These days, a Korean movie "Old Woman" can be described as the hottest movie in recent times.
Whether it is the theme of the film itself, or the story about the film itself, it is worth a good discussion.
"Old Woman" This movie Lao Meng has also talked about before, telling the story of a 69-year-old man who was violated by a 29-year-old assistant physiotherapist.
The film starts from the fact that the elderly want to defend their rights after being violated, and through the 97-minute duration, it shows the difficulty and helplessness of the elderly who want to protect their rights from multiple angles, and even at the end of the film, there is no conclusion on the outcome of this infringement case.
The issue of "old man" in "Old Woman" has a multi-layered rendering, and its appearance makes us once again admire the boldness and bravery of Korean films.
In fact, in recent years, domestic films have also been quite sharp in the discussion of practical issues, especially the choice of young directors in the topic, which is even more surprising.
For example, this article will say:
"Joy and Mourning"
"Happy Funeral" is a small-budget independent film written and directed by young director Zhang Tao, and it is also his feature-length debut.
All the actors in the film are non-professional actors, but they won two awards at the 10th FIRST Youth Film Festival, Best Film and Best Director.
Like "The Old Woman", "Happy Funeral" also focuses on the issue of the elderly, but unlike "Old Woman", which focuses on the more secret topic of the elderly being violated, "Happy Funeral" tells the story of almost everyone's side, so real that people have no place to look at themselves, like looking in the mirror without clothes.
It can even be said that if "Old Woman" tells the unspeakable secret under the "common feelings of people", then "Joy and Funeral" reveals the most selfish and "ugly" side of human nature.
Lin Guo, an 86-year-old man, lives in an old mansion in Zhangzhuang, Lunan.
She is still quite strong, and the daily life of the family can be handled by herself.
The old man had 6 children in his lifetime, but he did not expect his husband to die early, the oldest was 13 years old, and the youngest was only 9 months.
Out of love and reluctance for her children, she did not remarry, relying on begging for food, and pulled up 6 children by herself.
Nowadays, the 6 children have grown up and started their own families, some have established a family and no longer have to nest in this small mountain village, and some have gone out to see the world and never come back. The only people who can really meet with the old man from time to time are the second son, the third son and the younger daughter.
And living with the old man in this old house, there are also grandchildren.
Xiaodao is the child of the old man's young son, Xiaodao's mother gave birth to him and ran away, and the old man's young son has since lost news and left the trail to be raised by the old man.
Old people like to listen to music and books, and turn on the radio when they eat alone. The old man also believed in Buddhism and had to worship the statue of Guanyin every day.
The days passed like this, but the accident came so suddenly.
On this day, the old man got up as usual, washed his face, wiped the old photos, sent the trail out, and then prepared to take some straw out of the house.
Unexpectedly, only a few steps out of the door, the old man fell.
This fall, the body is not a big deal, but the old man's three children have rushed back.
In order to prevent the elderly from having such accidents again, the children discussed sending the elderly to the nursing home, and you explained the "truth" clearly with your words.
"Mother, you still go, who is waiting for you at home", "Do you remember the crazy lady?" He died at home, and after a few days he was found, covered with maggots", "The deposit of the nursing home was also paid and filled in, mother, you just look at it"...
But the old man is used to the life of the old house, and for a time the nursing home is tight, and there are no vacancies for the elderly, so things are delayed.
Within a few days, the old man's physical condition was getting worse and worse, and this time he collapsed before he left the room.
In this way, the three children got together again and discussed where the old man should go next.
The younger daughter sympathized with the elderly and proposed to take the old man to the hospital to see, but the second daughter-in-law was distressed about the money for medical treatment, and said directly:
"Illness is an old disease, and it is useless to see it."
But do not go to the hospital, on the one hand, the three children have their own families to take care of, unwilling to stay in the old house to take care of the elderly, on the other hand, the beds in the nursing home are not empty, what to do?
At this time, the old man proposed that in these days of waiting for beds, it is rotated to live with three children, one can get along with children and grandchildren, and the other does not have to worry about no one to take care of.
In desperation, the old man's door-to-door life began.
The old man first arrived at the second son's house, and just when he arrived at home and sat down, the second daughter-in-law started the idea of the old man's old house.
The life of the second family is not easy, although the second is a teacher himself, but in the countryside, the salary is very small, the son said that he went out to work, but since going out, he has never sent a penny to the family, but left his son and daughter to take care of the second son.
And the second family is ready to build a new house for their son, but the family has no money, so they want to use the old house to renovate for the children, and their old two families move to the old man's old house to live.
But the old man is worried that the fourth elder will go home without land, and he is also worried that his grandson will be homeless.
So the old daughter-in-law began to pour bitter water, complaining that the son and daughter threw the child to her, and complaining that they had to take care of the old man and could not free their hands.
In the light and in the dark, it was all words for the old man.
The old man listened in his ears and remembered it in his heart, before going to the old third house, she handed the key to the old mansion to the old daughter-in-law, and the last sentence of the instruction before leaving was "My son, be careful when building a house, don't get tired." ”
The old three families are in the city, living in buildings and driving cars, and the new daughter-in-law is still a young "city person".
But this new daughter-in-law is not at all polite to the old man.
The luggage carried by the old man was thrown directly by her to the downstairs storage room, and on the sofa at home, there was an "exclusive seat" for the old man, and the old man had a special bowl and chopsticks for eating, and even the placement was extremely "exquisite".
It is common to get along with each other every day, and the handkerchief that the old man washed and dried on the sofa seat was clipped with a clip and thrown on the window sill of the old man's room.
Disgust is beyond words.
Later, after her daughter ran away to work in Zhejiang, she pointed at the old man and scolded him, shouting to find the old man to settle the account.
The days really couldn't go on, and the old man left the old third family in advance and went to the little daughter's house.
The younger daughter's family is also living very tightly, the husband guards a small shop at home, he gets up early and dark to spread pancakes outside, the son runs a long distance outside, and the daughter-in-law takes his granddaughter at home.
When the old man came, he could only squeeze out the room of his daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and would live in the shop.
The little daughter is actually filial piety, in order to take care of the elderly, she closes the stall one hour early every day, comes back to cook for the elderly, and will also think of buying some meat and meals for the elderly.
But within a few days of Ann's birthday, there was another change.
First of all, the old man has a laughing disease because of nervous disorders, and he will always laugh uncontrollably, and once there is a fluctuation in mood, the situation is more obvious.
Then the son-in-law found that it was less than 50 when counting the money of the shop, and although the little daughter said that she would not be an old man, she still found an opportunity to ask for the exit.
The old man did not argue, immediately should be his own 50 pieces, after saying that, the little daughter who said that it was okay changed into a complaining tone.
At this point, the bad things in the little daughter's family are not over, and the son-in-law was blackmailed by scammers on the way to send the elderly to see a doctor.
But when she proposed to her brothers to raise more money to treat the elderly, she did not expect that the three families were not only unwilling to pay again, but also fought for it.
Immediately after, the younger daughter's son, who was running a long distance outside, had a car accident and was gone.
The old man's condition is deteriorating day by day, incontinence, coupled with the "untimely" laughing disease, the old man's life is even more difficult.
The bitter old man of the children looked at it, and she proposed not to live from house to house and to go back to the old house.
Before leaving, the old man gave the scarf to his granddaughter and the table in his hand to his granddaughter-in-law, who had just lost her husband.
Going around, the old man returned to the old house, but the old house was no longer the old house it used to be.
Because the second family moved in, the room that originally belonged to the elderly was gone, and the second family cleaned up the room where the firewood was stacked for the elderly to live. The old man's untimely laughter bored them and stopped letting the old man eat at the same table with them.
In the end, the old man was driven to live in the cowshed, a wooden board, an oil lamp, and the old daughter-in-law brought food to the old man when she was feeding the cattle.
But this time back, the old man seems to have changed.
Before, she was very resistant to going to the nursing home, but now she asks every day: "Has the nursing home written?" My son. ”
After asking too many questions, the second family was annoyed by the questions, and in anger, they also smashed the Guanyin statue that the old man worshiped every day.
Finally, the "hard-hitting" old woman of the nursing home passed away, and the old man's family finally waited for the bed.
But in the early hours of the morning when she was about to live in the nursing home, 86-year-old Lin Guoshi swallowed a handful of rat poison, thus ending her tragic life.
After the death of the old man, because of his advanced age and many children and grandchildren, the children held a "happy funeral" for the old man.
"Joy and mourning" refers to the mourning of people, the mourning of the people, the mourning of the party, and the joy of what is there. The so-called mourners, on the other hand, take the blessings and longevity of the deceased as gratifying.
The "joy and funeral" was not lively, and the scantily dressed women on the stage danced loudly and staged an unsightly scene with the old man in the village.
Offstage, the old man's posthumous photo was placed in the middle, and a circle of filial piety and grandchildren wearing mourning clothes around them clapped excitedly, as if they had fulfilled the old man's wish.
The story starts from the old man waiting for the bed, until the death of the person is not over, although the film is also singing and singing after the death of the old man, it is not lively, but throughout the last days of the old man's life, how can not be separated from the word "hi".
The second family sees the money eye to open the mercenary is the picture, the daughter-in-law of the second family every time she appears, it can almost be said that it is the image of the "shrew" and "complaining woman", the only time she shows a smile to the old man in the film is when the old man gives her the heirloom jade bracelet.
Taking the jade bracelet, she smiled and asked the old man again: "Is there anything good?" Give me some more. ”
The second brother looked only promised, and the atmosphere was not out, but near the end of the film, he asked all the children who wanted to ask but did not dare to ask: "Mother, do you hate me?" ”
The meanness of the third daughter-in-law and the cowardice of the third daughter-in-law are also obvious, while the younger daughter is completely powerless, and her family's life is a mess, where is the extra energy to take care of the old mother?
The children who have always regarded the old man as a burden only think about how to lose the burden of the old mother, but they have not thought about how much the old man has suffered in order to raise them.
And even if the children do it badly and do it wrong, as a mother, they have never thought of complaining about their children.
The old man does not say much in the film, except for asking for the bodhisattva's blessing, the only few conversations in the film are all about her life.
The second family wanted her old mansion and uttered evil words: "The old one is not serving well, and the little one is doing evil outside!" ”
The old man said, "My son, be careful when building a house, don't get tired." ”
The daughter of the third son's family wanted to go out to see, and she asked the old man why he let the third son leave ZhangZhuang in the first place.
The old man said, "When the child is older, his heart is wild, let him go outside and look at the world." ”
The little daughter looked at the old man who was seriously ill and asked her: "Mother, you want to die, what do you mean when you say you are alive?" ”
The old man said, "Alas, if you don't want to die, you have to die." ”
The younger daughter's son died unexpectedly, leaving behind her granddaughter-in-law and young great-grandchildren.
The old man said: "It is not easy to live alone, you are still young, find another one, the days are longer than you think." ”
The night before sending the old man to the nursing home, the second elder squatted on the ground and cried, and he asked: "Mother, do you hate me?" ”
The old man said, "My son, don't say stupid things, give these to your sisters." ”
Before the old man ate the rat poison and fell to the ground, he still made a wish to the broken Statue of Guanyin: "The bodhisattva blesses the children with peace and security", and when he fell to the ground, he still had a family portrait from many years ago in his hand.
Although the film is all performed by non-professional actors, it is so real that it makes people's scalps tingle.
At the end of the film, the little daughter and son-in-law find the lost 50 yuan in the corner of the shop floor.
The second daughter-in-law took off the turban that she had been wearing on her head, and it turned out that the second daughter-in-law was already an old man, and she fell silently while handling the housework, exactly the same as Lin Guoshi at the beginning of the film.
In the same room, one fell outside the door and one fell in the door.
Does this mean that the future of the second daughter-in-law will also be like the old man at the beginning of the film, confirming the sentence "everyone will be old", and the new cycle has begun.
The story of the film is simple and simple, full and plump, and the 108 minutes are stuffed with fullness. The best thing is the echo of the beginning and the end, which is a bit of a taste of "The Big Red Lantern Hangs High".
"Happy Funeral" was called a cruel version of "Tokyo Story" by Wong Kar-wai, and the film received a high score of 8.5 on Douban, which is the top ten plot masterpieces of domestic movies in the past 10 years.
Unfortunately, not many people have seen it on Douban, only more than 10,000 people, and the number of people who have evaluated it is only more than 8,000 people.
But "Joy and Mourning" really deserves to be seen by more people.
Bluestone Film Editorial Office | Old Meng
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