The film "Crossing Darjeeling" does not clearly tell us the specific background of the story. It just tells us at the beginning of the film that the eldest brother arranged to meet the three brothers because they have not spoken for a year, and the eldest brother rides a motorcycle The accident that almost hit the dog with the dog was an opportunity to remind the eldest brother of his two younger brothers - "The first thing I think about when I wake up is to hope that Pete and Jack are there." Big brother, cherishes the friendship between brothers more and more. He hopes that the brothers can break through the barrier and return to the way they were before, so he arranged this trip to Darjeeling.
What about the rest? Why haven't they spoken for over a year? What was their relationship like before? What kind of family did the three brothers grow up in? What is the role of the eldest brother in the family? The film doesn't say it explicitly, but we can infer from the characters' many words and deeds. The following is my speculation based on the details of the film. In fact, this seemingly simple movie has very rich details... I think, watching this movie is watching the details. The thematic connotation of "Crossing Darjeeling" is also buried in these details.
Why haven't they spoken for over a year? The problem is simple, because Dad passed away, and after Dad's funeral, they never spoke again. Funerals are their unpleasant memories and their knots. In the film, the three people carry "Indian-made muscle retardation medicine", "Indian cold medicine" with sedatives, and "strong Indian analgesic". Here is a hint that during this year, the three brothers lived through are all bad. Jack wrote a novel about his father's death and the funeral; Peter peeked at Jack's novel in the toilet, and his eyes couldn't stop tearing up, which showed that his father's death was a huge trauma to them. . (Although Jack has always said that the novel is fictional, at the end of the film he admits that his novel is not fiction, and by comparing the fragments of the novel with the memories of the three brothers in the film, Jack’s novel is undoubtedly about the death of his father and the death of his father. funeral)
What kind of family environment did the three brothers grow up in? The eldest brother asked in the film: "Did I...raise us...kind of?" (In a way...is it...I brought us up?) After the combination, they have no contact with mother, mother Without coming to Dad's funeral, we can infer that the three brothers' parents are divorced, and most likely not "peaceful". The eldest brother has taken the younger brothers with him since he was a child and acts as a mother-the eldest brother talks to his mother in almost the same way. For example, the eldest brother always helps the younger brothers to order good food, and he always likes to make agreements. The impact of this broken family relationship on them is huge. In the film Peter doesn't want his wife to get pregnant because he always thinks they will divorce. He is full of negative attitudes towards marriage.
The three brothers like their father very much, but they don't get much love from their father. It can be said that the three brothers are babies who lack love! ! Whether it is the love of the father or the love of the mother, they are very deficient. The second child, Peter, wears his father's glasses with him, and even the degree of the glasses has not changed. Francis was mad at Peter for taking a lot of Dad's belongings and even thought it was "immoral" - it was certainly not a matter of property, Francis was 6K for a belt and 3K for a pair of shoes, Fran Sith is definitely not short of money, but what he cares about is that Peter took the worthless things like Dad's sunglasses and razors, and the reason is "I don't think you should be closer to him than we are." He (Dad) liked me the most, and he told me when he was lying on the street, covered in blood, before he died.” The fight between the brothers... It seems that these adults are really naive, they are simply children fighting for favor, and they are still arguing about it even after the death of their father.
The three children who fell into the water in the middle of the film are actually the portrayal of the three brothers. The three brothers are also in crisis. But during the trip to Darjeeling, the three brothers rushed up without hesitation to rescue the three children who fell into the water. This hints at their inner longing to return to the original brotherhood and break this crisis. The funeral of the child who died corresponds to the funeral of his father. This is the second funeral that the three brothers have attended together in the film. The difference is that one of the dead is the father and the other is the son, but the grief is common.
Then they arrived at the airport to go home, but just before boarding, they changed their minds together - they were going to find their mother. In fact, rescuing the drowning child and attending the funeral, and going to the Himalayas to find their mother, these two things correspond one-to-one with the three brothers' hearts. The father died, the mother didn't come to the funeral, and the estrangement between the three brothers overwhelmed them.
However, the little boy who fell into the water is still dead, and the mother still leaves without saying goodbye. What is the meaning of all this?
Just face it .
Along the way, they are facing their own knots. For the past year, they have all been running away, hiding in their own world, with wounds that cannot be healed. The English name of the film is "The Darjeeling Limited", crossing the obstacles and restrictions of Darjeeling is actually going through the hardships of life.
There are many hints in the film from the mutual distrust of the three brothers to the final release. The most obvious of these is that the meditation with peacock feathers is repeated three times - the first time is when the train gets lost, which leads to the mother's location; None of them did what their brother asked, one's feathers were blown away by the wind, and the other's feathers were left behind without authorization, suggesting a separation and ineffective communication between brothers; the third time, at the end of the film, they The feather meditation is finally done in a funny-looking, but extremely harmonious way, and this time, they share a feather. This is how the three brothers opened their hearts and accepted each other again. Peter bought new clothes for the baby to be born, which also showed that his concept was changing, and he began to accept family and marriage. And at the end of the film, they threw away Dad's luggage, which also means that the burden on him has been unloaded. At this point, the Darjeeling journey was not only not over, it was just beginning - Francis returned Peter and Jack's passports to them, and the younger brothers refused. Yes, they are no longer willing to choose to escape, but to stand together bravely.
Although the little boy who fell into the water was still dead, and the mother left, but this time, the three of them faced it together. Life is unfortunate enough, but we still have each other. At this time, they clearly realized that the three of them are each other's best comfort.
Since the misfortune of life cannot be changed, face it head-on. This is a "face to face" story. This can't help but remind me of Chekhov's play "Three Sisters". At the end of the play, the three sisters are all suffering from reality, but they are close to each other and make a declaration to challenge life. In fact, the most commendable thing is that after recognizing the painful nature of life, facing them head-on, assuming the soul of one's own pain, and still living with hope.
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