text | Li Xiaomo
Japanese drama " Tokyo Women's Picture Book " was once a highly discussed TV series.
"Tokyo Women's Picture Book" takes the trajectory of love, work and life between the protagonist Aya from 20 to 40 years old, and describes the group portrait of a Tokyo girl. The life it describes is too realistic and realistic.
is like a front-facing camera without filters and beautification, allowing you to meet your real self, urgent situation, and naked reality unexpectedly.
Perhaps it is because the women of this era, especially those restless girls, face similar situations in nature. Their choices and anxiety, their desires and pride are also of no country, so many people see themselves in this Japanese drama.
Then, what happened to these restless girls later?
01
Naive people will keep taking a course called "class"
From a small place, Ling is a restless girl. She longs for the exquisite life described in the magazine and wants a life that everyone envies. But Xiaocheng can only give her a stable and ordinary happiness and a future that can reach the end at a glance. Xiaocheng cannot accommodate her or not deserve her ambition.
So she despised her classmates who were pursuing their future within a radius of five meters, despised her neighbor aunt who had never seen the market and often made a fuss about it, and despised everything in the small town. She yearns for Tokyo, because only a bustling metropolis like Tokyo can give her everything she wants.
But Ayan didn't know that she looked down on the small town, and people in Tokyo looked down on her since the small town and graduated from local schools. She kept taking a class called "class".
Ling's first "class class" started with renting a house. She naively ran to Nanqingshan, which she had always dreamed of, but was disappointed to find that the rent here is expensive, far from the station, and there was no convenient place to eat.
The real estate uncle saw through the girl’s thoughts. The girl didn’t know that this was a high-end residential area. In the city, people of the same kind usually lived in groups. Most of the people living here have cars and don’t eat special food, so they don’t have to consider these issues that girls consider.
Yes, renting a house has a class, and all the food and daily life are class-level. What kind of income level and economic strength determines what kind of food and daily life you will have. Just like those who were drifting in Beijing at the beginning, they would find that in such a huge Beijing, she could only get one bed.
The agent uncle saw through but did not say it out loud. He just reminded Ling that no matter how expensive the rent is, it cannot exceed one-third of the salary. recommended her more civilian three teas to .
Soon, Aya, who was ridiculed for being very rustic at the time, was dressed like a Tokyo white-collar worker. At this time, Yan didn't know that they just looked the same on the surface.
You may have taken the elevator in the same office building, and waited for the same intersection. red street lights , and watched movies in the same cinema, but do you dare to think you are the same type of people?
The pretty woman walking out of a taxi may have a marriage where her husband is willing to buy her Hermes for . The girl waiting for the red light at the intersection may have lived in a luxury house since she was a child, and the professional woman walking out of the station late at night may be the top business elite who masters multiple languages.
Class barriers and the gap between the rich and the poor may not be obvious in normal times, but they are cruel.
Ayan’s second “class class” was given by love.
Yan had a tall, rich and handsome boyfriend. She was very proud of having a high-quality boyfriend and being promoted to work. She even enjoyed the jealousy from others when she hid in the bathroom and listened to her colleagues exchanging dissatisfaction with her next to the sink.
The tall, rich and handsome boyfriend told Ayan that he is a non-marriager, and that what is really important is the desire for each other, but in fact he had a fiancée who was born in a well-known family and a good family.
On Ling's birthday, her rich and handsome boyfriend made her appointment in a Michelin restaurant. In order to be worthy of the elegant restaurant, she gritted her teeth and bought an expensive skirt with a month's salary, but the rich and handsome guy made her pigeons.The rich and handsome guy disappeared from her world without warning from that day. She didn't respond to the doorbell of the once gentle apartment, and the place that did not belong to her would always close the door to her.
The tall, rich and handsome guy is willing to lie to him, but the elite lawyer he dated later was too lazy to even lie to lie to her, and his sense of superiority was even more naked and cruel. At that time, Ayan was already a brand PR of GUCCI and had just divorced. A female friend who was learning flower arrangements together asked her if she would remarry. Ling Xiao said she would not consider it for the time being, and the lawyer from the wealthy area was introduced to Ling.
Once, when friends asked her how her lawyer was, Ling said that it was very good as a remarriage partner. Everyone was silent at the same time and quickly changed the topic.
The awkward silence is because: Ayan misunderstood that she was not a candidate for her wife, but a candidate for her lover, and was introduced to a lawyer by a friend. The lawyer born in Hong Kong District said in a date that he would marry someone of equal status and would not marry someone outside Hong Kong District. He hoped that Ayan would not have unnecessary expectations.
She tried to achieve a rapid leap in class through a high-rise marriage. But Ling forgot that when she was weighing the man, the man was also weighing her. After her head was bleeding, she finally felt how solid and difficult to surpass that invisible class barrier was.
The paradox of reality is that Yan is bleeding in the world of the gap between the rich and the poor, constantly being hurt by the cruel sentiment of superiority. Later, after she advanced, she used this sentiment of superiority to hurt others.
She mocked the young men and women who spent 2,800 yen (less than 200 yuan) on the next table, mocked them for not having enough food to order something; mocked the girl for asking for AA, although the boy didn't use it, he was only willing to give a little more; mocked the girl for saying thank you for the only 400 yen to pay less.
She mocked her for living in a cheaper low-rise apartment and feeling inferior. Her vanity caused her to explain that she had a fear of heights.
She pointed out sharply that she came from a big city and seemed to be condescendingly married to a small city, but she was just the daughter of the owner of a fruit stall in Tokyo's civilian area.
The one who does evil is "comparison". It is like living on a long chain of contempt, climbing upstream little by little, pleasing to those who are upstream, and despising those who are disgusted with the downstream.
The differentiation of the rich and the poor and the class is the truth of life. Everyone strives to strive for the best in the contempt chain is also the truth of life. But in such a world, how should we deal with ourselves?
02
Girls always become women, and every step of growth is not easy
One strange thing is that boys want to become powerful men as soon as possible, but women hope that they will always be little girls. But girls always have to become women, and the way for girls to become women is not easy at all.
The road for girls to become women is not easy at all, and they will face many choices. It is a big proposition to pick out any of them.
Girls become women start by choosing men. What do you want is the ordinary warmth of buying groceries and cooking together, telling you "The moonlight is beautiful tonight", or the long-legged uncle who makes you dress brightly and takes you out to top restaurants?
After Aya arrived in Tokyo, her first boyfriend was Naoki, a fellow countryman with a warm smile. The two lonely souls in big cities kept each other warm, poor but very happy. But the happier she is, the more alert she is: Such ordinary happiness is everywhere in her hometown, and I have tried my best to go to Tokyo. Is this enough?
She began to date the men who could take her to high-end restaurants for dinner, hoping to achieve a rapid leap in class through a high-level marriage. Unfortunately, these men never regarded her as their wife, so she could only be a mistress and mistress in embarrassment.
Because she forgot that while women choose men, men are also choosing women.
When she realized that all her friends were married, and as she got older, she became more and more depreciated in the marriage market and had fewer choices. She pragmatically married economical and affordable male who bought high-end apartments early.
But after getting married, you have to face a choice: Is your life focused on your career or your family? Should self-realization be the first priority or should assume family responsibilities be the first priority?
For women, financial independence is very important. There are still many women with poor social abilities and relying on men to support them, but this society is becoming less and less tolerant of girls who have nothing to do. Unlike any era in the past, girls in this era become women, and they need to settle down in society and gain economic independence than ever. At the beginning of the story, Ayan felt that she could have everything with her cute appearance, but soon realized that "in life, only cuteness can be done." So although she deals with men's world, she has never stopped working hard.
After marriage, Ling didn't want to be full of fireworks. She didn't like to work overtime and cook and wash clothes when she went home late. She served her husband who only had a paralysis of Ge You. She looked down on women who were in their thirties and forties but only children could show off. She told herself: Women who could have children are everywhere on the road, but there are very few women who can promote plans in first-class companies based on their professional judgments.
But her husband cheated on it because of a button. Compared to family-style women, Aya, who has been advancing all the way to her career, is not concerned about her husband. A husband who is eager to have food when he comes home will notice that his buttons fall off when he meets him. He is willing to sew buttons for him and give birth to a child for his female subordinate. The affair will happen.
"When you are not married, it is said that a married woman is happy. When you are married, it is said that a woman who has children is happy, and she is driven endlessly by the definition of women's happiness."
Girls always have to become women. Every step of growth is not easy. Some things are obtained by abandoning others, and some growth is obtained at a painful price.
03
The material desire tempted by consumerism is a gentle trap
The city is prosperous and dazzling, everything is available, but it is all for those who can afford the price. The day when Aya interviewed the GUCCI public relations manager, she entered a high-end kimono store. She was amazed by the beautiful kimono, but the expensive price made her dare not act rashly.
But the boss said to her:
"Instead of having three bargains, it is better to have a good product that fits."
"People should start to come into contact with good things when they are young, and taste cannot be developed overnight."
"You can't judge people by appearance to be lying. Good clothes will make people feel superior, confident, and guide you to live a higher quality life."
Someone will tell you: "Expensive things have no other disadvantages except expensive." "If you don't know which one to buy, just buy the most expensive one you can afford."
is convincing and difficult to refute, right? Pursuing decent consumption and uncontrollable material enjoyment, the consumer society has weaved one gentle trap after another, and people are instigated to indulge their desires more and more.
Aya’s path to advancement in Tokyo is actually the path to consumption upgrading: work income is getting higher and higher, house rents are getting more and more expensive, and food and clothing are getting more and more refined. On the surface, this is even inspirational because you can't blame someone who pursues the quality of life.
But the desire beyond one's own financial strength is dangerous. This danger can eat people. Before the news about
naked loans came out, we all underestimated this danger. Who would believe that a female college student would do such crazy and shameless things for a set of skin care products?
The words "Yingzui" don't have ordinary happiness. To put it bluntly, she thinks her hometown boyfriend is poor. She doesn't want to continue wearing pilling underwear, doesn't want to live in a cheap neighborhood, doesn't want to eat something good for the weekend, and usually cook by herself to save money. She wants to wear tasteful high heels and wants to go to Joël Robuchon, a Michelin three-star Western restaurant that claims to be "a good woman who can date inside before she is thirty."
Ling's income growth will never keep up with her desire growth. She has always been in a state where consumption exceeds her economic strength, so every time she consumes, it is accompanied by men's upgrade.
的是典 relies on men to pay for the bill to improve their quality of life, and they must maintain their credit card. Because once the quality of life improves, it is very painful to fall down again.
In "234 Say Love You", Ariel Lin plays a small theater actor who was hired as a young master and helped the main house squeeze out the mistress. She successfully became a young fourth person of the golden man, and the top restaurants she went to and from became accustomed to. Unexpectedly, her boyfriend who joined the army suddenly came back and excitedly used the money he had saved for a long time to take her to have a good meal.
The ones who went to Ariel Lin often went to restaurants that Ariel Lin often went to. When she was preparing to order, her boyfriend quickly ordered a special package. When the waiter asked if he wanted water, her boyfriend quickly refused and lowered his voice to tell Ariel Lin how expensive the water here was.
Maybe, in the past, saving money for a big meal for this newly graduated couple, it was a happy and romantic thing, but when Ariel Lin tried to order food in a top restaurant without considering the price and doing whatever she wanted, her boyfriend's actions made her feel the embarrassment of a huge gap and poverty for the first time.
All of these are very real, and it is difficult for you to summarize them completely in one sentence of vanity.
The city is shining with golden light, everything is available, but everything is marked with a price. But the material desires tempted by consumerism grow wildly in the soil of the city.
04
There is no correct life, maybe the process is to reward
for twenty years with his lone courage. In the past twenty years, Aya has been constantly gaining and losing. He divorced a affordable man, was abandoned by a young and handsome guy who could not afford it, and was disliked by a gold medal lawyer from the Hong Kong area. Ayan was a little decadent and tired. After working hard for twenty years, she seemed to be empty-handed, so she returned to her hometown.
by chance, she met a teacher in middle school. What surprised Ayan was that the teacher congratulated her on realizing her original dream, treating her as a favorite student, and even treating her as a role model for her juniors.
The teacher treasures the inner page of Aya’s magazine interview as a successful woman. When she saw the magazine, Aya suddenly burst into tears. Ling didn't have a line, but I understood her mood:
It turns out that I have become the envy of others. It turns out that in the eyes of others, I have already realized my dreams. After setting out for a long time, I didn't realize that I had gone so far, but because I walked too far, I forgot why I set out. So what if
has gone through many detours? So what if you are betrayed and deceived? So what if you can’t cross the class barriers? So what if you don’t achieve worldly success? I am loyal to my heart, my desires, and live happily. It is enough.
does not have the right life at all. The
process is the reward.
(The article was first published on the official account: Late Night Desk)
- The End-
Author Profile:
Li Xiaomo
Professional Book Reviewer, bestseller " Please Stop Invalid Social HTML " author; former reporter of Hainan Special Zone Daily;
I believe that a person's reading history is often the history of his ideological growth and ability development. Every time I read a book, I write an in-depth interpretation article and a high-quality book list every month. Don’t sell inferior chicken soup or say the correct nonsense, welcome to follow.
