On February 16, 1982, 45-year-old Jiang Lizhi Huimei quietly left this world while lying at home. She was once a generation of singers who were popular in Japan, and was also the wife of the famous Japanese hardcore actor Ken Takakura. And this day is Ken Takakura's birthday and their wedding anniversary.
For many years, Ken Takakura always sent a bouquet of flowers to Emi Jiang Li on this day, but this year's flowers came late. She was lying on the floor, wearing a wedding dress, and in the empty room, only an old-fashioned record player was still singing, which was the voice of Jiang Lizhi Huimei during the flower season: "I still remember that night, yes, that night, I lost my lover..."
Ken Takakura and Etoshi Etoshi
After her death, Ken Takakura, who stood in front of Jiang Li's statue for a long time with a mournful face, never married again.
In 1999, Ken Takakura, who had been in the film for many years, was invited to star in the movie "Railroad Man", and his only request after carefully reading the script was to use his deceased wife's famous work "Tennessee Waltz" as the background music.
The film's choice of this song hints at Ken Takakura's deep love for Emi Etoshi, and the railroadman in the story who has stuck to the lonely rail all his life in the distant snow country is also a portrayal of Ken Takakura's life - the weight and heaviness of career and family, and the difficulty of the child's premature death.
Poster for the movie "RailroadMan"
The story takes place in the expanse of the distant mountains that seem to be familiar, where there is also snow, as the old steam locomotive vigorously breaks through the wind and snow in the thick smoke, whistling past, accompanied by the ethereal and sad oratorio female voice in the background, the camera flashes back to the half life of the railway conductor Sato Otomatsu played by Ken Takakura - his wedding photo with his wife, and his appointment letter to the station manager of the town of Homai.
Driving the train, Yi Song said a sonorous and powerful "signal is normal", when the train entered the bend and came into view again, the smoke disappeared, the body turned from black to red, and the decades of time had melted into the flying snow and the lonely railroad tracks.
A tall figure was standing on an empty platform, the camera zoomed in, and the uniformed Otomatsu was already two sideburns white, and he sipped the slightly drooping corners of his mouth, feeling in his heart why the winter in Hokkaido was getting colder. He gasped, shrugged his still broad shoulders, and tiptoed his feet rarely.
The diesel locomotive sounded a loud whistle, so that Yi Song's spirit was lifted, following his resolute gaze, the warm and melting illumination of the front of the car reflected the falling snow crimson, he moved sharply with his right hand holding the red signal flag to pull up the sleeve of his left wrist, corrected the moment, turned his head and pointed to the station indicator to the driver, a neat gesture, and then a standard salute. "The costume dance —the disguise dance—" was followed by a greeting with the only two passengers on the train who were also staff members. The train came and went once a day, and when Otomatsu wrote the phrase "There is no abnormality today" in the lonely lights of the homai in the middle of the night, he completed another day's work, which is the daily life of Sato Otomatsu, the station manager of Hokkaido Hokkaido Homai Station.
The narrative of the film is intertwined with reality and memory. On this day, senji, an old friend who is also retired, came to visit Otomatsu in order to once again try to persuade the ill stubborn old widower to leave the hoop dance station and go with him to work at the warm resort hotel. During the day, Otomatsu refused shochu handed over by Senji, saying that he would drink it at night during working hours; at night, after entering the phrase "there is no abnormality today" in the duty manual, the two old men reminisced about the past with wine in Otomatsu's bedroom in the station.
Otomatsu and Senji worked together when they were young, and when a train crash, Otomatsu saved Senji's life, and the two had a deep revolutionary friendship and participated in most of the important moments in each other's lives. In that year, Otomatsu's wife gave birth at an advanced age, And Senji's wife went into the delivery room to accompany the delivery, and the two men were nervous and sweaty outside; the next scene was in the tavern, the two men met the boy who had suffered misfortune, the boy became an orphan, and just when the Otomatsu couple who had died prematurely decided to adopt the child, the wife fell ill and had to entrust the boy to others.
No matter how lonely a person is, there is no way to completely become an isolated island, the story in the memories of Otomatsu and Senji is sad but warm, and the wind and snow whistling outside the window cannot disturb the two old friends in the house tonight. Xianji cut to the point and let Otomatsu consider his body and the rest of his life, but judging from Otomatsu's expression, even if his old friend pulled on his collar with drunkenness and said emotionally, "Otomatsu, let's be together, stay by my side", such warm words that warmed my heart, did not shake his determination to stick to it.
"I can't do anything without the railway", "Being a railroadman is the will of my father I respect the most", "I have numbers in my heart"... I think that Xianji actually understood his old buddy, so he pestered a few words about these reasons that were not strong enough, and he fell into a deep sleep.
At this moment, Otoson, who was extremely awake, settled down his old friend and returned to the station hall. There was a humanoid doll on the desk, and it was during the day that Otosong saw it being held in the arms of a little girl. It was Yi Song who had just sent off the train, and with a "normal rear" remark, a little girl ran out of the station, five or six years old, holding a doll to watch Yi Song who was shoveling snow. The boy seemed to be very interested in the train, and looked in the direction of the train for a long time, and then handed the doll to Otomatsu, and stood by the railway by himself and compared it with ease, just like the daily Otomatsu. Touched by the scene in front of him, Yi Song showed a warm smile, and the child took the doll and jumped away. In the evening, when Otomatsu found that the doll had been left on the window sill of the station, he smiled and shook his head, placed it on the table, and registered the lost and found.
Just thinking, "Station master -- station master--", Otomatsu opened the door, it was a girl, junior high school student, politely came to find her sister's doll. Otoson happily led the girl into the house, and his long-lost work excited him, and, inexplicably, he had a very warm impression of the little girl he met during the day. He handed the doll to the girl, and she was not in a hurry to go, and the old man and the child talked idly, like a pair of grandchildren. The girl said that she lived not far away, and her surname was "Sato". Yi Song said that she wanted to send the girl home, and the girl said that the moon was very bright, thank you; but when the girl went to the toilet, she said that she was afraid of the dark, and let Yi Song wait for her outside. Standing at the gate, Yi Song took the doll in the girl's hand and suddenly remembered that he had also bought a similar doll for his daughter of the full moon, and that time when he entered the city, he deliberately went to the doll shop to carefully select it.
Back in the house, Otomatsu opened a bottle of heated juice for the girl by the fire, joking that Xianji, who was snoring in the house, was a walrus. When he once again offered to send the girl home, the girl mischievously rolled her eyes and asked him to close his eyes. The girl suddenly kissed Yi Song, followed by a sentence of "Haha, tomorrow I will come again, bye-bye -", already waving goodbye at the door, leaving only the stunned old Yi Song, and the doll who still remained in the station.
The next day, after sending away the old Xianci, Yi Song fell into the memory alone.
In the memory, the wife excitedly told the news of the pregnancy to Yi Song, who was on duty on the platform, and even naughtily snatched a serious Yi Song hat, buckled it on his head and saluted him to let Yi Song praise himself;
In the memory, the anxious Yi Song outside the delivery room finally heard the news that the child had successfully fallen to the ground, he came to his weak wife and gave his daughter the name of "Xuezi" on that snowy day;
In the memory, the wife took the train to the city alone with the cold snow in her arms, and Yi Song stood on the platform and watched them go away with a sentence of "Go forward - normal in the rear - the signal is normal";
In the memory, the train entered the station, the wife held the already stiff body of Xuezi for a long time and refused to get off the train, yisong silently knelt next to him, and the pain went deep into the bone;
Finally, until his wife was seriously ill, Yi Song, who was still on duty, still let her leave by car alone, and the last words his wife said to him were "I'm sorry, I thought I could take care of you all the time";
Later, he listened to Senji and his wife relay that she had not seen the last side of her husband in the ward, and the last sentence he said was "He is really a railroad man--", at that moment, his wife's eyes flashed a faint light, there was pride, there was nostalgia, and there was also a faint resentment.
When the memories of the scene became blurred in the tearful eyes, the answer in my heart gradually became clear - when a man has lost to his wife and daughter because of his obsession with his career, how can he be relieved in the remnants of loneliness. Coming to the twilight of his life, it is useless to think about more regrets, and let yourself really be a real railroadman for the rest of your life as his deceased wife said.
However, a phone call later made him not know where to go. Senji's son, who works in the railway office, called to inform his esteemed uncle that the Homai branch line, which had been decided to be scrapped and discontinued due to the exhaustion of the mine. The lonely and trivial work in front of me is probably running out of time, and even Otosong's residence will be demolished along with the station...
The stubborn Yi Song bid farewell to the juniors on the phone with a loud encouragement, returned to the lonely platform, the cold wind and snow invaded his chest along the nasal cavity, he rarely raised the sweater to cover his mouth and nose, one moment looked up at the goose feather-like flying snow, and the next moment he bowed his head and paced back and forth on the platform. This is the case every time, in the face of the torment of fate, Otomatsu this person, as his old friend Xianji said: "Replace anger with waving flags, replace tears with flutes, and replace shouts with inner calls. ”
When he returned to the station unable to bear the cold any longer, I saw a beautiful little girl (Ryoko Hiromi) standing up to greet him and smiling kindly. Wrapped around the same red scarf as the little girls and sisters, Yi Song immediately guessed that she should be another sister of the little girls. The seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl politely said that her sisters had caused trouble for the stationmaster, and Otomatsu smiled and said that she was glad that they could come, which was undoubtedly from the heart. The young girl seemed to like the old man very much, and asked questions kindly, especially in the collection of railway and train parts collected by Otomatsu, who patiently told her the story of the railway like a teacher and like a father.
The three sisters were all surnamed "Sato", and Otomatsu judged that they must be the granddaughters of his master, and the girl did not deny it, but only took the sweet soup handed by Otomatsu and praised "おいしい" (delicious); Otomatsu even showed her his treasured old album, which recorded the time when his wife was no longer alive, and Yukiko, who died before the age of one, had left in this world.
For the first time, Yi Song recounted his regrets and regrets in front of others, and also told the young girl that this place would no longer exist, but people would not forget this place, just as he could not forget his wife and daughter who were long gone.
- "Sad? ”
—"I have no regrets—(sighs)—though I can't do anything. ”
"All that remains is memory, a beautiful and happy memory." ”
The girl used a smile to comfort Yi Song, Yi Song only felt the pain that had been lingering in his heart for a long time, the pain that could not always be driven away and could not be grasped, this moment seemed to be firmly held in his hand, although it was painful, but he felt solid.
The prompt bell for the train to enter the station rang, Yi Song got up to pick up the train, sent the train back to the house, the girl had already made a hot and fragrant meal, Yi Song was surprised and could not believe his eyes, tasted a hot soup, and could not help but praise from the bottom of his heart, "You will definitely become a good wife!" The girl smiled and replied, "My dream is to marry a railroad man."
The taste of this meal was so familiar that Yi Song couldn't help but burst into tears. In the sound of cooking soup over a low fire, Otomatsu said that he was really a lucky person, and he felt as if he had finally experienced what it was like to be a father.
In the end, it was Master Otomatsu's call that unveiled the mystery. The master asked about the abandonment of the station with concern, but said that he had never had three granddaughters. After hanging up the phone, Otomatsu looked at the doll in front of him and the girl who put on his hat and saluted him, and suddenly understood that the doll was the full moon gift that he had given to Yukiko and buried with Yukiko, and the girl in front of him was his own daughter Yukiko.
- "Yukiko?" Yukiko, why are you lying to me? ”
" Because I'm afraid to scare you, I'm sorry." ”
" How could you scare me?" Where in the world are there parents who are afraid of their daughters? ”
Otomatsu hugged his daughter, and in order to let him see her grow up, Yukiko changed into five or six years old, ten years old and grown up, respectively, so that the old father realized his dream.
The sudden variation of the film at this moment did not seem abrupt, and the heavy emotions that had been suppressed for a long time burst out at once, giving me an emotional outlet for watching the movie, and also allowing the twilight Yi Song to finally get relief and complete the redemption of the tormented heart for half a life.
That night, Yukiko held her doll in a happy and unwilling smile and tears. The next morning, when the bright yellow snowplow slowly drove from a quiet white in the lullaby of Yi Song's wife at the beginning of the movie, he had already fallen alone on the empty platform, empty, only the fluttering snowflakes hugging and kissing Yi Song, who was sleeping forever.
Otomatsu's coffin is carried onto perhaps the last orange-red train, driven by his old friend Senji himself, "Otomatsu, from now on, I will only see you in my dreams", Otoshi put on Otomatsu's hat,—— "Forward" A heavy password, a neat gesture, a red diesel locomotive through the tall fir forest, whistling toward the distant blue color of the clear sky.
"Railroad Man", like "The Call of the Distant Mountain" starring Ken Takakura, the rhythm is first gentle, and then the rapids rush. Small places, small people, but witness the ordinary and great personality, simple and thick feelings. Otomatsu was able to meet his daughter on the last night of his life, becoming the most moving warmth in the winter snow shooting.
Just as the so-called propaganda is not issued, it cannot be received once it is issued, leaving people with a long space for thinking. Career and family, do you have to choose, how to choose, how to balance? For this railroadman, should he praise or lament? Presumably, the viewer will have his own answer in his heart. At the moment of watching the movie, I only cared about the tears, neither answered "yes", nor did I say "no".
"No abnormalities today"
Every inch feels life, and all the anger is beautiful
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