The viewing time is February 4, 2020, the new crown epidemic broke out, everyone was locked at home, bored to the point of mold. The public baths in the small northeastern town are all closed, also because of the epidemic. Fortunately, after 20 years of changes, everyone can take a bath at home, even more comfortable than in the bathroom. (Zhang Jinhao also said the same thing at the end of the film, and also said that he would take a couple bath at home. It seems that the illness was cured by the old man.) The bathhouse culture has become more and more intense in the past 20 years, and it has even become a Northeast receptionist. A unique business card for friends, leisure and entertainment.
In the 1999 film, while people are looking forward to the arrival of the 21st century, they are also lamenting the passage of time and the lack of human affection. Lao Liu is an old man who runs a bathhouse in Sanyuanli Hutong in Beijing. In addition to taking care of the regular customers in the shop, he is also responsible for rubbing backs, pedicures, cupping and shaving. The youngest son also has about twenty-four or five, but unfortunately he is a stupid son. He accompanies Lao Liu and never makes troubles, and he can even help look at the counter and get the keys. The eldest son is far away in Shenzhen. He hasn't been home for a few years, and he hasn't brought his daughter-in-law back to meet him after getting married.
This bathhouse is named "Clear Water Pool", but contrary to the name, the bathhouse has been renovated for almost 30 years. There were a lot of old dirt hanging on the cracks of the wall tiles in the bathroom, and there was also clearly visible yellow scale on the sink.
There are two soaking pools inside. The peak hours are usually in the morning, and more than 10 people can soak at the same time. Usually, they are old men. They soak first and then rub. Enjoy the unique leisure time after retirement. The body and face of the old man in the pool were all red, but there were not many silver hairs on his head, and the pink flesh hung on their hunched backs and looked a little angry. After soaking, wrap it in a towel, cover your upper and lower body, and you can go out and lie down on your own bed. There are those who listen to the play on the radio, and those who sleep with narrowed eyes. Lao Wu and Lao Lin, a thin and a fat old man, quarreled because of the cricket and cricket gestures. With a finger and an arm stretched, the flesh on their shoulders seems to be unable to support their old skin and old flesh, but the spirit of the quarrel Full.
The whole bathhouse looks like a forgotten old people's home, (the young man He Zheng, Mr. Liu asked him to build a neon sign and he was too lazy to do it), but it is indeed the comfort zone of Lao Liu and his stupid son (just like Lao Liu scolding his eldest son "You What are you doing back? Erming and I are staying well.”). In the evening, when the guests left, the two men cleaned and rinsed the bathroom together. At 5 or 6 in the morning, together with the gymnastics background music on the radio, we boil water, mop the floor, welcome and enter. The day-to-day life in the bathhouse is the only sustenance for the old and the young.
I read most of the movie reviews but didn't see what I wanted to say. Because this movie not only talks about the relationship between father and son, that is, men, but also about women. Many people think that the Northwest Story and the Tibetan pilgrimage are Zhang Yang's own deliberate sublimation but superfluous. I think these two parts are fantastic. A story about how men are often boring, and adding women (or "sex") makes the heart beat faster and makes the story more interesting. If the author decides to add a woman to the protagonist to appear sticky and vulgar, the four women in this film (the Northwest woman, Zhang Jinhao's wife who caught a thief, a Tibetan pilgrim grandma, and a Tibetan pilgrim girl) have nothing to do with the protagonist of the story. They are actually synonymous with water itself, meaning pure and beautiful. These women, from little girls to young girls to be married, to daughters-in-law, and finally to old age, are synonymous with innocence in the author's heart.
1. The Northwest Girl (Lao Liu's late wife)
In the case of such a water shortage in the northwest region, it is necessary to burn a pot of hot water to take a bath on the eve of the wedding. Seems like the best gift for a girl from this Northwest family, only water can match my daughter.
2. Catch the thief's daughter-in-law naked
Zhang Jinhao himself is ugly and short, but his daughter-in-law is beautiful and tall. Because his daughter-in-law ran out naked to catch the thief, he felt that her daughter-in-law was dirty and lost your man. Even in the face of such a beautiful daughter-in-law, she is impotent. Mr. Liu simply closed the door and went out that day, letting Zhang Jinhao and his daughter-in-law wash away their mutual grievances here. The first shot is the back of the woman combing her hair, which corresponds to the girl in the northwest combing her hair. Zhang Jinhao looked at a person in the pool through the fog in the bathhouse. In the past, it was a group of old men who were soaking in the water, but now it was his daughter-in-law who was soaking in the middle and turning around. Without any medicine, it was Shui and his daughter-in-law who resolved the grievances of the two for many years.
3. Tibetan pilgrim grandmother and granddaughter
In fact, it is not tasteless here. The author still gives the meaning of innocence to women, and passes it on to the granddaughter from the elderly. Without this plot, the story seems to only be talking about the father-son relationship and the old Beijing bathhouse culture. And the pilgrimage at the end of the article returns to the theme "Shang Shan Ruo Shui". Personally, I think this is 0.5 out of 8.4 points.
Finally, my serendipitous discovery. At the end of the film, the second name of Daming removed the plaque of "Shang Shan Ruo Shui". The camera retreated to the face of Lao Wu (played by Feng Shun), Lao Wu was looking at the camera with his big glasses tilted his head, I was on the computer side, I felt like he was looking at people of our age through the lens (2020 , 20 years later). Looking back, it turned out to be looking at Lao Lin's camera. We know that after the filming, Master Feng Shun passed away. Every time I think about this scene, my eyes get wet. Thanks to this window (camera) for letting us look back to the 20th century, those lovely old actors are our memories for a lifetime.
View more about Shower reviews
