From the perspective of love, it is actually a typical Hollywood boy-meets-girl story type. The heroine Mia (Emma Stone) is a prospective actress who is still auditioning and hitting walls everywhere. During the day, she also goes to work in cafes to make ends meet. The male protagonist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a piano accompanist who plays jazz with all his heart. Two unwilling people met and loved each other and encouraged each other, and spent a short romantic time. There is always a turning point in the story, young people have to grow up, daydreams have to wake up, life has to change, and the changes here began when Sebastian signed a very popular band as a keyboard player. This band is closer to pop music and touring everywhere. It is a stable and well-paid job, but it is the music that Sebastian yearns for and the ambition he wants to accomplish (open a jazz bar, play real jazz, and convey jazz. The improvisation and the spirit of change) are basically irrelevant. Mia asked him why he made this choice, but Sebastian felt that he was trying to be a good man and a good partner to meet Mia's expectations, and Mia's dissatisfaction with his success was because his career improved, which led Mia to get along with him. Time superiority is reduced, so I am dissatisfied. The two broke up that night, and the next day Mia wrote, directed, and acted for the first performance of the play (almost no one went). Sebastian also missed it because of work. Mia was extremely disappointed in her career and love. At this time there was an audition opportunity, and Sebastian convinced Mia to go. After the audition, Sebastian had a foresight of Mia's future success and the upcoming separation. At the end of the film, Mia and Sebastian, who have their own lives, meet again five years later.
The film can also be regarded as the growth theme of young adult. YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann said that many viewers think this film is a love letter to Los Angeles LA, because La La Land itself is also another name for Los Angeles. But in his opinion, this film is actually a love letter to passionate people, to those who cherish enthusiasm and persist in their dreams. ——This is also the reason why I said that the theme of this movie did not bring forth new ideas. Persevering in dreams vs. facing reality is really a cliché topic. It feels like it has been cut into 80,000 angles by various literary works and chicken soup articles. There are reasons for choosing it, and it is understandable, but it makes people willing to go. Chasing, dazzled or heartbroken by it, is a scam called "possibility", a fishhook marked "what if", it is you and me in the parallel world.
Anyone who has read fanarts knows that one of the motives of fandom is, what if. If you did not meet, if you met earlier, if you met later, if you met in a different time and space, if you met in a different place, the story They are all completely different ways of opening. And the last ten minutes of this movie is a perfect "what if" proposition composition.
Five years later, Mia already has her own family, is a wife and mother, has achieved some success in her career, and settles in LA. One evening, I took a walk after dinner with my husband and accidentally entered a jazz bar, which happened to be opened by Sebastian. The logo was designed by Mia when the two were in love. It's cliché, sensational, but it's really good to cry. Since Sebastian came to the stage to play the piano, Mia saw another life trajectory in a daze, and Sebastian did the same. If, if I kissed you at the time, hugged you at the time, if I didn’t sign a band at that time, if I appeared on your debut scene, if I accompany you to Paris, will we be a couple, a baby? My parents, went to this bar after a walk for dinner, and watched another man dreaming of music. The young man made a melodious piano sound, and we clasped our fingers in the audience.
When I saw this passage, I really suddenly remembered a scene that my school girl and I had talked about. At that time, she and the boy she liked were facing graduation from their own things. She was going to return to China, and the boy was going to Europe. Both knew that there was no future. They could only hold fast and greedy. The two went on a trip together, to live in a small wooden house in the big forest. After a few days of isolation, they each had made their own plans. After returning, they went on their own without regrets. Unfortunately, within a few days of his return, the boy fell ill and developed a fever. He was supposed to never see each other again, but he acted like a baby and asked his school girl to take care of him. The school girl couldn't help but accompany him, cook porridge for him, and tell him to drink water. At the end of the day, they were extremely sad.
The school girl told me, "Because I suddenly realized that what I cannot have, what kind of future is, what kind of possibility is between me and him." So daily, so specific, and clear Let you see and appreciate what kind of life you want to give up. This is more heartbreaking than the abstract "I can't be with him anymore".
The ending of La La Land is also such a specific heartache. If the previous separation is just a concept, and the reunion after five years of separation, paradoxically make you realize that you are not together and separated. What is the specific and subtle fact that you have lost your life since then. It is impossible to be the father of my child anymore, but we only have the fate to look at each other on stage and off stage.
Yiwei wrote a film review of "City of Glass", and talked about "life has the fate that you must finish", saying that this movie is actually about the problem of love that everyone will encounter, knowing that they will be separated sooner or later, why are they together ? Knowing that there may be a future if you support it a little longer, why can't you give up a bit of willpower? ——In fact, La La Land tells a similar story. There is no misunderstanding, no natural disasters or man-made disasters, but it is so difficult for people to stay and love each other. Even eating meals is a fate to cherish.
If I knew that we only have this little fate, and we walked into a person’s world in such a comprehensive and detailed manner, and then walked out of each other’s lives without a piece of it, if I could know what I really gave up, what I missed was What, at least, we have danced in the rosy sunset of Los Angeles, shining by the bright stars of this city.
Thank you for dreaming with me.
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