Old friend of mountains and rivers

I watched Jia Zhangke’s movie "Old Friends in Mountains and Rivers" yesterday.

This is a literary film that tells the story of three friends in their youth, young people from a small town in Fenyang, Shanxi, who could also be said to be the object of a love triangle. The film unfolds the life story of these three people.

A man named Liangzi left his hometown and went to Handan to continue working as a coal miner. In his thirties, he contracted cancer and returned to his hometown with his wife and children in desolation. He must have been looking for a chance to return to his roots. I think that he was once in his prime, vigorous as a scholar, with full vitality and natural pride unique to young people. However, because Shen Tao left him to marry Jinsheng, he ran away to make a living in a foreign country in anger. The hardships of life withered away his brilliance. There was no trace of anger on the vicissitudes of life's face, only the energy that he had mustered up, silently describing his fate that was half struggle and half acceptance.

A man named Jinsheng, a local coal boss, married Shen Tao as he wished, and had a son after the marriage, named Daole, which is homophonic to the meaning of dollar. After this Jin was born, he went to Shanghai to work as a venture capital investor, divorced Shen Tao, and lived in Shanghai with his son. The ending is that he and his son immigrated to Australia and settled in a large house with sea view in Melbourne. Both myself and my son are mentally confused and have no spiritual destination. They are both soulless people.

Shen Tao has been living alone since his divorce. He stayed in his hometown town and lived according to his own wishes. She seemed to be going blind as she got older. On a snowy day, she led her dog alone, put on the VCR and went to the wilderness where they used to play together to dance to the music. She seemed to be intoxicated again. In the romantic memory of youth. . . It's still the same song from back then. I close my eyes and dance to the music. The white snow is scattered and scattered all over the sky. . .

What are the fates of young men and women in small towns? To go or to stay? Go to the bigger world? Where is the soul? Following in your footsteps?