title appeared several times in the film. The original text is German, and the English translation is The world is big and salvation lurks around the corner. The first time it appeared, it was Alexander When I was a kid when my grandfather toasted on his birthday. Like the word Salvation, love seems a little more frivolous, while the former has a sense of fate and spirituality in it. I am willing to regard redemption as the core theme of the whole film, the grandfather's rescue of his son and grandson, and the boy's insistence in the end to achieve self-redemption, and at the same time, it echoes his father's original escape from death. And the realization of all redemption depends on people, luck, or the times?
Double chess is undoubtedly the main thread that runs through the film. Chess is people's hope: it is a life-saving straw for a family of three living in a foreign land with uncertain fate, a weapon used by grandfather to awaken the memory and fighting spirit of his grandson, and the only entertainment that accompanies people to overcome terror under the dictatorial iron curtain. Chess has nothing to do with survival, but at any time, it is the last panacea for wise people to move towards an ideal life. At the same time, the interpretation of the chess method implicitly answers the question that has troubled the secular people for a long time: Is the success or failure of life due to human operation or the arrangement of fate? As my grandfather said, throwing dice has nothing to do with luck, the angle and the strength of the shot are all controlled by the individual. "pick a number, and just throw it". Life is like a game of chess. Facing the life and death decision of his son-in-law, the old man just said lightly, "Take a risk, make your move and hope for the best!"
The plot method of the film is not new, the story of loss and self-discovery plus a montage of flashbacks. There are various themes and backgrounds, but the selected ones are also mainstream, family affection, freedom, destiny, and the changes of the times. And clean, complete, with something to say, it is the biggest rare thing. The insertion of every thought node in the middle is just right, adding the finishing touch to the progress of a story, without any trace of deliberate ending. Every detail of the plot is also explained clearly. When the grown-up Alexander returned to the shelter, he managed to get to the same position under the eaves, removed the stone that filled the crack in the wall, and took out the inlaid inlay that was secretly hidden with Maria more than ten years ago. I cried when the toy car with the pink ribbon. Maybe the ribbon has faded, maybe the memory is no longer clear, but the same innocence, under the trick of time, is re-enacted in the same place. Maybe Alexander was confused and didn't understand how this little toy car changed his fate in the first place, and now how can it help him regain the possibility of regaining his memory. But my grandfather knew it, and so do we moviegoers.
There are two things that surprised me in the whole film. First, when the life and death of the son-in-law (the boy's father) was at stake, he chose to take his wife and children and risk their lives to escape when he faced the future and reputation of himself and his family. I thought that under such circumstances, selfless sacrifice would be too contrived and righteous killing of relatives would be too blatant to show the evil of human nature and deviate from the theme. Who would have thought that in the end the screenwriter gave us the most daring result. Thinking about it, it is also the most in line with the theme of choice—— Change from passive to active, and never put your destiny in the hands of others. The second is the end of the film. In the past, I watched similar films, and most of them ended with liberation. The film, however, ends with a restart. The ultimate meaning of self-liberation does not lie in the gorgeousness of the liberation process and the momentary pleasure of finally gaining freedom, but in having the opportunity to start a new life and truly practice freedom.
PS: I want to be a free person, and the best interpretation of the word freedom is to focus on the present and be the helm of every "present" with heart.
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