Text/Summer Day Airing Room
Movie "Taste of Chengsha"
Director: Naomi Kawase
The Taste of The Sand is a Japanese-French drama film co-produced by Tetsuya Akegawa. Using sweet sand as a carrier, the film tells a story of plight, confusion, death and redemption.
Chengsha, pronounced dèng shā, is a Chinese word. Cheng, a polysyllabic word, when pronounced dèng, means to let the impurities in the liquid sink. Therefore, Chengsha means "more delicate bean paste after filtering" in the Chinese dictionary.
"The Taste of Chengsha", as the name suggests, means the taste of delicate bean paste. Taiwan translates the movie as "Love Tong Gong Burning", Hong Kong translates the movie as "Sweet World", in fact, the translation of Hong Kong and Taiwan is not very accurate, the movie has nothing to do with love, it is not a sweet life, but a bitter life of three people.
The three people in this movie are all caught in the predicament of life, wandering and helpless: the male protagonist who has to work for a lifetime for the gong burning shop because of the debt of hurting people does not smile and exudes a sad atmosphere; because of the single family, the female middle school student who does not get the love of his mother is alone; the old man who is abandoned by his family because of leprosy, and the old man who has lost his husband and son, is lonely and lonely. The three meet at a gong-roasted dessert shop, slowly untie each other's knots, and redeem themselves.
"The Taste of The Taste of Sand" begins with the iconic handheld heel, with Chitaro, played by Masatoshi Nagase, draped in a towel and dragging heavy steps, climbing up the stairs, ascending to the rooftop, lighting a cigarette, and his eyes filled with frustration. At the same time, the cold soundtrack sounded, and the bright morning sun and brilliant cherry blossoms reflected the heaviness and exhaustion of this man. His brow furrowed, as if he were thinking about something.
Day after day, there seems to be no glimmer of hope. Until the arrival of the old man Tokue, she was like a light, sweeping away the cloudy clouds in the sky of the shopkeeper Sentaro. Dejiang, a seventy-five-year-old man, saw the recruitment notice at the door of the gong and wanted to work in the store. Chitaro rejects her because she is too old and gives her a gong to burn. The next day, the old man went back and told the shopkeeper, Chitaro, that the gong-roasted bean paste he had made was not delicious, and gave Chitaro a box of homemade red bean paste. Chitaro, who never eats sweets, is amazed by the delicious bean paste stuffing made by the old man. At the suggestion of the female middle school student Wakasa, Chitaro decided to accept the elderly.
After the old man entered the store, he found that the bean paste in the store was originally bought. As a result, the business in the shop was always tepid, and even Chitaro himself had never eaten a copper gong in its entirety. So, the old man began to teach the shopkeeper how to make his own bean paste. In the morning, I get up before dawn, rinse over and over again, pick one by one, wait slowly, patiently boil, and listen to the sound of beans tumbling in the water. Just like entertaining guests, entertain red beans, because red beans are all from afar. And prayerfully said to the red beans, "Work hard and come on."
In many Japanese movies, we can see this sense of ceremony. In the movie "Little Forest", before each meal, Ichiko folds her hands and says "いただきます!" (i ta da ki ma su, I'm on the move); when making natto sticky rice dumplings, children will fold their hands and say to natto, "Like you to become delicious." The Japanese like to use this ritualistic way to thank god for giving food and to all living beings.
Because of the old man Dejiang's carefulness, patience and sincerity, the gong roast made is so delicious that people want to cry. People are talking about it, the bean paste of the gong has changed, it has become delicious, thank you very much, it is so delicious. The business of the small shop suddenly flourished, and there was a long queue outside the small shop of less than 10 square meters. The man seemed to be infected by the gentleness and smile of the old man, and for the first time a smile leaked out of his face. This man, burdened by money, trapped in this small shop, and exhausted for his livelihood, like a drowning man, suddenly caught the straw that saved his life. The old man's appearance was like a light, illuminating Chitaro's gloomy back and brushing away the dark breath on his body.
The female student who often came as a guest also showed a smile that had not been seen for a long time. She rode her bicycle, tilted her head, and smiled as she walked through the streets lined with cherry blossom trees, as if there was light on her body. There were warm currents flowing slowly on the three people's bodies, and the ice in their hearts seemed to be slowly melting.
Suddenly, one day, the shop owner visited and asked Chitaro to drive the old man away. It turned out that the old man Dejiang had suffered from leprosy was spread wildly outside, and it was said that the hands and feet of people with this disease would slowly melt until they died. Chitaro pleaded bitterly, but the old man's curved and strange fingers still made all customers panic. Reluctantly, the old man returned to the isolation nursing home hidden in the forest.
After the old man left the shop, he wrote a letter to Chitaro, in which she said:
I think everything in this world has a story to tell
Even the sun and wind
Their stories can also be heard
Maybe that's why
Last night the breeze blew in
Blow through the hedges of holly trees
Seems to be saying to me that I should contact you
We want to live our lives away from right and wrong
But sometimes it is hurt by the ignorance of this society
Sometimes we have to use our own wisdom
Chitaro and the schoolgirl then decide to visit her, and take Wakasa's canary "Malvey"— the old man who promises Wakasa to help her take care of the canary. Here, for the first time, they learned about the old man's origins. Because of leprosy, the old man was abandoned by her family in a nursing home, where she met her husband and became pregnant, but the people here did not allow her to have children, and then she lost her child, lost her husband, and lived here alone for half a century. With tears in her eyes, she said to Chitaro, "Thank you, store manager, you are very kind to me, I had a very happy time, I will be fine." Chitaro burst into tears.
The old man Dejiang suffered from the malice of the world, she had the right and reason to complain and hate, but did not return this malice to the world, but used a gentle and delicate mentality to influence the world. She still lives brightly, still the one who smiles at Sakura. When we say that the heart is strong, it does not mean that the heart is hard as rigid, cold as iron, or looks down on everything and is insensitive, but when we encounter all the tribulations and destruction in the world, we are still grateful, believe in the beauty, innocence and kindness of the world, and protect the most precious things.
At this point in the story, Chitaro also revealed his own life. He used to work in a bar, because of the regulation fight, unintentionally maimed a person, was arrested and imprisoned, and while in prison, his mother died. The shop owner helped him pay the compensation, and after he was released from prison, he helped the boss see the shop and pay off the debt. Struggling with guilt for her mother, day after day, year after year. The junior high school girl Ruocai lives in a single family, lacks fatherly love from childhood, and her mother is indifferent to her, does not allow her to go to high school, and tells her that "going to school cannot be eaten as a meal", so she is always monomorphic.
Three downcast people, who cherish each other, form a wonderful combination of interpersonal relationships: the old man has no son, the man misses his mother, and the female student lacks fatherly love. While each person is comforted, it also makes up for the gap and regret in the soul of another character to varying degrees. They are unfortunate because they have all suffered the torments of fate; they are lucky because someone has broken into their dark world, broken the cage, and liberated them.
Sometimes the world is just that cruel. The old man Tokue died, and Chitaro's small shop was occupied by the boss's nephew. The old man left a recording of Chitaro and Wakasa before he died. Telling Wakami, she let go of her canary and gave it freedom. Tell Chitaro,
"We were born into this world, to hear and see, to see the world with our own eyes. Because of this, we don't have to be someone, we have our own meaning of survival. "
The old man's death freed himself, and he also liberated Chitaro and Wakasa, and untied the cage that bound them. In their bitter lives, the arrival of the old man, like the sweet gong burning, added a little hope to them and comforted their hearts. The old man gave them salvation and the courage to embrace the life they wanted.
The following spring, the cherry blossoms bloom again. Wakasa was admitted to high school, and she wore her high school uniform through the cherry blossom bushes, exuding confidence she had never had before. Chitaro began to set up a stall in the park, a smile flowing from his face, and bravely shouted.
This time, there was light in his eyes.
bibliography:
Movie "The Beauty of Chengsha"
[When you are in a desperate situation, take a bite of sugar]. YANG Shiyang.