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The places that cannot be reached are called far away, and the places that cannot be returned are called hometowns. —— Movie "Ghost Town"
Five years ago, a public welfare film crowdfunded by 70,000 South Koreans was quietly released.
Director Zhao Zhenglai is unknown, no big production, no star, but it has easily brought great shock to South Korea and even many countries, triggering international "political thinking".
Many South Korean netizens commented that this is a must-see movie for Korean nationals.
That's right.
"Ghost Town" is a movie that made me pluck up enough courage to brush up after 4 years. It tells the story of the war of the last century, and the Douban score is only 7.5, but in my heart, this movie is worth 10 points!
Different from "Nanjing! nanking! The visual stimulation of "Jinling Thirteen Chao", the spirit of self-sacrifice, this movie makes me feel the cruelty of war and the light of humanity in peace.
"Arirang ~ Arirang ~ Alariya ~", with the opening of the girl's song "Arirang", I knew that I had to prepare tissues.
Whether it is the picture texture, lens language, or even art props and colors, the biggest feeling for me in the whole film is that it is calm and restrained, and it does not lose the director's unique humanistic care.
Today's article, we will not talk about the artistic level of directors, to talk about the protagonists of the film to experience things, as well as their inner changes, and changes in fate.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" >1, the war broke the good life of a 14-year-old girl</h1>
The story takes place in 1943, North Korea.
Zhen min, a 14-year-old girl, lives in a remote and quiet village, innocent and carefree. I played in the fields with my friends and in the evening I was able to sit on my father's shoulder and sing beautiful songs. At the beginning of the film, it shows us the ordinary and beautiful life of a young girl. She was completely unaware that the gunfire of war was approaching.
One day, Zhenmin returned home and saw the Japanese puppet army with small soldiers, and her parents were kneeling on the ground and begging for something. She did not understand her mother's hint that she had let her escape, and she was discovered by the Japanese puppet army. The cries of the mother and the struggles of the father all looked pale in front of the Japanese army.
Zhen Min was forcibly taken away like this.
On the train to Mudanjiang, China, the girls, ignorant of their impending fate, are oblivious.
Jeong-min meets Young-hee, who was also arrested as a comfort woman, and since then, the two have become good sisters and feel sorry for each other.
The screen switches to 1991, Young-hee's perspective, when Young-hee has become an old lady with gray hair. At this point, we can probably guess that Young-hee, as a survivor of the war, is unforgettable about the old things.
It just so happened that one of her sister's female disciples had the ability to channel because of the violation, that is, to use some existing object to recreate the past, or to let the soul of the deceased briefly communicate with the present person with her own body.
The film adopts a first-person perspective, a two-line narrative, suddenly transferred to the old lady of Yingxi, many viewers are confused, in fact, this treatment does dilute the shock of the war, so that the audience can return to the time of decades ago with the old lady Yingxi in the dull, telling the story.
so
Jeong-min and Young-hee, how exactly did the fate of the two girls change?
And how did they spend their darkest, most difficult times?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" >2, "comforting" others, their bodies and spirits are in tatters, and Zhenmin encounters a light in the darkness</h1>
From paradise to diyu, just a step away. The girls were taken to the cabin, and outside the door, the soldiers lined up in a long line, waiting to enjoy the "comfort", and the girls did not have the slightest time to rest, allowing the soldiers to vent the wounds on them on the battlefield.
Even if you come to the menstrual affairs, you must receive it, and it is difficult for every girl to escape from being beaten, and from time to time there is an education: You are not human, just a who lives for the Huang army. "When you are sick and cannot be healed, you will be shot directly."
Zhen Min has always had a thought in her heart - to escape, it is this glimmer of hope that wants to escape, so that Zhen Min can persist. In Zhen Min's life as a comfort woman, there is one person who is particularly important.
One day, a soldier did not come in like others and became intimate with Zhenmin, but sat down and chatted with Zhenmin. The soldier said that Zhen Min was very similar to his sister, and he asked Zhen Min to rest in peace. Even if it is only ten minutes, these 10 minutes are the time that belongs to Zhen Min herself.
Girls have a short time to bask in the sun every day, the girls' eyes have gradually lost their light, and everyone has various traumas on their bodies and hearts. Along with the familiar singing, Zhen Min's mind came up with the time she and her parents spent in the countryside, but nothing could go back.
Jeong-min gets a map of the military defense from the kind soldier, she quietly discusses the escape plan with Young-hee, and at night the four girls carefully sneak out of the room, following the map's guidance to try to bypass the sentry, but are soon discovered by the people who check the room.
Several of the girls also ran away, and the girl who had fallen behind was caught by the soldiers.
Zhen Min watched the girl being beaten, and the girl never confessed to the three of them. Jeong-min and Eun-hee decide to go back and not let the captured girl die because of herself, while the other girl escapes.
In the plot here, Jeong-min and Eun-hee can escape completely, but why don't they? It is instinctive to want to escape, they have had enough of such a dark life, and even if they do not escape, they may never be able to return to their hometown. But they didn't run away, the girl who was caught didn't confess to them, she was kind, and Jeong-min and Young-hee were the same, they were all kind in their bones.
In these girls, what I saw was the cruelty of war.
The soldiers who gave Zhenmin a map were also kind. He picked up the gun and carried out the order, but when he put the gun down, he was just an ordinary person, like Zhenmin, with a family and a sister. He couldn't bear to shoot the girl, but was shot dead by an officer.
In him, we see more of the helplessness of war.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" >3, a lament in the war, dreaming of returning to hometown</h1>
As the war drew to an end, the girls were driven into trucks and about to be executed, the girls knelt in a row, and Jeong-min shoved her amulet into Young-hee's hand and told her, "Don't give up, live." ”
Originally, Jeong-min and Young-hee were able to escape together. However, an officer appeared behind them, step by step, trying to kill them. After being rescued, Zhenmin looked back to see the Japanese officer raising his pistol.
At the last moment, she helped Young-hee block the bullet.
……
Time comes again in 1991,
The elderly Young-hee finally plucked up the courage to expose the crimes of the Japanese army, but heard such words from the staff:
Even if there is, it's a bit of that! To be honest, unless you're crazy, who would say that about the past.
I'm sorry, but when I saw this, my heart was full of resentment.
I can't help but sigh that this is precisely the epitome of the attitude of the whole society.
In fact, watching a movie can not only stop at the plot and theme discussion of the audience's identity, but also cannot stop at the technical level of audiovisual language analysis, but also should tap the deep cultural value of each good movie. The research value behind it, the social significance. As it should be.
"The nation is the world", and the reason why "Ghost Town" can have such a great influence and gain widespread attention around the world is inseparable from the "Korean symbol" in the movie.
It is not difficult to see that the director not only tells about the special group of "comfort women" in "Ghost Town", but also mixes the unforgettable history of China, Japan and South Korea, reflecting the "Korean culture" and the "sense of community" behind the film's image symbols.
At the end of the film, by the clear lake, Young-hee's grandmother finally meets the young Jeong-min with the help of a psychic girl.
"Sister, are you okay?"
"Thank you for calling me back to my hometown."
In this way, I can't help but cry.
[I am Yue'er, film and television screenwriter, sharing a good story]