Fate is elusive because it is the result of countless accidental convergences.
Sometimes we witness miracles in everyday life — like always meeting the same person on the street, like it always raining on sad days — just because of our stubborn judgment.
This is the story of "North Village Direction".
Hong Sang-so is a Korean director with a distinct creative style. He clings to the extremely subtle emotional fragments of daily life, and strives to pursue the plain and simple poetry in the chaotic reality.
The plot of "Kitamura Direction" is very simple, it is roughly a well-known stranded director who has made four movies and returns to Seoul, and something magical and sparse happens with old friends and newcomers.
Poster of "Direction of Kitamura"
Savoring this movie is reminiscent of Haruki Murakami's novel. Murakami excels at taking shortcuts in a way that strikes east and west, bypassing the "peach core" in the text and showing the soft flesh and sweet and sour juice instead. Hong Shangxiu's "North Village Direction" is like this.
Tokyo WonderBook
The first novel in Murakami's Tokyo Wonders talks about a miracle that often happens in life and is puzzling.
For example, "I" think of the name of jazz, and the player actually plays those songs; for example, "I" pick the record, and the time happens to be the name of the record.
Such miracles make us wonder whether there is a "jazz god" in life, or some other god, who looks at us silently in the shadows and often plays with interest the strings of our destiny, changing something very small, even unimportant.
《Direction of Kitamura》
In "Kitamura Direction", director Shang Jun is a witness to this miracle. On the street, he bumped into the same woman three times and the same group of film students twice, both awkward and wonderful.
Not only that, but the landlady of the bar "Novel", who spends time with friends, looks very similar to his entangled ex-girlfriend, who is also his former student, Qingzhen.
The landlady's name is Yizhen, and there is only one word difference.
Back in Seoul, Sang Joon is in the vortex of these miracles of everyday life, like a leaf. And he seems to know his situation.
So what exactly does Hong Shangxiu want to say?
Shang Jun's state is indeed similar to that of a fallen leaf in a water vortex. He doesn't initiate anything. When he arrived in Seoul, he briefly returned to the arms of his old lover Qingzhen with the help of alcohol, and the two of them wept bitterly. Afterwards, sober, he left again, leaving Qingzhen, who kept texting him to tell him what he missed.
He met the beautiful film professor, Paulan. Bao Lan seems to have the slightest affection for his old friend Yong Hao. And Baolan has some affection for him. At the bar, Bao Lan looked at Shang Jun with full style, smoked and chatted with him, and watched him play the piano seriously.
Shang Jun's subjective consciousness is very depressed. He neither rejects Pauline nor shows love. And the first moment when this consciousness took the initiative was the moment when he suddenly kissed the bar owner Yizhen.
When the snow was falling, Qingzhen sent a text message. The first snow drifted that night, and Qingzhen's words may have given Shang Jun a strong stimulus. He went out with Yizhen to buy dumplings, and on the way back, kissed her passionately.
Shang Jun's show of love, obviously, points to Qing Zhen. In fact, this point is not the tragic woman who lives alone, Qingzhen, but a woman in Shangjun's mind. She had all the characteristics of his ideals and was a truly perfect lover.
Sang Joon's sense of subjectivity—attachment to love and passive pursuit, desire to say and stop at filmmaking, and nostalgia for once-upon-a-friendship—is almost washed away in the continuous accidents and coincidences that take place during the seoul trip.
For example, there is --
When Baolan and Shangjun are smoking outside, Zhong Yuan and Yonghao are chatting at the bar and Yizhen. Zhong Yuan talks about his skill in seeing people's hearts, that is, "pointing out two extremes to people", for example, "Although you look extroverted and lively", in fact, "sensitive and sentimental inside", then the other party will feel that what is being said is himself.
One day, Yonghao, Baolan and Shangjun got together again, and he seemed to be trying to please Baolan and show his cleverness, saying, "People seem to have an extreme, as long as you can pull it out, it seems that most people are basically the same." ”
Paulan did not express empathy.
Bao Lan and Yong Hao happened to be in the bar at the time, did not hear this clever sister-in-law talk, and when the three of them soon happened to reunite, such a sweet coincidence did not allow Yong Hao to gain the heart of a beauty.
However, Shang Jun inadvertently used that passage to life.
Bao Lan asked what type of lover Shang Jun's dream lover was. Shang Jun replied:
"It shows that it looks cold-blooded and impersonal."
"Actually, I was soft like a fool."
"Obviously sentimental, but often exhausted to hide this."
This is the essence of that passage of psychological words! Shang Jun didn't have the heart to insert willow and said it. Sure enough, Baolan, who had a good feeling for Shang Jun, said in surprise: "The feeling is myself!" ”
Drifting away from the person you love, and connecting with the person you don't love in some strange way. Hong Shangxiu's handling is concise and clever, and it seems that he has really restored some of the original face of life.
In the evening, several people gathered again at a bar called "Novel". Yong hao seems to have a small quarrel with Bao Lan because of the day's affairs. Shang Jun ran outside to smoke, Qing Zhen's text message was sent again, and the female boss Yi Zhen once again happened to go out to buy something. Seeing the old lover's words, Shang Jun could not suppress his impulse, caught up with him, and kissed Yi Zhen again.
Yizhen is Qingzhen's reflection in the water. Sang Joon seems to be unable to be together because of his teacher-student relationship with Kyung Jin, or for reasons not explained in other films, so he runs helplessly in the apparitions of Seoul's streets.
This night, Shang Jun and Yi Zhen lay together.
The two embraced like lovers in love, kissing and touching each other. Yi Zhen was full of tears, and Shang Jun said excitedly——
"I seem to know who you are"
"You are a kind person, little fool"
"I really want you to be like that"
"I love you, you must be happy"
"I really want you to be like that"
All these words were said to Qingzhen.
But Shang Jun did not dare to say. He didn't dare say. On the first night in Seoul, Kyung Jin said desperately:
"I don't think you can't come here if you don't drink, can you?"
Only with the help of alcohol can Shang Jun dare to cry in front of his lover.
When she was separated from Yizhen, Shangjun asked her to repeat the three life suggestions he gave her last night, so that she must do it——
First, get to know some good people;
Second, drink alcohol and do not get drunk;
Three, keep a diary.
Yizhen said that it is okay to leave his mobile phone number. He left again and said that the two could not meet.
Sang Joon ends up roaming Seoul. His appearance was recorded by a fan's camera. The movie ends.
"North Village Direction" is like a walk on a snowy night. There is no purpose, just a broken, battered heart. Shang Jun can't grasp the drifting love, can't re-shoot the movie, and can't continue the friendship of old friends, which is actually the epitome of our lives.
The English translation is "The Day He Came", which seems to point out the theme of the movie
We are just like Shang Jun.
When drunk, he ran to the most precious corner of his heart and wept bitterly, and when he woke up, he smiled and continued his trivial and hopeless life.
The whole film is extremely poetic, warm as water, but like a knife peeling away the skin of the real world, and our pale hearts.
North Village direction. Where exactly?