For many economic and non-economic factors, we are often ignoring the voices from Eastern Europe anyway. I remember reading an interview about Kundera, he was very angry about China's intentional or unintentional omission of Eastern Europe. Yes, linguistically we have barriers and culturally we have barriers. To a certain extent, Eastern European countries have become non-mainstream in the true sense of being outside the English-speaking culture. Culturally, we also basically ignored it at the same time. For example, in the nearly 20 years of formal education I have received, in addition to the introduction to the situation in the Balkans before World War I, the ravaged Poland in World War II was mentioned in the textbook. An introduction to Prague Spring. A few words, and then there is no trace. For example, for Bulgaria, which will be mentioned below, I checked some information in advance, and it is no longer just a participant in Rowling's next Quidditch World Cup.
Fortunately, I know Kievlovsky, Polanski, and Tarlovsky. Recognize "Goodbye Lenin", "Run Lola", "White Ribbon" (if Germany counts) and "Meet Love at the Corner of the World" that I watched this year. It can be said that perhaps because of the long-term wars and the life in the gap between the great powers, that piece of land with many disasters has made it a pure land that has developed quietly on its own track. Anyone who has seen "Nostalgia" will be impressed by Tarlovsky's deep and quiet emotions. Anyone who has seen Kievlovsky will also feel anxious by those straightforward and delicate emotional dissections. Smeared on our lives, which have long been overdone by the English culture, is like a bright flaw. There's nothing wrong with Hollywood, it's just a naked business operation. There is nothing wrong with the win-win for both the filmmaker and the audience. However, there is no Hollywood in Eastern Europe, and just look at Polanski to see what a land of distinct and incompatible characteristics Eastern Europe is. In Mrs. Stahl's point of view, the reason why Eastern European filmmakers are deep is because they deeply love the land and desolate air bathed in blood and tears.
Therefore, Eastern European filmmakers not only make movies, but also life.
Like all Eastern European films, "Meeting Love at the Corner of the World" from Bulgaria (I admit that the translation of the name is really stupid, even if I can't understand the Bulgarian language that is a bit like Russian), is a simple plot and a soothing content. A film with a somber tone, like a song sung softly across the skin. Young Saxi is the only one who survives a car accident on the way from Germany to his homeland of Bulgaria with his parents. The grandfather, thousands of miles away, rushed to the hospital when he heard the news, only to find that the grandson who had amnesia had no memory of himself at all. Then he took on the role of navigator, leading Saxi on a tandem bike (tandem bike) on the road, searching for those lost memories along the way. The story isn't new, and we've been entertaining for days about the loss and recovery of memories. But "In the Corner of the World" is really touching with its reflection on history, deep excavation of the warmth and warmth of human feelings, restrained and abundant emotions without being overwhelmed. This is the simplicity and indifference that the gorgeous CG in "Lovely Bones" can't match, and it is also the freshness and naturalness that can't be matched by the fantasy and warmth in "The Time Traveler's Wife". It is like a book full of philosophy of life written in indifferent style, spread out in front of me, like a clean evening wind that I encountered after getting used to smelling the decadent atmosphere of commercial movies.
| The meaning of travel |
The road movie pioneered by the Germans has benefited Americans. I can understand the feelings of the four-wheeled vehicle to the Americans, its significance is like the train to the British and the bicycle to the Chinese. And when Americans use the most gorgeous means of transportation to tell the world about the meaning of travel, they vaguely forget that there are countless possibilities for travel. Therefore, "In the Corner of the World" can also be regarded as a road movie. When a family of three went to Germany, and the grandparents and grandchildren returned to their old places, I thought of "Butterfly" instead of "Wild Flowers" ” or “Natural Born Killers.” The latter is using life to play life, while the former is using life to go through life.
What's the point of traveling?
Oliver Stone said the trip was a banishment. So when Mickey and Miley rushed forward to eliminate all the roadblockers, the high and enthusiastic call to the nature of life really made people's blood boil. However, this is an era that is sufficiently hot and restless. When more and more people are unaware of the reason, they are moving forward bravely. What we are calling for is a kind of inner self-examination and self-purification. Travel is not only a way of life, but also an attitude, a medicine for the treatment of diseases of postmodern people. Travel is the Clooney who is ready to go out and pack lightly in "In the Clouds", the young Captain Kirk in "Star Trek" who is facing the unknown and dying, and the one who walks all the way and buried in the past in "Flying Home" Carl, is also the Sassi who finds his lost self along the way in "In the Corner of the World".
The film adheres to the symbolic characteristics of Eastern European films, with metaphors everywhere, and travel is the biggest one. When my grandfather dragged Sashi away from the smell of disinfectant and set out on a journey, I knew it wasn't an easy business. Travel is a way of life that is closest to the instinct of life, not dependent, not addicted, not tangled, just to survive to reach the destination. Therefore, during the journey, we are vigilant, ups and downs and natural beasts, and can release the inner truth of the potential deep inside. At that moment, we meet another who is more real than ourselves.
The past and present of the whole film are crossed, using interlude and montage access. It's well-behaved from start to finish, without being fancy or boring and redundant. Clean and neat, like the clear background music of the piano accompaniment. The past journey is a family of three on the run, across railroads, across borders, and across centralization under the Iron Curtain. They lived in temporary shelters, were destitute, wandered in foreign places and met people's eyes, and had to deal with the strong nostalgia that Eastern Europeans often have. The picture is covered with a layer of faint yellow, like an old photo, warm and bitter. We can understand this trip as a kind of defection, a betrayal of the original self in order to follow the supposed ideal. The price was heavy and the outcome was unhappy: the separation of parents and the incompatibility of living in a foreign land became a stubborn ailment that Sassi could not cure. All of this, when he regained his old memories, he could not help but shed tears.
Suddenly, things have changed.
At the end of the film, Sassi returns to Bulgaria to play a game of chess kingship with his grandfather. The camera continues to intersperse, the sieve on the chessboard runs and rotates, and the old events are repeated, but the story is reversed in reverse time. coincides with the return of reality. Everything goes back to the beginning.
At that moment, I just felt the old reincarnation. The old cycle of time.
| What is the memory |
Sahi said to the woman he met on the way: I can't remember anything, so you can count as my first woman.
I burst into tears instantly. The surging river under the night light couldn't restrain the sadness.
At the beginning of the film, what we see is the unspoken pain of the grandfather with gray hair and wrinkles on his forehead facing his grandson who has lost his memory. Uncle Mickey. Superb Uncle Mickey. When time and space are dislocated, our emotional communication is as shallow as a blank sheet of paper. Sasi called the nurse and said, ask him to leave, I don't know this person. At that time, fear was clearly written on his face.
If we lose our memory. just if. Who are the beneficiaries and who are the injured?
I can't see how relaxed Sassi looks after losing his memory. Nor can he be as clean as a baby. Instead, it became a huge defect, losing the most precious gift of life - memory. Even sadness is the best gift for this world. So when he waited day after day in the hospital for someone he knew to visit him and take him away, he didn't know that person was right in front of him. He resisted. But what is he resisting?
Later, he said, he was afraid, afraid of losing chess. He was afraid that his parents would walk in front of him and he would no longer recognize him.
All he was afraid of was the unknown. And this unknown, but always exists in our lives. It has been from the beginning, and has nothing to do with memory.
Later, in that abandoned shelter. He sat down in the corner, unconscious, maybe consciously. And found his little garage with that Goldilocks again. Back in time, memories flooded into my mind like a tide. It was so turbulent that it flowed out of the corners of my eyes again. I like the restraint of Eastern European films. There's no need for him to stand against the wall in a hysterical state and let the tears flow, only with an expressionless face, and then a tear falls gently. enough. At that moment, I thought "Goodbye, Children". Think of the look that Jewish child looked back at as he left.
In just a moment, the mountains and seas collapsed.
But what is memory?
|About others|
A. Grandpa's chess piece philosophy: Playing chess is a skill, not just luck. Just like our life. Creating happiness is a skill, not luck. Inner peace is not achieved by escaping from external pressure. The happiness that the Sassi family was looking for in Germany was destined to not be true happiness, because it came at the cost of breaking up the family.
B. Gorgeous Central Europe: The cinematography is quite delicate. Those plains and hills that the journey traverses. Those black pipes and outdated old-fashioned misdirection. A shy yet enthusiastic woman from Central Europe. What a beautiful journey.
C. Political plots in Eastern Europe: The socialist complex of Eastern Europeans has been reflected in many films in recent years. The most shocking and direct is "Goodbye Lenin". The kind of black humorous self-deprecating warmth and straightforward disclosure of history are still shocking and vivid in my mind. Compared with "In the Corner of the World", it is much more ambiguous. There is no talk of the social status quo in the shadow of the Soviet Union, no satisfaction, or dissatisfaction. Loyalty or critical. Because it is history and an untouchable scar on the hearts of Eastern Europeans. But we see people in temporary shelters who are full of reverie about the United States and Germany, who are willing to wait 10 years for their so-called dreams. Fifteen years later, the man wearing the Stars and Stripes turban has gray hair and has come to understand the reality. America is not heaven, and the motherland is not hell.
D. Although not classic enough, but typical enough.
All in all, it's a good movie. Impressive beyond words.
Clumsy pen, can only write clumsy prose.
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