Word of mouth box office "separation"? The first domestic reputation that does not sell dog blood, but it hurts so much that no one dares to look at it?
It's time to write this film.
Recently, Chinese films have the best reputation, but the box office is a bit worrying.
Probably because, this movie, which looks very lovely, makes couples in the cinema look like pins and needles:
Gentle shell
As of today, the box office has just 14 million.
But if you can still find a movie near you, Sir still recommends checking it out.
Because it captures the marginalized people of society that are rare on the domestic screen, and the cruel poetry in them.
Special Reminder:
This article involves some spoilers, if you mind you can bookmark this article and read it after watching the movie;
The plot may involve psychopathological representations, family shadows, and gore scenes, so if you've had similar experiences, read it with caution.
01
The heroine Juexiao (played by Wang Ziwen) is trapped.
There are two ropes that wrap around her.
One is reality.
Abandoned by his mother since childhood, he was raised by his aunt.
Jue Xiao has a wish. She earns and saves money by working in a low-paying job just to find her mother in another city.
It turned out that the aunt sold her old house in order to marry her son.
Can she still find her mother? In case my mother comes back, do you know where to look for her?
However, what is more difficult for Juxiao to break free from is her depression.
A year ago, she committed suicide by slitting her wrists and was sent to a psychiatric nursing home by her aunt.
The mind could not find consciousness to rely on, and the body was trapped in this sanatorium.
The hospital limited their space to move, supervising them like children, taking their medicines regularly, and spending their free time painting watercolors, paper cuttings, and exercises.
At this time, gray and palisade form the main picture of enlightenment.
She looked through the window glass at the green plants in the sun, she could see it, but she couldn't touch it.
She herself is surrounded by shadows.
Unexpectedly, in the abyss of loneliness, a ray of sunlight shone into her life:
In the psychiatric nursing home, she met Dai Chun (played by Yin Fang), who was simple, lively, and suffered from bipolar disorder.
For some reason, Dai Chun noticed her at a glance in the crowd.
Since then, Juexiao's hospital life has exploded with many small surprises:
He pretended not to take medicine and fled around the cafeteria to make everyone happy.
If you can't take the stairs, you have to climb over the corner.
While snatching the note she had pulled out while doing the laundry, he secretly shoved an apple into her hand.
You can see that the story is going to develop in the direction of a romance film.
But this is also destined to be dangerous love.
Many viewers probably couldn't help but advise: women, don't look for men in the madhouse.
But love does not happen according to a reasonable plan.
Especially when love becomes the only straw they can grasp each other.
The love of two ordinary people may be romantic.
And the love of two mentally ill people may be a battle with the whole world.
During a tea-picking event, they escaped.
Escape from this cage.
Escape to the outside world.
But is the outside world really freer?
02
Find out why this romance is not suitable for couples.
Other romance films are candy.
Every detail of love in "Gentle Shell" seems to have stumbled... Glass ballast.
Pain, continuous output.
Watch the fireworks.
What is reflected is the ruins, the picture of their inner ruins, and the home they can't go back to in reality.
On the ruins, can life be rebuilt?
A pair of shoes, an apple, a hug.
Two people who are mentally crippled are expressing their love in the purest way.
It is also in a little splicing of their future.
Such a pure and idealized emotional relationship is easier for people to see the real emotional flow than the many bloody, misunderstanding, and quarrelsome love scenes on the market.
However, the most ordinary and ordinary life is for them who are not ordinary.
It's like an illusion that lures them into danger.
Reality is full of dull pain.
In the behavior of the first two people, the foreshadowing has been planted:
Jue Xiao is reluctant to wear short sleeves, for fear of being seen with a scar that has cut his wrist;
And Dai Chun never dared to open a locked bedroom in the old house.
The hope of guiding the way forward in the ups and downs of life, which is likened to a bird in the movie.
The first time she knew about birds, it was a story told to her by her patient Pony:
People like them have a cooing bird inside their body, and as long as the bird flies out of their body, they can be free.
Before meeting Dai Chun, Juexiao's body would make a "cooing" sound, probably because of hunger.
This hunger manifests itself in the homelessness of being always on the road and never satisfied.
Until she meets a man who gave her an apple, Dai Chun satisfies her hunger.
Dai Chun himself is like a bird, he will suddenly want to stretch out his hands on the electric car and pretend to fly.
Spirits can fly in the clouds.
Until they bumped into the news that overwhelmed them:
Jue Xiao is pregnant.
They have problems even supporting themselves, how can they raise another child?
After children are born, will they inherit their diseases?
But you feel that love can be salvation.
but found that love has become a hostage of fate, unable to let go, not obtained, and exhausted.
"Tender Shell" has the romance of love.
After the romance, there are bursts of pain, and one more difficult hurdle after another.
At this time, Dai Chun's father was released from prison.
He also suffers from bipolar disorder, which has been his nightmare since childhood, frequent domestic violence against his mother, and pouring a whole pot of boiling water on Guo Dai Chun's back.
His father not only passed on the disease to him, but also relied on him for the rest of his life:
It turned out that he could not shake off this fate for the rest of his life.
The world is so hard.
Perhaps, all our lives we have been searching for a soft shelter, along with our first memories when we came into this world:
Mother's uterus.
There are many images in the movie, all of which give some kind of hint.
Take water, for example.
Another example is blood.
Just like when we broke free from the "tender shell" and came to the world.
Is there a chance to be reborn in another tender shell?
03
After many twists and turns, the director did not simply say: love is the solution to everything.
It just makes them "near-normal".
The window and the sea, perhaps, never really disappeared.
Near the end of the film, Dai Chun saw the imaginary bird through the window.
In reality, he only has a bird paper cut affixed to the hospital window.
But what does that matter?
When the shadow falls, he can still "fly" with it.
As the doctor told at the end: "You will still be sad or depressed in the future, but I believe you have the ability to face it bravely." ”
The film not only shows a special case of the life of a sick couple, but also uses them as an incision to show real social problems:
Stereotypes of sanatoriums.
Roughness in institutions for raising the elderly.
The more important question is how normal people treat relatives and friends who have been in a state of mental distress for a long time at home.
The opposite of responsibility is easy to slide into emotional kidnapping.
Jue Xiao's aunt and Dai Chun's younger brother treated them very roughly at first.
But on the other hand, this is also the result of the long depression caused by their more than ten years of help and long-term enduring the unstable elements at home.
In the film, the tragedy of the "ordinary person" on Dai He, played by Bai Ke, is easier to empathize.
Dai Chun once had a dream:
Dreamed that he and his brother were on the same starting line.
As soon as the starting gun sounded, Dai He ran out.
And he kept falling, kept getting up, and fell repeatedly ...
The two brothers who came out of the same old house, Dai Chun stayed, and Dai He became someone else's family, impatiently leaving this tragic everything behind.
Dai He abandoned his father, wanted to cut off his brother, and resolutely did not want children.
But his own ability could not make up for his innate inferiority, and he could not achieve anything.
Looking at his brother's life, as a seemingly lucky normal person, Dai He constantly questioned himself:
We two brothers, who is more complete? Who is more normal? Who is happier?
"Normal people" who do not face it cannot reach the other side of the sea.
The blocked room seemed to trap his brother Dai Chun.
In fact, it was his younger brother Daihe who couldn't get out.
And Dai Chun, when he saw the spring of consciousness outside the window.
It has already taken a step and walked into the light.
Although the film shows the "overwhelmed" of real life, the director's attitude in the end is still gentle and conciliatory.
This is also considered too fairy tale by some viewers.
When it is impossible to dig deep into pathological problems in one's shoes, poetic stream-of-consciousness fragments may be missed with serious discussions.
But reality, it is impossible to be solved by a movie.
And we need a little tenderness, a little hope.
If reality is only reality, then there is real unsolvability.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial assistant: It's Tu Yile