I don't like this icy season, cold days always make me despair. In such a gray sky and earth, no matter how much sadness there is, it can only be exiled to the hillside covered with fallen leaves, waiting to be buried by the winter snow of the northern country. I was full of yearning for spring, on the night when the cold wind suddenly came under the city.
The beginning of [April Story] is in the frozen Hokkaido for thousands of miles. As far as the eye can see, the mountains and plains are full of pure white ice and snow. People can't help but think of the [Love Letter] that is also written by Shunji Iwai. When the story takes place, there are also snowflakes flying all over the sky, and there are also overwhelming snowfields. I don't know how many tears and sorrows are buried. [Love Letter] Beauty is beautiful, but it's just too sad. Fortunately, Yu Yu, the girl in [April Story], set foot on the train to Tokyo from the very beginning. As Musashino University draws closer, I know that spring is here.
Every year in April, when the cherry blossoms are flying, it is the day when Japanese universities start school. That is, at this time, the girl Yu came from her hometown of ice and snow in Hokkaido to Tokyo, which is full of spring. So the season jumped from winter to spring. The green trees that just sprouted new leaves, the cherry blossoms that fluttered in the wind, the light rain that was as dense as filaments... Looking at the lush spring scene on the screen, I seemed to also be outside the movie. Feel a touch of warmth.
Qingdao, where I live, was unfortunately a Japanese colony a few years ago, but now few people remember the shame of the past. The imprint of history is the cherry blossom trees scattered in every corner of the city. Every spring, the streets and alleys of Qingdao are full of pink and white cherry blossoms. The cherry blossoms in Tokyo have already fallen in April, and in Qingdao it will be late in May. At that time, the scenery was strangely beautiful, and a gust of breeze could blow off the flowers. The withered petals gracefully twisted their waists in the wind, drawing graceful arcs, and finally fell gently to the ground, as if they had slipped in a volley dance.
When Yu stepped into Musashino University, this was the scene on the campus, which was somewhat similar to mine. Of course, my appearance is incomparable to Song Takako who plays Yu, but the environment of the school we live in has something in common. I clearly remember the flowers falling on the campus in May every year. At that time, the paths outside the dormitory were always covered with a thick layer of cherry blossom petals. piece. Those days make people's hearts soften, and life seems to be full of hope.
It was at that moment that Yu entered Musashino University. Although there are always inappropriate places to live alone, even though you are faced with an unfamiliar city, a brand-new environment, new classmates, and wary neighbors, compared with the warm weather in spring, compared with the surging passion in your heart , What are these small difficulties?
The scene where the class organizes freshmen to introduce themselves makes me laugh. Yu is a cautious and shy girl. When it was her turn to introduce herself, she stood up shyly and said shyly: I am very cheerful. I was laughing when another classmate asked: Why did you choose Musashino University? A simple question made Yu even more nervous. She hesitated for a while, afraid that she didn't even understand what she said. That's perhaps the only suspense created by this slow-paced, poignant film.
Why is Yum so sensitive to this issue? Shunji Iwai was not in a hurry to give an answer, and the film continued at a leisurely pace. Yu joined the fishing club and had friends of his own. Several people stood on the grassy lawn, holding fishing rods, practicing the action of throwing the line. The spring breeze slowly blew through the hair ends of the boys and girls, and also gently brushed over the heart of Yu, who always had the most important things in mind. The thin fishing line fluttered in the wind, as if shining brightly.
A girl in the same class asked Yu to go shopping together, but was politely rejected by Yu. She rode a bicycle alone and went to find the Musashino Bookstore. Somewhat strangely, every time the long-haired boy who worked in the bookstore passed by her side, Yu would always act in a panic. So the answer was slowly revealed. It turned out that this boy was Yamazaki, who was in the same school as Yu in middle school, but was one year older than Yu. Yu had been secretly in love with Yamazaki since middle school. It was precisely because Yamazaki went to study at Musashino University last year that Yu followed. Come.
Sometimes a crush is beautiful, even funny. In [Chongqing Forest], Ami, who worked in a convenience store, had a crush on the sad-eyed policeman 663. Later, she developed a key to his house, and specially came to his house when he went out, and helped him re-decorate the room according to her own preferences. Excited about a hair I stumbled across on his bed. And the careless 663 never noticed. Until one day, 663 happened to come home and blocked Ami in the house, she said in a panic, "Didn't you let me come and sit?"
Sometimes a crush is desperate. Li Jiaxin in [Fallen Angels] has a crush on her partner Dawn. She is madly infatuated with everything about Dawn. She lies on the bed he lay on, smells the smell that belongs to him, and even lights his leftover cigarettes and masturbates on his bed. But some people are destined not to be close, just like two hedgehogs, if they get too close, they will lose both. Dawn rejected Li Jiaxin, and she used false information to kill her partner in desperation. At the end of the film, she was sitting on the back seat of Takeshi Kaneshiro's motorcycle, who was also covered in bruises. The two of them hugged tightly. Unfortunately, it was only a minute of warmth.
Yu is not one of those girls that Wang Jiawei's camera is Wuji's publicity. She would only go to the bookstore to take a look at the handsome boy in her spare time, pretending to be passing by unintentionally. She was shy and didn't even dare to talk to him. figure.
Then it was thanks to the rain. Yeah, thanks to that timely rain. On that rainy day, in the afternoon when there was a rush of rain, Yu finally spoke to Yamazaki, whom he had had a crush on for a long time! She was overwhelmed with excitement, and Yamazaki was also pleasantly surprised to meet the same school girl in a foreign country. Yamazaki took out all the umbrellas in the store at the entrance of the rain-covered bookstore, opened them one by one and tried them out, which was warm and touching.
The raindrops are still falling down, and there is no sign of stopping. Standing in the rain, Yu suddenly thought: It's a miracle that he, who had poor grades, actually got into the famous Musashino University through hard work. And this miracle is created by love.
The movie ends here. In fact, the plot of the whole film can be summed up in a few sentences, but it doesn't feel monotonous or dull at all when watching it. The film inherits the consistent style of Shunji Iwai, the picture is very beautiful, and there is a spring scene in the film: the warm spring breeze, the bright sunshine, the swirling petal rain, coupled with the elegant and soothing piano music, the beauty is like a dream.
Reminds me of the domestic movie [Green Tea]. This so-called elegant and charming movie is actually deliberate. Many settings in the movie seem to be too ingenious and lose the sense of detachment it should have. In contrast to [April Story], there is no pretentious and witty dialogue, no deliberate suspense, and beauty and poetry are revealed in the casual casualness. The whole film is like a beautiful prose poem, exuding a charming fragrance.
At first I thought [April Story] was short like a movie, because it was only about an hour long. Later, when I looked at the detailed shots and life-like scenes in the film, I thought, in fact, the length is of secondary importance. In this film, it can be two hours, three hours, or even extend endlessly. Because it makes you feel that this is life, simple and real life. Perhaps the phrase "miracle of love" at the end of the film sounds a bit hypocritical, but in such a pure April, in a movie as beautiful as a dream, I would rather believe in such a miracle.
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