In the dark morning after getting up from insomnia. I chose to watch this movie with a fairytale-like name.
Director Iwai Shunji became famous in China with "Love Letter". Known as the representative of the new image film. After watching his "Swallowtail Butterfly" and "All About Lily Zhou", I was very shocked. "Flower and Alice" is a bit of a cliché, a love triangle. But so simple and pure. Like a mark that impressed me.
Every scene in Iwai's films is permeated with some words. Emotions unique to writers and directors. Those lights and details, as if they were destined to be like this when he wrote the words. The beautiful faces of two teenagers, sighing at each other on the platform in winter; the figures one after the other under the huge cherry tree; the pose of a ballet saluting when they meet; Sakura petal battle; two people stepped on the snow on the ground... as if to witness this feeling. Those clean and sophisticated shots, accompanied by melodious music, often come to my mind without thinking. Iwai always shoots cherry blossoms. It gives a prosperous yet faintly calm feeling, symbolizing beauty and stability.
flower. Just like her name, she is full of enthusiasm. Alice's best friend. Learn ballet.
Alice. Quiet and has a warm personality. Flower best friend. Learn ballet.
When she stood with her, I could always smell the youthful, lemony scent. The pictures of the two people together are a meal, from the beginning to the end of the movie. Accompanying each other, walking one after the other, accompanied by jumping piano music. The beginning of love seems to have a long-term sense of dependence, so it is destined to end.
When two friends have been together for a long time, it seems that they will become each other's eyes, affecting each other, as if they are naked in front of each other. Love, it's easy to resemble. Alice's joke can make Hua really fall in love with the boy who only looks down at books. Just like Alice would later fall in love with the boy the same way, simple as that. Then Hua started the way of secret love unique to little girls. I took many pictures of the boy, followed behind him, looking forward to the boy's look back with shining eyes. To sign up for the same course, in order to meet him. It seems that all girls have used this way to pay homage to an unknown relationship. Until the silly boy hit the door and fell, and the camera turned into a kaleidoscope... Huaxin's little emotions were causing trouble. In order to be loved by boys, such a sincere lie.
I remember Hua's ignorant and proud demeanor. She wanted the boy to remember her like this, and she put her face back and forth for the boy to see. So resolute, regardless of their own shortcomings. I remember she first pretended to be embarrassed to ask "So what about confession?", and then blamed the boy for forgetting... Domineering but a little timid. The music stops abruptly and the somewhat ridiculous story begins.
I remember walking back and forth between the two of them again, but this time it was a flower and a boy. The boy still looked down at the book, and the flower looked after him like an elder, which was a bit funny. Date like all men and women you date. But is this a lover? The boy is no longer just looking down at the book, but is with the flowers. And began to dream of flowers, although they were all weird dreams. Until I found the photo about myself in Hua's computer, I began to suspect that beautiful lie.
About questioning, the taste of tension. Using the scriptures as music to set off the call, the boy calmly let Hua open the file full of photos step by step. When the boy appeared on the computer screen, the picture returned to the calm atmosphere of the boy. "Who are you?" the boy asked quietly. Flower was speechless for a moment. So unwilling to let the lie continue like this, even at the expense of friendship. A flustered but deliberately resolute excuse, "Guo-mie-na-sai... (sorry)" The boy believed the girl who looked a little dazed. The camera is getting farther and farther, but the scriptures continue.
The boy cautiously ran to ask if Alice was his girlfriend before, as Hua said. Alice plays an imaginary role little by little according to the instructions of the flower, and enters the fairy tale world.
The camera turns elsewhere - ballet. Yes, Alice's dream. There are also the feelings that flowers entrust. The footage becomes a DV and a camera to record this dancing touch. The exposure suddenly showed a group of girls wearing lace gauze skirts, and paused. Dance with pride tones and fresh, crisp laughter. It is a friendship that is unique to girls, and it is also a joy that is unique to childhood. Charming without a hint of finesse. Toes, fingers, stop, pause. Like a fairy flying, so beautiful. Then there are the sprites in the dance classroom, the happy picture, the pauses. Happy dance steps, happy piano, happy smile, happy face. The light is warm and looks like the color of happiness.
Alice is quiet, life is a little bleak white. A cynical sister, and a long-lost father. The reunion with her father made her understand what love looks like. The attachment and blame to my father when we parted at the end disappeared in the sentence "I love you". Quiet feelings always highlight his strength at the moment of sudden exposure.
The boy finds Alice. Alice plays a happy but awkward role, and gradually, she makes her love come true in a lie. Light hit the hair and eyelashes of the two, the boy made an obscure confession, and Alice flashed sad eyes.
The boy was wet from the rain and lay on the sofa at Hua's house. Flowers in the street to see people in the rain. In fact, that was Alice, dancing like this in the rain. When she was sad, she used dance to tell. Blue shots, rain and ballet, outline the taste of loneliness and sadness.
By accident, the boy meets Flower and Alice who are talking on the street. The entanglement of the three people starts here.
Alice, flower, boy, come to the sea. The lens is shaking and flashing. Walk, boy is a supporting role. As always, he was silent and repeatedly read those long sentences that no one understood, and would only bow his head and follow the flowers, or Alice. All the stories are repeated in the feelings of the two girls. Facing the boy, Alice habitually talked about all kinds of memories of happiness that had been hidden in her heart for a long time. Let's pat the sea shouting, jump rope, whistle, search, lunch, and poker games together. Flower rehearses her own play, in order to end the past and yearn for the future play.
The lens is aimed at the wind. Because of the fluttering playing cards, I seem to see the wind. The playing cards were swaying like ribbons, and the three of them hurriedly chased after them. Alice proposes that whoever finds the ace of hearts first can make any request. Then He Hua hurriedly found it. In the process, it was like a silent competition. At the same time as the boy picked up the heart A, Alice, who was far away, raised the found heart A high and shouted excitedly. Flower looked frustrated. Alice began to make demands, a cruel moment. It's the same for both of them. "Please break up with Hana and stay with me." said Alice, who didn't want to give her happiness to others for the first time. Flower hugged the boy desperately, like a frightened deer. Alice saw the injured flower and immediately changed her attitude and said it was just a joke. But the sadness in his eyes can't be concealed by any funny actions. Hua fights with her, so tired, but very determined.
The lie is debunked in a blunder by Alice. Everything is exposed to the wind, and the truth is revealed. The boy asks one last question, about the forgotten Ace of Hearts. Alice laughed and said it was impossible, but she burst into tears when she saw the nightmare kiss of Alice in fairy tale on the flipped playing card. She understands that many things do not belong to her. They parted again in the sunshine like the first meeting, saying "I love you." Leave it to the confused boy. Quiet feelings, choose to fade out in this way.
Hua saw the photo of herself and Alice in the cultural festival dance club, and finally said bravely to give up. Turning his back to the boy, he stubbornly held back his cry, pretending to be calm. Flowers are brave girls, and they are even more frail and fragile when they cry. This section is particularly moving. Hua seems to be saying out loud that she doesn't want to, but she is giving up indifferently. The music is surprisingly calm, and the camera is a close-up of the flower crying, which is heartbreaking. When the flower chose friendship, love chose him. The boy knew what he meant to the two girls.
Alice began to interview at the modeling agency, still smiling calmly. In front of the director, she let go of her dreams. Non-stop dancing. Even though her feet were just simple ballet shoes tied with paper cups, she was still dancing. At this moment, I think she got happiness. Just as flowers get the happiness that love gives. Pure face, clean dance posture, dancing and jumping shots, and flowing music. I suddenly smell the beautiful smell of cherry blossoms. In the final freeze, the director's beautiful plot is displayed to the extreme at this moment. As if hallucinating. Alice is a quiet girl with a melancholy temperament. Emotions slowly ooze out with the dance, full but calm beauty.
end. Hua secretly went to buy a magazine that Alice made the cover of, and was stopped by Alice on the way. The two pointed to the bag on the cover where Alice's nose was bitten by a mosquito. He smiled recklessly. How precious everything is.
Therefore, all people speak of love in this way. The pure feelings of youth may be blind, hesitant, and traumatized, but they are never selfish. As if for some kind of faith, relying on each other.
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