As Director Hirokazu Kore-eda's debut, "Light of Magic" is also his first work in transition from a documentary director. It contains too much of the director's own thinking, which has become a stepping stone for him to enter the world, and won the Golden Lion Award nomination. It is Hirokazu Koreeda who has only made a few late-night skits and documentaries. Hou Hsiao-hsien once pointed out: "How to frame the scene should be determined according to the performance of the person on the scene." This sentence inspired him a lot as a documentary director. The establishment of the film style played a big role. "The Light of Magic" was deeply influenced by it in its shooting. It adopted a method similar to documentary shooting, with the theme of forbearance and restraint. The actors' vivid and real but restrained performances showed the most real emotions from every detail. The dim picture continues from the beginning to the end of the film. The dim alley at the beginning and the street lights on the bridge like a fence is the place where Yumiko failed to prevent her grandmother from never returning. The self-blame afterwards made this experience shrouded in her heart forever, and the dim alley and the cage-like overpass became a nightmare that haunted her heart and could not be expelled. The beginning of the dream also makes the whole film shrouded in a layer of fascinated dreams. Darkness is the overall tone of the film, covering the entire film like a fog. From childhood to adulthood, the shadow has never dissipated in Yumiko's heart. Yu Fu, who once appeared under the light outside the alley in the nightmare, has now become her first husband, but the home is not rich, and it is still dark. The neighbor's radio from the next door, the stolen bicycle, the dye factory with no lights on, and the only tavern where the two of them appeared at the same time, make this seemingly warm and harmonious family, in fact, there are all kinds of real life brings 's eloquence. Yufu, who was so dark that he had never seen his face clearly, only when Yumiko came to the factory to look for him, turned his head and smiled, and a beam of light from the window hit his face, so that the audience could recognize Yufu played by Tadanobu Asano. It's a pity that a close-up of a smile full of light was finally achieved, but it looks like a posthumous photo, indicating the arrival of his unexpected death. The dim tones are depressing, but in "Phantom Light", in every dim scene, there is always a light, flickering in the distance, which seems to guide Yumiko. to a mysterious glimmer of hope. In the new home, the sunlight projected from the window becomes the only light source in the dim room. Yumiko's eyes stared out of the window, as if searching, but also retracing the mysterious light, and stubbornly opened the window even if it was cold. The green light that appeared outside the culvert when the children were playing seemed to be the "phantom light" mentioned in the legend at the end and in the title of the film, and the figure of the children playing on the ridge seemed to be the epitome of Yumiko's childhood. Once in the old residence, the bath tub beside Yumiko's mother reflected a dreamlike light on the roof on the other side of Yumiko. In fact, it was another allusion of "phantom light". One was self-blame for the ineffectiveness of dissuasion when he was young, and the other was the confusing death of her husband. The depression and sadness brought by the departure of two relatives to Yumiko became a haze in her heart, which was conveyed to the audience from her indifferent expression. The whole film tells the story of Yumiko's escape from the pain of losing her relatives. The black casual clothes wrapped around her body have been wearing Yumiko, like mourning clothes at a funeral, the details of ordinary life, but here is the performance of life like a funeral, and Yumiko has always been shrouded in the shadow of her relatives leaving. Even the children's play is not forgetting the visit to the tomb, and the dullness of the death of a loved one never dissipates in the film. Even in the new family, dark-colored clothing never faded from the characters, only the white shirt appeared on Yumiko at the wedding and at the end. Black represents depression and grief, and white represents future and hope. The fading from black robe to white shirt seems ordinary, but it is an externalization of the inner emotional changes of the characters. The song at the wedding is her brief escape from the pain, and the smile at the corner of her mouth when she looks at the sea at the end, are symbols of Yumiko's escape from the pain of the death of a loved one. Yumiko tries to crawl out of the quagmire of painful memories of her past in a life that is so plain to the extreme. The children's running and playful, the greetings of the old people around, and the ancient customs that have been inherited always seem to appear in life in an orderly manner. It is so quiet that it is impossible to capture those tiny contradictions. The smooth flow of life is only like the ebb and flow of the day after day, even the storm will come and go. In the life of the new house, Hirano-san returned from the sea late, and learned the real reason for her husband to return to the village. It can be called a ripple, but it is not a wave. The inner drama of "Phantom Light" is particularly rich. The grief in Yumiko's heart can only be vented through the silent watching and godless expression, and she is struggling with inner pain. The film hides the emotions of the characters behind the sound and picture for interpretation. At about forty-six minutes of the film, when Minxiong brought Yumiko to visit the old man on the street, the surrounding natural light changed, and the sun slowly came out of the clouds and disappeared again. This is really a common thing in life, but it was adopted by the director and perceived by the audience. This kind of change of light and shadow, like an invisible hand, brings comfort to Yumiko's heart, and also guides Yumiko's confusion about life and death. The light and shade of the sun, the ebb and flow of the sea, and the wind chimes swaying in the corner of the house, Yumiko, who is at home, comforts the trauma of her soul and experiences the real answer to her inner confusion. The silent ancient funeral near the end of the film seems to be the burial of memories of the past. The picture of this greatly suppresses the sadness of death, and elevates it to a sacred thing that is as natural as the changing of the seasons. At the last moment of the mute outbreak, the painful questioning at the seaside instantly released the depression that had been accumulated for many years, and Yumiko's many years of confusion about life and death was also answered. At about forty-six minutes of the film, when Minxiong took Yumiko to visit the old man on the street, the surrounding natural light changed, and the sun slowly came out of the clouds and disappeared again. This is really a common thing in life, but it was adopted by the director and perceived by the audience. This kind of change of light and shadow, like an invisible hand, brings comfort to Yumiko's heart, and also guides Yumiko's confusion about life and death. The light and dark changes of the sun, the ebb and flow of the sea, and the wind chimes swaying in the corner of the house, Yumiko, who is at home, comforts the trauma of her soul and experiences the real answer to her inner confusion. The silent ancient funeral near the end of the film seems to be the burial of memories of the past. The picture of this greatly suppresses the sadness of death, and elevates it to a sacred thing that is as natural as the changing of the seasons. At the last moment of the mute outbreak, the painful questioning at the seaside instantly released the depression that had been accumulated for many years, and Yumiko's many years of confusion about life and death was also answered. At about forty-six minutes of the film, when Minxiong took Yumiko to visit the old man on the street, the surrounding natural light changed, and the sun slowly came out of the clouds and disappeared again. This is really a common thing in life, but it was adopted by the director and perceived by the audience. This kind of change of light and shadow, like an invisible hand, brings comfort to Yumiko's heart, and also guides Yumiko's confusion about life and death. The light and dark changes of the sun, the ebb and flow of the sea, and the wind chimes swaying in the corner of the house, Yumiko, who is at home, comforts the trauma of her soul and experiences the real answer to her inner confusion. The silent ancient funeral near the end of the film seems to be the burial of memories of the past. The picture of this greatly suppresses the sadness of death, and elevates it to a sacred thing that is as natural as the changing of the seasons. At the last moment of the mute outbreak, the painful questioning at the seaside instantly released the depression that had been accumulated for many years, and Yumiko's many years of confusion about life and death was also answered.
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