Generally speaking, I'm an exclusionary person: don't want this, don't want this, don't want this...what, I don't know. Thus, life becomes a process of constant trial and error. But it seems that life is too short to exhaust all mistakes. Until one day many years ago, after watching "Before the Sunrise", I thought: wow~ this is what my ideal love looks like. Great, now I finally know the answer to a question, so I don't end up with nothing. But knowing the answer and finding the answer are two entirely different things. I understand, of course, that this is just an adult fairy tale, offering not so much a tiny possibility, but rather a foothold for the imagination. It does not promise a reality, it merely creates a near-real image.
Many years later, when I watched Before Sunset, I thought it was even more perfect than Before Sunrise. Saying it's perfect doesn't mean it's more dreamy or fairytale than its predecessor. On the contrary, Jesse and Celine nine years later are with adult scars, withdrawing from their respective real worlds, but inconceivably retaining all the purity and detachment of nine years ago. It almost gives you the illusion that the near-real image really came alive in flesh and blood and defeated the real in one fell swoop.
However, another "Before Midnight" nine years later announced the end of victory. It proves that any attempt to circumvent the reality of victory is, after all, a short-lived orgy. In "Before the Sunrise", Jesse said while playing pinball: "Love is the escape of two people who don't know how to be alone." Eighteen years later, the title of Jesse's third book became " Extras in a popular but little-known play called "The Escape". This is the real answer. On this unchanging escape route, the footsteps never stopped, and the old story was repeated. Generations of young couples raced past here, but without exception eventually stopped somewhere, sooner or later. The moment of escape is the pinnacle of victory and the beginning of defeat. In the end, there is always a moment when the story is finished, and the world will never change. Chai Mi You Yan is a dwarf standing tall, unpretentious but invincible.
On this night in the South Peloponnese, Jesse and Celine finally stopped. Everything seemed to come to an abrupt end here. "So what does your time machine look like?" Celine asked. This is the beginning of a new story. The feet can be tired, but the heart cannot be tired. Reality is still huge and indestructible, but you can also try not to be overwhelmed by it. Like Sisyphus pushing a stone up a mountain, in this absurd world, continuing useless resistance is the only option to preserve dignity and the only way to create meaning. If the road of escape must stop here, it is better to continue on the road in your imagination, build a defense line in your heart, build another world, and never surrender.
"So what does your time machine look like?" Celine asked.
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