Yesterday, the movie "Manchester by the Sea" was finally released in Chinese mainland. For audiences who have long been accustomed to reaping bittersweet and rainy endings on the movie screen, this is a special story because it reveals another truth about life.
Wen | dwarf wood
Edited | Golden Stone
(Note: This article has spoilers, but this movie is not afraid of spoilers)
This year's Oscars, three films are big hits, "Philharmonic City", "Moonlight Boy", and "Manchester by the Sea".
Compared with the other two - "Philharmonic City" is the dream of life VS the beautiful love, the topic of "Moonlight Boy" includes the skin color and sexual orientation that seem to be customized for the Oscars - "Manchester by the Sea" is filmed sad and cold, typical literary film routines, the lens narrative put away the European and American filmmakers are more accustomed to opening and closing, and instead there is Kore-eda and the kind of oriental wisdom in the hidden restraint, the most tragic parts are off the camera, the film presents only a man's unsolvable pain.
There are many kinds of tragedies in the world, some will be taken away by time, some can never, "Manchester by the Sea" is the latter, it tells you that not all tragedies have answers, sometimes life is so bitter, born as a human being, you have no way.
1
When we suffer, the most common consolation is that everything will pass and slowly will get better. People are accustomed to using time as an antidote, and there is very little we can do except let time cover the wounds of the old days.
"Manchester by the Sea" focuses on people outside this law, and the protagonist Lee originally had a happy life, lovely children, considerate wife, taking care of his brother, sticking to his nephew, and friends who could drink and brag together. But because he was drunk once, he accidentally caused a fire, the child was killed, and his wife divorced him. In the film, these plots that arouse the audience's compassion are minimized, and the tragedy is only interspersed as fragments of memory in Lee's later life.
Lee fled from Manchester to Boston, far from everything in his hometown, and punished himself in a long period of self-exile.
The movie is more just a record of Lee's daily life, in the winter snow boston, the cleaner Lee is single-shadowed, cold-looking, showing love to him of the woman, he coldly says thank you, to his difficult residents, he throws an unceremonious "fuck you", the boss asks him to apologize, he says without concern, by what?
This man completely isolates himself from the world, he does not need to care, the women's conversation in the bar makes him bored, the man's slightly paused eyes attract his fist, who don't bother me, please let me stay alone.
No one in the vast city was interested in learning about this freak's past, and it was much easier for Lee to deal with the thick snow, the and urine stuck in the toilet, and the sewer pipes that didn't know what was wrong. Lee almost deliberately cut off all distance from the human world, he refused to perceive everything with temperature, cold numbness is good, numb, it will not hurt so much.
The news of his brother's death made this stagnant life a little more choppy, and he had to return to Manchester, a city prettier and friendlier than Boston, with everything about the first half of his life.
In the morgue, Lee looked at his brother, who had frozen to ice, and only symbolically hugged him, who didn't cry, and handled everything related to his brother indifferently, step-by-step, haggling, seeking the most economical and efficient solution, like dealing with snow or a blocked toilet without any emotion. It was the safest solution, and after a long lockdown, Lee had become an ice-pimple-like person. Such an escape would make him a little more comfortable.
2
His brother's will broke his plan, and he wanted him to be his nephew's guardian and return to this beautiful seaside city. A large number of empty shots are used in the film, not the kind of lifeless appearance in the winter, but the blue sea and blue sky, staggered, and there are gentle lights in the night scene, which is unique to Manchester.
Writing mourning in a happy scene, beautiful and hilarious are someone else's, Lee can't perceive. But because of this will, Lee must make his due responsibility in the face of his underage nephew who has just lost his father.
This film that makes the pain extremely calm, the most moving thing is the brother who froze into ice in the morgue, of course, perhaps others will do better than Lee, Lee's situation at that time did not have the ability to take care of others, but the brother before dying, with the help of the legal provisions on the paper, forcibly tied together the two people who were most concerned about the world, one of them needed companionship, one needed redemption, life and old illness and death were not up to people, what he could do was to drag the escaped brother back, Let him try again to face the life that has been abandoned by himself.
Lee carefully probed, almost as if he were back in human society, trying how to care for his nephew. He changed slowly, his nephew had an emotional breakdown and shut himself in the room, and Lee kicked the door open until the other person fell back to sleep. The nephew was going to go to the girl, and he tried to help the nephew drag the girl's mother, although he clumsily hardly knew how to say a complete sentence in front of a stranger. He gave up selling the mechanical ship that carried the good memories of his brother and nephew, including himself, and followed his nephew's wishes to get a new motor. Encountering his ex-wife on a street corner, Lee finally failed to hold back his emotions in the face of his ex-wife's relief and tears, even if in the end he chose to run away.
As if the ice melts, Lee in the film slowly re-learns the emotions of anxiety, accommodation, and sadness, which have almost been discarded. The process of change didn't go well, and thankfully, the movie didn't bother to trick the audience with a pot of psychedelic chicken soup. At the end of the film, Lee chooses a compromise solution, and finally gives a small outlet to the pain that is thick in his heart when he hugs his nephew and says "I can't beat it, I can't beat it".
At the end of winter, the grass melts, and the brother who froze the morgue into an ice lump can finally settle in the spring. At the end of the film, the two uncles and nephews are rocking on the surface of the water in a boat, and with low and soft music, the film ends - the complete disappearance of pain is not possible, but maybe we can have a better way to get along with pain.
3
For audiences obsessed with ups and downs of storylines or dazzling visual techniques, Manchester by the Sea must be extremely discordant.
In the fragment of Lee's memory, he snatched the policeman's gun and wanted to die. Later, the film did not explain why Lee gave up dying. But looking at Lee on the big screen, it is easy to think of the sad father in Hangzhou who is still waiting to give his wife and children an explanation, which is the unsolvable pain in the real world.
Looking at Mr. Lin, who is haggard in the news, why should he defend his rights, why should he die, in addition to begging for explanations for his dead wife and children, more importantly, life has pushed bad luck in front of him, perhaps there is such a hatred in his heart that is difficult to eliminate, and it can also make the matter of living become less unbearable.
Mr. Lin still has an object to hate, and Lee in the movie can only hate himself. Lee gave up the search for death, I think he understood, death is too easy, too easy, he does not deserve the peace that death can bring- the child died because of him, in the police station, he asked repeatedly with an expression of disbelief, that's it? Can I go? The law easily forgave him, but he himself could not do it, and he was faced with nothing but how to live painfully in this world with great guilt and indelible hatred for himself.
It also reminds me of the tragedies I have encountered in my career that have no answers at all.
There is a parent who has lost a child, the child has died for a long time, the ashes have been left at home, afraid of the guests coming, they are put in the cabinet, when there is no guest, the couple will open the door of the cabinet, let the sun shine on the box that they still think is alive.
The reason for not going to be buried was that the mother, who had dyed her hair so many times, could not hide the gray hair color, said with tears that she could not imagine throwing her son into the cemetery, "What if it is windy?" What about rain? What should my child do? ”
The other is a father who lost his child, in more than ten years, in order to find his child, ran all over China, half a million kilometers, more than a dozen motorcycles, wind and food, sleeping, tasting the pain of the world, I asked, why let yourself be so bitter, why do you torture yourself like this? The middle-aged father replied, only in this way, only on the road, I feel like a father.
To put it mildly, there is no such thing as "empathy" in this world, and the bitter people who are selected by bad luck can only passively bear everything arranged by fate. People live in the world, always have to rely on something, family and friends are, a peaceful and beautiful life is, but when all this collapses and destroys, the next thing is to die.
"Manchester by the Sea" tries to present such a life, living in this world, where there are so many "everything will get better" chicken soup, pain is like a shadow, we can't shake it off, can't forget, then bear it.
<h1>Special Call</h1>
This week, we seem to have been talking about "loss."
On Tuesday, Chun Mei, an associate professor of history at a prestigious university, told the story of her internship at a mental hospital in the United States called "Wound River" after losing her husband. When a broken life meets a group of broken lives, they assist each other and spend each other through it - "700 Hours of Internship in a Mental Hospital"
On Friday, it is the love of an old couple, the touching emotion in the face of the cruel reality - how the 90-year-old mr. Shu Feng, in the face of severe Alzheimer's disease, did his best to protect his lover Weifang, who has lost his memory, intelligence and ability to live - "Twilight War"
Today, it is another story of loss, and it is a loss caused by one's own fault.
So we want to turn today's "per person interaction" into a very serious, serious, very looking forward to getting a call for stories from you — what is the most unforgettable loss you have experienced, heard, or seen in your lives? And, is this loss really being smoothed out in the end?
Once again, look forward to your sharing, thank you.
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