Comment on Long Live Love directed by Cai Mingliang (1994);
There is no denying that this is a very boring movie. 100 minutes, no background music, few conversations, and the impressive voice seems to be only moaning during sex. There are only three characters in this film. Miss Lin, who sells second-hand buildings, Ah Rong, who stands on the street, and Xiaokang, who sells urns, seem to have nothing to do with each other, but there is an intersection in the building that Miss Lin has not sold yet.
Miss Lin, who sells second-hand houses, seems to be a * * to customers on the phone. She should be frustrated at work. At least during the movie, she didn't sell a house. She longed for love, so she went to her unsold house with strangers to vent her superfluous desires, but what about that man? Maybe it's just to meet physical needs. Two people didn't communicate and lost themselves in a gasp. When she and the strange man went crazy for the second and last time, a person came to the park and burst into tears. Maybe she wants to wash away the shame with tears, or she wants to forget loneliness with tears. Maybe loveless sex is just an animal instinct.
A well-off family selling urns, with a strong rural accent, seems to be out of place with everything in this city. By chance, he found the key that Miss Lin left in the room, so he lived in this empty room with only one bed and luxurious bathroom. One day, he found women's clothes in this room. He put clothes on himself and kept touching his body with his hands ... in the process of masturbation, his desire was vented. Perhaps, because of his sexual perversion, he can't feel the pleasure when men and women make love. He had to use this method to meet his physiological needs. Perhaps, he is not without love, but his love is not recognized by others. When Ah Rong and Miss Lin fell asleep in bed after having sex, Xiaokang quietly climbed into bed, lying beside Ah Rong, quietly looking at Ah Rong who was sleeping, and gently kissing Ah Rong's lips ... At that moment, I seemed to see the existence of love, although it was not recognized by the world. Perhaps this is the purest love in the whole movie. Wherever Xiaokang goes, he always takes a bottle of1L. Drinking water is a lonely thing and can't be shared. He and Ah Rong will both sink themselves into the bathtub and let the water hug them, which lonely people often do. Water is mysterious, isolated and unattainable, just like love. Represents unattainable desires and feelings that cannot be confided. Holding it in your arms doesn't mean having it. Xiaokang wears women's clothes and longs to be a woman around Arong. His love is suppressed and distorted in this society. Parting kiss, hold your breath, let me see love.
Ah Rong, who sells second-hand clothes, never seems to be sincere to anyone. He happened to meet Miss Lin in a coffee shop, and then he had the cheek to follow her to the vacant room she didn't sell. When two hungry people meet, what should happen happens. Ah Rong is a younger brother who stands a stall, but he lied to Miss Lin about what kind of general manager he is. In his world, he is full of deception.
After watching the movie, I understand why the name of this movie is called "Long Live Love". It seems that this movie has nothing to do with love. Peace between men and women is only desire, and the only person who loves a simple well-off life is really a pervert. Three people living at the bottom of society long for love, but they can't get it. Maybe this is a satire on the real society.
In fact, this movie is not a love movie at all. The only love between men and women is to fill spiritual emptiness and sexual satisfaction, and the instant satisfaction is followed by long loneliness. The film shows these gray lives, very calm, and even a little helpless and self-deprecating. The myth of long live love is disillusioned without construction. With these walking men and women, after a short lust, there is endless confusion. The end of the film is meaningful, and the three of them parted ways after a short period of physical satisfaction. "Nightmares wake up in the morning", in fact, both men and women have no dreams. After a passionate night, in the early morning, the sales girl took a walk in the park. The dark sky and clean environment are just the sound of high heels knocking on the road. After a long walk aimlessly, she sat wearily on the steps of the park, sobbing, and then burst into tears.
Tears pour out with the despair in the heart, and the empty heart will continue to accept the pain of life. As long as it lives, it will not end. The long shot of the heroine crying for seven minutes is undoubtedly the climax of this film. Her desire for love is from the heart, and she is disappointed, sad and helpless because she can't get true love. Not liberation, not release, but the desire for love. Does love exist or not? It seems that only such an ending is the best catharsis for the audience after they are bored.
In my opinion, the movie Long Live Love conveys two meanings to us, one is the lonely people's longing for love, and the other is the lonely people's longing for home. Just like some people around me are very eager to appreciate the so-called best feelings in the world, but love is always very stingy to these people. When they finally realized love, they found themselves scarred. Some people even equate true love with physical needs. These people often take love too seriously because they are too eager, leading to self-loss, thus falling into deep confusion and loneliness. In fact, I think the most beautiful love doesn't have to be held in my hand, but it stays in my heart. As for who you end up with, it's so important. Men can fall in love with their careers, and women can take their favorite lifestyle as their partners. In short, people who are too eager for love rarely get love and be loved. The people in the film satisfy their desire for love with lust and masturbation. Perhaps the people in this movie are a microcosm of modern society. Perhaps modern urbanites, surrounded by reinforced concrete buildings, seem to have lost their ability to communicate with others. They are eager to be loved, cared for and communicated, but they may never get it. All they can do is enjoy loneliness. Perhaps this is the reason why the director adopts an almost silent form.
The other is the desire for home. Miss Lin sells a house. Although she has many houses, she doesn't have her own house here, and of course she doesn't have her own home. Without the care of her family, she can only fill her inner emptiness and loneliness with sexual desire.
Well-off society sells urns, which are the home of the deceased. This plot is undoubtedly in sharp contrast with the well-off society. Even the dead have a home. Where is their home?
What is home? A happy family has no utilitarian color, and the joyful truth is enough to warm everything. People who can't enjoy the warmth of their families are unfortunate. Sometimes people just don't know how to cherish what they have. Only when you really leave will you know that you can do better. From an early age, I would complain about the dull life, my home, that no one at home could understand me, and that my parents were busy. During that time, I seemed to have been living in complaints. I have never understood the bitterness of my family. I will still remember what I said to myself at that time. If I leave this home, I won't have any reluctance and attachment. However, the hardships and loneliness of studying abroad remind me of my home, which belongs to me only. Go back to the home I don't know much about and I'm not grateful for. I want to eat my father's cooking, listen to my mother's constant nagging, and smell the unique taste at home ... I really want to. Suddenly I feel very happy. Although I can't go home every day now, I have a home to miss and look forward to. In contrast, the characters in the film are homeless and have no home to go back to, both physically and mentally. This feeling may be difficult to resonate with valuable people, but once I feel it with my heart, I will cherish the present and sympathize with those homeless people.
This reminds me of a Korean film "The Empty Room", which also has few lines and shows the life in the empty room. It won an award at the Venice Film Festival. Personally, I prefer the movie "The Empty Room". At least, it has a plot. At least, it has music.
Unlike Long Live Love, The Empty Room tells the story of two people who love each other. Although there are abnormal emotions in the middle, at least, the love between the hero and heroine is pure and beautiful. Although they also have sex, the perfect unity of spirit and flesh can be truly realized by loving sex.
The film is elegant and delicate, full of imagination and emotional power. In addition, both protagonists have talked with a third party, so the story is not boring, and there is no obstacle to the audience's understanding. Almost all the audience didn't find out until the last scene that Tai Shi and Hua Shan hadn't said a word in the whole movie before. Maybe true love can never be accurately expressed in words.
Another difference between Vacant Room and Long Live Love is the expression of "home". There is a scene in "Long Live Love", when colleagues are playing games together, Xiaokang is watching awkwardly. The game takes the transformation of family roles as the main line, constantly changing between parents and children. Colleagues are very committed. For a well-off society, this means the family model under traditional values. He is * *. Will he have a home that can be recognized by the present society? Isn't his existence a deconstruction of the family under the traditional values? When he watched the game, he could feel his inner pain and his desire for family. Although Miss Lin is not * *, she didn't get love in the traditional sense, so she had to pour out this loneliness and loneliness to a strange man. Perhaps, when Miss Lin and Ah Rong were making love, they once imagined that Ah Rong loved her, not just wanting her body. Perhaps, she is also looking forward to Ah Rong giving him a home. All three people have no fixed property, and they all have no family in the city.
Undeniably, the director also conveyed such a message to us. It is sympathy for people living at the bottom of society. Three people in the movie, they live at the bottom of society. Their lives are in jeopardy. They may have had their last meal, but their days continue in hardships. Although they occasionally make tragic moves, they never cause the real sense of the mainstream society to sing bad. Their lives drift from place to place, drift with the flow, drift with the flow, live blindly and blankly, step by step, have no established life goals and long-term plans, only helpless struggle and unwillingness. They are the real social vulnerable groups. Cai Mingliang, the director of this film, paid the greatest attention to the social vulnerable groups. The director mobilized a large number of long shots to reflect the real living conditions of the disadvantaged groups in society. Present a gloomy social picture and give the audience more insights.
When I first heard the name Long Live Love, I thought it would be a relaxing and romantic movie. However, after I watched the film patiently, I really understood the true meaning of the film. The so-called "long live love" has nothing to do with love at all, perhaps "long live love" comes from people's deepest desire; Perhaps "Long Live Love" is the most powerful irony and satire to this real society, and "Long Live Love" may not exist at all. ...
Long live love. With such a loud slogan, Cai Mingliang tried to tell us how brave we should be in the face of loneliness after love is hidden in deep loneliness, and then set out.
Although the film doesn't give us fantasy about love, it just shows us the survival pressure of people living at the bottom of society, as well as the naked desire and abnormal sexual orientation between people. However, in the deepest part of our hearts, we still long for love and the warmth and care between people. Therefore, when the pressure of survival takes everything away from us, we still don't forget to shout "Long live love" in the deepest part of our hearts.
Finally,
Simply put, the emptiness and loneliness of the hero and heroine seeking physical love, the well-off gay love and all kinds of deformed love forms are all because of loneliness. Ashin wants to sing true love, pure love and get rid of this deformed and hopeless love. Boys and girls don't want to be together because of loneliness, but loneliness can be eliminated with love. In the fortress of love, we breathe freely! Falling in love doesn't have to be beautiful, but it must be simple and pure. Love is because of love Although these six words are old-fashioned, many people will never understand or learn them. Only innocence can live forever.