"Last Night on Earth" is actually a very special and very advanced way of telling the love story of a man who rescued his mother and then ran away with his lover.
First, smooth out the story that was disrupted by the director, let's take a look at the story.
At the very beginning of the story, Luo Hongwu's mother went to the house with Tai Zhaomei and others to steal things. Luo's mother found and took the green book and learned the secret of the house: as long as you recite the spell on the title page of the green book , the house will turn up.
Interpretation: We also saw at the end, the house turned. What will turn: Table. So the house turns very romantic, which means that time is frozen. Luo Hongwu found the picture of his mother in a broken clock, which is a metaphor for "mother is trapped by time", and the abandoned prison after that also means that it is a frozen time. Stuck. And Luo Hongwu's father always drinks in front of the watch. Obviously, he put the photos on the watch, which represents his longing for his wife.
Tai Zhaomei described that Luo Mu was then sold to a bald man by Lao A. About 12 years ago, Luo Mu and the bald head flew away. It is implied that Luo Mu was sold by human traffickers.
Luo Hongwu himself described that the white cat wanted to extort Zuo Hongyuan (Chen Yongzhong) by robbing him, but the white cat died and the body was in the mine. According to the description of the white cat's mother (Zhang Aijia's character when she first appeared), the white cat was killed by Zuo Hongyuan.
Interpretation: In fact, Zuo Hongyuan is old A, a human trafficker. There is a scene where a person pushes a mine cart into the mine with his back to the audience, and the tattoo on the body in the mine cart is the tattoo on the body of the white cat, so it proves that this is a reenactment of the crime scene, and the back is the left one. macro yuan. And Zuo Hongyuan stepped on a black playing card A in this shot, which proves that Zuo Hongyuan is the old A. I have to think that the director is very cool here. This kind of plot that kills people and leaves playing cards to show their identity. The first thing that comes to my mind is the mask of the evening dress.
At the same time, Luo Hongwu met and fell in love with Zuo Hongyuan's lover Wan Qiwen while looking for his mother according to the clues in the photos. And he captured Wan Qiwen precisely because he found the wild grapefruit (you can see the wild grapefruit from the reflection in the water). When he met Wan Qiwen, the train was forced to stop when it encountered a mudslide. He pointed a gun at Wan Qiwen's head, and was also in the stopped train.
Interpretation: The train represents time, and the train stops, indicating that the director has started a little bit, suggesting that time will freeze on the theme. In the second shot at the beginning, the worker is cutting the abandoned train. Similarly, it represents the dismantling of time and indicates the solidification of time in the future.
As Zuo Hongyuan is about to return, the love between Luo Hongwu and Wan Qiwen is also under threat. Wan Qiwen killed Luo Hongwu at high speed in Xiaofeng Hotel, and said that no matter where they escaped, Zuo Hongyuan would find them unless they escaped to outer space.
Interpretation: In the last prison, isn't it like a destination in outer space, where Luo Hongwu also got his wish and lived with the "Wan Qiwen" he thought. Luo Hongwu once said that "people who are worried about outer space have no support", which is also a hint to the space of prisons in the future.
Later, Wan Qiwen and Luo Hongwu planned to kill Zuo Hongyuan. Luo Hongwu also found that Zuo Hongyuan was old A and decided to avenge his mother. In the cinema, his grab was aimed at Zuo Hongyuan. But the inverted shot tells us he failed. Luo Hongwu and Wan Qiwen were both arrested, so there was a scene where Zuo Hongyuan sang Karen Mok's "Reason to Be Strong". However, due to unknown reasons, Zuo Hongyuan wanted to kill Luo Hongwu while washing the car, but he was killed by Luo Hongwu instead. Usually a person (especially the big guy) takes off his hat, which indicates his death. After that, Luo Hongwu could have gone to the end of the world with Wan Qiwen, but he still had to find his mother.
Later, according to Tai Zhaomei's note and the call machine's guidance, Luo Hongwu found Chen Huixian's husband, and then found the abandoned karaoke hall. During the waiting period, he went to the cinema to watch a movie, but unexpectedly entered a frozen time.
In this frozen time, he first saw the white cat as a child. Because the white cat died in the mine, and the little white cat lived in the mine with a sheep's head skeleton, and Luo Hongwu also taught him the little white cat. So this little boy is when the white cat was young.
Later, Luo Hongwu met his mother when he was young. Because he once said that his mother and Wan Qiwen look alike, and Kaizhen and Wan Qiwen both like wild grapefruit very much, so Kaizhen is Luo's mother when she was young. Tai Zhaomei once said that Luo Mu sang very well, and Kaizhen said that she wanted to be a singer, which also proved that Kaizhen was Luo Mu when she was young.
Then Luo Hongwu met his mother 12 years ago (the role of Zhang Aijia in his second appearance). She dyed red hair and held a torch, proving that she was Luo Hongwu's mother. Because the mother of the white cat once said that if it was your mother, she would have red hair. Luo Hongwu himself once said that his mother once held a torch to disperse bees. Tai Zhaomei once said that when she stole something, it was Mother Luo who used a flashlight, which was about equal to a torch. So the red hair and torches indicate that she is Luo Mu.
At this time, Luo Hongwu already knew that the red-haired girl was the mother, and she wanted to go away with the bald head, so he helped the mother, forced the bald head to take her away, and finally wanted to give the mother an apple, because he didn't like it until the mother liked apples. And his mother gave him a watch, the watch represents time, and time is the most precious thing for mother. Luo Hongwu successfully rescued his mother from the frozen time, and her mother was no longer trapped by time.
The part of Luo Hongwu sending his mother away is the emotional climax of the whole movie, which means that he is finally saying goodbye to the past. At this time, the song "Dark Green Night" by Tai Zhaomei (Tai Zhaomei is also a singer's name, just like Wan Qiwen is an actor's name) was sung on the stage, which was very sensational and suitable for the scene.
After that, Luo Hongwu went to find Kaizhen and exchanged gifts. Kaizhen took him to that house. In the house, Luo Hongwu recited the incantation on the title page of the green paper. The house turned and he kissed Kaizhen, very romantic.
We can see that Luo Hongwu's encounter with the little white cat, Kaizhen (that is, his mother when he was young), the red-haired girl (12 years ago's mother), and the turn of the house are all in one long shot, and the shot is not broken. pass. Generally speaking, if the same person (Kaizhen and the red-haired woman) or different people (little white cat) in different time periods want to perform in the movie, they must switch the shots and edit them, but Bi Gan puts them on the screen. into the same long shot. This is the inside shot montage.
Just like the long shot of more than 40 minutes in "Roadside Picnic", the male protagonist meets the grown-up Wei Wei, the dead wife and the pickup truck driver who has been imprisoned. These three people in different time and space are also released by the director. into a long shot.
The story in the first half of "The Last Night on Earth", the desperate journey of Luo Hongwu and Wan Qiwen, was also transplanted into this long shot by the director. In the prison at this time, Luo Hongwu met Kaizhen. She was very similar to Wan Qiwen. He went to the house that would revolve, sent his mother away, and said goodbye to the white cat. At this time, he had nothing to worry about, anyway. It doesn't matter if she is a wanqiwen or not, even if she is a mother when she was young, it doesn't matter, she doesn't know anyway. So Luo Hongwu decided to keep this time in prison with Kaizhen, and let the time freeze forever.
The last shot stayed at the fireworks that could only burn for 1 minute. It's been a few minutes, why haven't the fireworks been blown out yet? This is of course to prove that in the time and space of this prison, time is frozen! At the same time, the two of them said before that fireworks represent eternity, and watches represent eternity, so this fireworks also represents: eternity is eternity? ! Look, in the time of freezing, the scale of time is so capricious.
However, George believes that the emotional density of "Last Night on Earth" is not as strong as "Roadside Picnic". The first half of "Roadside Picnic" used a lot of plots to lay out the emotions between the hero and his deceased wife and Wei Wei, so in the last long shot, when the deceased wife and Wei Wei both appeared, the actor and the audience were so impacted, Especially when the male lead sings "Little Jasmine". But "Earth" didn't give me the same emotional punch as "Roadside Picnic."
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