If there's one word to describe the May we just said goodbye to, it would be:
Bleak.
As if deviating from the original intention of Kasuga Nori, several heart-wrenching news have occurred this month.
How much of it is related to death.
Yes, it goes from shock to anger.
Yes, it takes people from anger to sadness.
Also, let people go from sadness to warmth...
So today, I want to use a 9.2-point Korean drama to bid a serious farewell to this May with everyone:
Move to Heaven: I'm a relic sorter. (hereinafter referred to as "Relic Sorter")
The theme of the episode is related to death.
It tells how the living are healed and redeemed from death.
This is also what Piao most wants to say to everyone:
If all the goodbyes could be taken seriously, all grief would not be meaningless.
Only by facing death can we live more firmly.
Moving and saying goodbye
As the name suggests, "The Relic Sorter" is about a somewhat special profession.
The series is adapted from the work "What Remains After Leaving" by Korean writer Kim Hee-bie, and he himself is the first generation of Korean relics sorters.
This work, which is somewhat "unlucky" in East Asian culture, carries too many meanings that span life and death.
In the play, the male protagonist Han Kelu (played by Tang Junxiang) is a teenager with Asperger's disease.
He took over the "Paradise Migration Studio" from his dad.
The daily routine of the studio is to accept the commission to step into the residence of the deceased and organize all the objects of his life.
"When someone dies, my work begins."
For many "finishers", this may just be a bit of an "obscure" cleaning job.
Tidy up hastily, give your valuables to your family, and throw away all the others.
But Heaven moved to the studio, but insisted on solemnly treating every tidying up -
The first thing to do when you enter the door is to take off your hat and bow solemnly to the air:
Hello, you passed away on xx years xx month xx, we are here to make one last move for you.
What's moving is:
These situations that need to be sorted out are often "unnatural deaths".
It is precisely because the departure is so hasty that a finisher is needed to help draw the final conclusion.
And the life faced by the relic sorter is often lamentable:
Young people who were injured and died alone, old people who died a long time ago before they were discovered, young women who suffered perverted and tragic deaths, doctors who unfortunately died while stopping crazy patients...
Death, for ordinary people, is often abstract.
But the objects of the deceased are full of concrete touches and impacts:
All the things left behind are not only the items that have not been taken away, but also the lives of the deceased who have not yet had time to say goodbye.
You see.
Before they were chosen by Death, they were no different from us.
Work hard and imagine the future.
There are people with crushes, there are things to worry about.
There are times of cowardice, and there is also courage and determination...
The only difference was that they left too early.
It is not too late to be treated well by the world.
In "The Relic Sorter", there are actually many sharp social issues.
Abandonment, empty nesters, medical troubles, work injuries, homosexuality...
However, the atmosphere of the whole play is not the slightest bit extreme.
It did not choose to use death as a weapon.
Instead, in solemnity and calm, the deceased is given the greatest respect, and death is regarded as a poetic and sad farewell.
For example, the last box will be carefully written with the name of the deceased.
Film and television dramas based on the theme of death have already had many well-known masterpieces before.
For example, the Japanese movie "Entering the Mortician" and the Japanese drama "Life Deletion Office".
At the end of the day, these works hit people's hearts because they do things that we often can't:
Face death and say goodbye.
In our cultural system, death is always instinctively avoided, let alone death education.
So that when death does come, we can only be overwhelmed by great sorrow, regret and confusion.
Don't get me wrong, Piao doesn't mean to say that these sorrows and regrets must be ended.
On the contrary, grief, regret and death itself deserve more serious attention.
Just like the Danish picture book that has touched countless people -
"Grandpa Becomes a Ghost".
When our beloved person has left this world, we can't just crouch in the corner and cry.
At the very least, we should say "goodbye" to him.
Death loneliness
What is the most terrible thing about death?
Maybe everyone has a different answer in mind.
And when it comes to the most terrible thing about death, Piao will inevitably think of loneliness.
I remember that when I was in middle school, in Zhang Ailing's anthology, I once read about the death of Zhang Ailing recorded by my friend Lin Shitong.
The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a week after her death, she was found dead by the landlord in her apartment in Los Angeles.
What impressed me most was that Lin Shitong described the situation when he stepped into Zhang Ailing's home to tidy up:
Her home was almost walled, but it had a lot of light bulbs and a TV that was on all day.
Because she was afraid of the dark, afraid of the cold.
This small detail made me "smell" death for the first time.
Cold, cold, gloomy, tidal.
The taste of loneliness.
Many of the deaths told in "The Relic Sorter" are also intertwined with cold loneliness.
A young man who died alone, a mobile phone slipped from his hand.
The old man who had been dead for many days before he was found, the sticky paper money under the bed.
Or maybe death itself is doomed to be accompanied by loneliness—
The last wish on the occasion of death, the unresolved regret of leaving the world, the real expectation and love hidden in the heart...
In the face of death, they can only become secrets that cannot be said.
And the existence of the protagonists is to "read out" the words they cannot say for the deceased.
How to read?
From the relics, sort out their lives and guess their wishes.
You see, the young boy who died of tetanus in the examination hall.
There are a lot of convenience store tickets in the drawer, the time is overtime, and the goods are special rice balls.
——Trying to save money and time, he must have had a very hard time.
Look again, there is a photo with his parents on his desk.
The backpack contains an aromatic spray that removes the smell of sweat.
At the convenience store I went to every day, the girl at the cash register smiled sweetly.
——He is still working hard to pursue happiness.
And the voices of these dead people are also read by the two "lonely" protagonists:
Han Kelu, a patient with Asperger's syndrome.
Suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder and social impairment, he is regarded as a "disabled person" by others, and he is also a genius with excellent memory.
His loneliness comes from the specialness that is innate and incompatible with ordinary people.
Cao Shangjiu (Li Dixun), Kelu's uncle and guardian, a prisoner who fights black fists.
Rebellion everywhere, full of hostility.
Beneath the unruly exterior, there is a kind and righteous heart.
His loneliness comes from the hard shell he built for himself after being disappointed in the world again and again.
The reason why the two protagonists are lonely is like an amplified us-
Because it is "different", it is not understood and not accepted.
Gradually, because of "disappointment", I refused to be understood and refused to be warmed.
And in the sorting of relics again and again, their own loneliness seems to be gradually being cured-
They organize things for those who are unfortunate, and they also organize their lives.
They try their best to make up for those wishes that they have not been able to fulfill, or even be seen.
And the way to cure is not "exorcism" in the traditional sense.
It's about "acceptance."
Is there an antidote to loneliness?
Piao Piao could not give a positive answer.
Because I know that a few words of chicken soup can't eliminate the moments when we have to fight alone against loneliness.
But I am also convinced:
Knowing that there are many "comrades-in-arms" will make us braver and more powerful in fighting loneliness.
So, hopefully you'll know.
In this world, there are many people who look up at the stars with you and taste the taste of loneliness together.
Alive and thoughtful
An old grandmother with Alzheimer's disease would go to the bank every weekday to withdraw money.
Every day she would happily put away the money, and then the next day she would completely forget it and do it all over again.
This was repeated for 123 days, until the grandmother died alone at home.
When sorting out the relics, the protagonist sees on the banknotes that she carefully wrote down the reason for withdrawing the money -
Buy a suit for your son.
She forgot the whole world, but she still remembered her wish from many years ago:
My son went to work and bought his mother high-end thermal underwear with his first salary.
Remember to buy him a decent suit.
A young and promising doctor with a good future hides a deep affection that is not blessed.
He hated his cowardice and incompetence countless times.
Countless times he imagined himself summoning up his courage.
Until he was scratched by a mad patient and bled to death.
When the relics were sorted out, I saw the solemn gifts and hearts that he had never sent.
To his homosexuals.
"I want to become a braver person for you."
"I won't let go of your hand again until I die."
When watching this play, while weeping for those unfulfilled wishes, I thought:
When many people are desperate, they fall into the self-question of "what is the point of living?".
I have even seen young people who choose to live lightly write in a suicide note tiredly and desperately:
"I can't find the meaning of being alive, I can't be interested in everything."
But could it be that from the very beginning, we misunderstood the "meaning of living"?
When we see how death ends our lives coldly and domineeringly, we can't help but look back at our own lives:
What will we end up leaving in our own lives?
Looking back on this life, what is irrelevant and what must not be abandoned?
When death comes, few people will really worry about those grand propositions.
What we really cling to is only the small, ordinary, real, instinctive throbbing of life.
Mother's care for her child.
Lovers' concern for each other.
The pain and unwillingness of abandonment.
Unspeakable blessings and goodbyes...
A few days ago, Piao recommended "Relic Sorter" to a good friend.
After reading it, she said:
"I cried half the time in every episode, but I couldn't tell what I was crying."
Yeah, what exactly hits us when we're touched by death?
Perhaps, it is the simplest "alive" cognition.
Living in this world, there are too many things we want to pursue.
Lots of love, lots of money, beauty, health, power, happiness...
But at the same time, there are too many things we can't change —
Mediocrity, loneliness, separation, death...
Not all pursuits will come true.
But isn't it good to keep it in mind?
Not all sadness, loneliness, and meaning will usher in the answer.
But if there is no answer, isn't it also good?
Rather than the heavy "meaning", perhaps what we should cherish in life is those natural "thoughts".
The vivid beauty of life is not reflected in what must be pursued.
It's about living really, simply, instinctively, and diligently.
The "cure" for death may also be here—
Will continue to live a good life.
Don't resist sadness, don't forget happiness.
Give confidence to people who may not be reassured.