A normal working day in front of a convenience store in Japan.
A timid middle school girl snatched the door and ran straight to the right side of the convenience store. Behind her, the young convenience store owner chased after her.
No one shouted "help" or "catch her." The two were separated by more than ten meters, facing each other on a narrow road, and all the sounds could not be heard except the sound of hurried footsteps.
The girl suddenly turned to cross the road, followed by a sharp brake sound, followed by a muffled "bang", and the girl was knocked off and fell on the road.
The young female driver was stunned by the sudden scene and held her breath with her hands clutching the steering wheel. The convenience store owner, who was still chasing after him just now, was also shocked and slowly moved towards the girl.
The girl struggled to get up, the blood on her forehead covering her already childish face, and the miserable white skin appeared even fairer. Her eyes were sluggish and wandering, staring at the convenience store owner a few meters away.
Only a second later, a fully loaded van sped up, dragging the injured girl to the bottom of the car, stopping with a long blood-red mark on the ground.
The girl was gone.
The above plot is the beginning of the Japanese movie "Blank".
The flower girl who died unfortunately was a well-behaved child who was only promised and slow to swallow everything in the eyes of the teacher. Simple brain, poor hands-on ability, and even become a small transparency in the eyes of classmates, such a person will go to the convenience store to steal things, it is really unbelievable.
The divorced father is a cynical fisherman. Living alone with his daughter, he did not want her to have more contact with his ex-wife. He is always arrogant and vicious, so that his daughter has a gender separation from him. But he knew that his daughter was well-behaved and would not steal.
The owner of the convenience store is humble and has no quarrel with the world, runs a small convenience store, works hard like every social animal to make a living, but as the person in charge, he is not half angry and arrogant. Until he saw the girl put transparent nail polish into her bag.
The first female driver to hit the girl was cheerful and kind by nature. Although the incident was investigated and had nothing to do with her, she still believed that she was the murderer. Wash his face with tears all day, hoping to get the understanding of the little girl's father.
Convenience store chief catches thieves, and it is a matter of course. If the person who steals something wants to run, he will chase it, which is logical. But no one had ever imagined that such a terrible result would be chased out by this chase, and a living life would disappear in front of him, and what should have been clear suddenly became unclear.
The girl's father regretted it, thought of his daughter's good life, and insisted that his daughter would never steal anything, so the convenience store owner who chased her was responsible and needed to pay a price.
The store manager believes everything he sees with his eyes, and chasing the other party for an accident is not what he wants, but the inner uneasiness makes him depressed, and even thought of committing suicide at one point.
At this point, the media began to step in.
They hold the mentality of watching the hilarity and not being afraid of big things, at the funeral, in front of the girl's house, in front of the convenience store, through the interview of random passers-by, even at the expense of provoking the girl's father, inducing and maliciously editing the convenience store owner's answer to achieve the purpose of improving ratings.
They don't care about the death of their daughter, what they care about is that the convenience store owner is "insensitive", the girl's father is "seriously derelict in his duties", and they are obstructed or even pushed during the interview. Everything, emotionless, cold and abnormal.
At this time, the first female driver who hit and injured the girl committed suicide.
The unexpected death of a flower girl magnifies the suffering of several families. Then, through the chain reaction, under the fermentation of the media and the cold eyes of society, the tragedy shows a state of radiation, involving more and more people and things.
The coldness of the film first originated from the girl's interpersonal relationships.
Stupid, no friends, divorced parents, inferiority in heart, the only good teacher can not let her have more hopes for the future, and the mother's side of the family's self-reconstruction, father's eternal harshness also makes her more lonely.
After the accident, the coldness of the film stems from the indifference and cruelty of the media. Find a topic for the topic, weave the topic without a topic, try your best to do something on the person, kill people, and add a lingering shadow to the already sad story.
The teachers at the daughter's school wanted to help the girl's father dig deep into the roots, and perhaps there was really school violence. But the contempt of the principal and the sneering of colleagues have made the well-meaning teachers suffer and even be discouraged. In such a teaching environment, what else can be said?
The originally simple story, through the catalysis of single parents, car accidents, bullying, sexual harassment, public opinion, Internet violence and other events, is gradually enriched. The addition of each content, and then point to the end, flickering by, as if the cold eyes of the society, let the parties scrape the bones again and again, and the pain is not desired.
Unable to identify with dissidents, unable to bear the consequences, unable to admit dereliction of duty, his father's grief was full of expressions in the moment when he and the convenience store manager knelt down and prostrated their heads.
Seriously deny yourself, always harshly blame yourself, excessive repentance and confession, let the convenience store manager and female driver live in purgatory on earth. In the end, one prostrates one man and one hases apologizes.
So who is right and who is wrong?
The film does not give a final answer. It's like every character in the film is depressed and paranoid, losing the bright colors of life, surviving, and even committing suicide.
So what exactly does "Blank" mean?
I think it could be the atmosphere of the girl being hit by a car twice.
Suddenly, all sounds, states, moods, atmospheres, and even life signs fell into a blank, as if frozen. The repression of society, the repression of life, the repression of learning, the repression of family, the repression of work, are all frozen in that moment and then magnified.
Thoughts are magnified in unexpected places in dangerous directions, reflecting the appearance of beings in modern Japanese society today. Let each character present the appearance of all the victims and perpetrators at the end of love and hate, and show the cynical theme at first glance as a "blank treatment" that says nothing but says everything.
Many Japanese films of the same type always take the end of a role as the beginning, unfold the people and relationships around the deceased, reach a consensus of interpersonal relationships in the interaction of various characters, and actively look forward to the good, leaving the living with more reflection and encouragement.
The end of this film also points to the light, and the good villains did not go to the end of the funeral culture. As a standard "just watch once" movie, this work leaves the audience with more psychological gaps, and may really take a long time to digest and fill.