It will always be like this, behind the wind is the wind, above the sky is the sky, in front of the road or the road. - Haizi
As a contemporary Japanese director who can be called a master, Kore-eda has made a wide range of film types, including comedy, fantasy, suspense, crime, etc., but his best film is still a family-focused drama, and this type of film is also the best reputation. Kore-eda had six family films that received high ratings of 8.5 or more on Douban, including his 2015 Diary of Sea Street, the first time Kore-eda had directed a manga adaptation.
The Diary of The Sea Street tells the story of three sisters of the Kaeda family who live in the small town of Kamakura by the sea in Japan. Since childhood, their parents divorced and they have their own families, and the two younger sisters have been raised by the eldest sister. At their father's funeral 15 years later, they met their half-sister, and they decided to accept suzu Asano, the sister who had lost both parents. As the years passed, Suzu finally fully integrated into the family, and the four sisters became a real family.
The director is Kore-eda who presents a delicate picture of life to the audience in an almost white way. The overall tone of the film is warm, and the storyline is mainly warm, but the contradictions between family members and the death of relatives and friends are also the focus of the director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Kore-eda is slowly touching the softest part of people's hearts in a calm and calm way, and the film he directs tells the audience that not only the ups and downs can be gripping, but also the daily life that is not shocking.
<h1>The first funeral: Choice, it's a two-way street</h1>
The first funeral was the father's funeral.
Fifteen years away from my father, the goodbye was at my father's funeral. For the three Sisters of the Kaeda family, their father was not a responsible and good father, who abandoned them and married another woman, and has not had any contact since.
Suzu Asano is the daughter of the woman who broke up their family and her father. At the funeral, the three sisters met their half-sister for the first time. This young sister behaved well-behaved and sensible at normal funerals, and this understanding was beyond her age.
The eldest sister knows that Suzu will live with her stepmother, who is not related to her by blood, because her father remarries after Suzu's mother. Perhaps out of sympathy, or perhaps out of the inexplicable entanglement of blood ties, the eldest sister decided to invite Suzu to their home in Kamakura. Just like in "Natsume's Friend's Account", Aunt Tatsuko says to Natsume, "If you want, do you want to come to our house?" And Suzu Asano said without hesitation at this moment: "I will go." ”
This funeral gave the three Kaeda sisters and Suzu Asano a chance to choose.
The three Kaeda sisters chose to invite Suzu, and Suzu also chose to enter the family. In fact, most of the choices in our lives are two-way, especially when it comes to emotion. This two-way choice represents a willingness to establish a special connection between each other, when another person holds your hand when you reach out.
The three Kaeda sisters accepted a person who was related by blood but had nothing to do with them in the previous fifteen years of life, and Suzu also chose them, these were three people who were sisters in name only but had never been involved in her life.
<h1>The second funeral, forgiveness, is the key to untying the knot</h1>
The second funeral was Grandma's funeral (actually Grandma's seventh anniversary ceremony).
The role of grandmother does not appear in the movie, but from the words and behaviors of the three sisters, we can know that grandma is a very warm person. After their father and mother abandoned them to start a family, it was grandma who took care of them and left the old house for them. The three sisters kept the clothes that grandma had worn, the plum wine she had made ten years ago, and the dishes that grandma had cooked before.
After the mother left, the eldest sister took on the responsibility of the eldest daughter, as the saying goes: the eldest daughter is like a mother. Fortunately, she did take care of her two younger sisters like a mother and guarded the old house. However, fortunately, she has never been able to forgive her mother for two reasons: first, she abandoned her and her sisters when they were young and had a new family; second, her mother did not rush back to the funeral because of the distance when her grandmother died. So, in the calm and gentle plot, "The Diary of Sea Street" appeared on the screen for the first time: the quarrel between the eldest sister and the mother. The eldest sister complained about her mother's ruthlessness, and her mother said that she was helpless to make such a choice.
On that rainy day, the eldest sister went with her mother to visit her grandmother's grave. In her mother's confession, she learned that her mother was not omnipotent, and she also had her own unspeakable pain. Fortunately, he finally forgave his mother and gave her all the plum wine that her grandmother had made.
The funeral gave Yuki the opportunity to reunite with her mother, and also gave Yuki the opportunity to forgive her mother, untying the knot between their mother and daughter.
Since then, the mother has not lived with regret and self-blame, and fortunately she has found the missing maternal love. In front of her mother, she is no longer the big sister who takes care of the whole family and takes care of her sisters on weekdays, but just a daughter who needs to be taken care of and cared for, and who is reminded to "be careful" when she runs on a rainy day.
<h1>The third funeral: life, sorrow and beauty</h1>
The third funeral was the funeral of the lady of the hotel.
The Sea Cat Cafeteria is a restaurant frequented by the four sisters of the Kaeda family. The hotel has been going on for three generations, but unfortunately, the hostess, Lady Ninomiya, fell seriously ill and soon left the world. However, the funeral of Lady Ninomiya did not make people feel too heavy and sad.
At the funeral, Ms. Ninomiya took a photo taken when she was watching the cherry blossoms before she died, and her smile was bright. Although she knew that her life was about to wither away, in the last of her life, she saw the beauty of the cherry blossoms.
It is a blessing for a person to still feel that beautiful things are beautiful before dying.
Everyone in the movie has all kinds of troubles: the eldest sister is fortunate to raise her sister alone after her parents divorced and started their own family, for this reason she has not been married, guarding the old house left by her grandmother, she even fell into unrequited love like her father, fell in love with her husband; the second sister Kanai was not in love, and was always deceived by the little white face; the younger sister Asano Suzu's biological mother had long died, and her father remarried, in such a family she was bound to be wronged, and she had to mature prematurely... However, in the end, they all became better people, the eldest sister gave up love and did not go to the United States with the man; the second sister decided to focus on her career and achieve better results; and the younger sister Asano Suzu, under the care of the three sisters, completely opened her heart and became the sisters' favorite little sister.
XiaoLing finally truly integrated into the family, although she was the half-sister of the other three sisters, although her biological mother broke up the family of her three sisters, although she was at first as restrained as an outsider, but unconsciously, she had already integrated into the family.
These unconscious moments, perhaps when the eldest sister held her and talked to her, when the second sister painted her nail polish and taught her to fall in love, when the third sister made her food to eat, when they sat in the courtyard and picked plums together to make plum wine, when they wore yukatas together and set off fireworks, when the height of the little bell was also added to the doorpost of the old house, when the bell dared to generously talk about missing his mother in front of his sisters, and his deceased father...
This funeral, while bidding farewell to the past and facing up to the sorrows of life, reminds them to still remember the beauty of life.
At the end of the movie, the four sisters walk together on the beach by the sea, and the eldest sister says: "Although Dad is a failed person, he may be a gentle person." Because, he left such a sister for us. The four sisters laughed and laughed together on the beach, discussing together what beautiful things they would think of before they died. At this moment, the sorrows of life seem to be forgotten.
<h1>The idea of "material mourning" that haunts the entire film</h1>
In the movie "Sea Street Diary", the idea of "material mourning" of the Japanese Yamato nation is revealed everywhere.
"Things" are all things, and "mourning" is sorrow and sorrow. "Material mourning" is an aesthetic consciousness that is deeply hidden in the marrow of the Japanese nation. This kind of thinking, which has continued from the heian dynasty of Japan to the present day, is largely related to geopolitical factors. Japan, an island country, is geographically at high risk, and natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are very frequent, and over time people living in this land will have the feeling of "impermanence of life". Life is fleeting, and even the best things will eventually disappear. The Tale of Genji, created by Zi Shibu, is a typical literary work of "material sorrow". Since the creation of The Tale of Genji more than 1,000 AD, the "material sorrow" in Japanese literature has continued into the modern and contemporary japanese literature. Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima, as well as the contemporary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, were all influenced by the literary concept of "material sorrow".
Professor Ye Weiqu of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures of Peking University once said: "In addition to being an explanation of sadness, sadness and misery, 'material mourning' also includes the meaning of pity, sympathy, touching, and magnificence. ”
The beginning and end of the entire film of "Sea Street Diary" revolves around the beginning and end of the funeral, and it is Kore-eda who puts the most everyday scene in the movie, because in its view, the funeral is a part of life, and death is a part of life. Life is not indestructible, but fragile and perishable. Many elements in the film are also related to "transience", such as fireworks and cherry blossoms, which were once dazzling and vivid, but quickly dissipated after they were extremely brilliant. However, this is precisely the most unique Japanese aesthetic consciousness of sadness--they express sorrow for perishable things, and at the same time they think that these things are particularly beautiful.
They prefer autumn leaves that gradually fall from the branches into the soil than the splendor of the summer flowers.
Life is impermanent, the world is unpredictable, life is not absolutely beautiful, it is bittersweet, it has sorrow and joy, but when midsummer, the seaside, fireworks, plum rain, cherry blossom tunnel, plum wine, sardines, trams... When these kinds of elements come to the fore, the yearning for life and the expectation of beauty arise spontaneously. As Haizi said, "It will always be like this, behind the wind is the wind, above the sky is the sky, in front of the road or the road." Perhaps, kore-eda ultimately wants to tell the audience that life will be painful, but if you feel it with your heart, you can still capture beautiful things and timeless emotions.