In 1998, Giuseppe Tornadore's classic film "The Pianist at sea" met audiences around the world for the first time, which is a film that can be famous in history, because the Chinese film market was still in a relatively early stage at that time, and Chinese film fans did not have the conditions to watch the film in front of the big screen.
On November 15, 2019, this movie, which was 21 years late, finally landed in Chinese theaters with a new look of a 4K restored version, which allowed many film critics to let themselves go and not have to grasp the spoiler scale, because in the past 21 years, most fans have long been familiar with the story of the protagonist 1900 in "The Pianist of the Sea", and no one will give up the impulse to enter the theater because they learned the ending of the story in advance.
Because, many people just want to make up for the movie ticket they once owed, for Chinese film fans, this is why "The Pianist of the Sea" will be late, but it will not be absent.
In the 1940s, Max the trumpeter walked into a musical instrument shop, and the constraints of life forced him to sell his beloved trumpet, and before handing it to the owner, he used it to play the last track, and when the shopkeeper heard it, he was surprised to find that he had the same tune in one of his records, so he began to ask Max for the source of the song.
Max told him that the person playing the piece was a pianist named 1900, and with the sound of his piano, Max told the owner about the legendary life of 1900.
1900 is an orphan, he was abandoned by his family after he was born, on the Virginia cruise ship a black laborer named Danny found him, so he has been taking him with him to raise, no one on the ship knows the origin of the child, no one knows who his parents are, so Danny gave him a strange name: "1900".
At the age of eight in 1900, Danny died unexpectedly, and the captain had intended to take 1900 off the ship and take him to an orphanage. But the clever 1900 is too familiar with this cruise ship, whenever he finds that someone is going to capture him, he will play hide-and-seek with everyone, and eventually everyone can't do anything about him, and the captain has to let 1900 stay on the ship.
Once, bored 1900, he inadvertently came into contact with a piano on the ship, and every time he touched a key, it would make a beautiful sound, so the piano became his most advanced toy on the ship.
As he grew older, his playing skills in 1900 began to improve by leaps and bounds, and as an adult, he became an unborn piano player, so he successfully joined the band on the cruise ship, and has been playing beautiful repertoire for tourists ever since.
Fast forward to 1927, and max the trumpeter also boarded the cruise ship, joined the cruise's band, and became friends with 1900, and the two often performed together for passengers at banquets. The superb playing skills of 1900 conquered wave after wave of passengers, and under their word of mouth, 1900 began to become more and more famous.
There were even congressmen who came to enjoy his performances, and also attracted famous Jazz masters from the United States to challenge him. Later, music companies began to find 1900 to record songs.
In the process of playing, 1900 saw a girl through the window, and he experienced the feeling of heartbeat for the first time, and he realized that it was what the tourists on the ship often called "love". He incorporated his love for girls into his improvisations. He snatched the record from the music company staff and wanted to give it to the girl he fell in love with at first sight.
Outside the cabin, before the two could say a few words, they were dispersed by the crowd, and the record was not successfully delivered to the other, he watched the girl get off the ship, and he threw the record into the trash in frustration, while Max secretly picked up the record fragments and hid them in the cracks of the piano.
Later, when Max was looking at the instrument shopkeeper, while recycling an old piano, he found the record from 1900. The girl also happened to be the daughter of an Italian passenger who had been on the Virginia cruise ship, and the passenger had also spoken to 1900 on the ship, and before parting, the girl told 1900 her address in New York and invited him to come.
At this time, 1900 had the idea of disembarking for the first time in his life, and when he was ready to go down the stairs to get off the ship, standing in the middle of the stairs, he retreated, he stared at the endless city, fell into fear, all this did not happen after all, he returned to the ship, continued to play music.
As if the girl had never appeared in his world, he continued to live on the ship, continuing a life he had never been off, and in 1933 Max left the cruise band and lost contact with 1900.
Max learns from the shopkeeper that the Virginia's "service period" is over and is about to die, and that it ends up being blown up by the engineers. Knowing full well that 1900 must still be hidden on that ship, Max returned to the cruise ship and gave 1900 his final calling.
In the face of Max's persuasion, 1900 said something like this: "Land is too big a ship for me, a woman too beautiful, a journey too long, a bottle of perfume that is too pungent, a kind of music that I will not compose." I could never give up the ship, but thankfully I could give up my life. No one remembers that I existed anyway, and you're the exception, Max, and you're the only one who knows I'm here. You're the only one, and you'd better get used to it. Forgive me, friend, I won't get off the boat. In the end, the stubborn 1900 was buried in the fire with the Virginia cruise ship.
At this point in the story, we go back and think about how to evaluate 1900, for many viewers, his approach is too pretentious, too extreme, and his motives lack logic and practical significance.
Looking at 1900 from the perspective of a normal person, you would think that this makes sense, and those who are brave and dare to face the unknown world can criticize his cowardice, because he does not have the ability and courage to face the unknown on land, and he has no control over life.
As a Beijinger, you can proudly say to people in other cities: "My Beijing, the city where I live, has qianmen dashilar, Wangfujing, Xidan, Guomao, Quanjude roast duck, DonglaiShun shabu meat, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall."
It is as if the city belongs to you, and in fact, the city is all you have for you, and you are only a hurried ant in this city, just a drop in the ocean, only one in twenty million, you have never owned this city, you are in this city just for the sake of livelihood.
Even if the land is endless for cruise ships, the world here is colorful and colorful, and we are still just living in a corner of the city, spending our lives in a house of tens of square meters, and the landmarks that make you proud often play a role that makes your palms sweat and your pockets shy.
The land is so vast, how many places we have been, and how far we can reach, compared to this ship, our three-point line of life is only a larger cruise ship.
Let's go to see 1900 in "The Pianist at Sea", how different we are from his life, how many people can keep themselves away from their familiar environment and people, you can't even give up a job you don't like at all, don't dare to pursue a person you love, and don't have the courage to carry a bag to a trip that you can walk away.
How many people can not rely on their comfort zone, how many people can give up a space that is safe for themselves, how many people can explode in a boring life, and how many people have gradually disappeared in ease and dullness.
1900 is not anyone's example, we do not have to tout this behavior as an attachment to a certain belief, we do not have to see him as a kind of insistence on our own life, and at the same time, we are not qualified to criticize him, because he did not take the step, we also did not take it, he is like most of us, a common man who has been consumed by the ordinary life, a wild animal who has lost his wild nature in a cage, an otaku who can only play the piano, and nothing more.