Many years ago, when they were still excited about becoming a college freshman, a group of girls got together to read "Love Letter" by Shunji Iwai. I really like the part of the boy Fujii and the girl Fujii. I feel that the pure secret love knot in middle school is indeed a very beautiful card inserted in the youth album. I dream that there is such a beautiful and simple love by my side, but unfortunately the paragraphs in "Love Letter" are not long enough, and it is not enjoyable to read. Then there are beautiful misunderstandings, cruel deaths, and common nostalgia. In the end, Hiroko Watanabe (played by Nakayama Miho) knelt in the vast white snow and shouted to the distant mountain: "How are you? I'm fine!" She was asking the man Fujii Tree who had disappeared while climbing, although she At that time, she knew that she was only the shadow of the female Fujii tree, maybe this was her last farewell to Fujii tree, and she could find a new self from now on. In short, "Love Letter" is still very pure, at least the picture and music are so, so I remember Shunji Iwai.
"Everything About Lily Zhou", I heard that this is a movie about the life of middle school students. It has been hailed as a cruel youth story. It is a 146-minute story, and I am ready to get tired. But even though I was ready, I couldn't stand it when I tried to watch it halfway through. Apart from the subtitles from the keyboard that kept appearing on the screen, some clueless discussions about Lily Zhou, and a few screen names that have nothing to do with the characters in the movie, I honestly don't know what this movie is about. What, only the occasional green wheat field and the looming sound of Lily Zhou made me reluctant to turn off the computer. This is the work of Shunji Iwai that I have been looking forward to for a long time? Finally, when I am two-thirds of the way through, I gave up the idea of turning off the computer.
Lonely boy In the
sunshine , the green wheat fields, the blue sky, and even the smoke from the chimneys are so pure white, not stained by gray, can't see the changing clouds, only hear the wind blowing, whistling The train passing by, and the beating pulse of oneself, between heaven and earth, there is only Lily Zhou's music, the rhythm and rhythm in the CD, with the natural tempo, completely integrating the heart into another world, pure, because there is no noise, enjoy the calm...
The story begins on December 8, 1999, and the time is a bit confusing, and it is basically spent in flashbacks and interludes. The boy in white stood in the green wheat field in early summer, wearing headphones, Lily Zhou's drug-like singing came out, this is the protagonist Yuichi. Yuichi's home is a patchwork of two single-parent families. Yuichi lives with his mother, his stepfather, and the younger brother brought by his stepfather. There is a lack of communication and love, so he is lonely, and only in Lily Zhou's music he tries to find solace . He is simple and introverted. He uses the ID of "obsessed" on BBS to tell "Blue Cat" everything about Lily Zhou. He said that Lily Zhou's singing is the embodiment of the universe, where he realized the transparent ether . Yuichi also secretly looks at his favorite girl, Kuno, during the chorus. He likes to curl up, wrap his hands around his knees, and put his head between them. This is the posture of a person in the mother's body. For Yuichi, this posture can make him feel safe, so he uses this posture, sitting next to the haystack in the wild, sitting in a dark room, sitting outside the music classroom , listen to the girl inside play the same tune over and over. Yuichi was invited by the teacher to her mother for stealing a CD of Lily Zhou from the CD shop, "It's just a CD, but stealing is stealing!" the mother repeated, then beat him frantically ...
But when he rode his bicycle and drove his mother along the green fields, I felt that the love between mother and son was so strong, there seemed to be no family rift between heaven and earth, no divorce and reorganization, no familiarity or strangeness, There is no loneliness and sorrow, no indifference, only tolerance, only under the temperature of silence, the free and easy self...
Hoshino Kazuichi is also a lonely individual. He has a young and beautiful mother, a seemingly happy family, but covers up the loss of change, and the mother does not give him enough love. In Yugi, Hoshino was once his spiritual idol like Lily Zhou. Hoshino is clean and handsome, with excellent grades. He perfectly stands on the podium of the opening ceremony and speaks on behalf of freshmen. He and Yuichi used binoculars to look at the stars, sweated earnestly at the Kendo Club, and was heartbroken when he saw a girl at the station. But the ubiquitous envy, violence, and sin in the school slowly destroy this perfection. He began to feel depressed and hopeless while being proud and confident.
Unlike Yuichi who chose to remain silent, in the face of cruel reality, Hoshino chose to fall into anger. He took Yuichi and several other teenagers to steal bags on the train and CDs from the video store, all of which showed that they had become "bad boys". In order to realize their wish to travel to Okinawa during the summer vacation, they did not hesitate to rob on the streets. If this is what youth is all about, maybe I still feel that youth can be turned back. But then a huge change happened. These teenagers were very happy to play in Okinawa, but at the end of their journey, they witnessed a bizarre death. And this death changed Hoshino's character and destroyed the friendship between the two. Hoshino sees the mischievous repetition and impermanence of life, and his soul is completely lost. He believes that only resistance and violence can defeat a hopeless life, so he used scissors to force the most arrogant boy in the class to cut off the hair, and then ordered him to take off his clothes and learn to crawl in the mud, forcing his female classmates to do it Helping to make money for himself, taking a group of people to rape the girl who once made his heart... When he did all this, Yuichi didn't leave Hoshino, maybe at this time, Yuichi still kept his feelings for Hoshino in his heart, he still remembers The first time they met, I remember Hoshino's young and beautiful mother, I remember the poster of Lily Zhou I saw for the first time at his house, I remember the Kendo club where the two of them stayed together, and I remember the station where they sheltered from the rain. However, when Hoshino destroyed Yuichi's favorite Lily Zhou's CD, beat Yuichi inexplicably, and even forced him to take off his pants and masturbate in front of everyone, it was impossible for Yuichi to endure.
Yuichi's last piece of sky collapsed because of the virtual network. When he no longer had love in his life, and even the only camaraderie - his friendship with Hoshino, went with the wind, he found the Internet. A large number of BBS texts are presented in subtitles and voices, which take up a considerable amount of space in the film, which is somewhat unbearable for me in the film. The common theme of these BBS is Lily Zhou - a somewhat mysterious singer. With the ID of "obsessed", Xiongyi met the "green cat" who also liked Lily Zhou very much on the Internet. He thought he had found another meeting at the door of Lily Zhou's concert according to their agreement. Yuichi wandered outside the venue alone, walking down the deserted street, standing in front of Lily Zhou's huge promotional advertisement, staring at the constantly playing footage. Inside the venue, neon lights flickered, people were boiling, and enthusiasm was high. Yuichi didn't leave, his heart must be saying to himself, I won't give up again.
The concert is over. A large number of fans poured out from all exits in all directions again, and everything seemed to turn back time. However, at the entrance of Lily Zhou's live concert, he met Hoshino. Hoshino held the green apple used as a contact mark with the words "green cat" written on it... Hoshino teased Yuichi for the last time, and Yuichi no longer hesitated. , he quickly drowned in the crowd, passing countless unfamiliar faces. He found Hoshino, grabbed his head, and stabbed a dagger into his body. Hoshino collapsed immediately, his moans being drowned out by the cacophony of people around him. No one noticed the sudden accident, and they were still immersed in excitement. Hoshino no longer has the strength to support it, and his life is disappearing little by little. And his soul has long since disappeared, long lost in the seaside of Okinawa. Yuichi walked away, he was so calm, his heart had long since changed to the same CD that was folded by Hoshino, and fell into the abyss and never recovered. Behind him is the crowd that started to riot, and the sirens blaring...
A strong girl
In the film, Tsuda and Kuno were once beautiful girls, but they both became Hoshino
The props of rebellion against life. I don't know where Tsuda offended Hoshino, but he forced her to do social assistance and took away the money she exchanged for her body. She asked the disgusting old men in a sweet voice, and took the money from them with a blank face. Only in front of Yuichi did she have an expression, she would pick up her schoolbag, smash his head, and keep silent. She threw the money on Yuichi, threw it on the ground, and stepped on it so hard that she wanted to step into the mud . She rushed into the river, hoping that the water would wash away the dirt on her body, and Yuichi watched silently. She took the guest's wallet while he was asleep, so she graciously invited Yuichi to eat western food, when Yuichi asked her: "Why did you reject Sasaki's courtship? He can protect you." She asked back: "You protect me ?" A gentle light flashed in Tsuda's eyes. Yuichi couldn't hold back at once, he didn't know how to answer, the air seemed to freeze. In fact, she knows, how can two weak people protect each other? But the girl wants to hear the boy's affirmative answer. In the train, Tsuda heard Lily Zhou's voice from Yuichi's CD player for the first time, and perhaps this also began to become a new belief in her life.
Tsuda chose to commit suicide to get rid of reality. The girl's blood soaked in red soil and turned into a sunset in the curling smoke. She saw countless flying kites on the hillside, "The kite fell, it's so bad!" This was the last word she left to the world. She wants to be free and to be protected, so she turns herself into a kite, and in the blue and transparent sky, she can fly carefree, until she is tired and tired, she grows up, maybe this is youth.
Kuno is the most beautiful girl in the film. Beautiful, quiet, and pure music flowing under your fingers. But beautiful things are often intolerable to cruel reality. "Kuno plays the piano, we won't sing!" "Is it great to be able to play the piano?"... Rolling eyes and jealousy rushed towards her. She was always silent, she compromised in the triumphant smiles of those girls, and chose to use singing instead of the accompaniment. When the singing sounded, she bowed her head and stood quietly by the piano. At this moment, there was a pair of eyes watching her secretly in the chorus.
Kuno's beauty is destined to be destroyed in cruel youth, but she didn't know until the end that the one who destroyed her was a boy who once loved her - Hoshino; another boy who loved her - Yuichi, took her away with her own hands on the road to destruction. Yuu lured Kuno into a deserted warehouse outside the city with heavy steps, and then, she was raped, one sunny afternoon. He heard the girl's desperate cry for help outside the house, and his heart was like being cut by a knife, but he was powerless to change all this... He even hoped that the ravaged person was himself, but he couldn't move. This is the abandoned warehouse of Hoshino's house, feathers flying all over the sky, and there are wisps of light flying in the air wantonly. He turned his head away and saw Hoshino standing behind him, the anger on his face was stiffly withdrawn under Hoshino's contemptuous gaze, and he lowered his head silently.
Maybe people think that the quiet Kuno is the weakest, but it turns out that she is the strongest. After the nightmare, her long black hair that went past her waist was gone. When she came to school the next day, she put an ugly hat on her head, which was taken off so that her pale scalp could be seen. Those so-called strong people lost their lives and friendship in the end, only the quiet Kuno is still working hard to live, she can still play the piano in the sunny hut.
Virtual
Faith Who is Lily Zhou? Lily Zhou is not a heroine, without a clear face, just a drug-like singing voice, but she runs through the whole play, she is the only belief of the lost boys and girls in the film, the only one who can Light that brings comfort. A virtual character, she is the one who tightly connects the four youthful lives, like a fixed melody changing in four rhythms, so that the story can be fully unfolded in the present, the past, the reality, and the Internet. Lily Zhou itself is not really important, the important thing is to provide a "mystery" to the film.
Lily Zhou is not the savior, she will only make the cruel youth darker. When the green wheat field and the sloping sky swayed in front of my eyes again, when the helpless teenager stood in the wheat field and listened to Lily Zhou's singing, where is the way out of youth, the characters in the film have not been found, they lost in youth Losing friends, losing their lives, losing their beliefs, they found temporary solace, but it only made their youth darker.
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