After watching the movie, it is actually not the same as what I imagined at the beginning, but I still have some feelings after watching it. The whole film feels like a documentary to me. It records a couple ( Liu Yaojun played by Wang Jingchun and Wang Liyun played by Yong Mei ) in the 1970s and 1980s when the educated youth returned to the city, had family planning, and were laid off and reemployed. Experienced an "untimely" pregnancy, an "accidental" loss of a child, and a "rebellious child" running away from home.
'Untimely' pregnancy
Liu Yaojun, Wang Liyun and his wife, Shen Yingming, Li Haiyan and his wife, Zhang Xinjian, Gao Meiyu and his wife, the three of them were originally good friends in the workshop and lived in the same building. At that time, it was the family planning period. Liu Yaojun and his wife were pregnant with their second child. They happened to meet Li Haiyan, and she was the director of family planning. In order to respond to the policy, the factory was asked to act as a local representative and forced Wang Liyun to have an abortion.
In the end, Liu Yaojun felt grumpy and unhappy, but he was also working in a friend's wife, so in order to respond to national policies and act impartially, he didn't care too much. Li Haiyan also won the advanced individual award for family planning for them, but it is really helpless to be "advanced" like this.
The story here is very well restored. It is difficult to say whether such a policy is good or bad in that era. After all, in that era of material scarcity, if the population growth is not well controlled, today's China may be a different scene. But on the other hand, under every major policy, there will always be people who "take chicken feathers as a sword" and force others, even their own friends, for the sake of "performance". Today's domestic economic level is not the same, and the family planning policy has also become a policy of opening up the second child due to the aging process. If you reflect on the previous policy implementation, I think there may not be a situation where children are forced to have children for "performance". There may be more and better policies to help society today, such as taxation. I hope that in our era, there can be fewer tragedies caused by policy reasons.
"accidental" death
Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun's children, Liu Xing (Xingxing), and Shen Yingming and Li Haiyan's children, Shen Hao (Haohao), were born on the same day in the same month and the same year. Because of the relationship between their parents, they are also good friends. In the process of playing in the reservoir again, Haohao pushed Xingxing to the reservoir in a fit of anger in order not to be laughed at by his friends. He wanted him to play with everyone, but it caused the stars. of death. In addition to the previous abortion, Yaojun and his wife really had no children. Because of the physical problems caused by the abortion, they could not have another child. As a result, the two families almost never see each other again.
Of course, apart from Haohao, Haiyan naturally blamed herself very much, so that this incident became her heart disease and accompanied her until she passed away. When Haiyan passed away, she said to Liyun, "We are rich now, you can have a baby". Tears flowed from Liyun's eyes. She couldn't blame the old friend in front of her, but she couldn't accept the fact that she lost her two sons. Helplessness was the whole meaning of her tears.
"Rebel" runs away from home
After losing their two sons, Yaojun and his wife decided to go south to work and leave this sad place. Therefore, he took in the child of the orphanage (Zhou Yongfu), hoping that he could replace Xingxing. Then, with the advent of the rebellious period, the contradiction between the father and the son was irreconcilable, and the child also vaguely felt that he was not his own, and finally decided to run away from home.
Maybe it is a world created outside, maybe it is still grateful. At the end of the film, the "Nizi" came back and also appeared, the only father in the whole play.
The story also ended at this moment. When Yaojun and his son were talking on the phone, Yaojun and Liyun had reconciled with Yingming Haiyan, and Haohao had told the truth that he did not dare to tell back then (his recklessness caused his friend to leave. ), just to go to celebrate the birth of Haohao's child, and also made a video call with his wise sister Jasmine. Jasmine is Yaojun's apprentice in the workshop. She was pregnant with Yaojun's child, but Yaojun finally persuaded her to abort her, and there was no explanation in the film. Therefore, in the end, Jasmine's child may also be Yaojun's child. With the last phone call in the previous film, it is inevitable that it is not reminiscent. Their stars, it seems, are "really" back.
In addition to the above three stories, the whole film actually has a lot of small stories, which are also full of a lot of lens comparisons and good foreshadowing, which is my favorite picture.
Foreshadowing about Jasmine
Jasmine is Ying Ming's younger sister and Yaojun's apprentice. Because of Yaojun's care for her, she became emotional. In fact, this was revealed when she entered the venue, and it was even more prominent when she danced with Yaojun at the dance later.
A contrast was also interesting when Jasmine visited them on behalf of Yingming Haiyan and his wife and Xinjian Meiyu, who had returned from the south.
Although the atmosphere was awkward, Yaojun and Jasmine were still smiling at first, and Liyun still couldn't get out of the pain.
But in the next shot, when the children outside the window set off firecrackers to celebrate the new year, the expressions of the three of them became solemn. At this time, the camera switched to again, and the other two couples were having a party, celebrating the newly built Meiyu and the addition of their son with laughter.
There is a lot of camera language here, and the contrast is also very strong. The joys and sorrows of human beings are not in common.
In addition, there are several scenes where Yaojun persuades Jasmine to go abroad and give up the idea of having Jasmine's children.
When Jasmine came to look for Yaojun in the south, Liyun actually found some clues and also offered to divorce, lamenting that Liyun's fate seemed to be more difficult, she did nothing wrong, but God has been treating her unfairly. Abortion, bereavement, husband cheating, so many misfortunes, I chose to commit suicide based on the blessing of the gods. As Yaojun said, Liyun and he are both living for each other, and Liyun is even more so.
After this scene of praying to Buddha, Liyun went out to look out and saw a church, a temple church, which was already a stark contrast. The camera continued to go down, and it was a dialogue scene between Yaojun and Jasmine.
In the end, Yaojun caught up this time and successfully rescued Liyun who committed suicide. He was also determined to send Jasmine away. Jasmine's smile when she left also reminded me of Yaojun's smile when Liyun was "advanced" to accept the award. It is a wry smile that is unable to change the reality, it is laughing at one's own incompetence, and it is also saying goodbye to the past.
After watching the whole film, there are a lot of screenshots, there are a lot of favorite transition comparisons, and there are also a lot of favorite character dialogues. The title of the film "Long Time" seems to describe the friendship of several friends in the film, but after watching it, I can't fully agree, because the characters in the film are constantly being lost, Yaojun Liyun lost his child, Work and friendship, Jasmine lost her hazy love, Haohao lost his best childhood, Haiyan lost her friendship and left with regret and self-blame. It seems that nothing lasts forever in the whole film, but this is also the life we live in. There are too many regrets in life and too much helplessness. However, the newborn baby and the two growing children at the end of the film also seem to contain some kind of hope, and we can't just see what's lost, but also what we care about. Just like the dialogue between Yaojun and Liyun, who had no nostalgia for life, on the plane "We are still afraid of death", it may be at the moment of "dying" that they realize that they still have each other.
Even if fate is unfair and makes fun of you and me, we don't know what to blame or what to forgive. We sincerely feel that there is still a place to be nostalgic for each other in the world, and we sincerely feel that there is still a tomorrow to look forward to. Don't ask for a long time, but your lover can be by your side.
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