With anticipation, excitement and uneasiness, the widowed and retired elderly leave their comfortable homes and take trains and buses to visit their long-lost children. In the details of daily life, he found that the children were not happy and beautiful, and after a series of losses, the old man returned to his hometown alone.
The story has been made in three films, namely the Italian version of "Stanno tutti bene" (translated as "Journey to Heaven") in 1990, "Everybody's Fine" starring Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore in 2009, and "Everything Is Good" starring Zhang Guochen Chen Chen He Dou Xiao in 2016. I haven't seen the original yet, but on this Father's Day, let's just talk about the Two Versions of China and the United States.
This is the subject of a public service announcement that will be filmed as a "often go home and see" if you are not careful. At the beginning of the story, the old man carefully cooks and prepares to welcome the children home for dinner, and the children have broken the appointment. The old man decided, "If you don't come to see me, then I'll go out of the house and see you, and embark on a solo journey to visit your family."
Because they are all remakes, the story structure of "Journey to Heaven" and "Everything Is Good" is basically the same: among the 4 children, the eldest daughter lives a rich life but the marriage exists in name only, the younger daughter is gay but pretends to be single at home; the younger son is an artist who dies in a trick, the difference is that the American version of the younger son is a painter who died of drug addiction, the Chinese version is a photographer who died on the journey to Tibet; as for the eldest son, the American version is a mediocre musician, and the Chinese version is a chicken blood man who sells houses and starts a business. The down payment was still painstakingly saved by my father. (Above: American version of the eldest son Robert Bottom: Chinese version of the eldest son Guan Quan)
It seems that there is not much difference in the character settings between China and the United States, but "Everything is Good" has major flaws that make people feel untrustworthy. Zhang Guoli plays Guan Zhiguo, an old party member and scientist of a Beijing public institution, how can he have four children? If you don't have a second child, you will be expelled. In addition, the old Beijing children who grew up in the Sihe Dean actually all went to other places -- the eldest son went to Shanghai to start a business, the eldest daughter married to Hangzhou, the younger daughter drifted in Macao, and the younger son worked in Tianjin. Friends who have lived in Beijing for many years know that Beijing natives rarely abandon the advantages of the capital's resources and go to other places to work hard, unless they go abroad. It is definitely not a map cannon, for the residents of core cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the city that can be better than their hometown can probably only be Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or abroad. Whether it is mate selection, employment, and geography are one of the important considerations for locals.
So, how unpleasant does this family have to be to get all the children to leave? And the governance of the country is kind and generous, the relationship with his wife before he was born is very harmonious, and he also has high hopes for the future of his children, and we cannot see the strong motivation of children. If the screenwriter arranges the governance of the country in a small third-tier county, goes out to visit the children who work hard in the big city, and finds that although the children have a hard time, they are likely to have mediocre careers and marriages, and it is difficult for them to help them do something, so the adaptation may be more real and moving. Whether to let their children leave home to earn a great future, or to leave them safe and plain, most Chinese parents have been entangled with their children for a lifetime. (Photo: The eldest daughters of the two versions of the United States and China are separated from their husbands)
In contrast, the remake of the American version of "Journey to Heaven" is much more delicate and moving. Frank, played by Robert De Niro, first of all looks like a grandfather. He took pictures everywhere he went, and even when he went to visit his daughter's company, he didn't forget to take a little picture of the east and a little bit of the west. Oh my God, isn't that exactly what our parents do? They always wanted to record the daily life of their children in their own way, and imagined our limited achievements as earth-shattering; he took the initiative to chat with other passengers on the train, mentioned his work, mentioned visiting children, and his eyes were full of excitement that could not be concealed. And as he sat in front of his younger son's house and waited, a passing prostitute seduced him by revealing her thigh stockings, pulling up her pants to reveal her black socks in response, amusing the prostitute as well. Both politely rejected the other party, but also humorous and funny, without any moral evaluation. The old man went to visit his eldest son, who had become a "conductor", and found that he was just a dispensable drummer in the orchestra. When the two sat together and talked, he did not accuse the eldest son, and what the children lived like was his own treasure.
In this part of the Chinese version, Guan Zhiguo waited for his son to go out to forage for food, passing through the "red light district" and was provoked by the hair salon woman to flee into the wilderness. During the meal at the small restaurant, Guan Zhiguo chatted with the boss played by Wang Qianyuan and learned that the other party ran to Tianjin to open a shop in order to accompany his son who was in college, and as the father of a boy who was at least 18 years old, the character played by Wang Qianyuan felt too young. When the ruler found that the eldest son had sold the house he had worked so hard to save money to buy to start a business, after seeing all kinds of strange employees of his "start-up company", the two had a fierce quarrel, in which the eldest son complained that his father had never been optimistic about himself. This part is sufficient if this is used to represent a parent-child conflict. Unfortunately, the back of the painting snake plus a period of the eldest son's startup seminar, how to look like a point of view imposed for selling advertising.
Although they all end with warm pictures, "Journey to Heaven" also has irreversible regrets behind the joy, such as the white-haired person sending the black-haired person. Although this painful and happy ordeal is life, I can't help but cry when I see Frank, played by Robert De Niro, hear the news of his young son's death, lie in tears in his hospital bed, and talk to and say goodbye to his younger son in hallucinations.
If you are an ordinary office worker who is wandering in a foreign land, running for a living and tired of love, at this time your father is far away from his hometown to see you, are you willing to expose the true side of your life with him?
Compared with the fake big empty good words of "often go home to see", there is a line in "Everything is Good" that I think is more in line with the essence of the three movies of "Journey to Heaven" - The governance of the country said, "I can't go back to the children's childhood and leave, and I can't help them in their lives now." It is precisely out of this helplessness and pity that when children appease their parents with many white lies, they are also pretending to believe our lies, so that everyone does not have to be so embarrassed.