After listening to the ending, I feel that this story is tragic enough, but I think the tragic nature of the story itself is not an exaggeration. Hou Hsiao-hsien said: Everything that happens under the sun is normal. Therefore, in front of many cameras, the director chose to wait and see motionlessly. And life is indeed like this, there are no close-ups, no rotations, no snaps, just sitting there quietly, like a pure bystander. That's the way life is. Fighters are torn between the roads, and the residents of the next house are living normal lives in their rooms. There is no relationship between the two, it is just a different form of life.
I really like the intermittent voice-over from beginning to end, the female voice is very clear. At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when Taiwan returned to the embrace of the motherland, the political situation was complicated and the people's hearts were turbulent. The people who lived in this life were still living with their duties, and the ever-changing world outside could not bring them what changes. Therefore, when the revolutionary youths were discussing state affairs at the table, Wen Qing and Kuan Mei, two young people sitting beside them, exchanged their childhood trivial matters with pen and paper, as if everything around them had nothing to do with them. Yes, what's the point? And the warm atmosphere flowing in the air adds some warmth to the film.
There is also a passage that I remember very clearly (and deliberately paused to take notes): "In the Meiji era, a girl committed suicide by jumping over a waterfall. She was not tired of the world, nor was she despondent, but faced with such a splendid youth, she was afraid that it would disappear once it disappeared. I don’t know what to do? It’s better to be like cherry blossoms, when life is most beautiful, go with the wind…” When reading this text, his voice was neither humble nor arrogant, neither passive nor world-weary nor high-spirited, perhaps this is the heart of that generation of young people It's just around the corner, even if most people haven't put it into action, but it's a beautiful thought. It was only when I was young that I was willing to follow the flame of the revolution to catch a fight. Even if the final tone darkened, the complex social background made these young people imprisoned or even lost their lives, so in the city where the large smog was pressing down, those who were eager to hold back, they could not see what was in front of them. Bright, so he chose to retreat. There is an air of depression in the foggy city. This is the sadness we see in our eyes and the sadness we understand.
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek came to Taiwan and set his capital in Taipei. Everything seems to have returned to the original point. History has come and gone silently, leaving behind the spiritual pain of a generation. The scene of Kuan Mei holding the babbling child can't help but make people feel a little sad.
Perhaps the film has a clear tone but has always been obscure, which reminded me of "Love in a Fallen City" in a trance. Eileen Chang wrote: "The fall of Hong Kong fulfilled her, but in this unreasonable world, who knows what is the cause and what is the effect? Who knows? Maybe because of her fulfillment, a metropolis has fallen. Tens of thousands of people died, thousands of people were in pain, and the earth-shattering reforms followed... Liusu didn't think there was any subtlety in her position in history..."
History is like this, it marches silently With the ebb and flow of countless families, the sun will rise as usual tomorrow. So when we see more suffering, we can only describe it as "viewing". Sadness, that's what it is.
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