Interpreting 78 scenes one by one, revealing the weird secrets of "The Taste of Tea"

Shannon 2022-01-22 08:03:12

It takes a little effort to interpret literary and artistic films like "The Taste of Tea" because its logic is stacked with many symbols and trivial events. Personal opinion: If this kind of film is not interpreted, it will lose most of the value of the film itself. On the contrary, if you can't interpret a logic from it and find the original intention of the director to make the film, then this movie is a rotten movie that is unreasonable and unconventional to the viewer.

Stop talking nonsense, let's first make a catalog of movies according to time:

"Movie Catalogue" (you can read the text first):

1. The boy runs, his girlfriend leaves by train 2. The little girl sitting on the threshold and the peeping grandfather 3. The boy sitting on the riverside watching the boating 4. The grandfather and mother studying manga action styling (connecting to the countryside scene, passing in the dark Subway) 5. Family eating at home (Grandpa and mother studying comic action modeling) (Connect with outdoor riverside scenery) 6. School gatherings attended by little girls 7. Little girls listen to uncles' stories (skulls), uncles tell stories 8. The troubles of the little girl 9. The discovery of the archaeological team 10. The boys playing with the classmates 11. The troubles of the boys (noodle shop incidents, convenience store incidents) 12. Working mothers and grandpas on the left threshold (see photos of grandma) 13. City Middle-narcissistic and neurotic relatives 14. At home-grandpa singing to a little girl and father and son playing chess 15. Uncle looking at the distant mountains 16. A boy meets a new girl in the classroom and falls in love 17. Grandpa, girl, uncle, mother sitting on the threshold and looking out 18, the little girl lying in the house (seeing the bug on the lampshade and saying stupid) 19. The little girl went into the forest and found the horizontal bar; the uncle came to the bridge Found a baseball player 20, an uncle and a little girl return (the peeping grandfather) 21. The lively scene of the boy’s school playground (motorcycle team) 22. The boy sitting alone in the classroom (appears from the gangster club) 23. Excited boy Children (cycling, in the house, going to the station) 24. Boys peeping at his girlfriend at night, looking up on the grass 25. A train adventure between a boy and his father (Trendy duo) 26. The trendy duo is beaten by a stranger after getting off the train , A strange man was hit by a baseball man in a car 27. At home—a family eating, playing chess and drawing cartoons 28, a little girl lying on the bed with eyes open, a boy, an uncle 29, in the city—an office mad relative was caught by a girl Colleagues hit 30, at home-water, hands, little girl 31, little girl gets up and leaves, uncle gets up and leaves, boy is alone in bed 32, little girl enters the restricted area, uncle meets his girlfriend, little girl flips through the horizontal bar 33, at home-boy Children play with grandpa 34, uncle peeping at dancing man 35, mother, father, grandfather, boy eating at home, little girl comes back 36, uncle and dancing man 37, mother answers phone calls from neurotic relatives, father calls relatives 38, in the city:Neurotic relatives call uncle 39. Grandpa takes a bath and sings at home. Three men in baseball bury strange men in the field. Unearthed 40. Boys in class 41. Mother works at home (drawing cartoons). The little girl on the table 43, the grandfather peeping at the little girl on the horizontal bar, 44, the little girl taking a bath in the bathtub 45, eating at home (dancing man) 46, the father hypnotizes the family (grandfather, the little girl, the boy watching TV) 47, the mother’s The world, telling the little girl 48, the boy participates in the school runaway club 49, the grandpa takes the train into the city 50, the animation director visits his mother's home 51, the little girl finds a strange man found the trendy duo 52, the boy is in the runaway club Chess 53. The little girl and the trendy duo rescued the buried stranger 54. The little girl eats at home and tells her family about the buried man 55. The little boy in the train 56. The giant little girl sits on the roof and looks up at the stars 57. In the city, recording Shed 58, (three days later) three-person studio recording 59. Father hypnotizes the patient (answers the phone) 60. Boys play chess at the Bozou Club 61. Mothers, little girls, boys, fathers eat at home and talk about grandpa and relatives. Song 62, the tomb is raining, the school is raining, the grandfather and mother in the rain 63, the boy plays chess with his girlfriend, and sends his girlfriend away (it is raining) 64, the father and the son sit opposite each other in the train, the train in the dark 65. On a sunny day, the little girl sits on the threshold 66. In the city-the mother waits to watch the sample on the crew 67. The little girl lies at the door of the house 68. The father is treating the patient (answering the phone) 69. The girl lies at the door and gets up and finds that grandpa is dead 70. Family funeral for grandfather (no uncle) 71. At home-four people sit on the threshold, enter the grandfather’s house, find atlas 72, Bozou Club 73, work in the mother’s home (painting) 74, the little girl succeeds in turning back, Sunflower Tour 75, Scene Disintegration 76, All Character Scenery Staggered Index Clip 77, Little Girl Smiles and Leave 78, EndBuried strange man 54, eating at home, a little girl tells her family about the buried man 55, the little boy in the train 56, the giant little girl sitting on the roof looking up at the starry sky 57, the city, the recording studio 58, the three-person recording studio (three days later) Recording 59. Father hypnotizes the patient (answers the phone) 60. Boys play chess in the runaway club 61. Mother, little girl, boy, father eats at home, talks about grandpa and relatives’ recording songs 62, rains in the grave, rains at school, Grandpa and mother in the rain 63. Boys play chess with their girlfriends in Boozou Club and send them away (it is raining) 64. Father and son sit opposite each other in the train, the train in the dark 65. Sunny day, the little girl sits on the threshold 66, the city Medium—Mother is waiting for the film crew to see the sample 67, the little girl lies at the door of the house 68, the father is treating the patient (answer the phone) 69, the girl lies at the door, gets up, and finds that the grandfather is dead 70, the family gives the grandfather to the funeral (no uncle) 71. At home-four people sit on the threshold, enter the grandfather's house, find the atlas 72, baozou club 73, work in the mother's home (painting) 74, the little girl succeeds in the back flip, the sunflower circle 75, the scenery dissolves 76, all Character scenery staggered index editing 77. The little girl smiles and leaves 78. The endBuried strange man 54, eating at home, a little girl tells her family about the buried man 55, the little boy in the train 56, the giant little girl sitting on the roof looking up at the starry sky 57, the city, the recording studio 58, the three-person recording studio (three days later) Recording 59. Father hypnotizes the patient (answers the phone) 60. Boys play chess in the runaway club 61. Mother, little girl, boy, father eats at home, talks about grandpa and relatives’ recording songs 62, rains in the grave, rains at school, Grandpa and mother in the rain 63. Boys play chess with their girlfriends in Boozou Club and send them away (it is raining) 64. Father and son sit opposite each other in the train, the train in the dark 65. Sunny day, the little girl sits on the threshold 66, the city Medium—Mother is waiting for the film crew to see the sample 67, the little girl lies at the door of the house 68, the father is treating the patient (answer the phone) 69, the girl lies at the door, gets up, and finds that the grandfather is dead 70, the family gives the grandfather to the funeral (no uncle) 71. At home-four people sit on the threshold, enter the grandfather's house, find the atlas 72, baozou club 73, work in the mother's home (painting) 74, the little girl succeeds in the back flip, the sunflower circle 75, the scenery dissolves 76, all Character scenery staggered index editing 77. The little girl smiles and leaves 78. The end

At first glance at "The Taste of Tea", it is impossible to understand the plot according to the director’s timeline. The plot before and after the movie is not as good as it is, which is inexplicable, not to mention the strangely dressed anime duo and uncles. Strange stories, people buried in the soil, and so on! After watching the movie for the second time, I tried to write down the plots one by one, and divided them into categories:

I roughly divided the above storyline by color according to the characters of the family. They are: "boy's story", "little girl's story", "uncle's story", "mother's story", "grandpa's story" "Story", "Father's Story"; of course, there are also the stories of members outside the family. They are "the story of a neurotic relative" and "the story of the trendy duo (two young people wearing anime costumes on the train)" "Wait.

This classification is not unfounded. Everyone can watch the end of the movie. The director indexed all the characters, just like a catalog of novels, except that the catalog is at the end. (This indexing technique is also found in Japanese animation movies. For example, the Japanese animation "Mind Game")

Let's use this to see what the director has said:

"Boy's Story" (red part of catalog):

It's very simple. It is about a little boy who has no self-confidence and is often teased by his classmates in school. He unexpectedly recovered his self-confidence after participating in the school's "Baozou Club" and became able to integrate into the group. In the end, he was recognized by his classmates, including the girl.

"Little Girl's Story" (green part):

It is about a little girl who is eager to grow up always sees another huge "I" watching herself. This huge "I" has been annoying the little girl. She tries to get rid of it through a "heel flip". Finally, After reading Grandpa's painting, she succeeded in flipping through it.

"Mother's Story" (blue part):

Quite simply, my mother is a housewife who tries to find her ideal. Besides doing housework, she draws cartoons at home all day long. Finally, she succeeded. The cartoon was selected by the director and the ideal was realized.

"Uncle's Story" (purple part):

Uncle’s story is even more strange. It seems that he has nothing to do all day long. He either goes out for a stroll to see the scenery or lies at home. It was not until his relatives in the city called to ask him to record. He reluctantly agreed. Stayed in the recording studio to work.

"Father's Story" :

Simpler: Father either works or plays chess at home for dinner (no plot)

"Grandpa's Story" :

Grandpa did two things: one was to spy on his family, and the other was to enter the city and record a song "Song of the Mountain". (Others omitted)

This movie is too absurd! The characters are as neurotic as those in Kafka's works. There is a "absurd" style in literature and film. Obviously, the film "The Taste of Tea" is not something Camus wants to express. What does the director want to say?

Attentive friends will find that the director's thinking on the personality (family) is very obvious: he has selected the various stages of a person's life: childhood, youth, middle age, and old age. If we can find this line, it will not be difficult to follow the director's line of thought: He wants to act for a lifetime.

It's hard to shoot a person's life! There is no shortage of such epic films in Western movies, such as "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​and "A Brilliant Life". If you have to conceptualize the film "The Taste of Tea" as an epic, then it is definitely an alternative epic. Where is the alternative, then look down...

After knowing the main line of the movie "describe the life of a person", we tried to use this line to explore how the director instilled his thoughts into the audience:

The plot of "The Taste of Tea" is blocky and there are many blocks. We have to find the montage contrast between blocks and blocks. Everyone knows Du Fu's famous poem: "Zhumen smells like meat and wine, and there are frozen bones on the road." Zhumen and Lu, wine and meat and frozen bones formed a strong contrast, which produced a strong artistic irony effect. This kind of literary contrast is a montage in movies. One of the national characteristics of Japanese movies is also here. With reference to this technique, let’s look at the plot in the movie again, and classify and summarize the director’s views from it:

"The director's view on puberty (boys)"

The boy’s story is divided into two parts: after integrating into the group and before integrating into the group. This is a strong contrast that reflects the director's concept. Finding this comparison, we will find that all plots about boys are designed around this before and after comparison. Recall: a few boys pretending to be girls and writing letters to play with boys (before integration); school classmates watched the lively scene of riding a motorcycle and the camera turned to the boy sitting alone in the classroom; the boy's excitement after deciding to join the riot club, etc. From this it can be seen that the director’s point of view is very clear: he advocates that the youth should be actively integrated into the collective and should not be autistic. The noodle shop incident and the convenience store incident are explanations of the social autistic psychology of boys.

"The director's view of childhood (little girl)"

I think that the character design of the little girl is the director's expounding the status of childhood in the mind of an adult. Her play is also divided into two parts: try to get rid of the huge "I" after practicing the heel flip, and successfully get rid of the huge "I" after the heel flip. These two parts are funny, is there any difference between the front and the back? After thinking about it, I realized a huge difference between before and after (this difference determines the director’s point of view): Before the little girl succeeded in the heel turn (99% of the little girl’s play), she never laughed once. Only in the last shot, the one before the end of the movie, the little girl laughed and the movie ended. This is a strong contrast, and all the directors’ opinions are contained in this contrast between smiling and not smiling.

"The director's concept of adults (uncles, mothers, relatives, trendy duo, etc.)" This part is the director's observation and criticism of the real society. Where is the criticism and where are the opinions? With these questions, we come to find the hidden clues in the movie: there are a few urban scenes in the movie, at the beginning of 13, 29, 38, 57, and 66 scenes. This is not a coincidence, if it is a coincidence, the director You won't edit a picture of a city with tall buildings at the beginning of these scenes! If we find this, it is not difficult for us to find another big contrast in the film: the contrast between the city and the suburbs. What is the significance of this comparison?

"Let's see uncle first" The role of uncle makes me feel complicated, world-weary, and like to escape. Where do you see it? It can be seen from the uncle's attitude towards that neurotic relative in the city, from the fact that he lay at home all day long doing nothing! However, after his uncle recorded his relatives, he never showed up at home, or in the suburbs, he devoted himself to busy work, into the city. These plots allow us to see the director's point of view and critical thinking of people like uncles.

"Let’s look at those two weirdly dressed "trendish duo""

Father and son ran into them on the train, and his father always prevented the boy from seeing these two aliens. What does the director want to say? Don't worry, if we watched the next scene, we would know that after the father and son and the two "new wave duo" got off the car, the "new wave duo" was beaten by a deceased. This is a typical "montage". Do you remember there was such a scene in Antonioni's "Zoom in": a rock scene, a guitarist smashed the guitar and everyone scrambled for it. The last person grabbed the guitar handle and walked out of the show, threw the guitar handle to the side of the road, and even the beggar didn't pick it up! This montage is similar to the trendy duo of "The Taste of Tea": through this montage, the director satirizes the young people nowadays, who like to be unconventional but timid as a mouse.

Let’s read through the scenes 25, 26, 39, 51, 52, and 53. This is a black humorous story-the young man beat up the trendy duo, and a few baseball men carried him to Buried alive in the suburbs, the new wave duo and the little girl rescued the poor man from the soil. The story is self-evident, and you can see the director's point of view if you can see this.

Finally, let's take a look at my father's "hypnosis" for the whole family.

This scene is very strange, why hypnosis is half of the grandpa, the little girl, and the boy go to watch TV, as if hypnosis does not work for them. Naturally, people who walk do not belong to the age range stated by the director. The remaining uncles, mothers, dancing men, including a female patient of his father later, the director used his father’s "hypnosis" to remind everyone of the importance of the subconscious mind in the inner world of young people and how important this "subconsciousness" is. How dangerous: Just recall the content of the TV watched by the grandfather, the little girl, and the boy (that savage girl)!

The director talked about one thing in this respect: the relationship between people, society, and nature.

The role of "Last Look at Grandpa" is best understood. He is a materialization of the director's perspective. In other words, the director used the role of grandpa to explain human life. After the explanation, Grandpa completed the task of the movie and died.

Having said these things, some people must question whether it is necessary to analyze the film in this way. Maybe the director didn't think so much. They made it out of feeling! Of course I believe in the importance of feeling, and I believe in a two-hour movie with thousands of shots. The arrangement and combination of these shots is not a coincidence, but is based on a kind of logic. Without this kind of logic, the director would not be able to finish this movie. Others will ask: Since the director has these thoughts, why do he make it so mysterious and obscure!

This is also the outstanding feature of this movie-let's imagine that if the director dramatizes these ideas so that everyone can understand it at first glance, then this movie will still have a "taste of tea" ! The triviality, absurdity, and obscurity in all these movies determine the style of this movie! This is where the style of a work of art lies. A movie that has no style only based on the contradictions and conflicts of plot and drama is not a good art.

I believe that after analyzing the movie like this, you will get more fun of watching the movie.


Original: Taixu Palace

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Extended Reading
  • Francisca 2022-03-15 09:01:09

    It's completely different from the new creation of other Japanese movies

  • Dock 2022-01-22 08:03:12

    I thought it was a little joke, but the strength was much worse.