"Spring Death" directed by Xu Qinhao
"Spring Death" is both a poem and a film, and if we talk about the similarities between the two, it is aesthetic, melancholy, and about love
The poet Byron's "Spring Death" has been translated with this sentence: "If I will see you, after many years, how can I congratulate you with tears?" To silence? Xu Qinhao's "Spring Death" also has similar words: "When waiting for you, there is no kiss from you, no tears from you, only songs that sink into the heart, calling; and missing your face, there are thousands of hearts." ”
In 2001, Xu Qinhao won the Best Artistic Contribution Award in the main competition unit of the 14th Tokyo International Film Festival with "Spring Death", and since then he has steadily walked in the circle of directors, and his films are famous for their aesthetic environment, and every frame can be included in the painting, "Spring Death" is one of them. In order to make this film, he specially chose the beautiful Gangwon as the location venue.
Pleasant view of Gangwon
One. Lay out the story
The male protagonist of "Spring Death", Shang You, is a tuner. Shangyou's grandfather has long passed away, leaving Grandma alone, and Grandma chooses to forget the fact that Grandpa is not there in a self-deceptive way. She would often go to the waiting room of the station to wait for Grandpa, but Grandpa would never appear in their lives again, and could only watch the car speed by the road next to them.
Shangyou's father, on the other hand, cannot forget his wife, who has long since died. Such a native family has developed a character that Shangyou is full of expectations for love, he believes that there is true love in the world, and he is willing to chase true love with a sincere heart.
And the heroine Eun Seol is not only a radio broadcast, but also a newly divorced woman. The failure of the previous relationship cast a big shadow on her heart. She became sensitive and easily sad, and did not dare to easily get involved in love.
The male and female protagonists of "Spring Death"
A program that recorded sound brought the two together by chance. They went together to record the sounds of nature. They would sit in the bamboo forest and listen to the mozzie of bamboo leaves; they would go to the stream with their companions to listen to the clanging of spring water; even if the snowflakes were sprinkled from the sky, they wanted to catch them. The relatives of the day and night gradually heat up the feelings between the two.
"The head of the building dreams five more bells, the bottom of the flower is divorced from the March rain." The love affair that began in winter, after a short and splendid spring, came to an end at the beginning of summer. Eun Seol can't come out of the failure of the previous relationship, and doesn't dare to accept Shangyou's warm love, so she chooses to avoid it. In the face of Eun Seol's sudden idea of breaking up, Shang You seems caught off guard, and he can't figure out why the good love suddenly stops.
Someone said: "If someone wants to know how a man feels after falling out of love, it is better to go to "Spring Death". Eun Seol suddenly pulls out of the sweet love, but ShangYou is left where she is, deeply trapped in her love for Eun Seol and unable to extricate herself. And what the film records is the process of the pain of the breakup of this lovelorn man gradually fading.
"Spring Death"
Two. Shaping the character
Xu Qinhao chose a subtle and light narrative method, delicately portraying each picture with the lens. He also used long shots in many places, using the third-party perspective of a quiet observer to narrate the entire story.
And the characters in the play also appear naturally in front of people's eyes in this way. When she first met, the heroine was dressed in black and a bright red scarf, which lined the woman's good face. The male protagonist is dressed normally. The two sit on a bench, and the camera locks in the middle of the two, forming a painting of its own.
The characters created by Xu Qinhao are closely related to the style of his photographs. The emotional main line of the whole play is the same as the image of the male and female protagonists, delicate and beautiful, sad and not contrived.
Someone commented: "How to face the fleeting life and love, this is the subject of Xu Qinhao's questioning of philosophy. "While slowly telling the story of the two with a beautiful lens, he is also showing the aesthetic and hazy mood of love.
This eloquent lens transformation makes the characters also look beautiful, and the emotional outpouring is very natural. The male protagonist has sincere feelings for the female protagonist, and although the female protagonist feels contradictory, she cannot be indifferent.
As soon as the camera turns, the two have already said goodbye, walking on the street full of cherry blossoms, perhaps the scenery is too beautiful, or perhaps the heart is not willing, the heroine who proposed to break up suddenly proposed "can you start from the beginning", the male protagonist was silent for a long time, and gently but firmly said: "No." This kind of answer shows that Shangyou has gradually grown up and can correctly deal with this fragile relationship.
At this point, this short-lived love and Kasuga passed away together.
The brief love and the spring day passed together
Three. Brief comment on
There is a scene in the movie where the male protagonist sits under the eaves and silently looks at the distant scenery while the male protagonist's grandmother is next to him. The man's grandmother said: "Women are like buses, once they leave, they will not come back." These are Grandma's words of relief to Shangyou.
I think that replacing the woman in this sentence with love is the director's voice. It seems to announce the fleeting and fleeting nature of love. Perhaps when he first refused the female protagonist's request to be together again, Shang You already knew that the quiet slipping of love did not need a reason.
That kind of emotion that is as beautiful as a bubble is also as fragile as a bubble.
Someone said: "Xu Qinhao admired Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi, and lurked a faint philosophical meaning in his works. In Xu Qinhao's works, he does not feel strong love and hate. The plain emotional regurgitation between people is real and evocative. The melancholy charm contained in the whole work connects the mood of the film with the mood of Byron's poetry.
Director Xu Qinhao
"I have not seen you for several years, and I have no words and tears when I meet." In our ordinary lives, many sorrows do not really tear the heart and lungs apart and move the world. On the contrary, it is faint, pouring out from the corner of the eyebrow, but lingering and lingering. This is the feeling of this fruitless love to the audience.
Although "Spring Death" is a love film, as a classic, it is not just about love. Between the whole love story, the family factor is another thread that runs through it. In the male protagonist's family, because of the affectionate father and the grandmother who is attached to the grandfather, the male protagonist has always had a vision and hope for love.
But the heroine, due to the failure of the marriage, makes her believe in the fragility of her feelings. The final breakup of the two was both unexpected and reasonable. It can be seen that family and experience have enough influence on a person throughout his life.
The heroine of "Spring Death"
Four. The director wrote another work
In fact, before "Spring Death", Xu Qinhao also directed a very popular movie called "August Photo Studio". Combining the two works is not difficult to see that the director chooses special events of ordinary life, and he does not believe in long-lasting love.
"Most of the good things are not strong, and the clouds are easy to scatter and the glass is brittle", the male and female protagonists of "Spring Death" broke up in early summer, while the male protagonist of "August Photo Studio" died in winter. He uses a quiet and harmonious lens to tell the truth of the story. Even simple and dull stories can appear sad and beautiful in his works, full of emotion.
In addition, his works such as "Different Republic", "Going Out" and "Happiness" have also been greatly successful. In 2012, he directed the romance film Dangerous Relationship. This film starring Cecilia Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Zhang Dongjian and others is deeply loved by the audience with a tight storyline and ups and downs. The great success of this work has pushed the fame of director Xu Qinhao to a climax.
In the works of director Xu Qinhao, some simple and profound truths will be revealed from time to time. For example: cherish life, cherish life; live in the present, look forward to the future; smoke is harmful to health, etc. He does not directly point out these ideas, but through the switching of the camera and the unfolding of the story, people are aware of these truths. This is more impressive than going straight to the pen.
Eun Seol said: "We went to listen to the slow flow of the stream, listened to the bamboo forest being blown by the wind, listened to the sound of a wildflower blooming on the mountain, and together we put it into a mysterious box." But our love, can it be captured? The answer is clearly "no.". Eun Seol can't catch it, and neither can Shang You.
This love is as splendid and beautiful as spring, but as short as spring.
Perhaps in the journey of life, every intimate relationship is a unique landscape. When the train of life slowly passes, the scenery next to the road will slowly regress backwards, and those fleeting beautiful landscapes, once missed, are forever.
But in life, there is always a direction that is the way home, there will always be a person, sitting quietly by the window, writing a letter sent to a distant place, telling you: "Strange flowers bloom, but slowly return."