It was the first time to see a film by Finnish director Kaurismaki, even though he already has so many outstanding works. The Other Side of Hope, which won the Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin this year, tells the story of a Syrian refugee who smuggled into Finland in an attempt to live there.
The way the story unfolds is not complicated. The two lines are crossed and finally unified. The two people, the restaurant owner and the refugee, are finally connected. Coincidentally, when they didn't "should" know each other, the director arranged for the restaurant owner to meet the refugees in and out of the car. At that time, one was frustrated just about to get divorced, and the other was just smuggled ashore. The fate of the two men has a plotless edge.
(comedy elements)
When we thought that the story would develop in the direction of realism, an "unrealistic" change occurred quietly. The seemingly indifferent restaurant owner who was unwilling to take in even a dog actually took in a refugee. The seemingly shrewd restaurant owner actually followed the advice of the staff and turned the western restaurant into a sushi restaurant. The plot starts from the middle, from cold to warm, from serious to humor. It seems to make people forget the horror of the attack on Syria on TV, or use a modern fairy tale-style "beauty" to give the refugees a small utopia.
But the director wasn't completely delusional, and he used the refugee's assassination to remind the audience that not all Finns welcomed them. However, after the assassination, the protagonist was lying on a sunny lawn, the light on his face suddenly brightened, and the sheltered puppy also ran over. Such a meaningful ending makes people feel warm and hopeful in sobriety.
(hopeful and realistic ending)
Speaking of light, Kaurismaki's use of light is very special. Dark tones and high contrast create a sense of stage. At the same time, the minimalist setting and the few lines of characters accentuate the sense of sight of this drama. The composition of the picture is very stable, the characters are not side by side, or in the play or at the golden ratio. The performance of the characters is almost weakened to a minimum. When the protagonist answers questions at the immigration office, his bust appears in the center of the screen, expressing his experience of the bombing of his home and the destruction of his family with a blank face.
The director likes this "expressionless" way of acting, and the expressionless faces of the protagonist and his refugee compatriots appear more than once in the film. This kind of treatment just achieves the effect of "no move wins and one move", and intentionally hinders The audience is invested in the plot, but can rationally think about the mood of the characters.
The "minimal way" performance, the "depressed" face, is reminiscent of Melville and Cai Mingliang.
At the same time, the director is very sensitive to the use of color and music. When the protagonist went to the immigration office for the second time to answer questions, he deliberately wore a white shirt to express his hope. And Kaurismaki's music was never background music, but the performance of the band that appeared in the film. When the protagonist and his friends were listening to songs in a bar, two strangers listened to Finnish musicians singing about farmers' farming. The lyrics of hope form a huge contrast with their situation of leaving their hometown, and also reflect the sadness of the characters.
(change of clothes color)
Watching Kaurismaki's films is a wonderful experience. In "The Other Side of Hope", you can see the shadows of gambling films and gangster films, you can also smell the breath of realism, and you can also see comedy (the part about the fight between the refugee and the boss is the most interesting), but in the end it went to the neutral ending of "half fairy tale". His films seem to be a reconciling agent of reality and fiction, a balance between reality and fantasy. You won't be as invested as watching Ang Lee's movies, but you can jump out of the movies and think rationally.
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