The Japanese film The Call of the Distant Mountains is a 1980 film by Yoji Yamada.
I always feel that the films directed by Yoji Yamada exude the warmth of Yasujiro Ozu. Yoji Yamada, who has a commoner complex and temperament, is really a disciple of Ozu.
Japanese film master Yasujiro Ozu, as the master of family ethics dramas, director Yoji Yamada naturally received a lot of influence from his predecessors.
"The Call of the Distant Mountains" uses the most shallow, peaceful and subtle way to portray the most profound and moving feelings, touching the softest corners of the viewers' hearts, allowing people to feel the hardships and acids of ordinary life, tasting the warmth of human nature and the still water of emotions.
The story takes place in the Nekyuzun Wilderness of Hokkaido, where there is no city full of dazzling lights and lights. In winter, the snow is frozen and the pasture is desolate, but when spring comes, the endless fields are lush and full of life.
The magnificent scenery of Hokkaido's vast pastures is a major attraction of the film, and it is also the main scene of the character activities and storyline development.
The opening scene has a beautiful big vista, a flock of crows flying in the dusk sky, and the distant cry of the old cow "mooing" of the old cow.
Sunset afterglow, crows a few points, herding calves returning, cooking smoke, giving people a warm sense of home, in this lonely and empty pasture, what kind of story will happen?
The camera focuses on a farm family, where the farm's heroine Minzi is busy late at night before she and her seven-year-old son, Takeshi, have dinner in the house.
It was still the evening breeze just now, and suddenly it was pouring heavy rain. Outside the house, a strange man pleaded to stay under the eaves of his master's house.
Strange man's mighty and strong figure, wantonly doing some bad things, how can the weak mother and son resist?
In real society, will someone accept a stranger to break into their lives? And it's a person who doesn't know the bottom line.
Hokkaido ranch is full of magic and comes with a strong positive energy, giving the herders here an open mind and a warm and strong heart.
The kind people not only arranged for the strange man to stay overnight, but also provided food.
Late at night, the man helps minzi to help the cows produce smoothly.
The newborn heifer is the rainbow that appears in the sky after the storm for the people who have suffered a lot; for the wandering man Tajima Farming, what is not a good sign?
There are many coincidences in this world, but behind this mysterious coincidence, there is a hidden causal relationship.
If the stormy weather is an accidental condition for Tajima Farming to seek a home, then the kindness of farmers and hostesses who lack labor is an inevitable condition for Tajima Farming to return to ask for a part-time job.
The same is the end of the world fell people, why should they have met each other!
Minzi is a woman who suffers a bitter fate. At an early age, he and her husband left their hometown and came to Hokkaido to start their own ranch. Just like the sudden ghost weather in Hokkaido, her husband died of illness two years ago, and the hard life was severely tortured by Minzi, even if she was tired and tired, she always took her young son and insisted on this pasture.
The wind and rain are miserable, and the chickens are chirping. See the gentleman, Yun Hu is not Yi?
One is a homeless man who has wandered the world, and the other is a widow who has lost the pillar of her home, and they meet in the pasture of Hokkaido, and something will happen in the darkness.
A man who is very secure always gives people a sense of solidity full of dependence and trust!
Tajima looks gloomy and indifferent on the surface, but he is like a rushing lava underground, and the inside is hot.
The taciturn Tajima is low-key and down-to-earth. Every day he came out early and returned late, milking cows, cleaning cattle pens, herding cattle, and ploughing the fields, these agricultural tasks were very easy in his hands, and he also took the initiative to take on the extra work, fences, and repair doors.
Farming is not only a good way to work, but also a good kung fu. He repaired the three Flies that had harassed Minko several times, and used his fists and feet to teach the three Brothers of Tsubata who had come to take revenge. The onlooker Wu Zhi looked dumbfounded, and the man who stood tall in the sky should be like farming!
After Minzi was injured and admitted to the hospital, farming played the role of the pillar of the family, arranging farm work and household chores in an orderly manner, and loving Wuzhi like a father. Minzi's dangling heart finally let go and enjoyed this long-lost sense of security.
After Takeshi came home from school, he always stuck to farming and riding a horse, where could the children's hearts be hidden? The son was so attached to farming, the people saw it in their eyes, and their hearts naturally understood. Father's love is like a mountain, and Takeshi strongly absorbs the breath of father's love on the cultivation body.
On the back of a dark red and shiny horse, a strong man held the reins in his hands, his legs clamped around the horse's belly, galloping on the vast field, and the afterglow of the sunset reflected in the man's healthy figure, and also rippled in the eyes and hearts of the people.
At this time, silence is better than sound, seeing this beautiful long shot, does the audience sincerely sigh?
I have to admit that the love in Yoji Yamada's lens: no sensationalism and dog blood, no nudity and stimulation, clean and restrained, calm and warm, exuding oriental subtle beauty.
In the dream, I looked for it for a thousand hundred degrees, and Yi was in the middle of the light.
Minzi's heart was deeply impressed by the man on horseback! He is the man I am looking for, he is the father that Wu Zhi relies on, he is the haven where the boats in the wind and rain live!
Time passes quickly, and when farming first came to Hokkaido, it was a warm and cold spring, and in the blink of an eye, a beautiful autumn was ushered in.
White clouds float in the blue sky; industrious peasants sweat beads on the turquoise fields; fat and fresh fish churning in the clear river; old cattle and knights on horseback who return from the crimson sunset...
This magnificent natural scenery of Hokkaido floods the audience's face, and can't help but remind people of a Taiwanese folk song "Walking on the Country Road":
Walk on the country roads
The old cow that returned at dusk was my companion
Blue sky with a sunset in the chest
Colorful clouds are the clothes of the sunset
The hoe was placed on the shoulder
The shepherd boy's song is rippling
Oh wow they sing
There was also a piccolo that was faintly blowing
A smile is written on the face
Hum a folk song
Let your mind fly in the evening wind
How much loneliness and sorrow drift with the evening wind
Forgotten on the country roads
The beauty of the autumn harvest of the Hokkaido ranch is fascinating!
Simple and industrious herders work at sunrise and rest at sunset, self-sufficient and help each other. Herders' lives are bitter and sweet, and major horse races and fairs are held after the autumn harvest.
After the victory of the farming horse race, he and Minzi mother and son went to the market together, and Takeshi sat on the shoulder of the farming, like a close father and son.
Minzi bought a new shirt for farming, and ploughing gladly changed into it. Minzi's face was filled with a sweet smile, and between the two of them, the wonderful ambiguous feelings had long been clarified.
The warm scene of a family of three touching Tajima's heartstrings. The calm uncle who has always been unsmiling, at this moment, his heart fluctuates and his five tastes are mixed.
Tajima Farming was also a man of hard work, his father died early, his wife hanged himself, and he was forced to kill the person who came to force the debt by mistake, so that he was exiled to Hokkaido.
He helped at Minzi's house, just to fill his stomach. Unexpectedly, after working for half a year, he gradually fell in love with the vast and beautiful Hokkaido pasture, fell in love with the herdsmen's life with the folk customs, and fell in love with the cute little Takeshi and the tough and gentle people. He found a sense of belonging to life on a Hokkaido ranch.
Farming hastily invaded the life of an orphan and widow, and the mother and son went from being worried and wary at the beginning to sincerely accepting farming and treating him as their own family.
Tajima's soul gradually let go of the heavy burden, and his gloomy face stretched a lot. For a tramp, the warmth of home is his dream and his luxury.
Although Farming hopes to stay in Hokkaido forever, and even to join the Minzi family, he is a sober-minded man, he knows that it is a distant dream, and sooner or later he will be arrested and arrested.
Good days are always fleeting.
On the racecourse, the work that was in the limelight was targeted by the police. Farming confides the truth to the people, and although the people have long been aware in their hearts, they still cannot accept the cruel reality.
The encounter is a rainy night, the farewell is also a rainy night, and the cow that produces the most milk is sick again. Minzi was almost out of control, and couldn't help but get close to the heart of the cultivator, burst into tears, and tried to keep it.
Farming is restrained and reserved for the love that is at hand. Ambiguous and beautiful feelings, at this time the melon ripened, but he could not bear to pick it.
How can a reserved farming directly say the word "love"? He left the hostess, turned to the cattle pen, stayed up all night, assisted the veterinarian in treating the cow, and proved his love for the people with practical actions.
The next morning, Wu Zhi could not believe the true identity of the cultivator, he ran all the way, crying all the way, trying to stop the man who had given him the love of his father, the people in the house covered their faces and wept, and the ruthless police car roared away, abandoning the mother and son who had fallen into sadness and helplessness.
This pair of poor orphans and widows, having just tasted a hint of the sweetness of life, once again suffered the hammer of fate. It's like playing a checkers game, walking on the Kangzhuang Avenue, but being folded back to the original sheep's intestine trail by a bad luck dice.
The audience's heart was fiercely sinned, and seeing that it was difficult for a lover to become a family, how could they not sigh emptyly?
At the end of the film, a speed train winds through the endless snowy fields. At this time, the cultivator was handcuffed and escorted to the prison serving his sentence. The Hokkaido ranch outside the window is shrouded in relentless wind and snow, solemn and desolate.
Farming stared at the scenery outside the window with infinite emotion, his eyes searching, the snow was blown by the wind, whistling past the livestock shed, the tool room, the main house, and the empty scene brought endless sadness to farming.
When the audience is immersed in sour and sad emotions and is difficult to get rid of, the film has a major plot reversal.
Hatada and Minko got into the car one after the other, and the two sang double-reed dialogue, which was extremely touching:
"Ma'am, I heard that you don't raise cattle, you went to work in the town (yes), I heard that you and your son have to wait for your husband to come back, that will wait for many years, is this true (well), it is really remarkable, is there any difficulty in life (with Mr. Muda's care)?".
The cultivator on the side listened to the two people's questions and answers, tears slipped silently, minzi stood up, took out the handkerchief and handed it to the cultivator, the cultivator took the handkerchief and covered his face, the whole scene was silent.
The wind and rain are obscure, and the chickens are chirping. Seeing a gentleman, Yun Hu does not like it?
The sky is not old, and the emotions are hard to despair. The heart is like a double silk mesh, with thousands of knots.
True feelings are like the vast grassland, and the layers of wind and rain cannot be blocked. There is always a time when the clouds open and the sun rises, and the sun shines on you and me.
You see, Yamada's emotional processing method of suppressing first and then raising is too mysterious! The audience's long-suppressed emotions instantly erupted, and the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature were sublimated, and they could not help but sigh: It turns out that there is such a pure and beautiful love in this world that is worth waiting for!
To be able to make such a plain, soothing, simple and sincere film, I think that Yamada Yoji must be full of compassion, a very gentle and affectionate person.
Ken Takakura and Chieko Doubi co-starred, and the two big stars joined hands, and the relaxed and tense performance contained the power to shock the soul.
"The Call of the Distant Mountains" won the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Music Awards at the Japan Film Awards that year.
Hokkaido's nature is harsh and also full of business. This is Yoji Yamada's second film set in Hokkaido after Happy Yellow Handkerchief.
Hokkaido's neon fields, without neon lights and skyscrapers, this pasture far from modern civilization has not been polluted by modern civilization, perhaps, this is Yamada Yoji's "ideal kingdom"!
Perhaps, only the Hokkaido ranch can give birth to tajima farming and minko-style "ideal human beings"!