[Film Review] On Respect and Self-esteem: Appreciation of the Japanese art film The Taste of Sand.
Text/Peng
In a corner of the street full of cherry trees, there is a small shop in Tongluo. The shopkeeper's name is Moritaro, and he is a middle-aged man. In order to make a living and repay his master's loan, he sells gongs and gongs here every day. There are not many customers, and he can barely manage. He is a little confused and depressed about life. For him, this job is just a means of making a living. He seems to be pushed forward by an invisible hand, just mechanically moving his body.
One day when cherry blossoms were in full bloom, a 76-year-old grandmother named Dejiang came to the store and said that she wanted to work in this small Tongluo Shao shop. Considering her age and physical condition, Moritaro naturally turned her down, but when she left, Moritaro gave her a bronze gong burn made by herself. A few days later, Grandma Dejiang came to the store again, hoping that Moritaro could hire her to work in the store. This time, Moritaro turned her down again. When she left, she told Moritaro that the burnt skin of the gongs he made was not bad, but the flavor of the bean paste stuffing was still lacking. In addition, she left a box of homemade bean paste stuffing. After a while, grandma Dejiang came to Tongluo Shaodian again. This time, Moritaro took the initiative to ask Grandma Dejiang for help in the store, because he had eaten the bean paste stuffed by Grandma Dejiang before and tasted a delicious food that he had never experienced before. So grandma Dejiang began to help in the shop. With the improvement of the taste of Tongluo Shao and the increase of customers, Moritaro's life is becoming more and more active and happy.
However, the good times did not last long. After a while, no customers went to the store to buy gongs. Because everyone gradually discovered that grandma Dejiang had leprosy, although she had recovered, her wrist was bent and deformed because of sequelae, leaving a terrible scar. The master forced Moritaro to dismiss Grandma Dejiang. Inner struggle, Moritaro had to leave grandma Dejiang. This experience also gave Moritaro a new view of life.
The outline of the story is roughly like this. With the help of the painful experience of an old woman who had leprosy, director Naomi Kawase reveals the discrimination and ruthlessness lurking in the society. Of course, this film not only reminds people of the social discrimination against leprosy patients, but also reminds us of more kinds of discrimination: either because of infectious diseases, or because of family background, or because of the mistakes made the day after tomorrow ... In short, discrimination has been lurking in society like a stubborn disease. Sometimes, we also become ruthless implementers of this kind of discrimination.
However, if you think about it carefully, each of us is not a perfect person, and we all have some shortcomings (such as birth, appearance, health, talent, etc.). ), and such shortcomings have become the kindling that causes discrimination by others. Many times, when we discriminate against others' defects, others are also discriminating against us. So to be extreme, we are all discriminated against. A film will not completely change the discrimination deposited in the social structure, but it reminds us that when discrimination may be imposed, we should also think about the discrimination we have suffered, take care of each other, and try our best to give respect and warmth to the discriminated people. In the film, when a girl was looking through a picture book about leprosy patients, she saw such a sentence: "We also want to live in a sunny society". In fact, not only leprosy patients, we all want to live in a sunny society, and such a sunny society needs everyone to actively create.
It seems that it is not the ultimate goal of the director to let the discriminated people get respect and sympathy. She wants to tell us that only those who are self-respecting and self-reliant can gain real respect from others. One of the most impressive scenes in the film is that Grandma Dejiang used red beans to make bean paste stuffing for the first time in the store. Like a group of children or elves, she carefully washed, boiled and stained with honey red beans. Moritaro said anxiously, "This is too much trouble." . However, grandma Dejiang did not change the rhythm because of this. She replied, "Yes, because I want to treat them warmly." Moritaro immediately asked, "entertain customers?" Grandma Dejiang replied: "It was a warm hospitality to red beans, which grew hard from the ground." The process of making bean paste with red beans is no longer a manual operation for grandma Dejiang, but a hospitality and gift. From her dedicated eyes and skillful and respectful movements, I feel her love for this job, respect for life and philosophical attitude towards life. I think people who still take life seriously and actively can really gain the respect of others, no matter what kind of pain they have suffered in the past. A person's self-esteem and self-reliance are just like the image of "cherry blossoms" that often appears in movies, so beautiful and gorgeous.
How to evaluate an art cinema? I think a good art film does not lie in the novelty of the story content, nor in the uniqueness of the shooting technique, but in whether it has the role of "baptism spirit". A good art theater makes our hearts clean and dust-free, just like washing them in the clear Nilian Zen River. Just as the world has changed in an instant, let us see a new side of the world and let us love and cherish life more. From the perspective of spiritual baptism, this film is a very good art film. This film also inherits the aesthetic, simple, melodious and soothing style of art films. Of course, besides the alarm of cherry blossoms, trams and railway forks, what other beautiful images are there? Please find it yourself.
? Delicious gong. Do you want a piece?
20 16.03. 10