Leo Tolstoy famously said, "Happy families are all alike, and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Usually, when we hear this sentence, we are brought into an unfortunate family. When we think about it, it really is the old Wang family next door. Living in a 100-square-meter apartment with 3 bedrooms, driving an SUV together on weekends, and traveling abroad twice a year, I am as happy as a model room in a brochure, and then I think about the piles of broken things in my family, these broken things are especially ingenious , is it not that the happy (others) families are all alike, and the unfortunate (own) families have their own misfortunes?
Perhaps Tolstoy's own family was so unfortunate (he eventually died of pneumonia at the station while running away from home) that his imagination of happy families was limited, and his imagination of unfortunate families was overflowing. Hirokazu Koeda should be a very happy and good at observing happiness, so his description of a happy family is so vivid and specific, even pioneering.
In the entire thief family, he has been adjusting the standards and standards of family happiness. What is even more rare is that until the end, he has clearly laid the groundwork, but he insisted that he did not give any answers.
1. When the first few blocks are taken away, happiness will collapse?
The process of watching "The Thief's Family" is very similar to watching Hirokazu Koreeda play with building blocks.
The setting of the whole story is revealed step by step as the plot unfolds. But Hirokazu Kore-eda himself is like an urchin, taking away the elements of "happy family" in our eyes piece by piece. The whole viewing process seems to be dull, but after he really enters the play, he is breathing: in the end, he is smoking. When the first few blocks are taken, will the "happiness" of this "happy family" completely collapse?
At the beginning of the movie, the first building block removed was "decent". Not only did Shibata's family not have an SUV and a third-class residence, but their basic means of making a living was the old-age pension from their grandmother Chue. Under the eaves of the house, children do not go to school, and the whole family commits various petty thefts, which is simply the scum of society. But from the perspective of oneself, poverty itself is not a fault. They still work at sunrise and rest at sunset. The whole family is poor but not lazy. Even when the family gets together every night to talk about life, it is full of contented by ordinary people. Happy breath, they are happy.
The second building block is "Bloodline". With the "father and son" two people "recovering" (actually abducting) the little girl Youli, and including her in the "thief family", we found out that not only Youli, but in this strange family, everyone is not related by blood. . The old grandmother Chue gave the old-age pension to everyone, but instead reaps the real happiness of children and grandchildren around their knees. The younger sister Aki and Hatsue were huddled together in the same bed, as if the world was supposed to be so harmonious. Nobuyoshi, played by Ando Sakura, went out with his "son" Xiangta. No matter how you look at it, they are the most common mother and son on the roadside.
This family is obviously not related by blood, but there is an invisible bond among them. Everyone's desire for and affection can be linked together just right through intricate relationships and desires. This family, obviously not related by blood, is more like a "family" than blood relatives.
The third building block is "good death". East Asians care about the decency of "death" itself. Even the efforts of most of our lives are only to have a good ending. And the death of Grandma Hatsue is probably beyond the most undignified death in our minds of modern society. Because the family has no legal identity, Chue, who died unexpectedly, was buried in her bathroom. This is too much like the plot of killing and hiding a body, especially the two of them, Xindai and Zhi, who also began to look for their grandmother's private money (but not much in total). This death plot is a kind of judgment and prophecy for the future. If this life continues, everyone will have no future. Grandma's today is their tomorrow.
But that didn't stop the family from being "happy".
The fourth building block is "honesty". Because Xiangta was caught accidentally stealing, the whole family was exposed to the world's eyes, and all the secrets were exposed. It turns out that everyone in this family is betraying and deceiving. Grandma has been secretly taking money from Yaji's parents, Xindai and Zhi turned out to have an affair and killed Xindai's ex-husband by mistake. In the end, Nobori was sentenced to prison alone, Yuri and Aki returned to their respective "homes", and Sho was taken into custody.
The family finally fell apart. Die Die Le, which was under suspense for an hour and a half, collapsed.
But the last half hour gave us hope. Shota, who was taken in, still wanted to be father and son with Zhi. The bond between them is still there.
That person once made you feel the warmth of home, how can you just say goodbye?
So far, Hirokazu Kore-eda's experiment has ended. "Dignity", "blood relationship", "good death" and "honesty" can all be taken away. They seem to make up everything in the model of happiness, but in fact, the "thief family" who left them is still happy, and that happiness has passed through the big screen and passed to our warm eyes. He was still persuaded by Hirokazu Koreeda, he structured happiness, and he succeeded.
What is left of this experiment?
Equality, care and respect. The people in this family have nothing, but everyone is very comfortable, like a family of free-growing plants, each other is shielding each other from the wind and rain, but there is no conflict between any members, no one bullies the weak, and no one oppresses each other. , no one forces others to grow or repay. Finally, in a family drama, no one in the name of "I'm doing this for your own good" makes the children study hard, the husband gets a promotion and a salary increase, the younger generation does a decent job, and the girls get along and watch for themselves. on the object.
There are no secular rules here, but primitive ones: everyone respects the happiness of others.
Is this difficult? It's really hard.
So Hirokazu-eda seems to have made a "Peach Blossom Spring". This highly idealized happiness seems to be born out of our lives, but never exists in the world we live in.
2, happiness, happiness. Not enough for outsiders.
My favorite scene in the whole movie is that the family was arrested because of Xiangta, and when they were about to run away at night, they were "popped" by the police's spotlights. It seems that people outside the Peach Blossom Land have finally found the Peach Blossom Land and began to examine this isolated place from a worldly perspective.
But this review actually started from the moment we entered the cinema. "You thieves, didn't the clerk take the blame?" "Will the child continue to be the bottom of the society if he doesn't go to school?" "Can the girl have hands and feet to do serious work?" "You took the little girl from her biological parents. What's the difference between being kidnapped and a trafficker?"
If we feel awkward after watching the movie, the purpose of the movie has been achieved. At the end, when we found that they were obviously happy, we asked ourselves: What right do I have to question them? Doubt their lightness and happiness from their hearts to their faces?
We begin to reflect on why we measure the happiness of others by our own standards. This is another purpose of the happiness of the film's structure. Family members can only be happy by respecting the lives of others. Among the members of society, only by respecting the choices of others can we be happy.
When all the happiness standards in the world come together, we hear no noise, no unique needs and expressions, no unspeakable needs and tacit understanding between the twists and turns. All personalization stuff is covered.
There are only boring juniors, SUVs, travel abroad, successful husbands in career, gentle and virtuous wives, kind and amiable old people, children with excellent academic performance, and middle-class family model rooms. But what about happiness? Each of the above conditions are requirements, and the requirements for a family role are for others to see. The reason why we are not happy is that we have defined a requirement for each family role, and it is happiness to be able to perform and be recognized by others. And what about individualized feelings that cannot be played to the worldly vision?
What if the husband is not successful in his career, but is willing to be the house-husband?
What if the wife is not gentle and virtuous, but determined to Dink?
What if the child is not academically excellent, but autistic and introverted?
What if the old man is not kind and kind, but has no grandchildren?
They are obviously very comfortable and happy, but the secular searchlight shines on their faces, and they don't care about their inner feelings at all. Their unhappiness is that others think they are unhappy.
The most successful thing about this movie as a family movie is that everyone fills a secular family role coherently, but at the same time everyone's role is completed and does not meet the mundane standards. In the end, we still have to admit that they have nothing and that they are not doing well enough, but I feel their happiness.
Zhang Ailing also has a saying that the whole world knows: "Life is a gorgeous robe full of lice."
Her eyes were sad, and she saw the conflict and restlessness under Hua Mei. But the meaning of this sentence is reversed, which is the story of "The Thief Family":
The joy of Peach Blossom Spring is not enough for outsiders!
—— This article was originally published on my public account Sean Enen Shaw’s Guzi Club (Sean_lalala), welcome to pay attention
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