1997 was a high-profile year for Japanese films to go international. "Hana" and "Eel" won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival respectively, and the highest award in the three major film festivals, creating Asian film history. 's peak. Coincidentally, the themes of the two works are murder and marginalized groups, and both feature a married man as the protagonist. However, in "Fireworks", Kitano Takeshi's Nishi Jing loves his sick wife and does not hesitate to kill, while "Eel" Central Ward Yamashita, played by Hiroji, personally killed his cheating wife.
Compared with the violent aesthetics of "Hana", there are not many violent scenes in "Eel", the most coloring is only the red lamp before Yamashita kills his wife and the blood stains on his clothes after killing his wife, and the rest of the fighting scenes are clumsy even It's a bit funny, but it's not as dashing and cheerful as "Hua Huo" at all. However, we should remember that Yamashita is different from Nishikai Kei, he is just an ordinary employee, he is not good at fighting and killing, and after bail, he tries to avoid getting involved in right and wrong, so the limited violence is just an unbearable vent. No matter how many turbulences in his heart, Yamashita gave the audience the impression of forbearance and calmness, even a little numb. The most shocking thing is that he could hum a song and ride a bicycle to the police station after killing his wife. Whoever he killed and which weapon he used, calmly seemed to tell someone else's story.
Some film critics say he is a morbid person, but that's not necessarily true. He just rose up to resist the trauma caused by his relationship and marriage, and calmly accepted the punishment that he was destined to go to jail, and the debt that was far more painful than going to jail. He loves so deeply, so he hates it so much. Killing the person he loves with his own hands is a lifelong torture for Yamashita. He can still sit through the bottom of the prison, but after he is released from prison, when he is alone, he will still blame himself and question himself. Whether it is because of jealousy to kill. On the one hand, the pain of killing his wife made him die of love and rejected Guizi's love; on the other hand, the lack of time to give birth made eels his spiritual sustenance, swimming in the sea of his dry heart. What the film is about to explore is not just the adaptation of impulsive murderers after they return to society, but also to pursue the complex emotional ecology of each of us. When a person's emotional world is in ruins, what can be done to repair it?
The answer is freshmen. Abandoned things are irreversible, and new things can rekindle hope. There may be many symbols of the eel, but the most important is the new life. Yamashita told us that this pelagic migratory fish can go as far as the equator, but it always has to return to the Japanese estuary to spawn, at which time the father and mother fish will die, and the baby fish will start a new life journey. Whether it is the killed wife or the Yamashita who killed his wife, just like the dead fish father and fish mother, whether it is physical death or death of heart, they have come to the end of their lives; and the appearance and pregnancy of Guizi, let Yamashita obtain Newborn, it is not important whether the child is his or not, the important thing is that the new life becomes an opportunity to clean up the ruins of the soul. At the end of the film, Yamashita calmly accepted Guizi's bento and returned to prison to serve his sentence. At this time, before he killed his wife, he casually gave away his wife's bento, which just happened to complete a reincarnation.
The violent aesthetic of "Hana" is indeed fascinating, which may be an important reason why its attention is much higher than that of "The Eel". However, compared to the powerful policeman Xi Jiajing, aren't ordinary people like Yamashita more like the people around us? Not many people kill their wives, but the betrayal, anger, and jealousy that Yamashita has experienced is no stranger to everyone who loves and is loved. When Xi Jiajing was arrested, he could look at his lover again, and then personally take his own life, without any regrets; but Yamashita destroys the person he loves with his own hands, even if he is alive, even if he is released from prison. It's just like a walking dead--no more grief than death. That kind of heart-pounding forbearance and calmness is a silent indictment of the fate of life. You can destroy your beloved with your own hands, but in the end, it is yourself who walks to the spiritual judgment seat.
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