At the end of March, the weather is getting warmer and Japan is full of cherry blossoms.
In Japan, cherry blossoms not only herald the arrival of spring, but also represent graduation and parting and starting a new journey in life. So April is a symbol of the beginning of a new life.
The movie "April Story" tells the story of 17-year-old Yuno Tsukizuki, who moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo to study alone. Although the movie is only a short 60 minutes or so, there is no special plot that feels like an unformed story, but it is very like.
The film is filled with a feeling of slow and quiet flow, with the rhythm of the music spread out little by little, and more importantly, there seems to be no special plot ups and downs, but it can arouse the audience's strong sense of loneliness and relief, as if telling their own life.
All the scenes are like my study life in Japan, and everything is vividly remembered. Left home alone to study in a distant field. Entering a strange house is a small space, I will also look around, can't help but open the window to look at the scenery outside, and secretly say in my heart: From now on this is my home. Maybe it's not home, but it will be the room that accompanies me day and night, the only safe haven to be alone.
Then go to the school to register and submit materials, a series of complicated processes do not know how they got it, and they are completed in a vacuum. Entering the laboratory to meet the tutors and students, and constantly introducing themselves seems to have become a compulsory course. Obviously, I have memorized a template in my heart, but I am still at a loss every time I want to introduce myself.
At the same time, going to the school cafeteria to eat is also cramped, because it is ordered from a vending machine, and I remember standing in front of me when I first ordered food, and I don't know what to do. Later, when I saw someone pressing the button of the vending machine, I couldn't help but ask how to order food in japanese, which was not yet proficient.
For Japanese college students everything is taken for granted, but for me everything is full of unknowns and novelties. When I sat down to eat alone with a dinner plate, the sound of Japanese students chatting around me made me feel unreal, watching Japanese dramas for more than ten years, and at the moment I seemed to be in the scene of this Japanese drama, an inexplicable sense of excitement.
On the other side I began to keep buying the necessities of life, filling the empty room little by little. At first, I always couldn't help but automatically convert the exchange rate in my mind, and how many Japanese yen were spent in exchange for how much yuan. And then always shocked that it is too expensive, how can a meal be so expensive? Worried about how I will have to live in the future? The back can't help but convert to less heartache.
Because my school covers a large area, I almost have to move by bus, but the time is very inconvenient. So almost every student studying here has a bicycle in hand, coming and going like a gale. At first, I thought about walking exercise and rarely took the bus, walking alone on the school road every day, followed by brushed self-propelled vehicles flying by. After a few months of persistence, it was really inconvenient to take advantage of the supermarket discount and I bought a bicycle, and from now on I also rode the bicycle around like a wind.
Especially every time I have to pass through a park, hurrying through the trees in the park. So when I watched Yuno sitting on a park bench reading a book, it was as if my heart was at peace.
I love books, and every time I feel too heavy to bear, I rush to the bookstore, and the moment I enter the bookstore, I feel comfortable and feel completely comfortable, and visiting the bookstore has become my cure. Yuye wandered among the bookshelves against the dappled light and shadow, intently browsing the books on the shelves, and his fingers casually took a book and put it back in place, this familiarity was like countless times to visit the bookstore.
Occasionally I would cook my own meals, and then eat silently at the table alone, leaving me alone in the quiet world. I can't say if it's bitter or not, but I feel like I'm enjoying this time and space. It was only when the New Year reunion festival was still alone and could not return to China, and the coldness of eating alone at that moment was unbearable for even me, who was used to being lonely.
It seems that a person's life is always so boring, but in this habitual boredom, there will be some strange people or things, Yuno accidentally joined a society that he did not understand what he was doing, and all the members seriously threw fishing lines into the sky to practice. Even when watching a movie in the cinema, in the dark, I thought I had encountered a strange person slowly approaching me and hurried away. Wanting to enjoy a quiet time alone in the park, a couple sitting next to them in a chair kissed mercilessly, and walked around them expressionlessly.
Faced with a new life and a new environment, she hid her uneasiness and loneliness in a calm expressionless face.
Watching Yuno encounter these strange encounters, especially when she was called by a strange man, And Yuno did not listen to the desperate pedaling to escape, I also remembered the pick-up I encountered when I went on a trip alone, what the Japanese call "ナンパ". I remember that I had just arrived at a place, and I was walking leisurely on the road and wantonly wanting to go for a casual stroll, when suddenly a man on the other side talked to me and asked me to go out. In a daze, I said "I am not Japanese" and politely refused, but the other party still chattered, and after a "sorry" I pulled out my leg and rushed back to the hotel where I stayed, still terrified.
In my study abroad life in Japan, I sometimes wonder why I chose to come to this strange country alone. This uncertainty is also one of those few moments of occasional doubt.
As for the reason why Yuno chose a person to travel from Hokkaido to Tokyo, it was simple and persistent.
"Musashino" is a beautiful word for Yuno, and she always can't help but silently pronounce the word: Musashino, Musashino, Musashino. It seems that just thinking about it has the magical power to lead to the other side of happiness. In fact, it was because the senior high school she liked was in this place, and it was only because of this that she worked so hard to finally receive an acceptance letter from Musashino University.
The cherry blossoms fall in the wind in April, and in this cherry blossom blowing snow, a group of people greet the bride with umbrellas. Yuye sent the moving company's car, holding the small stool left for her by the moving company staff, shaking the cherry blossoms that had fallen from her clothes pocket, and a pink petal spilled all over the ground. In this way, her new life alone began.
She began to look for the long-desired bookstore, Musashinodo. From time to time, I linger in the bookstore, browse the books on the shelves, and always intentionally or unintentionally ask the clerk for business hours when I choose a book to pay. Then, she finally met the senior she liked, but she just hid in the corner silently, watching the senior sort out the books.
Yuye hid her careful thoughts in her heart, and even if she was recognized by the senior as a student in the same high school, she only responded softly. Because it rained, the senior told her to take an umbrella and go again, she just said that it was okay to leave in a hurry. But when she met someone who lent her an umbrella, she ran back to the bookstore and took the initiative to borrow an umbrella from the senior. The senior took out a few umbrellas left by the guests, and she chose a red one. But the umbrella is broken, the senior hurriedly opened the remaining umbrellas to find a good one, did not expect that one was more broken than the other. Yuye couldn't help but laugh, this was the first time in the film that she showed such a bright smile, and the bright red umbrella in her hand was as bright as the fluctuations in her heart. She smiled and said, "This one is the best." ”
Because he liked the senior, Yuno came here and turned the original impossible into a possibility, and even he couldn't believe that he could do it. She called this miracle a "miracle of love." But she did not take the initiative to approach the senior, she plucked up her courage alone, endured loneliness alone, and hid in shyness and joy alone. "April Story" is the story of her alone, completing her crush alone, starting a new life and yearning for the future.
To me, it's also like My April Story. I used to think that after going to a place of infinite expectation, the world would become different. But my study abroad life in Japan actually went back and forth between research offices and accommodation and then part-time work, breaking the reality of the dream is to face multiple pressures of school, life, and economy, and every day is a life without waves. Therefore, this real and delicate flowing water routine of the film has alleviated my anxiety and allowed me to enjoy the real present moment.