"The Spring of the Cow Herding Class": There are angels at the bottom of the pond
01
"The Spring of the Cow Herding Class" is a movie that I will cry every time I watch.
There are no super-looking actors, no ups and downs of plot reversal, no intense emotional drama, and even only two actresses appear in the film, and even the students are all little boys.
However, such a movie with extremely low color saturation and a rather rustic translation of its name has the power to wash the soul.
Many people say that this movie makes people understand what a teacher is and what a gardener is.
A youth education school called "The Pond at the Bottom of the Pond", a bald and chubby substitute teacher, and a group of stubborn and problematic students.
Their encounter unexpectedly collided with the most moving singing in the world, awakening the purest kindness in children's hearts.
Hidden in the song of spring breeze and rain, it is nature, kindness, and people's first desire for the world.
The reason why I like this movie is because it is real enough and it is like a beautiful fairy tale. After depression, it is full of praise for hope.
The story takes place in France in 2004.
Through a diary, the film traces the soul salvation path of a group of troubled teenagers more than 50 years ago 02
Clement Matthew, the recorder of the diary, is a failed teacher with a dream of music.
He wrote at the beginning of the diary:
On January 15, 1949, after many years of failed attempts in different fields, I was convinced that I was about to face the most tragic future... The "Bottom of the Pond" Auxiliary Education Institute, even the name of the institute seemed to be specially chosen for me.
The gray sky, the half-open iron gate, and a little boy hiding in the door are the first scenes recorded in his diary.
This depressing first sight was painted on the title page of his diary extremely cherished by him.
It is the beginning of everything.
On the first day he walked here, Matthew realized the crisis of his situation.
Rather than saying that "the bottom of the pond" is a re-education school for problematic juveniles, it is better to say that it is a prison full of violence and treacherousness.
Here, the principal is the head of the cell, and all students are prisoners.
No one is treated kindly, and no one is trusted. Malice and atrocities are everywhere. "If you make a mistake, you will be punished" is the principal's catchphrase.
A student was dissatisfied with the priest and pranked him in the face by a prank. Because no one confessed, the principal simply read a name on the roll. The students who were named only admitted that they were unlucky and accepted the principal's punishment.
The so-called punishment is often corporal punishment.
03
When Matthew entered the classroom for the first time, he was tricked by the students one after another, causing the whole class to burst into laughter.
No one obeyed his orders. They laughed at his bald head, short stature, and all the embarrassment that he wanted to remain decent and not lose his temper.
At that time, at the bottom of the pond, no one taught the children what respect was.
But Matthew came.
Matthew is different from all teachers.
Although he is only a substitute, he has a bottomless tolerance and patience towards these stubborn children.
The headmaster broke into the noisy classroom and asked him in a cold voice. He relieved the students in a few words;
Seeing Mo Hanqi drew his comic ugly photos on the blackboard, Matthew drew him a more comical picture like a scoop;
He ordered the student who was pranking on the priest to go to the infirmary to take care of the priest, but he concealed his identity as the perpetrator, and the unknowing priest was full of praise;
When Bambino was asked by the teacher, he faltered and couldn't answer. He poked and gestured to remind...
The children are surrounded by kindness every day, day after day, their hostility gradually fades and they begin to show their kind nature.
As a music teacher, Matthew's professional ability is not necessarily outstanding, but with his own softness and kindness, he slowly walked into the hearts of the students.
When trust is established between teachers and students, teaching becomes a matter of course.
04
Among the more than 60 students in the school, Babinuo and Mohanqi occupy a special place in Matthew's heart.
Bambino was the little boy that Matthew saw at the iron gate the day he first arrived.
On Saturday's parent visit day, he always stood there pitifully, waiting for his father, who had already been killed in battle, to come and visit him.
Everyone knew that he was an orphan, only he himself would not believe it.
Bambino is thin and small, he is often bullied, and his brain is not smart. He can't understand Matthew's prompts, nor can he hear how absurd the answer of 5+3=53 at the same table is.
He always blinked a pair of innocent eyes, well-behaved, but always alone.
Mo Hanqi was born in a single-parent family and thought he was a child abandoned by his mother, so he simply abandoned himself.
He has a sensitive personality and is used to arm himself with indifference, but he has a natural spirituality for music, and has the sound of nature kissed by God.
He is silent and awkward, away from the crowd, resisting friendliness, but singing alone in an empty classroom at night.
Perhaps even he himself didn't realize how much he wanted to integrate into the collective that had been gradually gathered under the leadership of Matthew.
05
As a teacher, Matthew's brilliance is also that he knows how to suppress children's arrogance, and he knows how to maintain their self-esteem as much as possible.
When the choir was first formed, Bambino couldn’t even sing a song. The classmates were sneering at him, but Matthew appointed him as a conductor assistant. Every time he practiced, he carried him to the podium to watch the excitement. A sense of participation.
Another tall student with a lack of phonology was appointed by him as a humanoid podium responsible for raising music scores.
Mo Hanqi's treble is clear, like a natural sound, and Matthew has given him the privilege of solo singing.
However, as he gradually regained his self-confidence and even gradually crossed the warning line of arrogance, Matthew withdrew his solo right.
"Your voice is pretty good, but no one can't replace it."
I think this sentence should have the meaning of enlightening Mo Hanqi later.
When the choir performed publicly to the Duchess, Mohanqi stood depressed outside the queue, in a gesture of "punished".
However, when he reached the solo part where he was snatched away, Matthew motioned to him, his eyes encouraged, and waited for him to speak.
Later, Matthew wrote in his diary:
In Mo Hanqi's focused eyes, I suddenly realized many things. There is pride, the joy of being forgiven, and a new feeling-people's affirmation of him.
A person who is a teacher not only has good intentions, but also uses methods and teaches students in accordance with their aptitude.
Matthew did it all.
06
The two biggest tears in the film are both concentrated at the climax of the conflict at the end.
As a result of an accident, Matthew, who accidentally protected the children, became a man of the back. He was dismissed by the principal, who had long been unable to understand him, and even before leaving, he was not allowed to go to the classroom to say goodbye to the children.
Under the pressure of the brutal principal, the day when Matthew left the school, the students were extremely obedient, and no one violated the regulations to see him off.
He laughed sadly while walking, and suddenly walked into a world of flying paper airplanes.
The door of the classroom was locked by the students, the windows were open, and the farewell letters folded into paper airplanes flew out of the windows.
The students sang aloud the song Matthew taught them, and silently waved their hands by the window to bid him farewell.
At that moment, the voices of Tianlai children were endless, paper airplanes were flying all over the sky, the emotions accumulated in my heart overflowed my chest, and tears burst into my eyes.
Another point of tears was when Bambino rushed out of the iron gate, carrying his little suitcase in one hand and the bear in the other, pitifully begging Matthew:
Can you take me away?
He finally accepted the fact that he was an orphan, but he always yearned for someone who could indulge his immature love for his father.
The moment Babeno was picked up by Matthew, we seemed to see a father and son boarding the red bus leading to happiness.
07
In the movie, the person who touched me the most was Bambino, because he was too much like our childhood self.
Without amazing looks and talents, mediocre aptitude, and even ill-fated, but never abandoning innocence, with a kind of nowhere to put, without resentment when being bullied, and silly waiting for the day when he is treated kindly.
How about being short, what about always making mistakes?
That is the childhood that most of us have gone through.
I am ignorant and ignorant, but my heart is full of love and hope.
When an innocent child meets a kind-hearted music teacher, when the singing sounds, everything is silent, and the touches gradually converge into a rushing river, and the power accumulated in the film gradually climbs to the peak of emotions.
You can't help but sing along with them, singing the touching spring, singing the precious kindness, singing the warm hope.
Every child is pure and innocent, and every innocence is worthy of being cherished.
There are angels at the bottom of the pond.
- over -
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