After the death of the old man in the village, he was secretly buried in the cornfield by the lake,
But I don't want to be dug up by the people in the village and sent to the cremation,
In this small mountain village in Gansu, where everyone pays attention to the safety of the soil,
What kind of deep hatred will make people be dug up after death and not be able to live in peace?
The story also begins with a craftsman named Lao Ma,
As the saying goes, three hundred and sixty lines, the line out of the yuan,
A small mountain village, there are always a few well-known craftsmen,
Some people are good at building houses, some people are good at painting walls, and old horses are good at making coffins.
His craftsmanship is well known in all directions, not only because of his carpentry.
More importantly, he will also paint on the coffin, especially the lifelike crane,
While vivid and vivid, it also represents the best wishes of the old horse to the deceased,
I hope they can go to the world of Elysium without pain under the guidance of the crane,
However, in recent years, as the state began to implement the funeral system of earth burial to cremation,
More and more of the deceased are being forcibly cremated, so that fewer and fewer people are ordering coffins.
So when his old partner Lao Cao came to the door and wanted him to help him make a coffin, Lao Ma readily agreed.
Lao Cao is more than seventy years old, his body is not as good as a year, and he may die at any time.
So I want to prepare the coffin in advance, in case I swallow my breath one day, I have a place to go to the roots of the fallen leaves,
The pair have made coffins for many dying old men in their lives.
But when he came to his old age, he suddenly had no chance of being buried, which made the old horse worried.
He was afraid that one day he would be cremated into a wisp of smoke in the chimney, drifting with the wind and leaving no trace.
After a lifetime of hard work, today's old horse is old,
Usually, the biggest hobby is to sit under the big tree at the mouth of the village, watch people play cards and have fun, and nag parents short,
In fact, this is also the hobby of many old people in the village.
They often gather here to pass the time, watching the children playing and playing, waiting for the children to call home for dinner.
On this day, the old horse sat under the big tree as usual and chatted, and the daughter Chunhua suddenly rushed home to visit her father.
It's just that as soon as the father and daughter meet, Chunhua begins to chatter,
Constantly accusing the father with a caring tone and not letting him smoke, in the daughter's heart is naturally worried about the old father's body,
But the old horse felt that he had smoked all his life, and it was impossible to quit it.
What's more, the rock candy used to quit smoking has long been taken by him to distribute to the children in the village.
The daughter was nagging endlessly, but the little grandson cried because he was too fascinated by watching TV.
The old horse, who was still sleepy, heard the crying and immediately woke up, and quickly took his grandson out to relax.
But not long after he stepped out, he was attracted by the billowing white smoke coming out of the roof chimney.
Since the implementation of cremation, the old horse has always been disgusted by the fire and smoke, and suddenly saw it and would hold a stomach full of anger.
To this end, he instructed his grandson to climb up the wooden ladder to the top of the wall and tightly stuffed the chimney with straw.
But I don't want to be in a good mood, before he entered the house, he saw that the wall of his house also smoked,
Yeah, who doesn't cook these days? How can so many chimneys be blocked,
Chunhua returned to her mother's house this time mainly to take her father to her home to go to the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The old horse has not seen his granddaughter Miao Miao for a long time, and naturally misses it tightly, and immediately agrees to it.
Originally thought that this was just an ordinary family visit, but did not want to make the old horse have hope in his heart,
Because on the way to his daughter's house, he saw that there were many new graves in the field.
This made him very confused, didn't he say that cremation is now being carried out? How can people here still be buried?
When he asked, he learned that only his village had been forcibly cremated.
And the daughter's village has not yet been popularized, many people in the village will secretly bury things after they die,
This news was nothing less than a surprise to lao ma, and the haze that was originally hidden in his heart was also swept away.
In the following days, he took Miao Miao around all day, fried eggs for her to eat, and taught her to draw cranes.
At the same time, he secretly carried out his plan, sneaking to the graveyard with Miao Miao over and over again.
Saying that it is to play, in fact, it is also to choose a site in advance for their future graves,
He thought that if he lived on his daughter's side until she died, she would be buried smoothly and fulfill his wish to be buried.
But there is no impermeable wall in the world, so once or twice down, the daughter Chunhua still knows her father's intentions,
In their place, whoever the father dies in the daughter's house, the son's family will be gossiped about, and the impact is very bad.
This can make Chunhua think more and more unpleasant, that night he hurriedly called his brother and sister-in-law,
Put out his father's thoughts and worries in his heart, and want to send his father home,
They don't care whether their father wants to be buried or cremated, as long as he doesn't tire his reputation, he can bury himself.
The daughter's tough attitude made the old horse very angry, but he couldn't change anything.
But Miao Miao saw that her grandfather was a little unhappy, and she took the old horse to a wetland to relax.
Here the scenery is beautiful, and there are groups of beautiful white cranes living on the puddles of water.
The sight in front of him made the old horse extremely intoxicated, and his determination to be buried here was even stronger.
But before he could fulfill his wish, he was forcibly sent home by his daughter.
With a depressed face, he had nowhere to tell his grievances, so he could only come to the big tree at the mouth of the village again to prepare for a small talk.
But this time, he heard a shocking news here, his partner Lao Cao died just a few days ago.
According to Lao Cao's wish before his death, his family secretly buried him in the cornfield by the lake.
After learning of the passing, the old horse came with paper money and sacrifices to worship the old partner,
Looking at the grave that had just stood up in front of him,
He squatted on the ground while smoking a dry cigarette and drinking wine, and sighed, not knowing whether he was sad or envious.
Maybe it's a reminder of the time when the two of them worked together in those years, and the old horse sat in front of the grave for half a day.
Then he came to a big tree across the lake and kept looking,
It seemed to be attracted by something not far away, until the grandson ran over and asked him to come home for dinner.
But since this time, the old horse has completely changed his temperament, and he usually talks and acts like a different person.
After returning home, I told others that I saw cranes by the lake, and even described them as similar.
It's just that the relatives didn't think it was true after hearing it, but felt very ridiculous.
They all mocked the old horse that he regarded the big goose as a crane,
In the face of the incomprehension of his son and daughter, the old horse was not angry,
Instead, I have to go to the lake every day to turn around and look for the figure of the crane.
Over time, the people in the village also felt that the old horse behaved strangely, and thought that he had become an old fool.
They had only seen the appearance of the crane on the coffin painted by the old horse, and had never seen the real thing.
Therefore, lao Ma must have been fascinated by the painting of the crane to such a point,
For a time, the stupid madness of the old horse people spread in the village, and became the joke of everyone's tea after dinner.
But it wasn't long before the eyes of the people in the village were drawn to another big thing.
Lao Cao's secret burial was finally exposed,
The village chief drove a truck with some strong labor to the grave, wanting to dig out Lao Cao and cremate it again.
This man has been buried, and he should not allow peace to the dead,
Lao Cao's family naturally disagreed, and tried their best to stop it in front of the grave.
But after all, a woman is not the opponent of several strong men, and she is dragged away by people.
When the villagers learned the news, they also rushed to persuade them, but the director's attitude was very strong.
If this is not dug up, then there will be people who will bury it in the future how to manage it.
Saying that, I did not forget to remind the villagers,
Don't do this in the future, otherwise they will still dig it up and pull it to be cremated.
In the cries of his family and the sighs of the villagers, Lao Cao was dug up by Sheng Sheng, and even people with coffins were forcibly pulled away.
This scene made the old horse standing opposite look in his eyes and mourn in his heart,
In this way, it is even more impossible for him to want to be buried, and if he does not make trouble, he will be as uneasy as Lao Cao.
Feelings of helplessness and bitterness surged into his heart, and in despair, he silently turned around and picked up a branch with his hand.
Drew a circle under this great tree, as if looking at his own grave after death,
After doing all this, he came to lao Cao's grave that had been dug out of shape,
Crouching on a high mound, smoking a cigarette in silence, with a dignified face,
It's just that accidents always come so suddenly, and I don't wait for the old horse to break free from the feeling of sadness,
The holy place in his heart that he would belong to after death was destroyed.
Winter is approaching, and villagers have come to the wetland to cut reeds to prepare for the family's livestock.
If the wetland is destroyed, won't the crane be even more unable to come?
In a hurry, he even rushed into the cold lake and shouted to stop it.
But his strange behavior was just a joke in the eyes of the villagers, and no one wanted to pay attention to this old man who had gone crazy.
The scythe in his hand did not stop for a moment, and even caught the wild ducks that inhabited the wetland and plucked them to eat meat.
The reeds are gone, the ducks are gone, and the once beautiful and tranquil wetlands are now a mess.
Looking at everything bare in front of him, the old horse only felt a wave of anger suddenly arise from his heart.
But before he could calm down a little, when he returned home, he saw billowing smoke coming out of the chimney again, and his heart felt even more bored.
So this time, he personally climbed up the wall and blocked the chimney with straw, making the house smoke miasma, not to mention,
He even ignored his son's persuasion and refused to eat.
The next morning, the old horse sat under the big tree on the edge of the wetland as usual, waiting for the crane to fly,
Grandson and granddaughter Miao Miao ran to play with him,
The child was naïve and ignorant, and thought that the crane that Grandpa said was real,
In order to make Grandpa happy, the grandson even caught a bottle of loach from the lake,
Because he has heard that the crane is a big bird, and the big bird is very interested in loach,
As long as the loach is cut into several sections and put into the lake, it can attract the crane,
This was originally a move to care about Grandpa, but I didn't want the old horse to be angry after hearing his grandson's words,
While reprimanding his grandson, he poured out his inner bitterness to the two children,
In his mind, the crane is an auspicious bird that can bring happiness to people.
Wherever it flies, someone will take a crane and fly to heaven,
And his wish is to wait for the crane to bring him to heaven,
But now, the sons and daughters have all agreed to send him to the crematorium after his death.
He did not want to be thrown into the fire and burned into ashes and turned into smoke, and disappeared from now on,
It's just that he can't make his own decisions about all this, and when it comes to sadness, he shed tears.
Looking at the tearful grandfather, the grandson's heart is also very unbearable,
While wiping his tears from his grandfather's eyes, he comforted his grandfather to give him ideas,
If you don't want to be arbitrarily arranged after death, it is better to hide directly so that everyone can't find it.
Sun Tzu's childlike words are unscrupulous, and anyone who sounds like he will laugh it off,
But this idea made the already desperate old Horse suddenly wake up,
Sooner or later, I will die, if I bury myself alive when I am not discovered,
Wouldn't it be possible to go into the ground unconsciously and not be sent to the crematorium again?
In order not to attract attention, he coaxed his grandson to help him dig a pit,
He even kept telling him on the side to dig a little deeper and bigger,
And the grandson is still young, and he doesn't understand what the concept of death is, so Grandpa let him dig it.
Under the efforts of the grandfather and grandson, the circle under the tree finally became a big pit.
The old horse also sat down slowly, and there was nothing on his whole body except the wildflowers that Miao Miao gave him to pin behind his ears.
Looking at Grandpa's old and bitter face and silent tears, The grandson was still afraid in the end,
He persuaded the old horse to go home with him for dinner, but the old horse did not care at all.
He took out the few pieces of rock candy left on his body and distributed them to the children, and then instructed his grandson to bury himself.
This time he finally fulfilled his long-cherished wish and returned to the earth.
As the sun sets, the golden afterglow of the setting sun sprinkles on the trees, and falls through the leaves to the ground,
The grandson and Miao Miao, who had completed their mission, walked towards home while playing,
At this time, the cry of a white crane suddenly sounded, and a white feather fell,
Perhaps, the old horse really flew with the crane to the world he longed for, as he imagined.
In the Chinese tradition, the crane is a symbol of longevity and a carrier of return to the west.
Driving the crane to the west is the hope and long-cherished wish of many people for the destination of death.
In the movie "Tell Them, I Went by White Crane", the crane reflects a sense of powerlessness of the elderly.
These rural elderly who have lived in the countryside all their lives, the ultimate wish of life is to go into the ground for safety.
But with the government's vigorous promotion of cremation, obedience to the wishes of the elderly has become a problem.
Spring and autumn iteration, there will be the sadness of the past, and the change of the countryside belongs to the choice of the times.
And the film uses images to show all this,
Li Ruijun, a non-professional director born in Gansu Gaotai,
Since graduating from the Management Cadre College of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in 2000,
I have always wanted to present the northern villages that give birth to my own in front of the public,
To this end, she uses traditional photography techniques to point the camera at familiar friends and relatives.
Tell the story of the rural life that our generation or ancestors have experienced but gradually forgotten,
The great tree stands between heaven and earth, both cruel and beautiful, and everything above the earth seems to have not changed,
And the film borrows the hands of children to bury the elderly alive, it is more like a funeral for the unknowable future to give the picture of past life.
People live a long but short life, and in order to live, we may continue to lose our dignity as human beings in order to survive.
Sometimes even have to make a certain amount of abandonment and compromise,
But in the last moments of life, you can follow your own heart's wishes and choose the way you pass away,
Perhaps it is our greatest respect for the value of our own lives,
This kind of respect does not come from the affirmation and giving of anyone in the outside world, but only from one's own recognition and love.