This is a good movie that can easily be missed because of the name.
English name: "The Terminal".
There are several versions of the Chinese translation: Terminal Love / Love You Without Borders / Terminal Romance / One-way Ticket Terminal Romance. . .
The last one is simply not too direct.
In contrast, "Happy Terminal" is in a sense closer to the story told by this film.
Film director: the famous Stephen Spielberg , starring: the famous Tom Hanks .
Although the image of some Americans in the film is negative, the identity of the male protagonist is still a fictitious Eastern European country Croatian. But it's still essentially an American-style "theme" movie.
98% of the whole story takes place in one scene: the airport. To be precise, the International Transit Lounge.
The airport is often a place of farewell and reunion, and various joys and sorrows are staged. Behind every meeting and parting is a different life story.
For travelers, it's just a stop on the itinerary, but not the destination, and they'll never stop.
For airport workers, it's just a place to work.
In a sense, this is a modern desert island . The airport only provides a venue, but it will never be a destination.
What happens when a person is left on this strange desert island for no reason?
A Croatian (fictitious country) named Victor arrives at the New York airport and is told that he needs to wait at the airport because of a coup d'état in his home country.
An airport official named Frank explained the current situation to Victor.
While waiting, Victor was allowed to stay in the International Frontier Lounge.
There is only one door between Victor and the United States.
Tom Hanks' square face has a simple and dependable air.
He naively thought that his problems might be solved soon.
Frank, of course, has no good intentions, and he hopes that Victor can escape.
After all, there is only one door.
However, Victor surprised him. Frank even suggested that Victor could escape.
As a result, Victor did not step out of that door.
Since you can't leave, you can only live in the airport.
For Victor, the airport is a deserted island, even if people come and go, but everyone has nothing to do with him.
Life needs to happen at the airport.
sleep.
bath.
Have a meal.
The hardest thing to do is to eat - he has no money.
Almost all the airport staff are paying attention to him. He's like an "outlier".
Soon he figured out a way to make money, and finally he could go to Burger King to buy hamburgers. This detail is interesting-
He took the first money he earned - three dollars, to buy a hamburger, and the other party found him a coin. He pushed back the recovered coins as a tip.
Regardless of the right or wrong of the act of tipping itself, Victor's behavior, in a sense, can be said to maintain his decency even if he is confined to the predicament.
Frank quickly discovers Victor's way of making money, and quickly closes the management loophole.
To "cheat" him away, Frank seduces Victor with "freedom", telling him that he can apply for political asylum, as long as he returns to a "simple" question.
This dialogue is very interesting. "patriotism" is the so-called "main theme", but it appears here without any violation and makes people move.
Patriotism is not a slogan, but when you are faced with a choice, you still choose this side without hesitation.
A large part of the film is a secret "fight" between Victor, who represents an ordinary person, and Frank, who represents a bureaucrat.
On Victor's side are thousands of ordinary people: perhaps the cleaners, ordinary security guards, and kitchen staff that you never pay attention to.
Frank was supported by a powerful "state machine", with some "prejudice" of convention.
Frank obeys the rules, but he has seen too many people who are "unruly" and try to avoid the rules. When there is a "rule-abiding" person in his life, he even has a desire to destroy the other's "perfect". "Sick Psychology".
Victor shakes his worldview.
The above is the first layer of perception shown in the middle of the film - the struggle between two "rule-abiding" people.
The audience may also imagine how to live when they are in such a strange place, even if they cannot speak the language.
In the second half of the film, above this layer of "struggle", there are more moving places.
Victor always had a peanut jar with him at all times. Frank wanted so much to know what was inside, even at the cost of coercion.
When the answer to that question was revealed, what Victor had been doing at the airport took on an extra layer of emotion.
In just a few words, the persistent image of a father and son is profoundly displayed.
Victor's commitment to his father is also the principle of life he has always adhered to.
ok, the story is here, and the ending can already be imagined. It is nothing more than that Victor finally fulfilled his promise and returned to his motherland smoothly.
If so, this story gets a 7.5, which can be excellent, but not a classic.
In the last 15 minutes, another reversal plot setting pushed the whole story to a climax, adding more human feelings to the tragic journey that was originally "to complete the promise to my father".
The female flight attendant Victor met at the airport won a one-day visa for him. He could set foot on American soil one day and go to New York to return the autograph he promised to his father.
Frank threatens him, however, that if he goes to New York, the secrets of the friends he met at the airport will be exposed. Like this fugitive from his own country - he's been cleaning at the airport. Frank threatens Victor to send the old man home.
Those who helped Victor risk losing the life they have now because of his decision.
Victor made a more "great" decision: for the sake of his friends, he complied with Frank's arrangement and decided to return home.
After the first 100 minutes of foreshadowing, "commitment" is especially valuable, but "abandonment of commitment" is even more valuable.
This is a precious layer.
Another layer of value is on this cleaner.
Cleaners have worked at this airport for many years and have untold stories.
If he keeps a low profile, he can work many more years until he retires with a pension and a carefree old age.
When he knew that Victor gave up his promise for them.
For this nine-month-old friend, he gave up the old age he had prepared for.
This frame is tragic.
Eventually Victor got the autograph.
128 minutes.
There are only a few important characters in the scene, but they show all kinds of human nature. The aftertaste is deep.
Victor is from a fictitious country, and indeed the qualities he exhibits are more like a fictitious "perfect" person.
Keeping promises, willing to give, honest, kind...
Too many excellent qualities are piled up in one person, and he carries the imagination of ordinary people for excellence.
More valuable is that he changed the original attitude of many people.
Both good and evil of human nature can be contagious.
Perhaps in reality, what we often see is that evil has the upper hand.
In the movie, people's hopes are still pinned: I hope the world can be better.
Although this is the "naive" expectation of an adult. But there is always hope, and life is better, isn't it?
View more about The Terminal reviews
