When youth is gone, I never noticed

Deanna 2022-03-01 08:01:03

The original title of this film review, written in 2006, was "Youth is lost in the water, and I dare not look back." Fourteen years ago, in the student dormitory, I stayed up late to watch movies and write diaries. At that time, my youth had no purpose, no burden, self-willed imagination, and self-willed squandering. Up to now, fourteen years have passed, and I have never been willing to face the word middle age. Is youth still there? I never noticed.

Xiaokang is an introverted kid, and the first time I saw him, he plunged the compass into the body of a cockroach that had crawled across the floor of his bedroom and fell out the window. At that time, it was pouring rain outside the window. There was a worm on the glass outside the window, Xiaokang stubbornly patted the window, the worm fell and the window shattered. Xiaokang's hand began to bleed, and it kept flowing, as if it was not the warm blood of a person, but the icy rain that flowed away from the window and was not worthy of pity. Xiaokang is an introverted and somewhat neurotic child.

Azer lives in water. The sewers in his kitchen are always blocked by debris, water pours up from the ground, the whole house is covered with a thin layer of water, slippers float on the water, and people also float on the water.

This summer, typhoons frequently come to Xiamen. When the last typhoon came, I watched Cai Mingliang's debut novel "Youth Nezha" alone in the dormitory. Inside and outside the movie, it's a watery world, and I don't know where I am in a trance.

The well-off mother went to worship the god, and the goddess said, your son is the reincarnation of Nezha. So the movie was called a weird name like "Youth Nezha". The Nezha who made a lot of trouble in the East China Sea, eviscerated his bones for his father, and cut his flesh for his mother, the Nezha who was so rebellious that he wanted to destroy everything, in this chaotic and hurried city, he lost his youth in it. Xiaokang frantically and hysterically destroyed Azer's locomotive on a rainy night, cut the seat, smashed the headlights, wrote "AIDS" on the body, poured all-purpose glue into the keyhole, and then wrote on the ground "Where? Zha is here." That night Xiaokang and Aze lived in the next room of the same hotel. On the one hand, A Ze and A Gui frantically fucked; on the other hand, Xiaokang laughed nervously when he saw that the locomotive was destroyed and pushed the locomotive to the ground angrily, jumping on the bed until his head hit the ceiling hard. A wall, two people's lives, but the same youthful pale.

Xiaokang's father was a taxi driver. Like all fathers, he was serious and didn't know how to show his feelings. Xiaokang and Aze first met in his father's taxi. At the crossroads, Azer's father honked his horn at Azer's motorcycle that was blocking the road. Azer took out a hammer and smashed his rearview mirror, and carried Agui away.

Xiaokang began to stubbornly follow Azer. He followed Azer in and out of the game arcade, followed Azer and Agui shopping, and even witnessed Azer and his friends steal game chips from the game arcade. Just like he patted the bugs on the glass, he did all this nervously and stubbornly, just for the thrill of finally cutting through Azer's locomotive.

In fact, we all know that Xiaokang may be envious of Azer's life.

Azer lives in a dilapidated apartment where the elevator always stops on the fourth floor. There was always a thin layer of water in Aze's house. At first, it had to be there. Later, after the sewer was finally opened, Aze stuffed a few rags in and let the water pour out again. Only in the water can life feel safe.

The youth on the edge, in the silence and hysteria of Xiaokang, in Azer's wine and games, was covered up by the colorful neon of the city at midnight. Youth, beautiful and sad. I can't figure out which corner of time the youth lost in the rain has wandered to. When I was a teenager, it was a long time ago, and the confusion at that time has become a vexatious trouble that I can no longer understand now. Young, after all, it's just a dream that existed, it can't be erased, but it can never be touched again.

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Extended Reading
  • Stanford 2022-03-24 09:03:36

    For the first time, I encountered a situation where the content of the film that was not filmed appeared in the introduction of the film. It's really hard to see how Akang found out that his own sexual orientation is different from ordinary people. Looking back, I feel that there is only one possible scene in the film. No action was taken before the call. The beginning of the movie is very catchy. The opening scenes of A Kang using a compass to tie the cockroaches in the house, and A Ze and his partner stealing coins from the phone booth are all refreshing. But with the development of the story, the film is always in a state of dispersal. If you want to evaluate it, the film captures the hesitant and depressed feeling of Taiwanese youth at the end of the last century, but it does not effectively and accurately convey the deeper incentives behind this feeling. In one sentence, the film captures the atmosphere, but not the content.

  • Orland 2022-03-22 09:02:50

    A prototype of "Long Live Love". It's actually a little embarrassing to watch it together with a group of people. It's the correct solution to be alone in the middle of the night until you feel sad.

Rebels of the Neon God quotes

  • Ah Kuei: Ah Tze, let's leave this place!

  • [first lines]

    Mother: What on earth happened? You are all bloody. What happened?