In my personal impression, Taiwanese movies are quite interesting, and a large part of the reason comes from their way of speaking, which is the "Taiwanese accent".
Accents and words are always whining. It feels like men and women are always quarreling as if they are in love, and gang fights seem to never dare to hit the other party to death. Greetings, soft, a lot of aggression is relieved as soon as you open your mouth, it is neither painful nor itchy, very gentle.
But at the same time, it should also be clear that whether it is the gentle way of speaking or the gentle lens expression in the film, these are just means. Many films will use gentleness to present reality and cruelty . In recent years, the typical and hard to ignore work is "The Great Buddha" Plath" and "Who fell in love with him first", and in 2019 "The Sunshine".
It is worth mentioning that the movie "The Sunshine" won the 56th Golden Horse Awards for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Editing. Director Zhong Menghong is the "Big Buddha". Photography by Plath.
In 2014, director Huang Xinyao's short film "The Big Buddha" was shortlisted for the best short film at the Golden Horse Awards. The jury director Zhong Menghong saw its unique black humor and vitality, and proposed to develop it into a feature film, which led to the advent of "Big Buddha Plus". . In terms of overall quality and completion, "Sunshine" is slightly inferior to "Big Buddha Plus", but it is still worth watching.
The whole film focuses on ordinary families in contemporary Taiwan. It has a bit of a taste of "Hiroka Koeda". It is full of cruelty and gentleness. The cold and warmth are intertwined. Even when the sun is shining, the city still looks cold and empty, and people seem to be indifferent and ruthless. , but looking at it further, in fact, people are not really indifferent, they just hide their tenderness tightly.
A fable and extravagance
The English name of "Sunshine" is "A Sun", which is an obvious homonym when combined with the movie. The homonym of sun means "a son".
Driving school instructor Awen will be asked, "How many children do you have" when teaching students, he always answers "one", but in fact he has two sons.
The older brother, who has excellent grades, is going to repeat his studies to get into medical school. The younger brother, a troubled teenager, was sent to a juvenile labor camp for killing people with his accomplices. Therefore, Awen is reluctant to admit his youngest son. After the youngest son Ah He went to prison, the matter did not end there. Ah He's underage girlfriend came to the door because she was pregnant; in addition, the victim's family also approached his father, Ah Wen, and demanded a large amount of compensation... The question gave Arvin a headache.
To make matters worse, suddenly one day, the eldest son, who had been hopeful, jumped off the building and committed suicide without warning. This original family of four suffered heavy losses again.
Father Arwen fell into sadness and trance. His life dogma is "grasp the time and control the direction". He believes that as long as this concept is implemented, life will be correct and practical. Since then, some practitioners will still ask him, "How many children do you have", he still answers "one" because he only has a young son.
But the relationship between father and son is still delicate. Either they don't meet, or they ignore each other when they meet. The relationship is between enemies and strangers.
This kind of relationship is only an appearance. The death of the eldest son is like an opportunity, which allows us to gradually see the deeper love that father Awen hides for the younger son, and this love is shocking enough when told.
The movie is called Sunshine, as if some kind of hope, because most of the time the movie is always cloudy, and people's faces are always full of sadness.
For example, a father who is a coach in a driving school often tells his son and others to "grasp the time and control the direction". It seems that as long as this is the only way to be smooth, steady and happy, but life is not a car, and we are not just a car or a driver, but an independent individual. , have their own thoughts and emotions, and encounter all kinds of unknowns and accidents, some people seem to be fine, but they will jump downstairs inexplicably, some people look like desperadoes , After being released from prison, he accepted the role of his father and worked two jobs.
Whether it is "sunshine shining" or "grasp the time and control the direction", it seems to be an extravagant hope. The eldest son commits suicide and the youngest son goes to prison, but some people are still working hard for such extravagant hopes.
gentleness is heroism
"The most fair thing in this world is the sun. No matter the latitude, every place has half the time of day and half of the year. We went to the zoo a few days ago, and the sun was so strong that all the animals couldn't stand it. They all try to find a shadow to hide, and I have a vague feeling that I can't tell, and I hope that like these animals, there are some shadows to hide. But when I look around, it's not just these animals that have shadows to hide, Including you, my brother, and even Sima Guang can find a shaded corner, but I don't have it. I have no water tank, no dark place, only sunshine, 24 hours a day, bright and warm, and the sun is shining."
This is a text message that my brother Chen Jianhao sent to his friends before committing suicide. The long series of monologues are very "dramatic" and look like some kind of last words (similar to the last long monologue of "The Pianist at Sea"). But my brother's suicide was too sudden, and the logic in the play made it difficult for people to accept it. Except for his story about "Sima Guang smashing a cylinder", let us guess that his mental state may be a little problematic.
Based on his brother's role and his family's evaluation, he may be a person with a flattering personality, who meets his father's expectations, studies hard, has a stable temperament, is gentle, always thinks about others, leaves the good to others, and leaves the gloomy and peaceful. The darkness is left to myself, like 24 hours of uninterrupted sunlight, which eventually burns myself.
All the audience will feel sorry for his brother's death, which is undoubtedly a tragedy. I even speculate that my brother committed suicide in order to make the father and the younger son get along better, because as long as my brother Chen Jianhao exists and continues to be excellent, his father Awen will It is possible that the youngest son Chen Jianhe has been denied all the time. Finally, Ah Hao wanted to become the sun himself and melt the ice between his father and his younger brother.
The image of father Awen in the movie is cold and ruthless, especially when facing the problem of the younger son, he hopes that his son will be imprisoned, yelling when his son's girlfriend comes to the house, refusing compensation from the victim's family, making people I think this father is very bad and inhumane. We may guess the past of the father and the son, and then blame the father's education method, "No wonder the son was sent to labor camp, maybe there is something wrong with your education method. ."
For the misunderstanding of the role of the father, the movie will guide the audience for about 2 hours, until at the end, everyone will find that the father Awen is not ruthless, not hard-hearted, he is just old-fashioned, clumsy, and at a loss when facing his son , he is the one who sacrificed the most for his unreal son.
Brother and father have different understandings of gentleness. Brother gave everything to others, and father did not hesitate to kill for the sake of his younger son's life. For the sake of family and family, the father as an ordinary man showed his tenderness, a strong, selfish heroism. In this heroism, we get a glimpse of the deeply hidden love in this broken family.
What is Sunshine?
Regardless of whether you grasp the time or the direction, where there is love, the sun will always shine.
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