"Midsummer, fireworks, plum wine, sardines, tunnels of cherry blossoms, small towns through which trains pass, summer, I miss your taste."
Not long ago, the second season of the food documentary "A String of Life", which was popular in the north and south of the river last year, arrived as scheduled, and has been broadcast for more than a month, and the Douban score is still stable at about 8.6 points.
This film uses delicate lenses and the hometown affection behind the food to quietly change people's cognition of food, and also arouse people's longing for their hometown and their yearning for a quiet life.
In the hearts of many wandering wanderers, the memory of their hometown is perhaps the most precious memory in their hearts, and it is Kore-eda who sketches the story from the perspective of the four young girls in "Sea Street Diary", while also integrating his own quiet thinking and nostalgia for the past years.
A picturesque hometown, an old house full of memories, a kind of idyllic and fresh days and a happy and sweet family.
I believe that such a dream is the unchanging obsession and desire in the hearts of all the people who are exhausted for work all day in the city, nine to five, and it is also a good memory of the childhood family life in the hearts of countless people, and "Sea Street Diary" is such a story about family, growth and scenery.
Remember last year's Thief Family? With "Thief Family", Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 66th San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain.
In the eyes of many fans, "Thief Family" continues the consistent style of Kore-eda's works, and the story is bland on the surface, without any violent conflicts and contradictions, and some are just a reproduction of real life.
However, from a deep level, the story of "Thief Family" is compared to Kore-eda's previous personal works, with a strong sense of reality and heavy theme exploration.
If we look at "Thief Family" and "Walking" and "Father Like Son" as a series of films in the same vein, we will find that the discussion of father-son relationships, family relationships and social issues has always run through them and become heavier and heavier.
Although at the end of several films, the passage of time becomes the best weapon to alleviate the real dilemma of the characters in the film, the final reconciliation dilutes the realistic touch of the film story. But what still can't be changed is the faint trace of sorrow and sadness that Kore-eda buried in the movie.
For audiences immersed in Kore-eda's melancholy "life stream" films, it is only between the process of creating these films with heavy realistic issues that Kore-eda's "Sea Street Diary" with youthful memories can alleviate the strong perception brought about by several other works.
In the 126-minute Diary of The Sea Street, it is Kore-eda who presents us with the story of the three Sisters of the Kaeda family living in an inconspicuous corner of Kamakura, the ancient capital of Japan, on the coast of the sea, in a small town made of mountains.
Their father ran away from home with his lover in his early years, and their mother simply left her daughters in the care of their grandmother. After the death of her grandmother, her granddaughters inherited the large house with a long history.
Kaeda Yuki, the eldest sister who took on the family responsibility too early, did her best to take care of the healthy growth of her two younger sisters, Kano and Chika. On this day, the news of his father's death reached the sisters. They travel together to attend their father's funeral and meet their half-sister Suzu Asano, whom they have never met. Perhaps because of the closeness and intolerance of blood, fortunately, before leaving, he invited Suzu to move to Kamakura to live with him.
Not long after, with a vision for his sisters, Suzu stepped into the house where his father once lived. The four sisters have laughed and saddened in the passage of time. Suzu also gradually grew up in the life of her sisters, felt the warmth of the world that she had never felt before, came out of the knot of losing her father, and gained love and friendship in her new life, and became an indispensable part of the family.
Yuki, Kano, and Chika also recalled from this half-sister the bits and pieces of their long-departed father, felt that the blood of affection was thicker than water, and felt life and life.
Flowers blossom and fall, the seasons flow, and at the end of the story, the four sisters, who have experienced small waves, after participating in the farewell party of the hotel owner's wife, look at the vast ocean lightly but hopefully, and play like children on the beach at the high and low tide.
In addition to the growth and change of the little sister bell as the main line of the story in the movie, the life experiences and transformation choices of the other three sisters also occupy a lot of space in "Sea Street Diary".
Among them, the story of the eldest sister Kaeda Yuki is worth savoring and pondering. As the eldest daughter in the family, after the father left the family after having an extramarital affair, and the mother chose to abandon the child alone, Kaeda Yuki chose to take on the responsibility of the whole family with her own strength, pulling the two younger sisters up.
Her strength and pain make it impossible for her to forget the tragedy of her young family, whether it is her father's infidelity or her mother's escape.
Therefore, we can see that in the first half of the film, when the mother of the three sisters returns to the three sisters' house after many years, Kaeda Yuki shows only rejection and indifference.
Until her mother's outspoken words from the heart and her own personal experience, she had a deeper understanding of her mother's choice at that time.
Although the eldest sister, who has worked hard in life and work, has unforgettable memories of the family tragedy caused by her father's infidelity, and is also full of complaints about her father and mother, when it comes to herself, she has undeserved feelings with her colleagues and a husband with a wife.
From this point of view, we can see that although Kaeda is tough and stubborn on the outside, in fact, she is extremely fragile on the inside.
Under the double pressure of life and work, she also hopes that she is not alone, and that there is someone who can make her rely on and talk without worry. Therefore, the presence of the colleague in the movie, the husband with a wife, is a safe haven for her soul.
However, when this "safe haven" begged her to leave Japan with her and go to the United States to develop, fortunately, who deeply understood the tragic cause of her father and mother, she finally chose to refuse maturely and rationally.
And in order to accompany linglong's cute little sister to thrive together, in order to take on the responsibility of the family of four sisters, she can't just take care of her own happiness and enjoyment. The bearing of traditional family values and the correction of the faults of the fathers have become the greatest memories of the fortunate parents.
The film begins with his father's funeral and ends with the funeral of the lady of the hotel, and is full of philosophical reflections on the cycle of life.
Under the profound and heavy proposition of life, the four sisters used the unadorned life picture to show their brilliant bloom of their beautiful youth, which made people sigh. While constantly experiencing the entanglement of family, friendship and love, they have gradually become mature and brave, and have a deeper understanding of life.
Under the lens of the director Hirokazu Kore-eda, all the pictures are as delicate and restrained as the words, but the words of true feelings make people unconsciously integrate into the life under the lens, and they will laugh and endure tears.
Kamakura, the ancient capital of the sea, when the old train with a strong sense of age passes through the mountains, when the plum rain falls incessantly, when the special food symbolizing the family heritage is cooked again, when the bicycle drives through the years of cherry blossom dancing, when the four sisters in kimono are full of childlike fireworks... At that moment, we will know that this is the purest memory of our hometown, this is the most beautiful appearance of youth.
Watching this movie reminds one of Bob Dylan's deep affection in "Time Passes Quietly": "The time of day is silent and slow, we look ahead, trying not to deflect it, just like the red roses of summer bloom day by day, and time passes silently and never returns." ”
We never stop moving forward on the road of life, rarely pay attention to the fleeting beautiful moments around us, and only after a long time can we look back at the past to perceive those that have long passed away.
As a movie about life, "Sea Street Diary" does not have various contradictions and conflicts in domestic life dramas, exaggerated quarrels, and some are just approachable, simple and unpretentious life, and the four seasons that quietly flow with the story.
Cherry blossoms, plum rain, hydrangeas, followed by plums ripe, picking plums, making plum wine, summer is coming, cicadas are singing day by day, ziwei flowers are gradually opening, through the lens, we seem to really travel through time and space, experience the beauty of time and nature, but also feel that all the objects under the lens are like a living life, plain and beautiful.
From this point of view alone, Kore-eda can be said to be one of the founders of the "life flow" of Japanese cinema.
From "Non-Stop Walking" to "Like a Father Like a Son", from "Sea Street Diary" to "Thief Family", we can see that the film stories of Kore-eda in recent years are all related to family, leaving aside the warmth, parting, humanity in the story... All of them, without exception, have a discussion of the original family.
If "Walking Non-Stop" reveals return and sustenance, "Like Father Like Son" reveals choices and struggles, "Thief Family" tells the truth and truth, then "Sea Street Diary" reflects family affection and growth, seemingly bland, but ripples.
However, many people often only look at the ripples for a few minutes, in fact, the long time after the ripples is the real life. These trivial years accumulate like the jar of aged plum wine in the film, which will eventually become more and more aged with the passage of time...