Most of the film memories of the famous Hong Kong female director Hui Anhua are probably the same as mine, from her 2012 film "Sister Tao".
The movie "Sister Peach" is based on a true story in Hong Kong, telling the story of a maid who carefully takes care of four generations of adults in a family, and finally slowly grows old.
And the actors of the movie "Sister Peach" are all big coffee, the male protagonist is Andy Lau, the female protagonist is Ye Dexian, through their wonderful interpretation, there is this good movie "Sister Peach" with a warm pulse.
This article will introduce this film in detail from three aspects: story background, narrative technique, and human nature thinking.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the background of the master-servant story slowly begins to transform towards mother and child</h1>
In the 1940s, Sister Tao (Played by Ye Dexian) went to work as a maid in the home of "Roger" (Andy Lau) because of the difficulties at home.
From the age of 13 to her sixties, Sister Tao's life can be said to be tied to the "Roger" family, she has seen the birth of the first generation, and she has personally brought up "Roger".
Previously, "Roger" only thought of Sister Tao as an old maid in the family, and only thought that she was a dispensable person with a salary in their home.
Until one day, because of a stroke, she fell, suddenly without the care of Sister Tao, all of a sudden there was no cooking of Sister Tao, Roger's life was all messed up at once.
Can't cook for themselves, can't wash their own clothes, the most interesting thing is to casually wear a set of clothes out of the house, and it is actually considered to be an air conditioner.
It was also at that moment that Roger instantly realized how important "Sister Peach" was to his life, not only as a servant, but also as a part of his life, but also as a part of his life.
With this as the background, there was a "mother-son" feeling between Roger and Sister Tao later, and others asked Roger, who is this old lady?
Roger's answer was, mom.
Although Sister Tao didn't say anything, she could also see that the smile on her face was sincere and heartfelt.
In stark contrast, the old lady who also lives in a nursing home has children and money, but the children seem to have disappeared after emigrating, and they have never seen her again.
For the old lady, the rest of her life, except waiting, except for scruples, seems to have no meaning.
Another stark example is that after transferring his house to his son, the son disappears, only the daughter comes to see her from time to time, and only the daughter repeatedly advises her to go home for the New Year.
And although she knows that Sister Tao is just a worker, she knows that she has no children and no daughters, but every few days there are "dry sons" to see her, and every few days there is "Roger" to accompany her to play, in fact, the envy in her eyes cannot be hidden.
The background of this "master and servant" story is slowly changing in the direction of not being "mother and child" better than "mother and son", and the process of this transformation is actually touching enough and sensational enough.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, almost white narrative mode</h1>
As one of the representative figures of the Hong Kong New Wave, Hui Anhua has always been accustomed to telling a story that "strikes people's hearts" with life and a bland narrative when filming.
In this movie, director Xu Anhua also used the same narrative method:
The first: not to exaggerate the sadness.
For example, the two most impressive scenes in the movie, the first is that after Sister Tao's accident, according to the narrative method of other directors, it will definitely arrange for "Roger" to personally send Sister Tao to the hospital.
However, in this movie, Xu Anhua is very restrained.
120 people were taken away, and Roger stayed on the sofa lightly, studying how to use the washing machine, this restraint, this kind of not over-rendering of sadness, is actually Xu Anhua's skill, which not only shows Roger and Sister Tao at this time, or the identity of the master and servant, but also shows a kind of ups and downs of feelings.
The second shot is after the doctor tells Roger that there is no need to save Sister Tao, at this time, Roger's inner feelings for Sister Tao have changed, and his feelings for Sister Tao have risen from the feelings of master and servant to the feelings of "mother and son".
At this time, director Xu Anhua was still restrained enough so that Roger did not shed a tear, only using the long-range, only the back, and only the anxious phone call, which portrayed Roger's inner complex psychological process.
The second: a lot of preparation, a lot of details to form a contrast.
The most emblematic of Xu Anhua's film style is probably a lot of life details in her shots, a lot of daily preparation.
For example, in the opening Tao Sister went to the vegetable market to buy fish, carefully selected, and even the greengrocers were used to Sister Tao, which was why Later Tao Sister chose a maid for her master, strict requirements and high standards, because she herself has always been like this.
For example, when she and Roger came together at the beginning, she was always willing to follow behind, but later, she began to get used to holding Roger's hand, and she began to get used to holding his hand.
And the most impressive detail to me, probably is such a set of contrasts that did not appear, when Sister Tao and Roger chatted, when they talked about it when they were young, Roger always loved to cry, it was Sister Tao who carried her to the street, he did not cry, and when Sister Tao grew old, when Sister Tao slowly lost consciousness, it was roger who pushed Sister Tao to the street, and roger accompanied her.
There are a lot of this contrast before and after in the play, and the effect of this contrast is enough to make people feel relieved, enough to make people move, after all, the child who was once cared for by Sister Tao has also grown up, he has learned to be grateful, he has learned to feed back, and this spirit, the inheritance of this love, is the most glorious scene in our human nature.
The third: a straightforward life story!
In the movie "Sister Tao", one of Xu Anhua's greatest skills is that he does not deliberately exaggerate any facts for us, nor does he carry out any artistic processing for us.
She only uses the most straightforward life, she only uses the most straightforward story, it is enough to hit the heart of each of us.
For example, the patriarchal old lady who appears in the play is an example, she has been good to her eldest son all her life, and she has given all the best and given her last house to the eldest son, but in the end, only the daughter comes to take care of her, and the only daughter who comes to send her to the end is still the daughter.
This kind of story is really too much in our daily life, and Xu Anhua does not add any rendering, does not use any tragic techniques, so bluntly put this bloody reality, and puts such a true story, almost white in front of our eyes, which is the most real and the most direct to people's hearts.
Most people's tragedies and joys in this world are different, but most people's encounters are similar, and Xu Anhua uses this similar life experience, with this similar sadness and joy, to present us with a real world and show us a real life.
And that's the biggest thing about this movie!
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, this is not a movie, but life</h1>
Most of the people who have seen the movie "Sister Peach" are like me, and in the end, they will be touched by the sincere feelings between Sister Peach and Roger, a pair of "mother and son".
But so far, I think the most pertinent evaluation of this movie is a sentence that Andy Lau said after the film:
This is not a movie, but a real life.
And from this movie, we do gain a lot of things that we usually can easily ignore.
The first is: What exactly is a relationship?
Some people say that feelings are blood relations, and feelings are, like each other.
In fact, from Sister Tao, from Roger, I see another answer, the so-called "feelings", may not have anything to do with blood, has nothing to do with likes, may just be a simple kindness, maybe just a simple kindness, or like Sister Tao's dedication to Roger's family for most of her life.
Kindness is affection, giving is affection, and companionship is of course.
And this kind of kindness will be passed on, this kind of goodwill will be infected, and this is the brilliance of human nature, and this is the power of human nature.
The second is: human nature is inherently good.
Some people say that human nature is inherently evil, and some people say that human nature is inherently good, and each has its own sayings, but in Sister Tao, in Roger, in this group of people, I do see the power of goodness, and I do see the brilliance of human nature.
For example, roger's elementary school classmates in the play can unreservedly love for Sister Tao, such as the last moment of Sister Tao's life, Roger, a dry son with no blood relationship, is really willing to send him to the end.
Of course, what moved me the most was probably the goodness of the supporting characters in the play:
A young woman with bad kidneys, during the festival, gave a small gift to Sister Tao;
The director of the nursing home, the big New Year's Day let his subordinates go home for a reunion, but he rushed back alone to accompany Sister Tao;
Even Uncle Jian, who always cheated Sister Tao's money to go out and play blindly, finally took a bouquet of flowers and bowed before Sister Tao's funeral.
The kindness of the little people is the most sincere and the most simple, and this film is also in this kind of plain, real, and goodwill that tells us a sincere relationship and a real life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
After the release of "Sister Peach", the film director Xu Anhua won the Golden Horse Award and the Academy Award with this film, and the male protagonist of this film, Andy Lau, has also been named since then, not only will he play a police film, not only will he play a handsome and cool, in fact, he is still a male protagonist of a literary and art film.
For me, the biggest feeling that this movie brings to me is that it really shows us a dull life, and it also really shows us a non-ordinary past.
A movie that can perceive the true taste of life from the bland is indeed a difficult thing, and this movie seems to have done it!