At the Sundance International Film Festival at the beginning of the year
Out of several acclaimed independent films
Such as [Manchester by the Sea], [Escape from Desperate Town], [Nowhere to Live]
In fact, in addition to these
There is also a film that has also exploded in word of mouth -
The IMDb score is 7.9 and the Metascore score is 86
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness 98%
▲Screenshots of IMDb, Metascore, and Rotten Tomatoes scores in order
This movie is
[Serious illness]
Waited for more than half a year
Now the resources are finally out!
▲Not only has a good reputation on the external network, but also has a Douban score of 8.1 in the domestic film fan gathering place
▼
The title of the film is "serious illness", and the simple understanding is that the heroine in the film has a serious illness, but in fact, this "disease" refers to a lot of things.
It exists between the cultural differences between the East and the West, in the differences in the cognition of fathers and children, in the awkward and delicate game between husband and wife, and in the dispute between couples who do not understand each other.
▲ The poster is very interesting, Eastern family and Western family
[Big Illness] is a very realistic and cute movie, although it is produced in the United States, we can easily resonate in the film, during which we will be red eyes, and we will not help but smile.
There is even a feeling of the third act of Ang Lee's "Pusher" and [Wedding Banquet], and Jia Zhangke's "The Old Man of The Mountains and Rivers", but this is all an afterthought, before that, let's first talk about the story of [serious illness].
▲ This is a movie where the heroine is not online 70% of the time...
But before telling a story, there's one thing worth gossiping about. In fact, the story of [Serious Illness] was inspired by the personal experience of the male protagonist Kumel Nanjani, which means that he and his wife wrote their stories into a script and starred in them themselves.
▲ Kumer and Emily in reality
Everyone's impression of him is more of the unique Asian IT men in the many European and American faces of [Silicon Valley], and this time the true color of the performance, Kumer shows a different side from [Silicon Valley], relatively more relaxed.
▲You can recognize at a glance who Kummer is!
And Emily, who is not online 70% of the time in the film, is played by Zoe Kazan, this girl comes from a film family, her grandfather and parents are directors, actors and screenwriters respectively, she has been influenced by art since childhood, she is also a talented girl, and the reputation of her own [love book people] written and acted in previous years is also good.
By the way, she can also be seen in the new American drama [Legend of Fallen Street] directed and performed by Fu Lanlan.
Zoe Kazan in [The Man in the Book of Love].
Well, back to the point, Kumar is a second-generation Pakistani immigrant living in the United States, because of the influence of Western education from childhood, Kumer is open-minded, and it is a complete ABC in our country.
However, his parents, as a generation of immigrants, are still very traditional, almost to the point of conservatism, and their behavior and habits are completely contrary to his American thinking, and Kumer has unconsciously become a "contrarian" tone.
▲ By the way, the male protagonist's father is still a rake ear~
For example, the family asked Kumer to wear Pakistan's iconic beard, but he always shaved his face naked, which felt like your mother asked you to pull up the bangs.
For example, his parents were not satisfied with him as a stand-up comedian and hoped that he would become a lawyer, but Kummer agreed and turned around to work a more "unorthodox" part-time job - uber driver.
▲ Brother-in-law teased him to say stand-up comedy, this section reminds me of my friend, she left the institution, did her own baking studio, but resigned for 3 years did not dare to tell her mother!
For example, the family had to pray before they could eat, and as long as one person didn't do it, they couldn't move their chopsticks, but in fact, Kummer only played games in the basement every time and never prayed.
▲ You think I'm praying? Actually I'm playing with my phone!
For example, every day, Pakistani women come to visit his mother "by the way", which is actually a blind date arranged for Kummer. But in the face of his family's demands that he "must marry a Pakistani wife", he fell in love with a white woman, Emily.
At this time, Kumer is really like Gao Weitong, played by Zhao Wenxuan in [The Wedding Banquet], and Kumer's parents are like Lang Xiong and Gui Yalei's father and mother.
It's just that Kumer secretly interacts with men, and he is not forced by the pressure of his parents to find a woman to marry in a hurry.
▲ A farcical wedding in [Wedding Feast].
You know, falling in love with a white woman is not a small "crime" for Pakistani people, and Kumer's uncle was completely removed from the family because he married a white girl.
However, more embarrassment is yet to come.
Kummer's mother said no one would visit the pakistani-American child
Kumar has a particularly bad habit of keeping photos of girls on each blind date in a small box that is not locked.
So, before Kumer's parents found out about his "free love" with white people, Emily first found his box of "prospective girlfriends", followed by Kumer's showdown that her family had a tradition of "arranged marriages", Emily was shocked to realize that she was actually an "underground girlfriend", the two quarreled, and then broke up.
▲ You said that since you don't mean that, why keep people's photos...
In this way, Kumer spent a period of time without Emily. Until one day, he received a phone call and was told that Emily was sick and hospitalized, and since her parents were not there, he hoped that he would go to the hospital to accompany her.
Originally thought it was just a common flu, who knew that the lung infection was getting worse and worse, Emily fell into a coma and was admitted to the ICU, her parents arrived, and the "scumbag" Kumer finally met with the "former" father-in-law and mother-in-law who had evaded several times.
▲ The three of them met for the first time in the hospital, which was very embarrassing
By the way, the most explosive acting in the film is Holly Hunter, who plays Emily's mother, who has won the Oscar, Cannes, and Golden Globe awards with [piano lessons]. Before that, she was already a film queen at the Berlin International Film Festival.
After watching her performance, I can only say that these four materials are really worthy of the name.
▲ A classic scene in [piano lesson].
And the plot develops here, all the "diseases" in the whole movie are fully revealed - there are Emily's lung infections, there are games with different concepts of the family, there are discord between Emily's parents, etc., and there is the decadence of the bottleneck period of Kumer's career.
And these problems are synchronized with the severity of Emily's condition, from the appearance of the problem - serious - near death - the turnaround - recovery.
Kumar has always had two faces in his life, at home he is a traditional Pakistani, although shaved, but his family has always thought he is trying to study law, pray at least 5 times a day, and obediently accept blind dates.
It wasn't until Emily was unconscious that Kumel gradually understood his pursuit, he rejected the girl he knew, and he confessed to his family that he did not pray at all, let alone become a lawyer.
His mother trembled with anger, but still gritted her teeth and said:
If you want to be a stand-up comedian who disgraces your family, just do it, but I only ask you to do one thing, marry a Pakistani girl.
And he finally had a showdown and fell in love with a white girl who was lying in the hospital not knowing when she would wake up.
Then, the mother said "You are not my son", making his relationship with his family rigid to the extreme, it can be said that he only waited for Emily to wake up to get a certificate and was officially removed from the family.
However, after a brief period of confusion, he is determined to "die" with his family!
Kumar used the talent of a stand-up comedian to solve problems, writing practical and funny common sentences on a blank piece of paper, handing them to his Cold War family, telling them that it was okay if they didn't want to talk to me, and that we could contact them in words.
Under the onslaught of his dead face, his mother still refused to let go, but her actions already said it all - when Kummer decided to go to New York to develop an acting career, on the day he left, his parents appeared.
Kumar's father got out of the car with a bowl of traditional Pakistani snacks and walked up to him and said:
Your mother won't allow me to hold you, this is what she made for you, your favorite dish, and added a lot of potatoes that you love to eat, but she will never look at you.
▲ This dad is definitely a rake ear!
In the end, the mother couldn't bear to get out of the car, and she really didn't look at her son who was about to leave, but we all know that she acquiesced to Kumer's sentence "I will always be a member of this family."
The relationship between Emily's parents, Beth and Terry, has also undergone a wonderful repair.
When Kumar first saw Beth and Terry, he felt that the atmosphere between the two was not quite right, to put it bluntly, it was a couple who looked like they were separated.
Sure enough, one night, Terry tells Kumel that he cheated only once, but he confesses to Beth because he is too guilty.
Although she said she forgave me, I knew that she didn't.
In this way, he and Beth continued the awkward married life, because there is love, so they are not willing to separate, because there is love, so there is no way to let go.
They've been sleeping in bed for a long time because of tension, so you can't help but breathe a sigh of relief when you see Beth come to Terry's bed, ask him if he minds, and snuggle up in Terry's arms.
The couple, who could have terminated their marriage at any time, suffered pain, experienced collapse, met hope during the time of taking care of their daughter, and finally like the beginning of a long illness, truly understood each other, saw each other's difficulties, and reached a reconciliation.
As Terry said – love is not easy, that's why love is so great.
And this is also the best part of this movie. Even though there are recognized huge differences between Eastern and Western cultures, everyone is the same when it comes to the immutable theme of "love."
The son will quarrel with his girlfriend because he is worried about his parents' mood, the parents will be busy taking care of the sick daughter, the brother will secretly visit the brother who has left home with his mother, and the girlfriend will miss another city just to see him...
▲ Relatives will really be happy to get rid of the disease!
What's even better is that although a lot of serious issues are involved, the expression of [serious illness] is very relaxed, and some people may feel that the drama is insufficient, but because of this, it is closer to life, and there are several bridge sections that make people smile or wet their eyes when they see it, and then think of themselves.
Kumer's mother divided the work into three, six, nine, etc., the doctor is the best job, but unfortunately the son is not that material, but if he can do a good job as a lawyer, but Kumer is a talk show actor at the bottom of the pyramid.
Some of us should also be engaged in jobs that our parents think are unstable, some people are urged to take the civil service examination, and some people are even swayed from the time they choose majors in college.
If the work is done or can't be managed, the parents and the three sisters and six wives begin to worry about lifelong events again.
▲ Drop-in visit = forced blind date
How many people are perfunctory on blind dates like Kumel? How many parents, like his parents, quietly expect to blossom and bear fruit every time, but are disappointed each time?
Faced with all kinds of problems, Kumar finally couldn't help but ask his mother why she wanted him to bring him to the United States if she wanted him to live in Pakistan.
This should be a problem that most first- and second-generation immigrants face, parents cannot tolerate their children abandoning traditions, and children do not understand why they should take him away from home.
In the third act of [The Old Man of Shan He], between Zhang Yi's father who does not speak English and dong Zijian's son who does not Chinese, it is the maximization of this embarrassment and disharmony.
▲ [Mountains and Rivers Old Man] stills
Even Kumar's only anger was empathetic.
When he went to buy hamburgers under pressure, because the clerk on the first day of work did not know how to be flexible and did not order according to his requirements, Kumer finally broke out, kicked over the trash can, and yelled at the clerk to vent. But immediately he calmed down again, packed up the trash can, and apologized to the other party.
Sometimes, we don't know that a small upset will become an emotional flashpoint, uncontrollably making some unkind actions to the people around us, but then feeling sorry for your actions.
[Serious illness] does not strengthen the laughter fruit or stir up emotions, some are just the humor and warmth of the clouds. But it is precisely this kind of casual emotional resonance that can be naturally fermented, making you sigh, this is a life without faces
And this film can gain such a reputation, director Michael Huyat is indeed indispensable.
Xiu Huat's previous "Hello, my name is Doris" was named the American Critics Association's Annual Top Ten Independent Films, and foreign media commented that he continued the independent spirit this time.
▲ [Hello, my name is Doris] poster
Speaking of which, the concept of "independent cinema" originated in Hollywood in the middle of the last century.
At that time, Hollywood was monopolized by eight major film companies, and films were made according to a strict "producer system", the goal of which was to maximize profits. However, while the system brings a lot of money to the film, it also restricts the performance of creators.
As a result, a group of ideal filmmakers, in order to get rid of the control of the "Eight Congresses", raised their own money, wrote their own scripts, and became their own directors, and made many films that were completely different from commercial films but were extremely ideological, that is, "independent films", but in the past, such films were niche.
▲ Speaking of independent films, we have to mention the representative - Quentin Tarantino's [pulp fiction]
But as the boundaries between indie and mainstream are blurring today, today's independent films are no longer niche. It's like [Manchester by the Sea], which has shined at the Sundance Film Festival and the Academy Awards.
In my opinion, today's "independent film" is no longer a description of the director's creative state, but more in some things outside the form. Maybe the money to make a film is not paid by the director, but there is an independent and unique expression of the director.
▲ Let me mourn myself [Manchester by the Sea]
▲There are tears and laughter, and the ending is heart-warming [serious illness]
And for us audiences, watching independently, thinking independently, when we go out of the theater, we can also feel the pulse of life independently, then this movie is enough.
It just so happens that [The Great Illness] is such a movie.
P.S. Pay attention to the WeChat public account moview_weekly reply to the background "serious illness" to get the link.