The film tells about the custom of offering sacrifices to the "Narayama God" in a small village in Japan. When the old man in the village reaches the age of 70, his son will carry it up the mountain. It is a custom to worship the "Narayama God" as one's own, and it has been handed down from generation to generation by the people in the village to carry the elderly to Mt. Based on this background, the film is developed with the clues of the Alingpo family.
The film has the usual coldness of Japanese literary films, and the story is eloquent. There is not much ups and downs in the plot, but it can touch the string in people's hearts unconsciously. Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and all things are dogs. The film selects the life of ordinary people from the lower classes. People in impoverished villages rely on the most primitive instincts to live, and the income from production cannot even support the population with too many families. The Asong family has too many children and is overburdened, so they are not allowed to steal. Other people's potatoes were buried alive together with Assong even though he was pregnant with a child. Perhaps in that context, people's fate cannot be controlled by themselves, and they are buried alive by the order of a prestigious person in the village. We who live in the era of the rule of law simply cannot imagine it. Perhaps in most eras such as war, hunger, and infectious diseases, we humans cannot control our own destiny, and sometimes even if we are given the right to choose, most of us do not have the wisdom, ability and courage to choose.
The people in the film only have the most basic requirements for survival. People who lack food are just to fill their stomachs. Sexual desire is the most primitive desire and the need for survival and reproduction. Echoing the behavior of human beings, in essence, the desire for survival of these people in the village is no different from that of animals. The only difference is that people are conscious and know how to resist. One in the village is the same age as Sister A Ling. The man was reluctant to go up the mountain, and his son was afraid of offending the mountain god and wanted to lighten his burden, so regardless of his father's wishes, he forced him to go up the mountain, and unfortunately fell off the cliff while struggling. Sister A Ling's mother and son seemed to be much more affectionate. After backing up the mountain, the son faced the mountains full of bones and did not believe in the mountain god, which caused a struggle in his heart, but the mother believed in it and went to death calmly.
As outsiders, we can clearly know the absurdity of this incident. When we see the bones and the corpses eaten by the crows, we know that there is no mountain god. However, the villagers believe that it is a tradition to send the elderly to the mountains from generation to generation, and wait for death quietly. It is probably because they are too poor and the material poverty makes the family unable to afford the responsibility of providing for the elderly, so they can only pretend to be in the name of God. , I believe that the mountain gods took away the souls of their grandparents and rationalized their actions.
At the end of the film, there was heavy snowfall, just like the scene in the village ballad, the son felt at ease that the legend of the mountain god had been confirmed, so he went down the mountain in peace, relieved the burden and guilt in his heart, and felt calm. A heavy snow covered the bones, and it seemed to cover the truth in their hearts. People are always willing to believe what they want to believe, and use what they want to believe to prove their original ideas. Overthrow yourself is the last thing everyone wants accepted things. A heavy snow made the son more convinced of the existence of the mountain god, and the mother would be happy after her death. The more silent and white, the more sad
The fact is that all this is only forced by the environment, by the institutions and customs created by poverty. People are powerless to resist, they can only choose to accept it and make up their minds to make it less difficult for them to accept it.
Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and all things are dogs. And we humans, who are as small as floating dust, can only let ourselves live with more peace of mind. The truth is too cruel and not everyone is willing or able to accept it. We can only try our best to live happily, and Most people just live. In the end, there are very few things that can change this era. We will eventually become the dust of history, leaving no traces. Maybe thousands of years later, a meteorite will slip and all traces of human beings will be vanished. However, at the moment, we can only choose to stay awake as much as possible and let ourselves live.
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