So far, the highest score for this year's Chinese cinema movies is -
The Hong Kong movie " The Diary of a Young Man " was released last Friday.
It received 12 nominations at the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards, and director Zhuo Yiqian finally won the New Director Award.
What's so good about "Diary of a Youth" that has received unanimous praise?
- There are spoilers below, please avoid it if you mind -
"Suicide note" is the key word of "Diary of a Youth", which connects the narrative clues of two time and space.
The story begins with a suicide note found by high school teacher Zheng. He suspected that a student wanted to commit suicide and decided to investigate one by one in the class.
During the investigation, he touched a hidden reef under the calm sea. It turned out that the female monitor, who was both good in character and academics, used her school uniform to cover the old injury of cutting her wrists. The boy who was called a nickname by his classmates was a victim of campus bullying.
At the same time, this suicide note also reminded Mr. Zheng of a childhood past: his elder brother Youjie and his younger brother Youjun lived in an enviable and wealthy family. Their father was a well-known lawyer and their mother was beautiful and dignified, making them a perfect match. The family of four, who often appear in high-end social occasions, is a model family in the eyes of others.
But Youjie is suffering from great pain and pressure: he is not smart enough and lives in the shadow of his excellent younger brother. His violent father is kind and kind at first, but he believes in stick education later. His mother who has no voice is often abused at home and is powerless. Help him relieve his father's anger.
Youjie's romantic nature was gradually stifled by his parents. He worked hard but his talent was limited. He could not meet his father's expectations whether he was studying or playing the piano, and he even shamed them by repeating a grade. At the same time, the young cartoonist he liked brought him countless joys, but eventually passed away by jumping off a building.
There are many things in the adult world that he cannot understand. For example, he doesn’t know why his gentle piano teacher was replaced by his father. He doesn’t know why his parents treat him and his younger brother differently. He doesn’t know why he is still recognized for his hard work. Stupid kid. The sorrow of growing up made him think about death in a daze. The death of "unimportant people" might make the "perfect" home more perfect.
The two story lines are intertwined and parallel, and the audience travels through twenty years of time and space, watching the polyphony of heartbreak on the other side and this side. Minors of different generations experience similar pain, and the root cause is their closest family members . Unfortunately, it is difficult for the latter to discover their own educational problems, because everyone has grown up in this way.
Although "Diary of a Youth" is not a suspense film, it cleverly uses the techniques of narrative trick and . In the first half of the film, smoke bombs are released all the time, making people misjudge the relationship between the characters. Halfway through the film, there is a sudden reversal. Looking back for corresponding clues, I find that everything is traceable.
Qian Zhongshu wrote a golden sentence in "The Besieged City": The gravel in the rice or the unclean thorns in the boneless fish fillet will give people an unexpected pain. "Diary of a Youth" gives people this impression: beneath the gentle and restrained images, there are all unexpected bloody wounds. In the movie
, Youjie blinks his big eyes and wears a cute pot head. Anyone who sees it will praise him as cute boy, but no one can see the scars in his heart, and no one can talk to and resolve his troubles. .
First it was a suicide note, then two suicide notes, and finally a collective suicide note. It is no exaggeration to say that "Diary of a Youth" is a collective suicide note that resonates with most people who grew up in East Asian families. In the film The lines are particularly harsh and quite familiar.
"If your dad and I divorce, it must be because of you!"
"If you can't do it, I will beat you until you can."
"You trash."
"My brother can do it, why can't you?"
"There is no more tourism. You stay here and study hard. You are not allowed to go anywhere!"
"I won't hit you because I don't care about you anymore. You can do whatever you want."
Sometimes it is blatant neglect. When Youjie confided to his mother that he couldn't sleep every night and wanted to see a psychiatrist, his mother's first reaction was: Psychiatrists treat mental illness, so what are you doing? If you are not a madman, why should you see a doctor?
Youjie is indeed not a madman, but he became a patient with depression under pressure. But even the elite parents, whose knowledge is far beyond that of ordinary people, are not willing to learn about the pathological causes. Instead, they use inertial thinking to solve the problem, thinking that stupid children must be faking their illness, and everything is an excuse not to study hard.
When Youjie on the screen encounters the alternating hot and cold violence of , I believe that the audience outside the screen can also do it. Recalling a heartbreaking moment in my childhood, these painful memories cannot be healed. They are just buried deep in my heart under the guise of "deep love and deep responsibility" and become a bone spur in the journey of growing up. If you haven't experienced such pain, you should probably feel lucky.
Some movies are fascinating with their exquisite plots, and some movies are shocking with their audio-visual enjoyment. However, "Diary of a Youth" takes the route of empathy, which uses drama. The emotional resonance of the audience was easily connected to the final link. In the second half of the film, many viewers shed tears. It was difficult for us to tell whether the tears were for Youjie or they were crying. After being ignored and pretending to be nothing,
’s story comes to an end, and the film focuses on the current time and space. Teacher Zheng wants to save his students, but he is ridiculed by his students for not being able to handle his own personal affairs. He really looks like a frustrated loser. , whether it is in the parent-child relationship or the relationship between the sexes.
His wife is pregnant, and he is not ready to welcome a newborn; his father is seriously ill, and he is still brooding about the past; his leader is rude, and he dare not refute his wrong education methods. . Teacher Zheng aspires to be a good teacher, but he inevitably struggles with many negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and cowardice. He doesn’t know why he has to overcome so many obstacles in life. In fact, childhood experiences have an indispensable influence on everyone’s adult life. We thought that the hidden pain would not affect the future, but it lingers in everyone's bones, influencing every major decision made due to the family of origin, and bearing the fruit of an adult's personality who has not received love. People can only explore how to convey warmth to others so as not to become annoying love-incompetent patients.
Child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein once proposed the concept of object relations and believed that children. The relationship established with the external world will internalize, project, and influence the subjective world, thereby affecting the secondary relationship with the external world.
"Diary of a Youth" As a warm-hearted movie, the final direction must be "healing" . . Therefore, we see Teacher Zheng trying to get out of the haze and imprisonment, trying to become a powerful adult, and passing on kindness to every student in the class. He listened to their worries and patiently solved their problems; he repaired the parent-child relationship and the relationship between the sexes, and wanted to become a qualified son and husband.
But in real life, there may not be such an ideal ending. Some people spend their entire lives licking their wounds in dark corners, asking for no healing and understanding. Director
hid his hope in the English title of the film, time still turns the pages.
If we can’t choose our own family and parents, and we can’t hug ourselves who cried secretly many years ago, at least we can control the choices we make as adults, break the cycle of negative relationships, open our warm embrace to our partners and children, and tell them " I’ve been here, let’s get out of the dead end together” .
Amy
editor-in-chief Chen Lingling
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