In the middle of March, there has been no exciting blockbuster in the theater, and the re-screening of the classic film can only be expected to carry the banner of saving the city.
But then again, although there are few blockbusters this March, there are still some new works worth paying attention to.
"See You Again Nara," which will be released tomorrow, is one of them.
As early as last year's Shanghai Film Festival and Hainan Island International Film Festival, the film received a lot of praise, and was also listed as one of the top ten domestic films of the year by many film critics or audiences who had seen the film in advance.
Judging from the evaluation and word of mouth of the early screening, it is also undoubtedly the best domestic new work this month.
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As the third film directed by Peng fei, "See Nara Again" has an unexpectedly strong team, and initially we were attracted by this luxurious behind-the-scenes lineup and paid attention to it.
The two executive producers who escorted the film are Jia Zhangke, an influential director in the international film industry, and Naomi Kawase, a Japanese director who is regarded as the "daughter of Cannes".
It is worth mentioning that Naomi Kawase not only personally participated in the production of the film, but also "matched", inviting her royal actor Masatoshi Nagase and the national treasure actor Kunisaki Hayabusa, who collaborated on her debut film "Suzaku no Suzaku", to star in the film.
Masatoshi Nagase
The team behind the film - photographer Liao Benrong ("Long Live Love", "Outing"), soundtrack Keiichi Suzuki ("Love Letter", "Humpback City") and editor Chen Bowen ("Mouling Street Juvenile Murder Incident", "Yiyi"), are also master-level creators.
The blessing of this super team ensures the excellent quality of the film. Compared with Director Pengfei's previous work, "The Taste of Rice Flowers", "See Nara Again" is obviously more mature, and it touches on a more complex and grand "anti-war" theme.
The film tells a journey to find relatives in Japan, Wu Yanshu played by Grandma Chen travels to Nara, accompanied by the orphaned second generation Ozawa (Yingze), to find the missing adopted daughter Chen Lihua.
Along the way, they meet retired police officer Yoshizawa (Hayabusa Kunimura), friends who have been in contact with and helped Lihua, and other orphans living in Japan, and Lihua's life after arriving in Japan is slowly clarified in the descriptions of these people.
"See You Again Nara" cuts into history and opens up the unknown side of history.
However, the beauty of the film lies in the choice of story angle and the way it is presented.
It uses a suspenseful quest to approach historical truth, and uses a light and witty comedic form to dissolve the heaviness of this serious proposition.
There are no sharp accusations, no superficial and dry clichés, some are the director's keen but gentle observation, profound but flexible expression.
"See You Again Nara" is destined to be an "atypical" anti-war film, and the foothold is not to show the ugliness and cruelty of war, but to use beauty and kindness to argue the stupidity and meaninglessness of war.
It is like a rich layer of chocolate, after the outer silky sweet icing melts, it echoes in the taste buds with a hint of helplessness and bitterness.
The fate of history is wrapped in the adventures of individuals.
The story takes "searching" as a clue, Grandma Chen, Ozawa and Yoshizawa wander between the towns and villages of Nara, constantly looking for the obscure and unknown orphan Chen Lihua.
As with many road genre films, the outcome and destination of this quest are not really important. The role of Chen Lihua is the film's McGuffin, and she is the suspense that pushes the plot forward.
However, as the story progresses, "who she is", "where is she", "is she doing well" has become less important, and the gaze of the creator behind the camera has changed from the seeker to the seeker, and what it really wants people to see is what these different individuals have experienced and gained in the process of searching.
There is no doubt that the three protagonists are lonely and marginal in their environment:
Grandma Chen left her hometown to come to a strange country, she is an outsider herself, and her adopted daughter Lihua is also the only relative and reliance of her elderly in the world;
Ozawa, who has one-half Japanese ancestry, downplays the identity of orphan by learning Japanese and changing his living habits, but still does not get the approval of his boyfriend's parents because of his other half Of His Chinese ancestry;
Although Yoshizawa was a native of Japan, after retirement, he was more and more forgotten by society and even his relatives, and he had to endure the loneliness of his old age alone.
Therefore, he will take the initiative to talk to Ozawa: "You look very much like my daughter", and also use the lie of "once seen Chen Lihua" to join the team of searching for relatives.
On the surface, they are looking for Chen Lihua, but in essence, each character is looking for their own identity.
Interestingly, when they tracked it down all the way, the experience of Chen Lihua, which was pieced together, was also a life trajectory of trying to gain identity in Japan. From this individual's encounter, the real situation of many Japanese orphans is projected:
It is difficult to find a sense of belonging in this strange country, but the "foreign homeland" where you once grew up and lived can never go back.
Eventually, they become ghosts in the cracks of history, spiritual exiles with aphasia.
In the film, Grandma Chen released the crab bought by Ozawa by the lake, she wanted to accumulate some merit but did not expect to kill the life, Ozawa told her that the release was a sea crab, Grandma can only say sadly, hoping that it can adapt to life in the lake.
This witty scene subtly echoes the situation of the orphans: they are all sea crabs released into the lake, to resist all physical and psychological inconsistencies in an unfamiliar environment.
Because of the common marginal situation, the three protagonists in the process of searching for relatives from strange to familiar, unconsciously rely on each other, warm each other, and even become "unrelated family", in each other to get their lost emotions, but also become each other's comfort and redemption.
In the film, the communication between people is interesting and sincere.
For example, in the plot of Grandma Chen going to buy meat, she learned the sound of animals in the butcher shop without language barriers, and the clerk tacitly understood, and also imitated the sounds of animals, introducing meat at the counter, and the interaction between the two adults and children became the most humorous scene in the whole movie.
In another scene, Grandma Chen and Yoshizawa sit side by side on a bench, and without Ozawa's "translator", the two old men look a little embarrassed.
Soon, Yoshizawa broke the silence, and at his initiative, the two exchanged family portraits of their youth, and they carefully examined the photos to look cute and funny.
This mime-like plot is also the most moving moment of the film, which proves that human communication can break the boundaries of language, and that human kindness and friendship are not limited by national borders.
More importantly, love will not be trapped in the shackles of blood.
"See You Again Nara" is also a film about maternal love.
The Chinese adoptive mother, who is nearly eighty years old, travels thousands of miles away to find a foreign adopted daughter, but more emotions stay outside the pictures and stories, in the 50 years before Lihua returns to China:
How Grandma Chen crossed the hatred between ethnic groups and adopted a daughter from an enemy country;
How did she choose to let go and let her hard-working adopted daughter return to her homeland, even though she knew that the difference might be to say goodbye forever.
The story of Grandma Chen and Lihua is enough to evoke people's speculation on maternal love and blood:
Is the bond of affection innate or acquired?
The relationship between the mother and daughter in the film also makes the answer self-evident.
Director Pengfei's portrayal of mother-daughter love is very restrained, and there is no mention of a "love" word in the film, but this deep affection always surges within the picture frame and is broken into one moving and specific detail after another in the film:
It is the phrase "everything is good" in Lihua's letter, it is her Japanese name Uemura Akiko, and "Ming" is the name of her adoptive mother;
It is Grandma Chen's custody of her daughter's photos as treasures, and it is also her tearful eyes when she hears about Lihua's real encounter.
In fact, Lihua, who reported good news in the letter and did not report good news, lived in Japan not so smoothly.
And this dislocation also caused great disappointment, and when Grandma Chen learned from her population about Lihua's experience in Japan, the sadness on her face was extremely emotional.
This, of course, also depends on Wu Yanshu's performance, in an impressive long shot, she creates a sad and stoic mother image.
In the picture, the deaf-mute orphan played by Masatoshi Nagase writes down Lihua's experience with a pen, Ozawa translates on the side, and Grandma Chen sits in the middle, waiting and listening. Eyes overflowing with concern quickly filled with tears, and drops of tears slid down his cheeks.
From time to time, she lowered her head to wipe away the teardrops, and the whole movement was very slow, and there was a kind of caution. When great grief poured in, she was at a loss like a helpless child.
The film is a search for love, but it is also an exploration to prove that a person and a piece of history have really existed.
Through the perspective of the characters, we learned about the history of orphans and went all the way to The Social Culture of Japan.
Grandma Chen and her party's footprints, from the first tourist attractions and tofu shops on the street, to the quiet Japanese temples and traditional festivals, step by step touch the center of traditional Japanese culture.
This outward-looking inward path also hints at the fate of orphans: over time, they also gradually integrate into the local social and cultural environment.
This is also a gentle comfort for the orphans who have experienced countless upheavals and displacements after returning to China, as well as for their adoptive parents who care about them.
However, the emergence of a new identity means the disappearance of the old identity.
When Chen Lihua became Akiko Uemura, in a sense, Grandma Chen also lost her forever.
Just as Lihua is gradually being forgotten, the history related to orphans is also experiencing the fate of being forgotten.
The film revisits the story, and more importantly, it not only notices a corner of history under the dust, but also shows people the love and beauty in the corner that transcend hatred, conflict, and prejudice.
And they are what really need to be learned and remembered.