At the beginning of this year, "Hello, Li Huanying" ranked second in the history of Chinese cinema with a box office of 5.4 billion.
At the same time, another version of "Hello, Li Huanying" was quietly released.
The synopsis is almost "copied":
The daughter travels back in time, meets her mother when she was young, and becomes a good friend.
plagiarize? Who copied whom?
Seeing the end, Sir found:
These are two completely different films.
Or rather.
It doesn't have to be "Lee Huan Ying" second.
"Little Mama"
Little mom
In March this year, "Little Mama" was unveiled at the Berlin Film Festival.
In September, the Beijing International Film Festival was released, and it was sold out.
Roughly guessed, they all rushed to the director:
Directed by Serene Sienma.
The last work was "Portrait of a Burning Woman", which was hailed as the "women's version of "Call Me by Your Name" and won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
△ Middle: Serene Sienma
In 2020, at the "Parasite" celebration party, Bong Joon-ho hugged Serene Sienma and handed her the Little Golden Man Trophy for Best International Film.
Bong Joon-ho comforts his friend, this award should be taken by you.
"Little Mama", also known as the "French version/ children's "Hello Lee Huan Ying"" is also called".
But the "××" version of "××" is not the best way to introduce director Serene Seaamma.
Serene Sienma has her own unique film style.
She once said:
"Every director should create his own film language."
She's always done it.
"Little Mama" is not an adult perspective, but a clear children's perspective.
Little mom refers to the mother in childhood.
When you have the opportunity to meet your childhood mom, what will you say to her and what will you do?
One answer from "Little Mama" might be:
You don't have to ask anything, you don't have to do anything.
But in the child's perspective, the grief between mother and daughter has long transcended.
The language of Serene Sienma's films is minimalist.
There is never any superfluous action, superfluous dialogue, no superfluous decoration.
Nelly and Marion are a mother and daughter.
Mama Marion is 31 years old and Nelly is about 8 years old.
Throughout the film, there is always an image.
defoliation.
Point out the background:
It's winter, and it's the winter of mom's life.
At the beginning of the film, notice a back.
After saying goodbye to several elderly people in the nursing home, the little girl returned to an empty room.
Mother Marion sat in front of the window, wearing a gray jacket.
On the way back to her grandmother's house, little Nelly just took the initiative to feed snacks and drinks to her mother who was driving.
Mom didn't say anything;
Little Nelly didn't say anything.
But from the tear marks and dark circles on mom's eyes, it can be seen:
Mom's mom, dead.
Grandmother, mother, daughter, different generations, began to have a secret connection.
The day after returning to my grandmother's house, my mother left the house because of excessive sadness.
Where did it go?
Didn't say.
However, Nelly meets a little girl of the same age in the nearby woods.
Time and space meet here.
This small nest is a nest that the mother mentioned to her daughter when she was a child.
It is also a metaphor for the daughter beginning to enter the mother's inner world.
Inside the mother, what kind of strange mother is hidden?
Look at the color first.
Clothing color changes.
When the nursing home collected the belongings, my mother was dressed in a sad gray.
Before Mom left the house, Mom's clothes were red, while the rest of the family was dressed in blue.
Mom was the one who was isolated.
Or rather, mom's grief is being ignored by the family.
After the mother left the house, the color of the "little mother" was also red.
A good movie never needs to express itself directly in words.
In addition to the color, there is one more detail:
mirror image.
A mirror image of the first name.
Mom's grandmother, also known as Nelly.
A mirror image of lifestyle habits.
"Little Mom" says she likes chocolate milk.
Previously, Nelly had breakfast with her mother, and what her mother made for Nelly was also chocolate milk.
Also, the mirror image of fate.
The women of the family all seem to die of the same bone marrow disease.
Some early, some late.
so.
Now mom and daughter who will die first?
Different from "Li Huanying".
The film doesn't explain how Nelly "went back in time," or even the scenes of a mother-daughter adventure through time and space.
But it was – the mother and daughter began to recognize each other's sorrows and experiences of life, as peers, from the perspective of an 8-year-old girl.
When you're 8 years old and have the opportunity to be with moms of the same age, what do you do?
Nelly didn't do anything.
Did not help her complete the regrets of life, did not change her destiny, did not question the source of her mother's sadness.
Just quietly tell her: I am your daughter.
I love being your daughter.
The 8-year-old mom is just a child.
They just play like children
Running in the woods, playing chessboards, eating chocolate milk, making pancakes, acting, building nests in the woods...
That's why Sir said that "Little Mama" doesn't have to be "Li Huanying".
Because.
If the former is compared to the ×× version of "Li Huanying", it is actually a misunderstanding of both sides.
"Li Huanying" tells a slightly cheesy mother-daughter story.
But Jia Ling used extremely full detail and emotion to reverse the "cliché" into a strong resonance, and finally told an unrepeatable, Chinese-style mother-daughter story.
"Little Mama" is a broader emotion.
Not even limited to "mother and daughter".
It depicts the sadness of the individual, how to withdraw from responsibility and identity.
Remember the original imagery of the film?
winter.
The brief warmth in the picture only appears when the two little girls are together as "girls".
At this point, she is not a daughter.
She's not a mom either.
Only by withdrawing from their identities can they finally reveal their inner emotions.
Finally, you can speak from the bottom of your heart.
Little Mom is going to have surgery, maybe her mother once told Little Nelly about this experience, and Little Nelly told Little Mom that you will be very unhappy there.
Little Mom just said:
I guess it's not your fault
You are not the source of my grief
This is the junction of fantasy and reality.
The little mother is about to disappear, and the real mother is coming back.
This is also the answer that the mother wants to give her daughter.
Why is Mom sad?
She may be because of the loss of her mother, perhaps because of her illness, or because she is not understood, but there will not be only one answer.
Moms also have the right to grieve.
After saying goodbye to her little mother, little Nelly returned to her grandmother's house, and her mother sat in an empty room.
Little Nelly suddenly called her mother "Marion".
Why does the daughter call her mother's full name?
Mom wasn't surprised.
Just seriously hugged little Nelly and responded to her daughter's name.
Not just them.
You will find that all the partings and reunions in the movie are solemn.
The old man will also seriously put down the pen in his hand, take off his glasses and his hearing aids, and say goodbye seriously.
It's a sense of ceremony.
It is a memorial.
What to commemorate?
Not to commemorate the loss, but to look back at what was once owned.
Just like the end of the film.
Little Mom and Little Nelly struggled to paddle in a small boat.
They carefully observed, looked, paddled, and finally through the darkness.
No quarrels, no conversations.
They may forget what they were thinking in the dark.
But they must remember that it was a memorable journey.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Yasuhiro Ozu