For a long time, there must be this "Mint" among the top three films that occupy the top list of Korean movies in my mind. Every time I watch this movie with a certain mood. I remember the first time I watched this movie, it was in the university dormitory, on a leisurely summer evening, after watching the movie, it was already dark outside the window. Later, my life trajectory staggered from it, graduating, making a living, and saying goodbye constantly. I thought I would drift away from it, but at certain stages of my life I kept thinking about it. It's the kind of film that tries to change me, and has actually changed me.
Many times I wanted to write about how I felt about this film, but I was too late to write because of the gloom and brutality of its subject matter. Some people think that the moment before a person dies, he will replay the picture of his life in his mind. Director Li Changdong may have heard of this point of view, so he consciously set the film to flashbacks. To borrow a short comment from a neighbor: Flashbacks are a sad structure . To this end, director Li Changdong explained: I want to remind young people to think about "what time means". Audiences who are particularly obsessed with "Mints" are good people, and maybe they want to keep some fragile dream alive instead of shattering it. And for him those things were shattered long ago—probably because they were only in their twenties, and he was much older than them.
What does time mean?
A man (Yong Hao) resolutely faced the locomotive that was running towards him and shouted loudly: I want to go back! What made him so resolute that he went madly toward destruction. Time flies slowly back to the past with the backward train. Three days ago, he took a jar of mints to meet his dying first love (Shun Ren). Shun Ren's tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, it was the last goodbye of the two. The unforgettable past is gradually coming to an end.
Ruthless businessman
As soon as the camera turned, Yonghao was driving a car while talking on the phone while laughing wantonly. At that time, he was an arrogant and domineering businessman. He can brutally beat his cheating wife, but turn his head and have a tryst with his secretary. During the meal, Yonghao met an "old acquaintance", but he didn't seem to be happy to see Yonghao. The man's eyes dodged and left in a hurry, as if seeing him, the painful past would start anew. On the way back, the little secretary stuffed the mint candy in his mouth and continued to push the time forward.
life is beautiful
In 1987, Yong Hao was a brutal and deranged policeman who tortured and extorted confessions from "disobedient" prisoners during the day, and sang sentimental nostalgic songs on KTV at night. I saw a sentence written in a diary by a student who was interrogated: Life is beautiful. Yong-ho teases him sarcastically. And this student was the one Yonghao met in the restaurant a few years later, when he had already given birth to a child.
Encountering a student who had been beaten, Yonghao said again: Life is beautiful.
crushed mints
Every time Shunren wrote to Yonghao, he would stuff a mint into the envelope. When he went to see her for the last time, the jar of mints that Yonghao was holding was actually just bought from the market. Later we learned that the man was not lying, he did put the mint candies in the jar every time, but the mints were crushed by someone during a mission.
Peppermint candies scattered all over the place
This mission is also to ignite the fire of all his violence in the future, triggering the devil hidden in his heart.
Crushed mints are also crushed innocence.
lame demon
We noticed that this man had a habit of lameness: when it rained, he would limp when he walked; when a prisoner was arrested, he was knocked down and his old injury recurred; he would also have a hunch when the weather changed.
The reason for this lameness was the turning point in his life on the road of no return. On that mission, he was accidentally injured by a stray bullet, and the bullet he shot accidentally killed an innocent girl.
What really made Yonghao feel that he was completely cut off from his past life was the time Shunren came to him and praised his gentle hand. And these hands just beat the prisoner into incontinence. This sentence completely broke Yong-ho, so he reached out and touched the waiter girl's ass.
The waiter girl, who later became Yonghao's wife, was beaten with the same hands in the future.
Rewinding Life on the Rails
The film often sees the scene of the train passing by, the sound of the train whistle coming from a distance, and the railway tracks that appear every time the time and space are reversed. These all make up the imagery of time in this film. Time and time again, the train acts as a carrier of time, and the scenery along the way becomes the embodiment of the years, poetic but sentimental. The things that were long gone, and the life beyond recognition, have returned to their original appearance.
rainy night in mountains
The warm moment of the whole film is definitely that rainy night in the mountains. Yonghao returned to Shunren's hometown, walked the road she walked, saw the sea she had seen, and drenched her in the rain. At night, looking at the falling rain outside the window, he called out Shunren's name over and over again, and the strange tavern girl answered over and over again. Until the girl said: I understand your mood, you don't need to say anymore. At this time, the two have their own concerns. Yonghao relived his memories of Shunren, and the girl must have also thought of a man she loved deeply, so she wished him well.
The next day, a strange girl wandered on the pier, perhaps, she was waiting for the person she loved to come back, or perhaps she was waiting for someone who would never come back. This seemingly "loose pen" shot, with a deep meaning and profound meaning, is the most delicate part of the good chapters that can be found everywhere in the whole film.
Bowl
The first acquaintance of Yonghao and Shunren, the beginning of everything, is the end of the film , which is too cruel to our audience.
Among a group of high-spirited teenagers who went on outings together, we discovered that Yonghao was originally a gentle boy with a rich heart and delicate emotions. He likes flowers, nature, photography, and mints. Therefore, he can always remember the name of his first love, and he will deliberately bring a jar of mints to see her, even when his life is almost destroyed. He also always remembered "Life is Beautiful" written by the student, at a stage when their lives were gradually being destroyed.
Yes, whose life was not beautiful at first? However, no one can be simple twice, just as no flower can keep youth forever. Once entering the big dye vat of society, especially the generation of Koreans like the protagonist Yonghao, facing such drastic social changes, the individual is as small as a dust, unable to resist, and can only wait for the crushing of the giant wheel of the times. Of course, we can't blame all of a person's misfortunes on the era he lived in, but people like Yonghao, because of being drafted into military service, committed a lifelong crime of guilt, which started his endless violence.
Why is Li Cangdong too cruel? The following is a dialogue between the two at the end:
Yonghao: Do you like eating mints?
Shunren: I am trying to like it. I am in the factory and pack 1,000 a day.
Yonghao: I like eating mints very much.
Shun Ren: Really?
Yonghao: Hmm.
At the end of the film, Yonghao looked at the sun with a tear dripping from the corner of his eye. I can't help but think of the tears that I shed before I died.
Perhaps it is really similar to what is written in that famous literary work: I kill because the sun is too bright. And Yonghao cried, just because the sun was too bright. At this time, the warm sun shines on the earth, like a ruthless society, but also like a tragic fate waiting for him, too dazzling, he has nowhere to escape.
the cycle of life
The end echoes the party at the beginning, and everyone sits together and happily sings the song:
What should I do? If you leave suddenly.
What should I do? without your life.
What should I do? You leave me behind.
No really no, please don't leave me.
Is there anything I can't tell you about my troubles?
You were so kind, you were so gentle.
How can you be so ruthless
I can't believe you'll leave me
I don't believe it, you say goodbye to me...
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