The film begins with Griffiths and ends with Abbas. --- Jean. Luc. Godard
Abbas is not only a film giant, but also the ancestor of the mountain. His spiritual power is contained in all movies. --- Jia Zhangke
If you want to commit suicide, will you find someone to bury you?
In 1997, Iranian director Abbas's poetic film "The Taste of Cherries" told such a story, a person who wanted to lose his life, Buddy, drove and kept looking for someone to bury him, and Abbas gave an open ending, we don't know whether this Buddy is dead or alive? But it can lead us to philosophical reflections on death.
This year, due to the epidemic, we have to face death, and it turns out that death has always been around us, and we are always hanging on our lips in our daily lives. I believe that many people will have their own unique views on death, and Shakespeare's phrase "survival or death" is still in the ear!
01, live or die
After watching this movie, the author feels very warm, his heart is nourished, and he will no longer be trapped by "survival or death". Because after watching this movie, I will be moved by the people that the male protagonist Buddy meets, and Buddy's mood has also changed from the vast yellow sand at the beginning of the film to the vigorous green at the end of the film. I think Buddy should be alive.
Those who love life think about what is behind them. Death allows us to take charge of our lives and accept the responsibility of existence. The desire to commit suicide has crossed the minds of many people, including myself. Every morning we ask ourselves a question: Why am I alive? We cannot choose race, nationality, religion, parents or skin color. The only thing we are free to choose is whether we want to live or not. Suicide may be our only freedom, an outlet for the world. If we don't exercise this freedom, it's because --- no matter how difficult it is--- we decide to live. --- "The Taste of Cherries Abbas on Movies"
Abbas loves and enjoys driving, believes that the car gives people a sense of security, and is the best place to watch and meditate, facilitating endless conversations and continuous conversations within himself. So most of his film footage was shot in the car, like this "Taste of Cherries." The people who hitched him in the entire film were workers, soldiers, old omelette men, seminary students, and museum anatomists, all of whom demanded to hire them to bury him at a high price, but only the museum anatomist agreed to bury him.
Workers symbolize working people, no matter what country they are, are highly respected, simple and kind people who eat with their own hands. There are many workers in the film, and the beginning of the film is a dialogue between Buddy and a worker, but the workers are busy working, even if Badi pays a high price, it cannot be tempted, perhaps related to the national conditions of Iran, they believe in the Quran and are not allowed to commit suicide. The other worker, who had injured his hand while working, was not tempted by Buddy, did not see the money in his eyes, but concentrated on continuing his work. Another worker scolded Buddy for blocking the construction site because Buddy's car was blocking the construction site, but Buddy was silent, and soon the worker realized that Buddy was not in a sad situation, and invited him to the construction site to drink tea as a sign of concern. And when Buddy's wheels were stuck outside the road, the workers working around him were immediately elated and all gathered around to help him escape, without any remuneration, all voluntarily.
These are warm people. Although the surrounding environment is full of loess and yellow sand, they are happy working people who live seriously.
The appearance of the soldier symbolizes Buddy's memories and yearning for youth, because he was also a soldier when he was young, and it is also the one he talks about the most, which shows that he likes the youth of the soldier, he also has good memories, and it seems that the idea of suicide has faded. The face of the young and slightly tired soldier is enough to show the hardships of the soldier, and the soldier's family is not well-off, and the family still expects him to support the family, but he is still not tempted, although Buddy's high price is enough for his family to live a good life, but the young soldier refuses! Immediately got out of the car and went back to the barracks.
The Omelette Old Man and the Seminary students who worked during the holidays also rejected him, because they all had their own duties, in other words, they were all busy, even if the Omelette Old Man was just a helper, but he was also trustworthy and not tempted by money. And the appearance of the seminary students, the director arranged it very cleverly, on the one hand, it is a metaphor for God, buddy's thoughts of suicide can not even be saved by God! The identity of the student shows that this "god" is still quite young, has no life experience, cannot experience Buddy's world-weary mood, and naturally persuasion is fruitless!
The appearance of the museum anatomist as an elder is the terminator of Buddy's suicide. There are two endings, one is that Buddy commits suicide and dies, and the other is that Buddy finds hope of being alive again. Some people will find it too preachy to watch it, or not like the movie. But I just like the arrangement here. Because Buddy is always silent in the car, bent on death, the car is his cage, he is trapped in his own cage, always unhappy, dead on the suicide barrier, unable to extricate himself.
It was the words of the museum anatomist who struck him deep inside, and the experience of the elders was enough to understand him, and he also had a suicide experience, but because he ate delicious mulberries, he once again had a yearning for life. The point is that the elder promised his request that he bury him the next morning, because the elder's child was in dire need of medical expenses. This Baddy is not calm, and the surrounding environment is vibrant green and colorful, buddy's half-open car window is also fully open for people to take pictures. It turned out that someone was really willing to help him die, and he also had hesitation! What a brash!
Until he got out of the car and entered the museum to find the elderly, the director used the intrusion of a group of students to show Buddy's mood, the students symbolize hope and vitality, and the sun is just right, all exuding vitality. This is actually an indication that Buddy has stepped out of his own cage. He found the elder again, still pretentiously confirming that he had agreed to bury him, and still got the elder's affirmative answer. It is also because of the profession that the elderly are engaged in quail specimen anatomy, and since they have promised something, they will certainly honor it, and they will not be merciful.
This is the director's cleverness again, so that Buddy, who is bent on death, sways, scared, maybe living is still beautiful!
02, the real work of art is the one that says less
The male protagonist of the whole movie, Buddy, is the least talkative person, and he does not explain why he is bent on taking sleeping pills and is willing to hire someone to bury him at dawn the next day, and he does not know why he asked for death until the end of the film. And this is the brilliance of director Abbas, Buddy is just a representative, one of countless people who want to commit suicide, anyone can be substituted, you, me, he or she, can find their own shadow.
There are not many characters in the whole movie, but they are very representative, very popular, and the film has been 23 years old, the author has re-brushed it several times, and it is still endlessly memorable! Some scholars have written "Suicide Theory" and discussed the topic of suicide, but the author believes that it is not as good as this movie, and no matter how much it is said, it is not enough to feel and think with eyes and personal experience. Pessimists should not be able to see the warmth hidden in this movie, but optimists will be touched by these warmths, and will not commit suicide for a moment of difficulties, after all, people only have one life, ah, should be as much as you can enjoy life!
03, fiction to non-fiction slowly switch back and forth
The film is fictional.
The structure of "The Taste of Cherries" is taken from a Persian poem about butterflies, which fly around candles and get closer and closer to the flames until they are burned. In the movie, Buddy drives around until he falls into the grave he has dug for himself. The story is inspired by the legend of a man being chased by a lion. In order to escape, he was forced to jump off a cliff, but was caught by the roots of plants on the mountainside. He found himself between the huge mountain stream beneath him and the ferocious beasts chasing him. It was then that he noticed two rats --- a white and a black --- nibbling on the roots of the plants on which he hung. In this worrying situation, he saw a strawberry growing on the mountainside, and in that frightening situation, full of danger and uncertainty, he reached out and picked the strawberry and ate it. --- "The Taste of Cherries Abbas on Movies"
Buddy is also fictional, but the workers, soldiers, omelette old men, seminary students, and museum anatomists he meets along the way are real. The shooting scene of the movie is real, especially the mountain road in motion is a symbol of the road of life!
There are also the dark clouds and moon in the night sky at the end, and the film crew who suddenly broke into the picture after dawn, and even the director himself, all told us that this is just a movie, don't get too deep into the scene, Oh, Buddy is just an actor! Haha, what a funny director!