When it comes to youth, how do you choose to describe it?
Is it the blue of "Blue Gate" that ripples with clouds, but also mixed with bitter salt and salt?
Is it the strange magic that Marlena walks by in "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" that can make people out of their souls?
Or maybe it's "Sunny Day", under the white to the dazzling sunlight, the beautiful sister's red swimsuit on the wall, and the tiles that have been smeared red, and the blood that has been shed.
It was as if the senses of performance had been re-amplified, the sense of the unknown future, sex, violence, all related to the gushing self. The increasingly clear self cannot be suppressed to jump out, forcing the self to think about its relationship with the world for the first time.
Then, different permutations and combinations conjure up different youth maps. And the most uncompromising one, in the most cruel way, has left an unusual mark on youth. Perhaps its cruelty is difficult to exist in the mundane, but it is most suitable for being sung in parallel time and space like movies.
01
The Cruel Tale of Youth
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Writers: Nagisa Oshima
Starring: Kuwano Miyuki / Kawazu Yusuke / Kuga Miko
Genre: Drama
Country/Region of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Date: 1960-06-03 (Japan)
Runtime: 96 minutes
Speaking of cruel youth, Oshima Nagisa's "Cruel Tale of Youth" can be said to be the originator. The montage of the hero and heroine tragically dying on the street at the end of the film represents an era and is naturally recorded in the annals of film history.
At the end of the film, the male protagonist Ah Qing is beaten to death by the underworld in front of the camera, the female protagonist Zhenqin jumps out of the car and dies, and the corner of Zhenqin's clothes on the car window flutters in the wind, forever frozen in that cruel youth.
Zhenqin and her sister were two generations of young people after the war, the sister went up the torrent of the times, and the sister went down against the torrent of the times. One has fought with positive action, and the other has resisted passively from the beginning.
However, the struggle of youth still did not let reality open a new outlet for them. After that youth struggle, my sister became the mistress of a middle-aged man. Zhenqin, on the other hand, ended her youth in a more tragic way.
The success of the film lies in the fact that the youth pain points it expresses come from the times and transcend the times.
The youth who wandered in the sixties seemed to have only two choices in the face of the rolling torrent of society: to join the main tide of the times, to struggle for survival in the main tide, and to become a normal adult even if not successful; to go against the trend and refuse to join, but after such a choice, it was almost a marginal situation with nowhere to go.
Reality is narrow, and after youth, romantic ideals have become intolerable ifs in life, and there is nowhere to put them.
02
Swallowtail Butterfly
Director: Shunji Iwai
Writers: Shunji Iwai
Starring: Abduction / Akira Ito / Hiroshi Mikami / Yosuke Eguchi, etc.
Genre: Drama / Crime
Language: Japanese / Cantonese / English / Mandarin Chinese
Date: 1996-09-14 (Japan)
Runtime: 148 minutes
In the dream-like other world "Yuandu", a group of "yuan thieves" from all over the world think most in their youth is how to make money by all means. Living conditions are extremely bad, and making money is their most urgent pursuit.
The "Gendo" does not really exist, it is fictionalized as a city before the economic bubble in Japan in the 1980s, and it is a paradise for gold panning.
"Yuan thief" is the local resident's name for outsiders, full of disgust. Because the thieves come from all over the world, there is no legal right of residence here, some are panning for gold in the garbage dump, some have become prostitutes, and some have slowly become the leaders of the underworld, but the chaos and dirtiness of life seem to have become their background.
However, the youth who scavenged for waste at the bottom is not worthy of dreams?
Their dream of being ranked first is, of course, to make money, and it is to make a windfall and make a lot of money. So they can do anything. They can steal, prostitute, and rummag through the intestines of corpses to find anything that might be valuable.
In the dim sunlight, after Guliguo gave the butterfly a good name, he helped the butterfly to carefully draw a caterpillar on the chest. At that moment, Gu Liguo and Fengdi, two strangers who had nothing to do with each other, had a connection that could no longer be separated.
Attracted to and oppressed by money, uncontrollably loved and hated. Youth, more or less.
03
Juno
Director: Jason Reitman
Writers: Diablo Coty
Starring: Alan Peggy / Michael Serra / Jennifer Garner etc
Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance
Country/Region of Production: UNITED STATES / CANADA
Language: English
Release: 2007-12-25 (USA/Canada)
Runtime: 96 min
Reading countless films, when you mention youth films, what will you think?
Whether it is already a rotten stem or not, sweet love, the first taste of sex, of course, Bao Qiqi will also get a gift of life. Miscarriage has naturally become the most frequent cue, and even become "one of the criteria for testing bad films".
But what if only pregnancies are not miscarried? "Juno" is such a youth film.
The heroine, Juno, is a high school student, and Juno's pregnancy runs through the entire movie: from learning this maddening "bad news" to the successful birth of a new life.
Being made like this by the pregnant belly but choosing not to miscarry is not how big the heart is, but the thought that the little guy in the belly may already be carefree nibbling on the fingernails, and run out of the hospital like a fugitive.
Of course, that's not all. So far, keeping the child is only Juno's choice alone.
When Juno's daily pregnancy test was dissed by the doctor who did the B ultrasound, the stepmother who accompanied her pregnancy test immediately recoiled: shut up and complete your work more reliably!
And my father, when he knew that Juno had become an expectant mother in his first year of high school, although he was shocked and angry, he still handled things rationally enough.
Accompany your daughter to the family that adopted the baby, share your experience with your daughter at a critical moment, and let your daughter understand what kind of feeling is a love worth insisting on.
Perhaps because of this, Juno was able to become Juno, the girl who could be free enough in the face of youth.
The film is filled with bright colors of high saturation, which belongs to Juno's world. Whether it is love or pain, it is real enough to have a taste.
04
"Seventeen-year-old bicycle"
Director: Wang Xiaoshuai
Writers: Tang Danian / Xu Xiaoming / Jiao Xiongping / Wang Xiaoshuai
Starring: Cui Lin / Li Bin / Zhou Xun / Gao Yuanyuan / Li Mengnan
Country/Region of Production: Chinese mainland / Taiwan / France
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Release date: 2001-02-17 (Berlin Film Festival)
Runtime: 113 minutes
Some people have love in their youth, but some people don't.
The male protagonist Xiaogui is one-nth of the courier brothers in the same city of Beijing, and even after watching the movie several times, he will still be in a trance: what is the name of the male protagonist?
They drift in Beijing, but they do not belong to Beijing.
The content is real enough, but the technique is full of drama. Just when the bicycle that the company rationed to Xiaogui was still 3 days away from being able to fully belong to Xiaogui himself, the originally smooth work began to be full of accidents.
Xiao Gui walked into the strange bathing center to get the express mail, but he was confused by the clerk to arrange a bath and consume a handful. Beijing is so big, "Mr. Zhang" is more than one, which is the Mr. Zhang who needs to send mail? After an oolong, Xiao Gui stopped his bicycle on the side of the road and disappeared.
For Xiao Gui, it almost cost him half a life.
Everything in Beijing was so foreign to Xiao Gui, only the bicycle was the only life he was familiar with, the present and future that he could firmly hold in his hands.
Xiao Gui and his bicycle have been firmly bound together, and Xiao Gui has become a tool like a bicycle. Sadly, this is the only value of his presence in Beijing.
Such youth is forbidden to think about, too cruel.
At the end of the film, when Xiao Gui carries a bicycle that has been smashed through this huge and prosperous city, anyone who really understands Xiao Gui has a high heart hanging high - Xiao Gui's youth and future, is there an exit?
05
"Guess the Train"
Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Evan Wilshe / John Hodge
Starring: Ivan McGregor / Evan Bryner / Johnny Lee Miller / Kevin McKiede / Robert Carlisle
Country of Production: United Kingdom
Release: 1996-02-23 (UK)
"Choose life, choose a job, choose a career, choose a family, choose a hateful big color TV, choose a washing machine, a car, a laser disc player, choose health, low cholesterol and dentist insurance, choose a mortgage, choose a friend, choose a suit, casual wear and luggage, choose installment payment and a three-piece suit, choose to watch boring game shows, eat snacks while watching... Choose your future, choose life... Too many options. What do you choose? I chose not to choose. ”
At the beginning of the film, the male protagonist, Redden, said so.
A list of countless choices points to a convergent pattern of life: realistic and stable. And the male protagonist Redden's "choice or no choice" made a negative resistance posture. There is no choice and no reason. There are drugs, alcoholism, robbery, fighting, sex, and that's all that youth is all about.
The end of youth begins with compromise, and such themes are repeatedly and helplessly sung by almost every youth film. But what touched us about "Guessing the Train" is that Mark, like he once again rejected his eroded life, chose his job, chose his family, and chose the hateful big color TV: "I'm just a passerby.".
06
The Peacock
Director: Gu Changwei
Writers: Li Fan
Starring: Zhang Jingchu / Feng Xuan / Lü Yulai / Huang Meiying
Genre: Drama / Family
Country of Production: Chinese mainland
Language: Mandarin Chinese / Jin
Release: 2005-02-18(Chinese mainland)
Runtime: 136 min ''
Director Gu Changwei used this film to show the most cruel look when the dream was shattered. For youth, how beautiful the dream is, how cruel life is.
In the small town of the 70s, my sister was immersed in dreams and fascinated by it. In that period of confinement, the dream was the only outlet from reality, and it seemed that it could create a time and space parallel to reality, allowing the sister to live briefly and happily.
And my sister's dream is to become a paratrooper. But when this dream was also shattered in front of her eyes, her sister completely deviated from reality and entered the time and space of the dream - where it was more gentle. She rode her bike fast, trying to fill her blue "parachute" with the wind, dreaming of flying briefly with the parachute.
But only for a short time. At the end of the film, the sister, the mentally handicapped brother, and the younger brother have become all the things they rebelled against in their youth, dragging the family and taking their mouths to the zoo to see the peacocks.
The peacocks opened the screen, but only after they left. The peacock in the cage may be what life itself is, and it does not gently let everyone get what they want. And the camera interestingly looks from behind the peacock to see the peacock's family — either struggling, or compromising, they are just objects of life, just grains of sand in life.
07
"Sunny Days"
Director: Jiang Wen
Writers: Jiang Wen / Wang Shuo
Starring: Xia Yu / Tranquility / Tao Hong / Geng Le / Sichenkova
Genre: Drama / Romance
Country/Region of Production: Chinese mainland / Hong Kong, China
Release Date: 1995-06-28 (Hong Kong) / 1995-08-21 (Chinese mainland) / 1994-09-09 (Venice Film Festival)
Runtime: 134 mins (Chinese mainland)
The same youth of the 70s, this time it is "sunny".
The cruelty of this youth is that those who shine in youth and are sincere will eventually pass away.
Ma Xiaojun's voiceover, in a word, explains the full meaning of that era for this group of monkey children: Beijing at that time was our city. His father was absent from home all year round, and ma Xiaojun's youth was spread out of joy.
If there is one more control that makes Ma Xiaojun uncomfortable, it is the classroom of the school. Of course, Ma Xiaojun wanted to shake off the last shackles—skipping class, and then come to his kingdom—on the roof shrouded in sunlight.
Stepping on the crisp tiles, locking on the target, flying under the eaves, and priing the door lock, it is obviously not for money, it is too realistic, and youth has nothing to do with it. This is just an adventure exclusive to Ma Xiaojun himself, exciting and novel.
Until Ma Xiaojun pried open the door of Milan's house. On a wall covered with a white gauze mosquito net is a girl in a red swimsuit... photos.
This is the door that Ma Xiaojun's sunny youth really opened, and with this fascination and longing, there is an impulsive brick and all inferiority, fantasy and insecurity.
08
"Juvenile Murder On Muling Street"
Director: Yang Dechang
Writers: Yang Dechang / Lai Mingtang / Yang Shunqing / Honghong
Starring: Zhang Zhen / Yang Jingyi / Zhang Guozhu / Wang Qizan
Country/Region of Production: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin Chinese / Hokkien / Cantonese
Release: 1991-07-27 (Taiwan)
Runtime: 237 minutes (Director's Cut)
A youth tragedy closely related to the social background is extremely peaceful and even depressing under the lens of director Yang Dechang.
Before introducing the characters and unfolding the story, the director first opened up the space of that era and place to us. At the beginning of the film, the camera quietly faces a boulevard, and pedestrians, bullock carts, and cars slowly enter the painting and naturally disappear into the distance. It wasn't until you slowly entered such a rhythm and mood that the protagonist XiaoSi and his father rode out of the back of the ox cart on their bicycles.
In the 1960s, the space of Taipei City was as important as the characters.
This is a time of change. Xiao Si's father is a civil servant with a duty, but in the face of the unfair school director, he is powerless to resist, and can only smile and say good things. The former Honey holds War and Peace and carries an axe to block Napoleon's romance, and finally gets a conspiracy and is pushed under the wheels of the military vehicle.
But Little Four has not changed. The young fourth child has not yet fully understood the true face of this world, and lives in his world with extreme ideals.
Xiaoming is regarded as an ideal friend by XiaoSi, but Xiaoming himself is obviously not an idealized existence.
So Xiao Si stabbed Xiao Ming, ending her life changed by the times.
At the end of the film, the space returns to the boulevard, with breeze, sunshine, and vehicles. Bob's youth is over, but the times go on.
09
The Blue Gate
Director: Yi Zhiyan
Screenwriter: Yi Zhiyan
Starring: Chen Bailin / Gui Lunmeng / Liang Youlin / Qiu Zheng
Genre: Drama / Romance / Same-Sex
Country/Region of Production: Taiwan / France
Release: 2002-09-27 (Taiwan)
Runtime: 83 minutes
What exactly is youth?
It's not so much a certain age as it is a mindset from that time. It was the red face, the bite of the lip that could not be said, it was pretending to listen quietly to each other's breathing, and the head was already chaotic to the ear a roar.
Therefore, to hand over a love letter, you should have jumped up and down in your heart countless times to make a decision. Therefore, Lin Yuezhen will write the name of her good friend Meng Kerou in the signature of the love letter.
As everyone knows, the youth of two women and one man will have another arrangement and combination.
Lin Yuezhen likes Zhang Shihao, Zhang Shihao likes Meng Kerou, but Meng Kerou likes Lin Yuezhen.
The three form a closed loop, a chase that will never have results.
10
"July and Ansheng"
Director: Zeng Guoxiang
Writers: Lin Yongchen / Li Yuan / Xu Yimeng / Wu Nan
Starring: Zhou Dongyu / Ma Sichun / Li Chengbin / Li Ping
Release: 2016-09-14(Chinese mainland) / 2016-10-27(Hong Kong)
Runtime: 109 minutes
Lin July, Li Ansheng, a girl who grew up together, July is gentle and cute, and An Sheng is strange.
From wearing a corset to falling in love with the same boy, July and Ansheng's every little thing related to growth is delicate and natural.
July longs for freedom like Ansheng, and Ansheng longs for stability like July. It's not so much two people as it is two sides of a girl. They like each other, hurt, compete, dislike, just like each of us, safe enough, will be afraid of bondage and yearn for freedom. There is too much freedom, and there will be a yearning for stability because of the uncertainty.
In the end, the girl's freedom and cleverness fade away with time, leaving a gentle self to live in peace.
Youth is a segment of the timeline that is too short, but there is always something that we still want to keep. For example, the courage to be desperate, such as the ideal of romantic heat. If you can't cash in one by one, at least, leave the mood that you still want to chant over and over again. And this is also one of the meanings of the existence of youth films.
· END·
Weibo: @Fujii Tree Movie Group 2011
Public name: Fujii Tree Movie Group