After watching the repaired version, I learned that several impressive scenes were actually added after the repair.
1. The description of Beibei and Mahou's room blowing smoke rings. There may have been occasional smoke rings, but when they actually performed, no one could. In fact, there are many actions of smoking in the whole film, and smoking is just a kind of childish behavior of these arrogant children. It was not until the horse monkey watched Milan and Yiku dance together that the complicated emotions in his heart made him feel deeply for the first time. He took a puff of lung smoke, and of course he choked. I believe that most people have also been choked by this before, and because of something, you start to take a deep breath without any scruples. In fact, for smokers, you can see the real and fake smoking at a glance. Smoking is also a detailed description that appears in many videos, which is worth paying attention to.
2. The scenes of "hanging towels" in the bathhouse and "bed fighting" at home in Milan. These shots are starkly sexual, real and reasonable. I saw that some people said that it was the repression of sexuality in that special era, but I didn't agree with it at all. I think it was just the expression of sexuality by children of that age, and there was no eroticism at all. Even today, there are still many boys and girls who are hard to talk about or even sneer at sex, but it's just a question of concept and education, don't take the times too much. Teenage boys may be full of dirty words, but their vision of ignorant love is always serious and innocent. What the director wants to highlight must be this pure beauty. The expressions of adults are roundabout and secretive, but if you take a look through the lens, your heart may be very dirty.
3. The dream that the horse monkey and Milan had after parting. Obviously this is a surreal dream description, but the so-called illogical dream imagery can find its roots in reality in the narrative of the previous plot. There is no logic in the dream itself, and most of it is just a random patchwork of fragmented real memories. The slap of the father's parting, the speculation and jealousy of the relationship between Yiku and Milan, and the understanding of the war in that era may all be intertwined and reconstituted into new illusions in the dream. Personally, I think this dream is just right here. It is said that this passage was deleted because it was afraid that the narrative logic would be confused and that the audience would not be able to understand it. All I can say is, it's too much to worry about. Even in Fellini's "Eight and a Half" film, dreams, imagination, and reality run through the whole film, but after careful reading, you can still understand the director's arrangements and expressions. Hyperreality is by no means divorced from reality.
In general, the success of this film is inseparable from the natural, powerful and accurate performances of the actors, especially Xia Yu's genius-like interpretation of the characters' personalities and the manipulation of complex emotions, which makes the character of Ma Hou full of aura, and it is worth noting that he is the youngest The best actor; it is inseparable from the picturesque depiction of the camera lens, especially the light and shadow display throughout the whole film, whether it is the sunshine or the sparkling water, it can illuminate the emotions and atmosphere of the characters at that moment. In the end, of course, it is inseparable from the story arrangement and dramatic presentation of director Jiang Wensi. The gentle narration and the shocking agitation allow people to see and experience that ignorant, impulsive, regretful, cowardly but sunny day.
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