which was the turn of spring and summer, Li Yaohui and He Baorong came to Argentina, which was already autumn, and came to Buenos Aires with a touch of the heat of spring.
For most people who call it normal sexual orientation, it is difficult to look at the relationship between Ho and Lai without the magic barrier of "homosexuality", but as "Movie Biweekly" asked his brother in an interview: "Wong Kar Wai He said that we should make a gay movie seriously, not in a funny way, but to truly reflect the homosexuality..." In "Happy Love", I clearly just saw two lovers who were in love with each other, the passion from the very beginning. Wanzhang slowly fell into trivial abuse, contradictions, and finally fell apart. Yes, it's only about love.
The style of black and white films can always give people a feeling of reminiscence, and perhaps the dark tones at the beginning of the film can also make many people feel sorry for their past. From that "abrupt" love scene, we have been indulging in black and white images, indulging in the routine bedtime pleasures after falling in love. For people whose hormones are secreted to a certain level, this is a necessary transition. The difference is that most people can choose to maintain the subsequent passion from the undercurrent of affection. Another narration, just like the old habit of Wong Kar Wai's films, we heard paragraphs of introverted, calm, and moderate monologues. It was Li Yaohui's voice, which contrasted sharply with He Baorong's charm and frivolity. The tone of the film is constantly switching between black and white and color, following Li Yaohui's dull and turbulent state of mind. This is the first time they got back together, and the first time they held the ceremony that symbolized "recovery". At least we can know from Li Yaohui's words that the game of on-off and on-off is no different between them and other couples. Everyone is having fun playing this game.
"It's better to start from scratch", this sentence is He Baorong's mantra. I admit that this sentence is very lethal to me. I have been with him for a long time, and have been separated in the middle, but for some reason, every time I hear him say this, I will come together with him again. Because of the beginning, we left Hong Kong, and the two walked and walked to Argentina...
The charm of the movie is that it can process and refine the usual things in life, and return to life as a treasure-like expression symbol. "Why don't we start from scratch", this seemingly ordinary mantra that is "sung" among different lovers every day has become a verbal representation of showing off literature and art in love after "Spring Comes Together". This sentence is the crux of Li Yaohui's grudge towards He Baorong. Along with Li's monologue, the color of the camera is fleeting. In the black and white image, they can't look back on the past: laughing and playing, lingering into Li, so as to "chrysanthemum clank". I can't look back, maybe only for Li Yaohui, because He Baorong once said, "His boyfriends are as many as the stars in the sky". As long as there is a relationship, there are always two levels of strength and weakness. This side is caring, and the other side is endless coquetry. For these two people, He Baorong has always been in a passive position but can control the overall situation, just like the two of them drove to the Iguazu Falls together. It was clearly He Baorong who misread the map and got lost, and it was clearly that he bought a broken car and broke down halfway. , but he could still impatiently teach Li Yaohui a lesson, using a sarcastic tone to ask Li Yaohui to get off the cart. After he left Li Yaohui behind and drove the car all the way, he could still lightly smoke. After all, this is the story of a relationship. Although there is no gender difference, the role-playing in heterosexual love is still clear here: He Baorong can act like a spoiled child and seek shelter for Xiaoshou, and Li Yaohui can be aggressive, then he will The responsibility must be shouldered. In order to match the black and white image, after a handheld camera took an objective shot of the two standing on the side of the road, it was again from He Baorong's mouth, and the two parted ways. No matter how Ren Li Yaohui shouted, He Baorong never looked back.
The colorful, flying Iguazu can still feel its dense water vapor through the screen. This motif that runs through the whole film makes us break free from the monotony of black and white at this moment, although it is just a blindly rotating aerial shot. I could feel that there was something indescribable here, which made Wong Kar-wai, who cherished the mirror like gold, spend nearly a minute and a half here.
Next is the day when the two of them are in a parallel state. It is said to be parallel, but the relationship between the two cannot be maintained. In addition, they often encounter, at the door of the bar where Li Yaohui serves as a host, He Baorong is carrying a ghost. The guy walked slowly, and Li Yaohui saw him. After the comparison between He Baorong's indulging in anger and Li Yaohui's hustle and bustle on the wall, we can know from the camera that the two have seen each other at this moment, but in the blurred scene, Li Yaohui is still staring dumbly at the car. He Baorong, but He Baorong still had that unconcerned expression, retracted his gaze, and took a cigarette safely. At this moment, both of them are determined.
It's like the normal couple again, as long as they don't see each other as their mortal enemy, and the one who is being cared for sees the TA who used to be called to and fro and no longer pays attention to themselves, the little pride in their hearts is like being treated coldly. Then there is a cycle of temptation, refusal, and temptation, and in the end, the line of defense that the weaker party had built up suddenly collapsed. Wong Kar-wai used a series of rhythm editing to tell the story of this familiar texture under the cut mirror. He Baorong and Li Yaohui, before a certain point in time, will have a moment of intersection after all.
Who can resist such a coquettish man played by Leslie Cheung: begging for fire from the ghosts; in front of the drunk Li Yaohui, charming eyes like light smoke, and provocative sleeping posture. All of this indicates that Li Yaohui will eventually have to disarm and surrender, and He Baorong will always be his Achilles heel.
Because of a watch, they began to entangle again. In the group of shots in which He Baorong asked Li Yaohui for cigarettes, I think it was another tough battle by He Zizhen. At the time of the ignition, he stared at Li Yaohui seductively, and when Li felt uncomfortable, he was thrown away. At this time, if the phrase "it's better for us to start from scratch" is sacrificed, maybe Li Yaohui will surrender earlier. But the tactful and complicated love affair is just like what each of us has experienced personally, and the number of twists and turns determines the richness of a relationship. At this moment, Li Yaohui rushed in front of He Baorong and said to him, "Don't come to me again in the future." If He Baorong, who was killed by the thunder, could give up and let it go, if a single move failed, the other party raised the probability of surrender in a better situation. It got bigger. I have always suspected that the beating He Baorong suffered later was deliberately done by him. Under the circumstance that the previous open and secret temptations did not work, only this trick could melt Li Yaohui's seemingly frozen heart.
Color lens, finally, we can experience this warm image. In the last part of the previous black and white shot, He Baorong finally sacrificed his trump card. I am very grateful for this sentence, because after a period of time, the tone change of the shot has increased rapidly with the emotional temperature of the two. This group of shots on the taxi is the first of the two beautiful scenes in the film. Under He Baorong's eager eyes, Li Yaohui handed the cigarette to his mouth. This subtle movement made people clearly see the difference between men and women. comfort. Between the two of them, Li Yaohui was always the shoulder, allowing He Baorong to rest on his back even when he was tired. The out-of-focus scene outside the car window swayed with the movement of the car, contrasting with the two quiet people in the car. At this moment, the two looked so in harmony, slowly sailing to another deserted island between them, in the melody of the gentle Prologue.
Li Yaohui's home is no longer so monotonous and boring. In the interpretation of color, it is so colorful and bright. The wallpaper with flowers on the blue background and the red and black blanket. It turns out that in the days without each other, it was they who lived their respective lives. black and white. In the gentle dialogue between the two, they mentioned Iguazu again. This motif appeared suddenly with the lamp, and they agreed to choose another day to walk together again.
In the joy of flirting and flirting between the two, we felt the warm affection between them for the first time. They stared at each other while they were sleeping, why Li was doing laundry, wiping, cooking, arguing over whether to sleep on the bed or sleeping on the sofa, and why he stubbornly dragged Li to the morning exercise, which caused him to catch a cold, and then asked Li to cook for him. In this long narration, although there are several external scenes inserted, Wong Kar-wai has consistently abandoned the temporality of the narration, and it is enough to keep one space.
In Li Yaohui's cramped apartment, He Baorong taught him tango in the usual tone. Leslie Cheung's dancing is impeccable, and he is proclaiming to people that he is a "professional dancer" with every gesture. Brother's seriousness is well-known in the industry. Whenever he plays a certain role, he goes deep into it and interprets it to the extreme. It is no wonder that some people call it "too deep into the play". The second beautiful picture is displayed at this moment, in the sound of romantic dance music. In the charming and narrow space, a small piece of sunlight penetrated through the skylight and shone on the two of them, and the spring light was released at this moment. Li Yaohui smiled. This was the first time he laughed in the film. He finally took off his mask, threw away all his fears and precautions, and buried his head in He Baorong's arms. At this moment, everything is no longer important, time, space, past, and future can all be abandoned, and the still camera lens replaces the audience's eyes to record the only lover in front of them one by one, at the farthest place from Hong Kong, They are in love with each other, and their passions blend together.
Seeing this, maybe many people put themselves into it like me, and at a certain moment, they embraced their lover so much, and madly seized that moment between the happy endings. In "Breakthrough", for Li Yaohui and He Baorong, there is no social and mundane disturbance, no house and car needs, primitive lust, real existence, that's all.
If Li Yaohui hadn't avenged He Baorong and smashed the ghost with a wine bottle, he would not have lost his job; if Li Yaohui had not lost his job, he would not have met Xiao Zhang; if Xiao Zhang hadn't appeared, I always believed, The relationship between Li Yaohui and He Baorong may last longer. However, just like my imaginings that are free from reality will inevitably be killed by reality, this is a true love story. As for love, it must be separated and combined. Although there is a former alliance, the two people in the past will eventually become strangers. Then, for the protagonist in the film to reach the end, the appearance of Xiao Zhang is only a fit, but it is indeed inevitable. Since Xiao Zhang took the phone call from He Baorong for Li Yaohui without authorization, the relationship that Li Yaohui had worked so hard to manage had a crack in his suspicions. At the beginning, in fact, He Baorong's carefree personality did not smell the peculiar smell in it, but for Li Yaohui, who was dedicated to giving, and for the unbalanced party in every relationship, that kind of pressing step by step was just a failed blindfold. Balanced. Breaking, trying to restore, after all, is in vain.
Li Yaohui's expression has always been stern, with no obvious ups and downs, but Xiao Zhang is a person who distinguishes between others' emotions and anger through his voice. His "special ability" has become his entry point into Li Yaohui's inner world. Xiao Zhang is not the third person who destroys the relationship between the two. He is like a passer-by, breaking the usual space with only two people, and the ghost in that space is fragile, and it breaks apart with only a little external force.
The black and white image reappeared, and here, I heard the most heart-wrenching sentence in the whole film. Li Yaohui said:
"I didn't tell He Baorong some things. In fact, I don't want him to recover too soon. When he was injured, it was the happiest day for me and him."
Li Yaohui stared at He Baorong who was sleeping and covered him with concern. Put on the quilt. The scene where the two fell deeply in love is always without seeing each other, and Wong Kar-wai gave the audience a god-like omniscient view. Take note of each other's love. And all this will be gone forever, our helpless, all-knowing sorrow.
The lifeline that was maintained was savagely torn apart when He Baorong frantically asked for a passport. Just like those lovers who quarreled at the last moment, they always had to sprinkle fatal salt on each other's wounds in order to understand the encounters between passers-by later. . It's Xiao Zhang again, drinking and talking with the heartbroken Li Yaohui, hoping to record Li Yaohui's troubles into the machine and take it to the southernmost part of the world.
"A lot of things are better to hear with your ears than to see with your eyes. It's like a person who is very unhappy and pretends to be happy, but his voice can't pretend. Just listen carefully and you'll know. . . Just like your voice, you're very unhappy now. "..."
Li Yaohui's backlog of gloom was finally released, he wanted to say something, but he was hesitant to say anything, and finally burst into tears. Most of the time in the film, he can be said to be at a loss, just like the scene where he crouches on the bow of the boat, looking at the eroding river, he doesn't know where to go. But after that, in Xiao Zhang's more colorful character than Li Yaohui, Li gradually wanted to break free from the haze. In fact, we all understand that the deep-rooted feelings are not easy to forget, all we can do is bury them in a corner and think less about them. After that, Li Yaohui was like Xiao Zhang. He had a vague goal. He wanted to return to Hong Kong. He wanted to apologize to his father in person, just like Xiao Zhang was destined to stand on that lighthouse and leave his sadness there.
However, as for He Baorong, after he learned that Li Yaohui had moved out and rented the apartment, he wiped everything in the room so diligently, and then leaned on the door and waited for the seemingly non-existent person. The camera panned, as if it had penetrated into his heart. The party who used to be in a powerful position now hugged his lover's blanket, buried his head in it, and lost his voice in pain. In another place, Li Yaohui finally arrived at the waterfall, letting the mist slap on his face and mix with the tears.
"I finally came to the waterfall. When I think of He Baorong, I feel very sad, because I always think that there should be two people standing under the waterfall."
Two people, the lamp is at the last moment, let us see from He Baorong's line of sight Arrived, between the waterfall water curtain above the lampshade, there are indeed two people standing there.
In "Zero celsius • Spring Reappearance", we see more stories about "Spring Comes Together". It turned out that it was not just Xiao Zhang who appeared between Li Yaohui and He Baorong, but also two women around Li Yaohui; it turned out that Li Yaohui once committed suicide, and finally the girl played by Shuyi Guan stayed under the waterfall all day, waiting for that There seems to be nothing. Perhaps, after the characters and plot are enriched, a story will appear more emotional, but under Wong Kar-wai's "luxury", all these were deleted in the final editing. If it is understood from the perspective of "a real and ordinary relationship", it is inevitable to throw away these precious video footage and stories. This is just an ordinary story about two people who love each other, from marriage to separation, what about the same sex, the relationship between them Of those many emotional symbols, who can say that they have never appeared between the opposite sex?
Maybe it's because emotional intelligence has developed to the point where it's between evil and perverted. I can't understand how a relationship can be maintained from the passionate embrace of the two to the hand in hand, swearing that they are each other's only one. This kind of thinking can attract a lot of abuse, but I still thought that just like in "Happy Birthday", the end point is always there, but the length of the journey is different. All happiness and sadness, life and death are bound together, such as the rushing water of Iguazu, which can be cherished but cannot be retained. That meaning exists in the English title of the film: Happy Together, and the most important thing is the joy that exists in the moment.
The light of spring is only in the blink of an eye.
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