"Phantom Light" is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 1995 film, maybe you don't know who he is, but maybe you know that "Thief Family" was directed by him, and in the next few articles, I will talk about his film work one by one.
When you watch the film, you will feel that the shadow of Hou Xiaoxian is very strong in this movie, of course, Kore-eda and himself do not deny that Hou Xiaoxian has a profound influence on him, when watching this film, I think of one of Hou Xiaoxian's early works "The Man from the Wind Cabinet".
The heroine of the film, Yumiko, when she was a child, her grandmother insisted on going to the countryside to live, and once she went there, she never came back, Yumiko met Yufu on the way to find her grandmother, and later married and had children with Yumiko, living a poor and happy life, quiet like a quiet river, happiness will continue to flow like this.
One day after the heroine sister sent her husband Ikuo to work after the forest pine clothes left, the heroine Yumiko was doing housework with the baby, the police knocked on the door urgently, interrupting all this calm, the police revealed to him that I was alone on the railroad tracks, most likely her husband, when Yumiko went to the police district to see the key on the table, she did not speak for a long time, stayed there, she knew that it was her husband's key, the police explained to him that her husband was walking on the bend of the tracks, and then the moving train did not find it in time.
Yumiko returned home without talking about the child, just so quietly, there may be many questions in her heart, why there was no warning before, why did he go to suicide, she did not understand, she did not know, why a person suddenly disappeared, suddenly disappeared, can no longer be found.
A few years later, through the introduction of her next-door neighbor, Yumiko married into a small fishing village, and the new husband was named Akio, with a little girl, and they formed a new family. Even if the new life began like this, they held a banquet, the heroine began to integrate into the local life, understand the relationship between the neighbors, go to the street to buy vegetables, do housework, and the family eat watermelon in the open air, the little boy and the little girl also play freely, especially their play on the field, it is really beautiful and intoxicating, life is so calm and orderly.
Because her brother was going to have a wedding, the heroine went home for a trip. The heroine went back to the place where she used to live, he walked on the road that was once familiar, to the factory where her husband used to work, to the place where she used to live, everything was quiet, he paced back and forth there, she was thinking back and forth, he thought about the past, but the person was no longer there, never there, it just existed in memory, she couldn't touch his skin, she couldn't see his smile anymore, she couldn't hear his voice anymore, and this time she pulled Yumiko down before.
She still can't forget this person, he returned to the new husband Mingxiong's home, Mingxiong saw his heart and asked her if she was homesick? The heroine prevaricated for a reason, and Ming Xiong probably knew in his heart that there was something to do about it.
The heroine went to the beach, perhaps his repressed psychology needs to be released, he saw a funeral procession, he followed up, the camera began to pull far away, can only see the shadow of the heroine and the funeral procession, between heaven and earth seems so desolate, so empty. After the funeral procession was cremated, the heroine remained there, and she watched there in a daze, still thinking about something. At this moment, Akio also drove over, he found, he and Yumiko were silent, and when they went back, Yumiko suddenly said loudly, Why? Why? Why did he go to suicide? Lin Xiong was silent for a while, and told him that his father often went to the seashore, and there was a beautiful light calling him by the sea.
The whole film for the Japanese countryside of a kind of white depiction of the lens also allows people to peek out of the Japanese countryside, she is so quiet and clean full of the breath of life, the relationship between human feelings is also very simple, traditional and simple, they guard their own side of the soil from old, from birth to death, quiet life.
This movie is dominated by dark tones, coupled with an excellent soundtrack, giving people a very gloomy, calm and depressed feeling, I think the heroine has always had a mood in her heart, he can't accept the departure of Yufu, he can't figure out why he can't say goodbye to him for anything, and there is no slight warning before he leaves, why? The heroine has been suppressing such emotions in her heart, he silently endured, it is difficult to let go, and finally through the summoning of Mingxiong's distant beautiful light, he has gained comfort.