When people witness the disappearance of a beautiful feast
Instead, you can find a sense of peace of mind
—— Haruki Murakami
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > beginning</h1>
The word "material sorrow" was first found in the Tale of Genji, and according to the interpretation of The Japanese Edo period Kokugaku Nobunaga Honju, this is a personal, indifferent complete acceptance of the impermanence of life and the inevitability of fate, and a keen tolerance and understanding of all things.
In a word, "if the heart moves, it knows the mourning of things."
After a movie is born, it doesn't matter what it wants to give you, what matters is what you feel. This somewhat Buddhist attitude to cinema may be more suitable for Naomi Kawase's films.
"The Taste of Chengsha" tells the story of an old man in a corner, never expecting that one day society can lower his head to see himself, only willing to love life, love freedom, and love everything in the world.
Naomi Kawase does not shoot the camera directly to the misery of people on the edge, but captures the beautiful moments of life through the warm relationship between people. Restraint and non-participation, warmth and determination, this is the beauty of the film's mourning.
The word "material mourning" has three levels in today's interpretation: one is to move people; the second is to move the world; and the third is to move natural objects.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > people</h1>
The story takes place in a small shop on the street side of the gong, from the first appearance, the old man Dejiang played by Kiki Shirin tells the audience with her rickety figure, red fingers, and requests to stop talking, she is a person with a story.
Chitaro, the manager of the Causeway Shop, is a kind and warm person who was sent to prison for injuring people on a whim. After his release from prison, Chitaro was ostracized by the world.
Ruo Cai, a junior high school girl who often comes to the small shop to eat gong roast and cannot live in harmony with her single mother, due to her family's poverty, does not want to continue to go to school, and is sullen all day.
The old man of Dejiang lived in the leprosy isolation area for sixty years, and only because of his weekly walk, he saw the sadness and pain in Chitaro's eyes, so he appeared outside the window of the store to apply for a job despite repeated refusals.
This kind of life lament conveyed by the director is actually silence, not a painful complaint.
Attracted by the smell of bean paste, Chitaro agrees that the old man will come to work in the shop. The small shop became lively because of the old man's bean paste.
People often describe Japanese photography as a "small fresh" style, which is not inappropriate. The so-called "small" is to focus on the individual.
The old man Tokue, like a beam of light, illuminates Chitaro and Wakasa, and the same emotions attract each other, get closer to each other, and combine into a "warm family".
Soon, rumors made people stop patronizing the shop because the old man was a leper, and everyone said that leprosy was contagious.
The old man left the shop in disgrace and died in a nursing home in the quarantine area.
"As a person, it is also meaningful to live as ourselves!"
At the end of the film, the "taste of life" of the old man Tokue successfully "infects" Wakasa and Chitaro, changing their understanding of the "terrible human world" and "the society that cannot be integrated".
Naomi Kawase said, "What I want to convey is this kind of communication and friendship between people, ordinary happiness that makes people move." ”
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The fear and discrimination against lepers in Japanese society has a long history, and the film is more like a director expressing his personal position and calling for social attention.
This story of isolation and conflict, Naomi Kawase did not make a twist on it. She believes more in Shujian's dialogue, and can communicate and think quietly.
An important value criterion in Japan is not to add chaos to others and not to do anything shameful.
Based on this sense of shame and concern for the feelings of others, Japanese people have a sense of harmony and order.
Seeing that the people who had lined up to buy the gong burner did not appear, the old man of Dejiang did not say anything, she understood everything, said goodbye to Chitaro, and left a letter.
"Even if we try not to make mistakes in life, sometimes we still can't hide from the misunderstandings of the world, and this is the time to exert our own wisdom."
The old man is not blindly forbearing and evading social problems, the struggle is also fighting, but the struggle is withdrawn, leaving, but not defeated.
Chitaro looked at the back of the old man Tokue leaving, she looked up at the canopy of the cherry blossom tree, and beckoned, you don't know if she is greeting Sakura or waving goodbye to Chitaro.
Underneath the humble appearance of the old man, there was a strong and proud soul.
From beginning to end, the film only has "mourning" and no "injury", and this "beauty of material mourning" has been deeply imprinted in the skin and bones of Japanese film culture like the laws of nature.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > natural object</h1>
The triggering of things causes a natural outpouring of feelings, that is, a broad tolerance, sympathy, and understanding of natural human nature, without any utilitarian purpose.
The footage of making red bean paste in "The Taste of Seongsai" is detailed and lengthy, and Naomi Kawase corresponds to her attitude towards food and her attitude towards life.
"Bean paste is the soul of the gong burning!" Be sure to make it yourself! ”
So soak, boil, filter, boil, stir, and wait.
When boiling the red bean filling, the old man of Dejiang will listen carefully to the sounds of nature, the sound of the wind, the sound of ticking rain, the sound of rustling leaves, these sounds make the red beans have a full life.
"Every time I make bean paste, I listen carefully to the little beans telling stories."
Old Man Tokue talks to the moon, bean, cherry blossoms, and "things" that can't speak.
Japanese directors believe in "subtleties have gods", they care about the unique temperament of individual life, and they believe that ordinary things around them can also reflect a charming brilliance.
Old Man Tokue loves cherry blossoms, laments the early thanks of cherry blossoms, and she talks to herself and dances for the leaves that flutter in the wind: "The leaves are beckoning...".
The sense of impermanence and the beauty of impermanence are the true essence of the Japanese "material mourning beauty".
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
In this delicate feeling, I felt the heavens and the earth and knew myself, so I saw the splendor and disappearance of life from the floating cherry blossoms.
It is beauty, it is birth and death, it is limitation, and it is sublimation.
The old man was finally buried under her favorite cherry blossom tree, and of all the peoples of the world, only Japan regarded death as the ultimate form of aesthetics.
The film seems to be undisturbed, but listening to the thunder in the silent place, it is Naomi Kawase who makes us reflect on the love of life and the respect for nature through the film.
"The world is so wonderful, everyday life is beautiful, and life itself is a miracle."
This human world is cold and oppressive, imperfect, chaotic, cruel and unfair, but as long as you live, struggle, and love, it is worth it, and this human world is also worth it.
All things will eventually age and wither, and there are no coordinates in this world that are as old as time. And the "beauty of material mourning" has also sublimated from an aesthetic to a philosophy facing life.
Author of this article
Sun Xi
I write my heart by hand, willing to appeal to all the touching, beautiful, and happy things in the pen, even if I spend dark times, I want to see the brightest stars!
(The article is original for the empty mirror solo, welcome to pay more attention to ~ another, plagiarism must be investigated!) ）