If you have money, you will immigrate to Douban.

Shunji Iwai, born in 1963, graduated from Yokohama National University with profound artistic accomplishment. In the "Japanese New Film Movement" in 1990s, 1995 released a simple, pure, affectionate and beautiful love letter, which caused an unprecedented sensation.

In people's eyes, Shunji Iwai is a director who is good at creating beautiful and pure love stories, such as the well-known Love Letter and Everything in Zhou Lili.

However, one of his works has a completely different style, that is, 1996' s high-scoring work Swallowtail Butterfly.

Swallowtail butterfly is the mother of movies, but it is warmer and more poetic than the movie version.

Its whole story structure is grand and dark, revealing the human portrayal of marginal characters everywhere. Next, let's walk into this swallowtail butterfly and experience the complicated real world in the book.

1, story background

When the Japanese yen was the most powerful currency in the world, Japan was full of immigrants. It's like the gold rush. They came here for gold. Try every means to make money.

Immigrants call this city "Yan Town". But the Japanese hate this name and call these immigrants "YENTOWNS" (thieves).

Although somewhat puzzling, "YENTOWN" refers to both the city and these immigrants.

If you work hard to make money and save a pocket full of Japanese yen, you will become rich when you get home.

It sounds like a myth, but it is really a paradise for money.

Here is the story of a thief in Beijing.

2. Take a quick look at this story

The police found a female body in a reed field and asked her former employer to identify the body. The employer came to the police station with a group of women.

Although several people cried sadly, they refused to acknowledge the dead.

Then, they put flowers and paper money on the dead and lit them, and inserted cigarettes into the rice.

The police were startled and stopped them in a hurry. The police saw that the girl with the flowers was different from them and speculated that she might be the daughter of the deceased. The girl hesitated and answered no.

After coming out of the police station, the fat woman who cried the most sadly took the girl's hand and said that this was a funeral for her mother. After all, it is very expensive to hold a funeral in Japan, but it doesn't matter. Her mother must have gone to heaven.

It turned out that the girl's mother invaded other people's territory while selling contraband, and as a result, she was targeted by a mafia gang called "Shanghai Gang", which led to this fatal disaster. Now leaving a daughter unattended, the fat woman took out some money and wanted others to help her get rid of the girl.

After several sales promotions, the girl fell into the hands of Guliguo.

Gu is a prostitute. She sold the girl to a custom shop and gave her a dollar. She told the girl that everyone wanted to survive on their own.

When she left, Gu found the girls in this shop injecting each other with contraband. She changed her mind temporarily and took the girl away on the grounds that the price was too low.

Gu's brother died in a car accident, but no one claimed him because he had no nationality and identity. She was afraid that she would die like this, so she tattooed a butterfly on her chest. Even if it is dead, it can also be used as a feature.

In Japan, people usually call this butterfly "Yajia".

Gu drew a caterpillar on the girl's chest, saying that when she grew up, it would become a butterfly. She also gave the girl a name: Yajia. Got her a temporary job in Hong Fei.

Helang is a pair of thieves. They open a second-hand shop called Qingkong. They usually make a living by picking up rubbish and destroying cars.

The "thieves" in "Blue Sky" collect garbage and dig for treasures together, and sing bonfires together.

One night, a John came to Gu Liguo's residence and accidentally found Yajia. Gu Liguo didn't want him to hurt his sister, so he took the opportunity to call Arrow, the boxer who lives next door. Arrow accidentally killed the client.

After manslaughter, the "empty" people helped Gu Guo Li bury him together. Just then, Lang dug out a tape in the entrails of the client, which contained information about the gang that made counterfeit money. When it was found that the tape could be exchanged for 10000 yen, everyone else was ecstatic. Except Lang, he didn't take a lot of money, but returned to the "blue sky" alone.

And his companions: Arrow, Guliguo, Hong Fei and Yajia waved goodbye in an old truck full of money and hope.

The rich man and Gu opened a club in the city. Slowly, the club became popular because of Gu's excellent voice, and she also signed a contract with the company.

However, the people of the record company regarded Hong Fei as an obstacle to the development of Guliguo, and sent him to the police station in the name of illegal entry, so the club was temporarily dissolved.

Yajia takes her love lunch to the police station to see Hong Fei every day. Every day before going out, she dresses up in front of the mirror. However, when she met Hong Fei, she never mentioned how she was doing. Hong Fei is just more concerned about Guli.

One day, Yajia tried the contraband found by her friend. After a needle went down, she fainted. A friend hijacked a car in the middle of the road, but I didn't expect the owner to be Liang Kui, the boss of the "Shanghai Gang" looking for tape. Liang Kui sent Yajia to a doctor in Ma Street.

In a coma, Yajia let out a cry that was ga zi ng. At this time, the poster of Guliguo was also hung on the wall of the doctor's house. Liang Kui discovered that Guliguo was his long-lost sister, so he felt: At that time, he and his younger brother and sister Guliguo came to Beidu, bent on making money before going home. I didn't expect my brother to die suddenly and my sister didn't know where to go.

Hong Fei was about to be sent back to Shanghai, but he was acquitted because he had no money to buy a plane ticket. When he rushed down the street in ecstasy, he almost froze when he saw a poster rising in the air.

People from the record company found Hong Fei, demanding to sever the relationship with Guliguo completely, and offered 100w, and Hong Fei agreed. When the band members of the club beat him up and told him that he had betrayed Guliguo for 654.38+0 million, he said it was a business with Guliguo. His friend threw money in his face and called him a thief.

Yajia decided to get a tattoo and turn the caterpillar into a butterfly. Before she went to the doctor who saved him, she asked the doctor to stab her with the same butterfly on her chest. Taking out the only 3000 yuan she had, the doctor agreed but returned 2000 yuan. The doctor said, "Taking tattoos as a part of your body will change your personality and your destiny."

The gangsters have targeted Guliguo, and Hu Mao, a subordinate of Liang Kui, led the crowd to attack Guliguo's car.

Gu Guoli escaped from danger and called Hong Fei on the way, saying that if he died, he would never see him again.

Hong Fei asked Guliguo to take refuge in the blue sky. He robbed a taxi to go to the rescue, but because of a moment of confusion, he wanted to give the driver money and returned to the ATM. Unexpectedly, he was caught by the police when he took the money.

The police saw the "counterfeit money" used to exchange 1 10,000 yen from Hong Fei, and beat him several times in a row to make him admit that he was an accomplice.

Guliguo came to the "blue sky" and asked Lang to hand over the tape. Lang knew that even so, the gang would not let them go, so he took out his gun and killed several minions.

Hu Mao knew that Lang was a master in front of him and became very excited, so he suggested that they should fight one on one. After that, he rushed out and the "Shanghai Gang" was wiped out.

That night, Hong Fei, who was tortured by the police and covered in blood, leaned on the bed and couldn't move. He recalled what he saw in the street. That is a poster of Guliguo, with a butterfly painted on it.

The next morning, Hong Fei died in prison. After Hong Fei's death, Yajia and Gu Liguo returned to the "blue sky". Yajia showed Guliguo a tattoo, a baby butterfly. Gu Liguo didn't expect Yajia to be like this and felt very happy. At this time, Lang lit an abandoned car and sent it away. The members who emptied the junk station threw bundles of money into the fire.

Finally, Liang Kui met Yajia, who gave the tape to Liang Kui in return for saving his life. Liang Kui asked, what is this? Yajia replied, "My way, don't you know my way?".

"What's your name?"

"Yajia"

"Yajia?"

"Gu gave me the name, you know, prostitute Gu"

3. read it.

The first half of Shunji Iwai's works is often boring, but he will leave the emotion and suspense of the whole book to the end, so his works will be slow, which requires the patience of readers.

Although the story is fictional, it is written according to the real historical background.

In the middle and late 1980s, before the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, the average wage in Japan was a huge sum compared with other countries, so that at that time, it was rumored that some people were engaged in carrying corpses in Japan and made a lot of money. Or, someone who lives in Japan sells household appliances in a garbage dump and makes a fortune.

Japan has also become a good place for people to make money. Furthermore, people call Japan the Silver Capital, which is the Bodu in the book.

Thieves are people who came to Japan from abroad to work and earn money during this period. The influx of a large number of foreigners from all walks of life aroused the resentment of the Japanese, and the underworld organizations they formed made the local people feel scared, so they introduced the word "silver thief" to express the Japanese dissatisfaction with the foreign population. This is the era mentioned in the book.

In the book, Hong Fei expects Gu Liguo to achieve worldly success, become a singer, and even give up her love. Gu Liguo has achieved success in the secular sense, but he is not happy; Yajia thought at first that money could buy back the life she pursued, but Hong Fei's death made her realize that even with so much money, the most precious things could not be bought back.

So they burned the money together, sacrificed it to Hong Fei, and found their identity in the repair station of the Qing-Ba Du people.

Money can't really bring happiness, but keeping a kind and simple heart makes them feel safe.

Interestingly, Shunji Iwai did not simply regard goodness and beauty as the antidote to everything. Even Liang Kui is not a real villain, but a member of the protagonist.

So, as the book says, even with those beautiful qualities, the complexity of life can't guarantee that everyone will meet beautiful things.

For the unknown, Yajia, who has already turned into a butterfly, has been psychologically prepared, and she still chooses to be kind. This can't solve all the problems, but after all, they think it's right.

The swallowtail butterfly in the article is obviously moral, symbolizing the yearning for freedom, even the hope of everything left in people's hearts in the most miserable and desperate life. And this moral runs through the book.

The ending of the characters is open. Readers don't know what Yajia, Guliguo, Liang Kui and Lang will do next, only that life is still going on and people are still running around. This kind of open ending processing is to extend the story to the audience's life and let the readers find the answers themselves.

At the end, Yajia mentioned "prostitute Guliguo", who is neither a singer nor a girl, because she understands that even prostitutes can be butterflies and there is hope.

It is easy to lose hope in a difficult environment. I feel unworthy of pursuing my dreams, owning butterflies, and often unwilling to admit my identity. But after this long experience, Yajia finally recognized herself and the group to which she belongs.