Loneliness is the carnival of one person, and carnival is the loneliness of a group of people.
What do people live for, what is the meaning of existence, and how should they deal with loneliness? There are answers in "Silent Life".
"Silent Life" is a realistic drama, with realistic brush and ink, white description of the expression technique, concisely and accurately depicting life and death and love.
With fixed shots, monotonous pictures, solid colors, repetitive work, and a soothing soundtrack, the background of "Silent Life" is quiet and objective, looking at life and death in an undisturbing attitude.
The protagonist, John May, is a social service worker whose job is to help the deceased who died alone find their loved ones and hope that they can send the deceased on their last ride.
In the past 22 years, he has handled many cases of the deceased, but basically no one cares, and he has always been alone in collecting corpses, cremation, music selection, burial, and funerals.
But even so, he has never neglected a deceased, he is working with all his heart, his relationship with the deceased is a stranger, but he gives his whole heart and feelings.
People die like lights out, the saddest thing is not physical death, but being completely forgotten, and even deliberately forgotten after mentioning, Mei's existence is so that these people can maintain a bond with reality after death.
When he was told that it would be cut, he decided to find all his relatives and friends for the last deceased, Billy Stork, and this search was a process of interpreting existential and philosophical concepts.
People are never a lonely individual, but eventually they will become islands, so is the existence of people meaningless, should they be lonely all their lives?
Billy Stocker is a hard-to-define two-faced man who helps his colleagues, fights with his supervisor in order to buy more time off for them, and finally quits and leaves.
He is very good to his lover, someone comes to harass her, Billy blows half of the other person's hand directly regardless of the danger, he loves his daughter deeply, even if he is in prison, he remembers his daughter's eighteenth birthday.
In order to raise donations for charity, he hung his belt for three and a half minutes outside a three-story building, and he had a life-saving relationship with his comrades, who saved their lives while on a mission.
Such a person should be around and make friends all over the world, but this is not the case, Billy spent the rest of his life alone, either with the street or with the prison as his home.
Because he drank, fought, had a bad temper, spoke viciously at each other at every turn, exchanged fists and feet, and got together with his family less and more, many times he was self-centered, and he couldn't tolerate other people in his eyes.
His life was a life of mixed discredit, with many friends, but they were all separated halfway and received the love of their relatives, but they were all squandered by him.
So when May approached them and wanted them to attend Billy's funeral, they unanimously chose to refuse, thinking of Billy's good side but also fear his bad side.
Billy became lonely because of himself, he once had everything, but he didn't know how to cherish it, and the purpose of his existence was to tell people how to love and keep this love, otherwise a lonely life would not be worth pitying.
Finally, Billy's funeral was held as scheduled, and all his relatives and friends were present.
Once people are gone, those bad things will disappear, and the living should live better and never repeat the tragedy of the dead.
In this life, when the lonely time is greater than the lively, everyone wants to be with their confidants, lovers, and relatives on the side, but how to maintain it is a science.
At the end of the film, at Billy's funeral, in fact, the director has taught the audience the method, initiative and tolerance.
Relatives and friends all came to Billy's funeral, Billy's former lover hugged Billy's daughter, and Billy's two beggar friends who lived on the street began to share the wine in their hands.
Lost love makes them know more about love, and this is Billy Stock's existentialism, using his patchwork life to explain how to love.
As the soul of John May, who runs through the entire film, his life is all unfolded in front of his eyes.
No children, no daughters and no partner, for decades the days have been two o'clock and one line, like clockwork, the switch is twisted, start to work, when the time comes, go home from work.
It doesn't seem to have any special meaning, it's nothing more than a single and boring flight together, repeating the same mechanical color, and a person stops and goes until he enters the grave.
But at the end of the film, Mother died in a car accident, and no one asked about his own funeral.
Originally thought to be a sad ending, but when the deceased people who Mei helped and sent them on their last journey appeared at May's funeral in the form of soul reappearances, the meaning of ordinary people emerged.
Mei is very inconspicuous, and she is a very ordinary member of all living beings.
His job is also not technically difficult, it is a beginner, and the substitution is particularly high, so when the company laid off employees, Mei was the first to be fired.
But his conscientious responsibility has allowed many helpless people to receive due respect after death, and do not have to worry about being alone, and do not have to fear that no one will see them off.
For them, Mei is an indispensable link in the closed loop of their lives.
Mei is gone, and the uncle on the second floor on the corner on Mei's way home looks into the distance as always, which will not have any impact on his life.
But they can't, after Mei leaves, there will be no one like Mei who will do their best to help them find their relatives and keep their ashes for a long time.
This is what ordinary people mean.
For the whole society, a person's life, old age, illness and death are like a wave in the sea, thousands of thousands, and the disappearance of a flower does not matter.
To strangers, the existence of a person is not even a distant cry, because there is no intersection between you at all, and there is no contact.
For those you are related to, the absence of a person may temporarily slow down your circle and perhaps bring tears.
In this life, some people influence the world, and some people are plain.
But ordinary is often also alive, waves are also alive, your existence does not have to be earth-shattering, lonely is not shameful, as long as someone remembers, as long as you love hard, it is to live well, is the essence of life.