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The final scene of "Tigertail" (2020), as the camera pulls away, through one empty window after another in the ruins, the quiet regret, accompanied by the silent understanding of the daughter, even if the sun shines, it still makes people feel heavy enough to crush the tear glands.
Chinese director Alan Yang is quite young, but only 36 years old, but can portray an old man's mood of looking back at life. A father who never seems to love people, does not care about people, and does not say much, is not actually loveless in his heart, but his deepest love has been locked in the day he left Taiwan, whether it is the love for his mother or the heart for his lover.
Director Yang has lived in the United States since childhood, his parents are immigrants from Taiwan Tiger Tail, and the childhood experience of the protagonist of "Tiger Tail" story Ruiping (played by Ma Tai) is partly from the personal experience of Director Yang's father, such as losing his father at the age of one, the mother who cannot afford to raise and must first live in a relative's house, and because there is no household registration, you must hide in the cupboard and so on. Ruiping is like the humble life of floating life, whether it is for Director Yang living in the United States, or for us living in the 21st century, these martial law lives in the countryside are equally distant and incredible. "Tiger Tail" records the previous generations of Taiwanese, rural scenery, small factory foundry workers, and the struggles of poverty.
Struggling between dreams and reality, in Ruiping's life, it is because of the shackles of poverty, but Ruiping's daughter Angela (played by Ge Xiaojie), who was born in the United States, is also entangled between dreams and reality. When Ruiping was poor, in order to give his mother (played by Yang Guimei) a better life and wanted to "be good for her", he gave up the woman he loved and brought a woman who did not know her at all and had a very different personality, and immigrated to the United States to create a co-creation. As everyone knows, just after the economic stability, my mother did not want to immigrate to the United States at all, and told Pin Rui that "that is what you want, not what I want."
Originally, Pin Rui thought that his own sacrifice was the best gift to his mother, but in fact, Ruiping, who was too self-centered, had ignored the space for free will and self-choice.
The estrangement with the mother, as well as the loss of unforgettable "stealing hearts", did not let Pin Rui learn to respect the wishes of others, and later, in the same way of "good for you", strictly demanded and disciplined her daughter, so that her daughter Angela has also been living in extreme pressure and self-confidence crisis, and has been struggling between the contradiction between the obedient daughter and self-pursuit.
Because of poverty, Pin Rui mistakenly thinks that money can save everything, and as a result, because of the misuse of "for your own good" on his wife, he thinks that as long as he can give his wife a stable economy and a house and a car, it is the responsibility of mr. Li. As a result, Pin Rui still lost his wife.
Obviously, the result of "good for you" is not only unable to meet the expectations of others, but also pushes the people they care about far away (mother and lover), and even destroys the relationship between the two (daughter and wife).
What is even more sad is that although the mother thinks that Pin Rui chose to go to the United States because "that is what you want", in fact, Pin Rui does not want to spend her life with a strange woman, but secretly loves the "person who steals her heart" with regret all her life.
Every woman in Tiger Tail is very strong, resilient, and quite magnanimous. The most admirable is Ah Yuan (Fang Youxin and Chen Chong play young and old respectively). From Pin Rui's point of view, it was Ah Yuan who stole his heart, in fact, in Ah Yuan's side, Pin Rui did not say goodbye to abandonment, and was even more ruthless to steal his heart. However, Ah Yuan, who met in the United States decades later, did not remember hatred or complain, but happily reminisced with Pin Rui and generously shared her life.
Not only did Ah Yuan not care, but his mother also wished him a good life in the United States, and his wife Zhenzhen (played by Li Kunjue and Fu Yanan) also lived with Ruiping in a marriage without love and care for more than twenty years. In fact, these women have already forgiven Pin Rui, and the only person who can't get over and can't forgive him is himself.
The loneliness of never being able to forgive himself, let Pin Rui live in regret all his life, and it is also the last scene of "Tiger Tail", the empty ruins of his hometown and the lonely afternoon sun. This life is hard to pursue the American immigration and rich life, and finally, Pin Rui's American dream, what is left?