either/or

Elyse 2022-04-19 09:01:05

It wasn't until the end that I understood what the title meant. Eternity sunshine on spotless mind. Not a beautiful mind, but an eternal sunshine of a blank mind, a memoryless mind. Two people who both love each other and can't stand each other use the power of high technology to clear each other from their memory. The reason is very simple, love is too hard, can't stand each other, and can't stand yourself with each other; the result may be serious, but it doesn't matter, because the person who wakes up will not know.

Many times, when it was unbearable, I thought about erasing this or that memory from my mind, when it never happened, so that the trouble and pain that followed would not exist. After the peak of troubles, the beauty of nostalgia and memory began to rise, and I thought, keep it, I would rather have such pain than lose the beauty and happiness that comes with it. The peaks and troughs repeat, and the sine curve travels until the time passes and the memory becomes blurred, whether it is good or painful, it no longer matters. Most of the memories in life are of that kind, but some memories are desperately wanted to keep or desperately want to forget. Time renders the mood of emotion. There is a saying, I always say to Bao Bao, who is deeply in love, "It's not that you can't forget it, it's that you don't want to forget it, you just want to remember it on purpose." To the wrinkled face, that memory is more realistic than falling in love.

Therefore, in the process of Joe's operation, the subconscious memory has deeply occupied the surface consciousness. He needs to keep and remember those memories and remove all excuses. In his memories, he yelled angrily at Clement, you were the one who had to delete me first! He would also ask her where to keep her by hiding her, including the embarrassment of masturbation, and all that, until returning to the original place. The building by the sea collapsed suddenly, and in the morning when the hallucinations were disillusioned, the memory of the past completely fell. The melancholy man embraced his residual intuition and went back to the original place to start that round of dialogue with the woman. In fact, this would have been very good, but the nurse sent back the surgeon's personal materials out of revenge, and the two suddenly realized that they had a deep history. Clement said, you'll find my faults eventually, you'll still be unbearable. Joe said, okay. It's okay, let's try again. After spending an exhausting night trying to remember and save, Joe no longer knew his struggles and despair during the operation, he no longer knew his nostalgia and nostalgia for this deleted relationship. For Clement's feelings are unfamiliar, Clement is also. But they still decided to try again.

The movie is full of gray. According to Ruan Yifeng, if the ending is not changed, it will be a more gray and dark movie. The old Clement has to clear his memory again, and then finds that he has undergone many operations. That is to say, no matter how hard they try to love each other, they still cannot escape the whim of fate. If you already know this, why try again? Without personal experience, how can we give up our deep affection? The paradox of Sisyphus, the impossibility of Wu Gang cutting Gui. In mythology, the power that hinders the realization of wishes is divine will, and in life there are insurmountable character flaws and unreachable compromises, which cannot keep love forever. But this, we don't actually know. The power of love, the fear of loss, and the incompatible character war, who is stronger and who will pull whom, is not universal. Therefore, the director changed the ending and changed them into a couple who tried to cherish and work hard, and this change is real in reality. Although this is a postmodern film, every sentence is life, too life. Kaufman pulls the idea that each of us has had in our minds to the big screen, the causes and consequences of the performance and all the struggles in our hearts, and then leaves a choice of either/or, an eternal question, and he is unable to do so. We voted on his behalf, so he left it up in the air for the viewer to answer.

As far as I am concerned, I can't bear to erase the memory of love no matter what, even if I erase it, I can't bear to miss all the reappearing possibilities, otherwise, what is there in life that can ignite simplicity in the dark night? Bright lamp, leaving touching fingerprints in Wumeng's silence?

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Extended Reading

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind quotes

  • Joel: Mierzwiak! Please let me keep this memory, just this one.

  • Clementine: Sometimes I don't think people realize how lonely it is to be a kid. Like... you don't matter.