Many people should remember "Twenty-Two," a documentary that documents the current situation of the victims who were forced to serve as comfort women during the Japanese invasion of China.
During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, at least 200,000 Chinese women were forced to become comfort women.
When documentary filmmaker Guo Ke began shooting comfort women documentary films in 2012, there were only 32 comfort women survivors in China who were publicly identified at that time.
When Guo Ke started shooting again in 2014, that number dropped to 22.
In 2017, when "Twenty-Two" was released, only 8 of the original 22 people were still alive.
In 2021, only two elderly people in the film are alive.
The wheels of history roll forward without stopping, time does not matter how much suffering you have experienced, it will not stop for anyone.
They survived inhuman torture, kept painful memories, and lived tenaciously like a weed until they finally left.
From 200,000, to 32, 22, to 2 now, they left too quickly.
At the beginning of Twenty-Two, there is the funeral of a victim who was forced to serve as a comfort woman during the war.
This kind of departure runs through the film, many of these eighty or ninety-year-old people died during the filming process, and in the list at the end of the film, their names are more and more framed.
But the whole documentary is not shrouded in the shadow of death, but as calm and natural as flowing water.
Some people may even feel that this way, without the rhythm of twists and turns, "is too boring." ”
The director focuses on these elderly grandmothers, and he does not see them as "carriers of history", but really records their lives.
A real, "somewhat boring" record.
Over the past few decades, the former Japanese "comfort station" has become a dilapidated house, overgrown with weeds, and only the surrounding barbed wire and trenches can still faintly see the evil appearance of that year.
And the survivors who still carry everything and live in this world, what they are like, "Twenty-two" gives us the answer.
They didn't seem to be any different from ordinary old people, always sitting quietly on kang and stools, with their faces filled with the gully and peace left by time.
Mao Yinmei, an old Korean woman, was tricked into going to a comfort station opened by the Japanese in Wuhan as a child, suffered a lot, and has been living in Hubei ever since.
She adopted a daughter, had children, had grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and she had a big family, which had been buried in time in the past, and she was not very willing to speak, and she did not know much about Korean.
But when it comes to being separated from her mother, she still unconsciously chokes up tears, she still sings the Korean folk song "Arirang", and those memories of her family seem to be engraved in her bones, even after seventy years, she can be revived in the familiar song.
The old man Lin Ailan, who participated in the War of Resistance, talked about the experience of fighting the war and burst with spirit, and when he said that the machine gun would dance and demonstrate how the machine gun was hanging around his neck.
She made a great contribution during the war, even though she was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese army, she still secretly smuggled bullets out for our army.
The medals issued to her by the government, she regarded them as treasures, and after the medals disappeared, she was anxious like something, thinking that they must have been stolen.
Later, the film crew helped her find the medallion, which turned out to be lost in the room, and she smiled embarrassedly, fresh and soft.
When the camera is aimed at the elderly Li Meijin, it seems that the record is her most ordinary daily life, making a fire at home, cooking, eating, sitting on a pink plastic stool under the tree to cool off, and playing cards with people in the same village.
Like the light of the sun shining into the house, it is long and calm.
Grandma Li Ailian in Shanxi has a straightforward and cheerful personality, in the words of her daughter-in-law, "straight, what to say", she also likes cats and cats.
There were wild cats in the yard coming in, and seeing that the cat was about to enter the room, she stopped with a drink, and the sound was loud and bright.
Sitting in the yard and chatting with the daughter-in-law, it is also talking about the cat.
Saying which cat has a child, "Look at the belly bulging", the cat laid down a litter of kitten cubs, and no one raised her in her own yard.
If you don't eat it yourself, you have to feed it to the cat, and if you have anything delicious, you should eat it closely with the cat.
When feeding the cats, talk to the cats, "Your children haven't eaten yet, eat slowly..."
Grandma is in good health, has cats and cats, has a family, watches TV in her spare time, feeds cats, plays with children, and can be said to live a very happy life.
But peace and happiness do not mean that everything has passed, they just wrap the wound and do not show it easily.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I don't want to say it, I don't want to say it."
"I said it was uncomfortable."
"No more, no more."
When it comes to the persecution they suffered during World War II, most of the grandmothers are shy of it.
This is also normal, no one will repeatedly open the scar, let the wound bleed countless times.
In order to be able to live with a little hope, they can only live with scars and scabs, even if they avoid it, the old wounds will still hurt their hearts at casual moments.
Grandma Mao Yinmei talked about what happened in the comfort station, first saying that she "can't remember, I don't remember", but she was still able to repeat some of the words of the Japanese at that time.
"Welcome", "Please sit"...
Even a short fragment makes people feel the heavy pain in it.
The strong warrior Lin Ailan spoke of the devastation of the Japanese army, and after saying a few words, she fell silent, and no one spoke again, but her expression and wet eyes were better than a thousand words.
The elderly Li Ailian, who is "straight and straight, what to say", talks about his past with a loud voice and a clear line of thought, but he can't cry when he talks about his experience after being persecuted.
You can still hear the grievances and pain of decades in her choking voice, which has never stopped and has never been forgotten.
In fact, she had always refused to tell the details of her invasion by the Japanese army, and she had never told them the truth when the media came to her house five or six times.
Those painful torments were covered in her heart, and she didn't tell anyone, as did the film crew of Twenty-Two at the beginning.
Until one day when the rain poured down and the old man sat on the kang in a daze, the film crew dismissed everyone, leaving only the cameraman and a volunteer.
After sitting like that for a long time, she whispered to the volunteers, are the doors closed?
Confirming that "the doors are closed", she talked about what happened that year.
She was captured by the Japanese and starved for three days and three nights, when she was only eighteen years old, and finally the Japanese threw a bunch of green onions, and she ate 8 in a row, and since then she has suffered from stomach disease.
Then she cried and intermittently recalled the Japanese who had violated her in their 40s.
It turned out that those terrible pasts had never left, but she didn't want to open her mouth and hid everything in her heart.
Grandma Li Meijin recalled the scene during World War II, and she said it as if it had only happened yesterday, and everything was so unforgettable.
The Japanese came into the village to arrest people and set fire to houses, and they came one by one, forcing Chinese to pick wild fruits for them, and if they didn't pick them, they would be stabbed to death.
Grandma remembered the bayonet, and as she spoke, she drew it with her hand, "The tip of the knife is long when it is placed on the gun." ”
She still remembers the voice of the Japanese running, "There are many Japanese devils, the running road is loud again, wearing that shoe is up to the knee, running is loud again." ”
"The Japanese devils took guns to knock on our legs, and this leg was so painful that it was hit by the Japanese at that time, and the legs that hit them now can't walk, and it hurts to kneel."
These pains, more than seventy years later, they all remember clearly, but the old people's narratives do not have much emotional catharsis.
They have tears, pain, and hatred, but under the director's lens, they are all very restrained and even calm expressions.
Even in order to "divert their pain", the director will deliberately insert empty shots when they narrate the past.
Street view of Hubei,
The wind of Hainan,
Trees of Hunan,
Rain in Shanxi,
Even the water drops,
The moon hangs high...
These shots, which make the audience feel "boring and boring" when they look at them, are deliberately chosen by the director.
He didn't insert historical footage into the documentary.
Didn't join the narration, not even the music,
He didn't add any special clip that was enough to stir up emotions, and he really presented the current situation of the victims who were forced to act as comfort women.
There is no restoration of the blood and pain of history, no tearing of scars, just the calm of carrying on the burden of suffering and continuing to move forward for decades.
Only occasionally will the memories of a corner under the calm be revealed, allowing people to glimpse the devastation of the memories.
Grandmas are not symbolized historical carriers, they ignore the past, or even deliberately bury them, to allow them to survive, they need peace.
And we need to remember, to remember what they have suffered, to remember the scars on their bodies and the scabs in their hearts.
The death of one survivor after another makes this memory more urgent, their names have been black boxed, and their numbers have changed from 32 to 22 to 2.
This number will one day become 0, but as long as "Twenty-Two" is still there, their real lives will still be there, and the history and suffering we need to remember will not die.
Some people who have seen this film will feel that it is not ups and downs, "too slow" and "too boring".
But it is this kind of truth that has the power to revisit it again and again, so that we can remember the sufferings that happened to Chinese people in the past and not forget history.