Last year, a news item sparked a heated discussion:
An old man in Shanghai who is over eighty years old, his wife and son have passed away one after another, and there are no relatives to take care of.
When living alone, the old man gradually became acquainted with the fruit stall owner downstairs.
The stall owner's family helped the old man take care of his son's affairs, and took the initiative to take care of the old man during his hospitalization.
After being discharged from the hospital, the old man invited the stall owner's family of three to move into the home.
And made a move that was incomprehensible to relatives and friends - leaving his 3 million worth of property to the fruit stall owner, and also did notarization.
The focus of the hot discussion was, why?
Ask a little deeper, can a family relationship be established between strangers?
And how we should accept the solidity and fragility of family affection.
Recently, a new movie was released, which just happened to have a similar plot.
Next, Sir wants to let go of the mentality of talking about the news.
Tell you stories quietly.
Dear Tenant
01
In court.
A weak man was handcuffed.
The prosecutor has convicted him of purchasing controlled drugs and is suspected of homicide.
He was silent.
After taking a long breath, he interrupted the counsel of the inspector and said frankly:
"I'm going to confess my guilt."
"I killed people."
The tone is very calm.
Unlike the most vicious murderer, when he said this, his face gradually appeared with an unbearable look.
Carefully distinguished, it also revealed an indescribable sadness.
The man's name is Lin Jianyi (Played by Mo Ziyi).
He was a tenant and lived in a house built on the roof.
After the death of the landlord Wang Liwei, he voluntarily takes care of the landlord Grandma (Chen Shufang) and his nine-year-old grandson.
Picking up and dropping off children to school, taking the elderly to see a doctor, and paying for daily expenses.
Hard working without complaint.
To this extent, just a tenant?
Kenichi and this family are indeed not related by blood.
But a photo revealed his unusual relationship with his landlord Wang Liwei.
Two big men taking a picture, Ben nothing.
The key is to place the group photo at the head of the bed, which undoubtedly hints at intimacy to some extent.
Kenichi and Ritsumi are partners who have been in love for many years.
After The death of Levi's wife.
Kenichi borrows the name of a tenant and lives on the top floor of his lover's house, in order to keep in touch, but is not discovered by Levi's mother.
When Li Wei dies, Kenichi takes on the responsibility of supporting the elderly and adopts Li Wei's son Youyu (Bai Runyin).
Until one day, Grandma died.
In the blood of the corpse, hexaethylsephine was tested, which is usually a metabolite of heroin or morphine.
The police found out that Kenichi bought morphine through illegal channels on the night of Grandma's death.
It seems that the "male daughter-in-law" fulfills her obligations after the death of her partner.
But with the fact that Kenichi is gay is dug up.
People's kindness to him began to change taste.
The uncle rushes home to mourn, suspecting that Kenichi adopted Youyu in order to covet the royal family's inheritance:
"Now if someone is going to come and steal something from our house
Shouldn't we unite against him? ”
Was Grandma killed by Kenichi?
How did Levi die?
What kind of secrets are hidden in this unconventional family?
After the layers of mystery have faded, a poignant truth emerges.
A matter of love and the truth of redemption.
02
At first, Kenichi was regarded as an outsider by the Wang family.
Grandma could not accept her son, the former partner.
The uncle went home, the family lit incense to worship Li Wei, the pre-case space is not small, but there is no place for Kenichi.
He brought the soup out, only to face embarrassed, silently folding his hands.
Kenichi was alone in the back kitchen, making a table of meals, but not on the table himself.
Can't eat hot meals.
Apparently, he was excluded from this home.
On the outside, he was treated as an "abnormal person."
For homosexuals, everyone does not have any malice, but the gaze and judgment with a curious mentality is often a subconscious behavior.
Stereotypes, like knee-jerk reactions rooted in the depths of the genes.
The police used his sexual orientation to make a breakthrough in the case.
Ask him why he deleted the dating software in his phone.
"You adopt a little boy
And then I'm still dating men."
The implication is that you have children, how can you mess around?
The question is, li wei has been dead for many years, as a normal person, does Kenichi have the obligation to keep himself?
Society judges his abilities and private virtues by his orientation.
In the music classroom where he teaches piano, the parents of the students warmly sent souvenirs the first day.
The next day, because of the "dating situation", the child was given another teacher.
The uncle was even more guilty of his orientation.
He even suspected that he was cheating on the child and took Youyu to psychological counseling.
In the eyes of the uncle, Kenichi is "abnormal", and the child raises him, and even carrying it will be "abnormal".
- I can't let him grow up in an abnormal environment
- What's not normal?
I love this child with all my heart, just like you
Is this normal or abnormal?
Under the uncle's discourse system, Kenichi's resistance seems weak.
We often say that society is progressing and that the free will of sexual minorities is stronger.
But when sexual minorities appear around, prejudice and exclusion are still the knee-jerk reactions of many people.
Kenichi's family's efforts were exchanged for the hostility towards him in society.
Is it his fault?
No, it's the fault of his "identity."
"If only I were a girl today
My husband passed away
I continued to take care of their family
Will you still ask me the same question? ”
Orientation is still a yardstick to measure whether it is normal or not.
Normal, on the other hand, is still socially equivalent to the "majority".
When we give the word "love" an adjective of "normal" or "abnormal".
Is it exalting or degrading love itself?
This is the question that "The Tenant" left for the audience.
It is considered the most talked about Chinese same-sex film last year.
At the Golden Horse Awards, he won three awards: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Film Music.
The male protagonist Mo Ziyi has become the new Golden Horse Film Emperor with this film.
He is also the first actor to win the Taipei Film Award and the Golden Horse Award in the same year.
Chen Shufang, 81 years old this year, appears as a mother in film and television dramas, and is revered as "grandma of the whole people".
Won best supporting actress for this film.
It is worth mentioning that she also became a film queen with "Lonely Taste", and in the same year, she was even in the middle of the double.
Director Zheng Youjie once said in an interview that Chen Shufang's mother in Hou Xiaoxian's "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" had a scene where she lost her son with a kitchen knife, and it was that clip that made him "think that Aunt Shufang is very good at acting and has always wanted to cooperate to see."
I knew that these two had excellent acting skills, but I didn't expect that what surprised Sir in this film was a little friend - Bairunyin.
In the film, he plays a child who has lost his parents and is adopted by his father's partner.
He has an expressionless world-weary face.
Among the adults who are emotionally upset, his eyes always look ignorant and indifferent.
It was a look that belonged only to six- or seven-year-olds, who were still in a vague area where good and evil were difficult to distinguish, and the sense of world-weariness was more like instinctive self-protection.
"Dear Tenant" is not only a gay movie.
Outside of same-sex love, it touches on a deeper level of taboo.
03
As Sir mentioned at the beginning of the news, it is about Eastern blood relations.
In our traditional Oriental family relationship, flesh and blood relatives should assume the responsibility of supporting the elderly and raising children.
And the story is about a stranger who is not related by blood, and out of good intentions, he takes on the family.
so.
Should affinity or incompatibility be redefined?
Grandma suffers from diabetes, complications lead to ulceration of her legs, and endures pain for many years.
Kenichi took pains to take care of him, gradually softening Grandma's attitude towards him.
Previously, Kenichi was like a transparent person in this home.
Gradually, Grandma would praise him for his handsomeness, and she would also vent her emotions and express her dissatisfaction with him.
The so-called kinship is to make you dare to be angry with him, and you don't have to worry about the intimacy that you will lose.
From this point of view, Grandma has already regarded Kenichi as a family member.
Until the end, she finally confessed that she had forgiven and accepted Kenichi.
For the progression of the father-son relationship between Kenichi and Youyu, the film portrays it more delicately and naturally.
Yu Yu was silent.
But every move shows the nine-year-old child's trust in his "second father".
When kenichi's motorcycle comes home, he silently helps push the cart.
Needless to say, it is a tacit understanding cultivated by living together for many years.
The night Grandma was sent to the first aid, in the hospital corridor, Kenichi was so tired that he sat and fell asleep.
The boy quietly leaned his head up.
It is to comfort the other party and to comfort yourself.
After his partner's death, Kenichi behaves perfectly, taking care of the life of his "mother-in-law" and children.
When Yu Yu sensed that he was a burden.
Kenichi also took care of the child's emotions.
- You should be more relaxed without me
- I'll be happier with you
And "Dear Tenant" has a deeper "deviant" level.
Just when the audience thinks that Lin Jianyi is a flawless person, it uses a lot of details to say that no, he is not a saint.
He also makes mistakes.
And once the audience knows the mistakes he has made, they can immediately understand the cracks that suddenly arise in the daily life of Kenichi and Yuyu, who seem to be dependent on each other.
For example, Xiaoyu yells at Kenichi at the port – why do you have so many secrets?
What is his secret?
At that time, because of anger, Kenichi showed off to Levi's wife and told the other party that Levi was gay.
After Li Wei's wife died, the child had no mother.
He and Li Wei went hiking and climbing, and Kenichi ignored Li Wei's physical condition because he was jealous, and failed to stop the tragedy.
Because of lack of consideration, he put the prohibited drugs in the open.
Xiao Yu then took medicine to give Grandma to eat, which indirectly contributed to Grandma's death by overdose.
In Kenichi's view, it was his own mistake that left the family in tatters.
Because of this, many years after Li Wei's death, he only occasionally solved his physical desires and did not find new companions.
The film progresses to the second half.
In the face of the uncle's accusations, Lin Jianyi was silent.
In the face of police interrogation, he directly pleaded guilty.
Why didn't he explain? Don't resist? Instead, choose to endure all kinds of injustice?
He is atonement for his sins by killing himself.
"Dear Tenant" wraps up an extremely realistic and cold issue with a seemingly warm and warm title.
Remove those strange feelings between the same sex, the suspense of the fake "mother-in-law" and "father-son" relationship.
It tells how mortals atone for their sins.
Movies are not without flaws.
For example, the process of reconciliation between Kenichi and Grandma lacks layers.
The reasons for Wang Liwei's death when he ran away alone were also mentioned in one stroke.
For many important issues, the film has been downplayed.
But the good thing is that.
"Dear Tenant" still delicately tells a "family story" that has no blood relatives, but is still moving.
It reminds Sir several times of the shot from Kore-eda and Family of Thieves.
The family heard the sound of fireworks and ran to the front of the porch to see it.
Where the fireworks could not be illuminated, they looked through the narrow gap and looked in the direction of the fireworks.
There was a smile on his face.
What is a family?
It's people who stand together and always look in the same direction.
Is it blood or time that maintains kinship?
Can't help but be in the blood, is the appearance of family affection and goodness.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Brad Tepi