Today, the 2019 American "terminally ill romance" "Five Foot in the World" was released in China. Before going to the cinema, if you have time, you might as well understand two backgrounds.
One is a genetic disease called Cystic Fibrosis (CF). In layman's terms, it is a disease in which the mucus in the lungs is too thick to function properly, and it also provides an ideal breeding environment for bacteria. It affects multiple organs of the body, especially the lungs and digestive system. Symptoms include hemoptysis, tracheal dilatation, pulmonary vascular hypertension, heart failure, reduced oxygen delivery efficiency in the circulatory system, respiratory organ failure, etc. Patients often suffer from pneumonia, Symptoms such as bronchitis. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, more than 70,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease worldwide, but there is currently no effective treatment, and a lung transplant only prolongs life by up to five years. In addition, patients with this disease can easily infect each other with germs, so CF patients must keep a distance of six feet between them to prevent the infection of bacteria in each other's body through droplets.
The second is a girl named Claire Wayneland - the character prototype of the heroine of the movie "Five Feet Away". As early as 2016, the director of "Five Feet Away" directed the documentary "My Last Days", one of which was about Claire (titled "Meet Claire | Finding Beauty in the Sadness"), which recorded her 13 years old. That year, his condition deteriorated and he fell into a coma. After waking up, he "accepted the fact and realized his powerlessness." Then he accepted it with optimism and always believed that life was precious, so he insisted on recording the "to do list", let go of his desire for control, and reassured himself. The doctors said, "I gave my life to you", embracing life hard and trying to live. Anyone who looks at it, Claire has a different kind of vigorous energy and charming attitude. She cherishes every minute of her life, tries to ignore the inconvenience caused by her illness, is enthusiastic about establishing a fund for public welfare, and wrote the biographical book "My Every Breath". ”, and recorded and shared his deeds through video to let more people know about CF, and also encouraged patients with CF, and encouraged them to “don’t let death decide for you”. But unfortunately, as a consultant for the film "Five Feet Away", Claire could not wait for the film to be released, and died of cerebrovascular disease after the lung transplant operation.
Based on the above two backgrounds, the tone of the whole film is mixed with the weight of wrestling with illness and the hope of walking towards life. What comes to the face is the cautiousness and desire of a young pair of young people approaching each other cautiously in front of love.
The heroine Stella, like Claire, is optimistic, strong, and actively receiving treatment. Even if she cannot go to the beach with her friends due to a fever due to a catheter interface infection, she is not depressed, and gets along with the nurses, doctors and patients in a friendly way. She lives a regular life, even if it is extremely common to ordinary people, such as calling her mother, texting with friends, etc., she earnestly records it on the "to-do list", and if one is completed, one will be crossed out. , and then began to look forward to the next item; she adhered to the boundaries and rules that a patient should have, and she controlled herself very well. The rules are eaten; she likes to go to the newborn baby area, and watch the fresh and healthy life for a long time in silence, both envious and happy. It was also here that she met Will, the hero in the film. Unlike Stella, Will has CF with Burkholderia cepacia infection, a bacteria that spreads more easily and is not only incurable, but also has no chance of a lung transplant. Will is a trial patient of clinical drugs in the hospital, but because he is a "walking death", he is a little self-sacrificing and does not cooperate with the doctor's treatment very much, but the paintings he draws reveal his desire for free breathing. Stella saw the longing.
So, Stella took Will to follow up the treatment schedule, take medicine together, and receive treatment together... All of these are carried out together through video. As love grows, the desire to be in the same space at close range also grows. As said at the beginning of the film, "Physical contact, the first way in our lives to communicate. Safety, worry, comfort, all expressed through the caress of fingertips or the light touch of lips on soft cheeks... …we need to be touched by the people we love, just as we need oxygen to breathe.” However, the disease does not allow them to do so, they cannot hold hands, hug, kiss, or even have a next generation, or even May not live to the age to have the next generation. Stella, who has always abided by the boundaries and rules, decided to "take it back a little bit", that is, to be one foot closer to Will, and use a five-foot-long pool cue to define the distance between her and Will, expressing an alternative. silent struggle.
Honestly, the text of the film is really a little weak. Especially in the second half of the film, all kinds of conflicts are too dense, and there is a little bit of romance, which makes the relationship between the two and the progress of the whole movie a little deliberate. The stamina, the rhyme is a little less. In addition, the scarcity of samples that fall in love with the same CF disease and cannot be touched at all (although such a couple does exist in reality) also makes this story largely detached from the lives of ordinary people, to a certain extent It increases the difficulty for viewers to feel empathy and empathy.
However, the creative background based on real prototypes makes up for this lack of text. It is undeniable that people who are often terminally ill or in a desperate situation have a deeper understanding of life and life, so when their thirst for "ordinary daily life" is presented to the eyes of most ordinary people through artistic creation When the time comes, it will be extraordinarily powerful, allowing people to break through the unfamiliar boundaries of other people's lives and perceive the extraordinary under each "ordinary". Love aside, through these "terminally ill" movies, through the windows beyond the ordinary built by these unfamiliar diseases, we can understand more about the difference and unique meaning of life, and know how to cherish ourselves better. , cherish the people in front of you, cherish every love in life, cherish every minute.
In the movie, Stella said, "I have been living for treatment, not treatment for living", so she escaped from the hospital once freely. Taking this opportunity to look back at the character prototype Claire, when she was 18 years old, she was invited to give a speech called "life is beautiful" in public and said: "Let's not think about death, and part of it is because I don't We care too much, we can't control what, but what we can control is whether we are proud of our lives."
I hope that all ordinary and not "ordinary" people, like Claires, do not look at the length of life, but earnestly build the thickness of life, so that every life has meaning and is worth being proud of. (closes ears)
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