"The Flavor of Peppercorns" was released in September 2019. It is an urban emotional drama starring the former Hong Kong box office champion Sammi Cheng (2000 "Lone and Widow"). The film invited the tacit old partners Andy Lau and Ren Xianqi, but still The response was mediocre at the box office. But this is not the point, because this is a film that Sammi Cheng himself is not optimistic about at the box office. "The Taste of Peppercorns" is aimed at word of mouth. This is a work where Sammi Cheng has to rely on his own film expression to compete for the film award winner. The film is adapted from Zhang Xiaoxian's novel "My Love Is So Spicy". It tells the story of the warmth of the world meeting and scattering. It is obviously a sweet film, but why is it called "The Taste of Chinese Pepper"?
"The Taste of Peppercorns" tells the story of a seemingly irresponsible father who was slowly understood by his three half-daughters after his death: the father played by Zhong Zhentao experienced three relationships when he was young. Three daughters were left behind. They chose to conceal this fact because they blamed themselves and didn't want their daughters to influence each other. The three daughters lived in their own cities, yearning for the fatherly love but missing. And all this changed after the death of Zhong Zhentao. The first meeting of the three sisters was at the funeral of their father. Three people with completely different personalities walked together on the road of reminiscing about their father. They run together. The hot pot restaurant left by my father slowly re-acquainted my father, family, and people around him.
Pepper, one of the commonly used seasonings, has a hemp, spicy, astringent taste and strong irritation. It is difficult to adapt to the first contact, but it has the effects of warming the qi, eliminating cold, relieving pain and killing insects. "The Flavor of Peppercorns" tells the story of family relationships between people, but it is named after "Zanthoxylum bungeanum". What is important is the complicated and profound feelings that Zanthoxylum bungeanum brings to people. The "Zanthoxylum bungeanum" in the movie is at least It has three meanings:
. The first meaning refers to the physical pepper in the father’s hot pot restaurant: the three sisters’ main memories of their father are all done in the hot pot restaurant, and the biggest feature in the hot pot restaurant is the large size. Put small peppers everywhere. The daughters were studying the recipe of the hot pot base for their father in the shop full of pepper flavor, recalling what father had said and done here, and pinning their thoughts of their father in the pepper;
is the second of the pepper. The layer meaning refers to the love of the father: the taste of pepper is to use one kind of pain to cover up another kind of pain. It seems to be pain, but it is also love. The father is full of care and love for his daughters, but he has difficulties he can't tell. He can only choose to hide from a distance and pay attention to them silently, watching their growth and caring about their lives, because he is afraid that he will bring them again. Coming to hurt is like a jar of pepper that locks itself in a glass bottle; the third meaning of
pepper is to refer to each of us, everyone in life is a pepper, the heart is hot but the surface is full Stubborn, we insist on our emotions and perseverance, but we don’t know how to get along better with others. It’s obviously love that ends up in a misunderstanding. This is the case with Zheng Xiuwen and his father, the same with Andy Lau, and the second sister with his mother. , Sanmei and her mother-in-law are the same.
At the end of "The Flavor of Peppercorns", Sammi Cheng imagined a family of four eating hot pot together in a closed hot pot restaurant. This picture is reminiscent of the final ending of "The Godfather 2". Mike Corleone recalled a family People sitting at home while eating. The two movies come to the same destination by different routes. When one person has enough experience, the most memorable thing is the warmth when the family reunites together. This may be the reason why the "Smell of Peppercorns" is named after "Small Pepper". The flavor of pepper, the five flavors are mixed, but the aftertaste is endless. The growth of life, affection, and love are all like eating a pepper. There will be pain, burning, and numbness, but the final taste must be warm.
If life is always sweet, you will not have too deep feelings. Life is a road full of thorns and bumps, even for Zheng Xiuwen. Once the most popular female singer and the most appealing female artist in Hong Kong, at the peak of her acting career, she suffered from illness and retired for many years. She experienced all kinds of sweetness and betrayal in love, and she was still full of confidence in the end. Persist in a positive life and work. Therefore, in "The Flavor of Pepper", in addition to the nostalgia for father and family, it also contains a kind of love for life. The taste of life may be really like the smell of pepper, it is astringent, hemp, fresh, spicy, everything All in your own taste.
