"Mom."
"Hey, I am your mother."
"You really look like my mother."
"Yeah!"
This conversation comes from the movie "Mom! 》. Feng Jizhen, a 65-year-old patient with Alzheimer's disease, suddenly shouted "Mom" on the breakfast table. Did she recognize her mother Jiang Yuzhi opposite? No. She just recognized a breath and noticed that something was leaning over the table in front of her at the moment, and that thing looked like "mom". Thinking of this, I understand the comforting smile of the mother opposite me. We went to Panisham in one breath, and then felt sincerely happy for the two of them and satisfied with the love in the world. It turns out that deep emotions will not be disappointed, they will only change their form, and they will still appear if they should appear. The sound of "Mom" on the dining table is God's breath.
"There is a tragic factor in daily life, which is far more real and stronger than the tragedy in great adventures, and is more similar to our true self." In 1896, Metlink wrote the article "The Tragedy of Daily Life". He then explained: "Because there is an essential struggle beyond desire, and a tragic factor that conflicts between responsibility and passion. The responsibility of this factor is to reveal to people how wonderful life itself is, it illuminates the independent existence of the soul in the endless infinite space; it calms the conversation between reason and emotion, so that the solemn and uninterrupted whispers of man and destiny can be heard in the hustle and bustle."
Metlink, who adheres to this attitude, believes that those overly excited revenge, love killing, and conspiracy plots are not worthy of special praise, because "What can we learn from those who don't have time to live?" This is actually a deep call from Metlink in the face of the arrival of the entire modernist tide. Since then, people's vision of history has changed, and they no longer only focus on the gods and high-level figures above their heads.
movie "Mom! 》 There is no doubt that this kind of creation is such a kind of creation. Who would pay attention to the lives of a pair of 65+ elderly women? In addition to those who sell health products, insurance, cemeteries, and nursing homes... Listen to these matters that are full of dusk, which of them can constitute the content of your invoice circle? Two elderly female intellectuals, Puritans, live in a bland manner, without marriage and partner, without dramatic circumstances, if nothing unexpected happens, the daughter will give her mother a death, and then she will quietly wait until the oil is exhausted and the lamp is gone.
The only drama comes from the daughter's disease, Alzheimer's disease. But so what? Isn't it normal to be at this age? However, the string of fate was suddenly tightened. The old mother, who had not had many days, began to cherish her time. She changed from being cared for to taking care of others, and her sense of responsibility made her counterattack for 20 years overnight. She was always worried, what would her daughter do if she left?
What is suppressed in tranquility
These are just surface phenomena.
This deeper tragic factor in this home is hidden in the static and peaceful home life scenes before the daughter's illness. The daily life of both of them is repetitive and controllable, almost static. Is such stillness real? Can we really only see the true face when facing a precarious desperate situation?
Director Yang Lisen didn't think so, otherwise she wouldn't have used so many shots to outline this kind of peace. The camera gently stroked their breakfast, their yard, their bookcases, the lamp on their desks, their old sofas, their pills and cats. The traces they drew so slight and careful on the years were all illuminated by the director. These quiet and elegant home shots will remind you of the Taipei home in Ang Lee , the Tokyo home in Ozu, and the Paris home in Haneke.
What's going on in these quiet houses? Is it the father who died early? As an archaeologist, he left too many marks, such as burning candles passing through his fingertips, such as snapping his fingers as a code word for "I love you", such as his archaeological manuscripts, such as those left at No. 56 Xixi Road, Tongli Bridge in Maojiabu, and the mistakes his daughter made to her father when she was young... In those peaceful days, the dense pins of history in the hearts of the characters are suppressed and diluted by the mother and daughter day after day in the name of rationality, the truly magical and crazy power. In such a good life, there are laws that are more powerful and solemn than the laws of passion. They operate in a slow and deep way, and it is rare for the director to hear them.
This is not the first time the director bows to listen to the whispers of the diving of life. As early as in the "Spring" trilogy filmed in 2013, "Spring Dream", she targeted a middle-class housewife's generous full-time home life; in 2019, " Spring Tide ", she filmed the life of three generations of mother and daughter in a small town in Northeast China; plus this time the elderly mother and daughter, the glimmer of the camera made us see it and hear it. What we see is the soul's endless and futile efforts towards reality, and the unconscious voice of people's inner self.
Early, Yang Lisen filmed the documentary "Old Man", focusing on a group of inconspicuous elderly people gathered in a corner of the community. She seems to have witchcraft, which can mix inner and outer expressions into an expression, which can make daily life appear strange, rich and uneasy under its plain surface. The previous shot was calling for mother, the next shot said, "You really look like my mother"; the previous shot was listening to the chat, the next shot reached out to face the cactus... Such a dispatching process made a family ethics drama instantly dominated by a new undescribable force, revealing the mystery of life.
an aggressive stroke
I like Zhou Xia's leisure writing very much. It is precisely what is said outside the main narrative. This heterogeneous element makes the main part more mysterious and rich. Why did Feng Jizhen protect this little girl for nothing? And why did the little girl return to the house she stolen with her baby? Although the director may not agree with me, I want to say that it is precisely the setting of the character Zhou Xia that gives us the opportunity to embrace another utopian myth, and make this story that originally belongs to family and maternal love radiate the light of great love. The "sisterhood" often mentioned in the feminist dictionary is a kind of "a relationship that connects equals with a loose but powerful network". It does not recognize any leadership or sanctions, and does not indulge in any special or secret rituals. It is different from the culture of male buddies. There is no hierarchy, no password, and no secret signs. It is an open and honest intimate relationship. Women can obtain this precious alliance by sharing common life experiences. In the film,
, I think it is this extremely idealized sympathy and pity between women and women, people. This is also a life lesson brought to her daughter by her father's suicide in his early years. Her father made her face the need for people to cherish and save others. At this point, it is a sudden and radical stroke that is slanted by the side, which transcends the myth of blood relatives.
Although this is an important cornerstone for the movie to arouse the enthusiasm of the public to watch movies, Yang Lisen, who is a documentary director, showed a sway here and did not completely advance his intentions. But Zhou Xia is still there, which shows that the director has not been captured by the stylized process of the film industry. She is always a "woman" who wants to be tossed by the truth, a natural "other".
Don't have to bear the fate of sacrifice
The legend of blood relatives contains too many negative thoughts with fatalism, but the greatest singing comes from sympathy, not high dedication. In the modern life with prosperous technology, no one has to bear the fate of being sacrificed to anyone, and creators no longer have to exchange their living lives for touching and praise.
"Mom! 》's viewing experience is not depressing and boring. Professor Jiang Yuzhi, who was sick of his daughter, never put himself in the psychological positioning of the victim for a moment. Before the emergencies, she recites poems and drinks, treating her life very formally; when the incident comes, she happily accepts the order and turns "mom" into a verb. You can blame this attitude on their not being "bottom-level", but whether people can show an active attitude is not an absolute equality between the existence and whether the economic foundation is present or not. I prefer to believe that it is the director who generously gives this conscious courage to a well-educated intellectual group, which is her respect for knowledge.
Teacher Feng Jizhen, who has been decently self-reliant for most of his life, first of all, gave up his reputation because he loved young girls and recognized the suspected stolen. Then because of Alzheimer's disease, she completely let go of her suppression of reason. Her face showed shyness, nonsense, and willfulness that she never wanted to show. She interpreted the classic line "Freedom comes from loss." The mother and daughter fulfilled each other's decay, both mother and daughter and sister, and were the ultimate friendship between life and death. Such a subtle transformation has effectively escaped the suspicion of selling dust and smoke, and has given it room for reality.
The footage at the end of the video stays at the mother and daughter playing freely by the sea. Did they walk towards the sea or return to the land safely? Tears are not important. The moment it drips, it means that the director has successfully used an image that has not existed in the past second to expand our awareness of life and increase our perceived resources. That is a wealth we can never lose again, and it is the driving force for us to move towards intimacy. There is no land of hope for eternity, no undoubted utopia, but only our desire to love and efforts.
(Source: Beijing Youth Art Review WeChat official account )
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