It was Hirokazu Koreeda who made a documentary about Taiwanese directors Yang Dechang and Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1993, "When Movies Reflect the Age: Hou Hsiao-hsien and Yang Dechang", and two years later, when he was 33 years old, his feature-length debut "The Light of Magic" came out. So you might imagine what the style of "The Light of Magic" is, but you will still be surprised that this calm film is from a young man just over 30.
This is a film suitable for watching in winter. First of all, you have to feel the cold from the window, and preferably the sound of the howling wind hitting the glass. I watched it for the first time on a sunny afternoon in September, only to revisit it on a winter night heading into November so that I could fully accept the impact of the film. In fact, most depressing movies are ultimately focused on healing. They make you fall into pessimism and exhaustion during the viewing process, and then break this pessimism when the protagonist is relieved or relieved. A sublimation. A more mature perspective on life, or on the people and events around you.
When Chengdu suddenly enters winter, the gray sky is the same tone as in the movie. The entire film has almost no moving shots, but is composed of fixed pictures that have been stripped of color. The gesture of life becomes slow here, and time is vague. In the process of watching the movie, your mood may always be suppressed by things, as if all the smiles here do not represent real happiness.
If you can't complete the meditation completely, it's hard to watch. In order to be able to watch the movie, I walked around the small alleys and narrow streets near my house at 11:00 pm. The effect created by the dim street lights and the chill of the night is the same as the temperature in the movie, but At this moment you need to attach all the negative emotions and situations to your heart, then put on your headphones and listen to the episode of this movie - "miss you" ("Missing") by Chen Mingzhang.
For those who have never experienced the sea, this song seems to make me walk on the cold and windy seaside. I like this feeling: the sea and the sky, such a magnificent picture and a lonely heart of a small human being, this is The charm of Yueqin. Up to now, as long as I want to be quiet, I will play it again. By the way, I also found an album of Chen Mingzhang's "The One Who Listens to the Story", and the three episodes of "Illusionary Light" are included in it. This album also has Several pieces of Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Love in the Wind and Dust".
"Phantom Light" is somewhat similar to the later "Never Stop", "the dead, the influence on the living". However, compared to the sun-drenched sea and the noise of the family in "Walking On", it was Hirokazu-eda who used the coldness and emptiness in "Phantom Light" to solidify that irresistible knot in the sound of the waves, forever. Non-stop beating the soul.
Although in the later films such as "Nobody Knows", "Walking Nonstop", "Like Father Like Son" and "Miracle", it was Hirokazu Koreeda who greatly enhanced the viewing quality of the film, although it was still mostly calm or documentary-style shots. However, the location and characters of the story have richer emotional expressions. At least from the external environment, the inner loneliness or negative emotions of the protagonists will not cause too much impact on the audience. But "The Light of Magic" is different. Even at the last moment of the film, the feeling of depression is difficult to eliminate. The only thing that makes you feel relieved is that you know that the heroine has finally returned to her original heart, but you still can't calm down for the feeling of exile and emptiness for a long time.
The seemingly bright life came to an abrupt end, how did another life that was once sunny survive the darkness? It was Hirokazu Koreeda who did not directly express death, but portrayed the subtle influence of death on the living to the extreme. This is the most terrifying part of death. Because when you watch a lively girl face the death of a loved one without warning, and become silent since then, you will feel distressed, the pain of losing my love forever The director did not deliberately exaggerate, there is no emotional conflict, no twists and turns In the story, the dialogue between the characters reaches a minimum level, and the description of the environment and the situation of the characters with a strong sense of gap release this pain little by little.
From a small town to a fishing village by the sea, the heroine chooses self-imposed exile in order to face herself again, but the knot in her heart cannot heal itself, and life seems to continue, but her inner doubt and loss can only be found by the window, with the help of the sea under the night to resolve.
The calm camera captures the extremely simplified living conditions of the small fishing village, the slow pace of life, and the near-primitive relationship between man and nature. For the heroine who remarried with her son, in this desolate place that seems to have been abandoned by modern civilization. Whether she chose to self-exile, giving up resistance and letting life be tempered, or is it a kind of resistance, swearing that she will not yield to fate, this film has always been with such questions. The final answering process is also the climax of the film: the funeral procession by the sea is integrated with the sea, the sky and the horizon. The heroine follows the team and crosses the screen horizontally. The doubts about the death of her ex-husband make her unable to continue. Having that answer would give her relief.
Illusory Light, the meaning of this illusory title, is actually hope. When you understand the meaning, you will agree with the heroine's last relief. Wherever we go, in every place there is a light that guides you out of lows and confusion. Among the huge office buildings, in the green space of the park, in the brilliant sky of the city at night, loneliness has nothing to do with the environment. Therefore, at the end of the film, we suddenly felt the vitality of this fishing village that brought us a sense of isolation from the world, the father and son who were laughing and playing, the father who sat kindly, and the wife who gave up the burden and returned to life calmly.
The gray coat of the sea faded away, the endless beating of the waves gradually faded away, and the human desire and respect for life resounded in the world like a hymn.
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