Like "Days in Tianshui Wai", Director Xu's films always use bland and almost transparent trivial details, exuding a strong literary flavor from the real and ordinary life. This kind of literature and art is not the literature and art of the modern school, with love-hate entanglements, but the reserved and steady old-fashioned, the gray sky in Hong Kong, the cold rust strips of the lattice security windows on the dense residential buildings, the narrow alleys, the smell of fireworks The thick vegetable market even seems to have the seductive aroma of old fire soup that can penetrate the screen.
In such an environment, Sister Tao made her debut happily. Since she was sold to the Liang family as a servant at the age of 13, Sister Tao, whose real name is Zhong Chuntao, has served in the Liang family for more than 60 years when the film begins. The third-generation young master who has a career that is almost an adult. The days were dull, and very well behaved. Sister Tao always went to the market early in the morning to pick up all kinds of fresh vegetables and seafood. Because of the habit of careful selection, the vegetable vendor dared not speak out. She had to turn down the temperature when she went into the cold storage to pick garlic, forcing her to leave quickly. When he got home, Mr. Liang had an ordinary lunch. The soup was thoughtful, the fish and crabs were complete, and the fruit came with the meal after the meal. Sister Tao began to eat by herself. It is only natural for Liang Luojie to open his mouth and stretch out his hand with a pair of food, and he didn't even say a few words, as if time passed by itself, and our life has its own rules.
This gentle rhythm came to an abrupt end because of Sister Tao's illness. As a film producer, Roger often runs both sides of the mainland and Hong Kong. With sister Tao and cat Kaka at home, it is inevitable that he does not have a key. When he came back this time, he didn't expect to meet Sister Tao who had a stroke and collapsed at home. After Sister Tao was hospitalized, everything was in chaos. Classmate Liang does not use various household appliances, including washing machines and microwave ovens, and does not know how to cook and peel fruits. Even when she went to visit Sister Tao, she just sat there. When Sister Tao, who was unable to take care of herself due to a stroke, was trembling and unable to eat. , asked "incomprehensibly" whether the food was delicious.
Sister Tao decided to live in a nursing home because she was no longer competent for her job. Roger decided to take care of Sister Tao's retirement. There are all kinds of people in the old people's home, and it is still a condensed small society, but they are all weak and slow. Sister Tao has always been kind to people and gradually became an important member.
Many comments said that the film mainly focuses on the aging society and the elderly care situation in Hong Kong; Director Xu herself said that she hopes that everyone will feel the recovery and infection of social warmth. Obviously, the film has solved indifference and called for warmth from many subtle points. the original intention.
Classmate Liang went to visit Sister Tao whenever she was free, and gradually learned to cook soup, clean up, and take care of others. There are elderly mother-in-law who has no one to visit at all, the grandmother who is only visited by her daughter but misses her son, the retired old principal from Southeast Asia who is still neatly dressed, gentlemanly and thoughtful, the old man who is still full of spring in his old age, and the ordinary family because of his mother's old age. A middle-aged woman who had to go to a nursing home for cheap kidney dialysis. The old and the sick seem to have become a corner of society. No one needs it anymore, and no one cares. Even the social groups that visited the nursing home during the Mid-Autumn Festival dared to openly take back the moon cakes distributed to the elderly after the video was over. Said to be the props that are still needed for the next visit.
Many people would say that such a nursing home is considered a good one. Volunteers do not bully the elderly, and the elderly can eat and sleep, and can go out for activities. It is true that such a nursing home has indeed surpassed those outrageous nursing homes in the mainland, but when the camera uses an overhead angle to show the crowded beds, and the two wads of tissue paper that are placed in the nostrils when Sister Tao goes to the bathroom The filthy smell was suffocating, and it was still heart-wrenching.
Human beings are not just about eating, drinking, sleeping and waiting to die. No matter what age or status, dignity is the bottom line for maintaining humanity. Getting old does not mean the disappearance of emotions and the death of desires. As long as you are human, you have a legitimate desire for good things and family and friendship. The elderly, like all other age groups, need warmth, consolation, communication, and understanding, not to be pitied and condescendingly entertained.
Sister Tao always shares the delicious bird's nest sent by classmate Liang, and she always turns a blind eye to Uncle Jian's borrowing money to pick up girls, just because "Let him find it, how long can he find it? ”; She remembered the names and embarrassing incidents of all of Liang’s best primary school classmates, the Southern Film magazines accumulated for many years in the cabinet, and all the memories of Liang Luojie’s growth since childhood. No matter what kind of people, there are memories of their own life. No matter what kind of memory, happiness, sadness, haze, joy, they are all the molecules that make up the traces of this person's existence in the world. Loved, laughed, cried, hated, and finally everything drifted away with the wind and fell into mud. , only the delicate and delicate warmth fills the space before and after his death, faintly fragrant.
Before Sister Tao's surgery, the pastor who prayed for her said a sentence, "We only know how to comfort others after we have experienced hardships ourselves." He uttered the "Bible Acts of the Apostles", which is concise and to the point. Difficulty is a broad term, it is not a heart-piercing hardship. Everyone in the world, from life to death, has experienced difficulties, big and small, or even just for themselves. If there is no one to help, you should walk through it calmly. If you are lucky enough to have a helping hand, the warmth of the world will become a kind of inheritance between people, and it can even span time and space.
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