Li Cangdong's "Poetry": a chant after Auschwitz

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Recently I discovered a beloved Korean director, Lee Chang-dong, who is a writer and has outstanding narrative ability and literary temperament like poetry. His works have a strong personal temperament, highly artistic expressions, and pure and profound themes that cannot be summed up in one word. The films he directed before have achieved good results, but some people later questioned the lack of female discourse in his works, because he is accustomed to letting women act as the redeemers and extraditers of men in his works, and overall lacks the independence of soul, richness and richness. Charming female image. After hearing this, director Li Cangdong shut himself up at home for seven days without going out, thinking quietly and re-creating. Later, there was such a classic film with an elderly woman as the protagonist - "Poetry", which even led to a series of Korean films with "elderly women" as the protagonist, all of which focused on elderly women. or complex or unique life experiences, instead of focusing on young girls.

In contrast, when actresses in our country reach a certain age, it can be said that they can hardly get good roles. There are only some mother-in-law and mother-in-law roles left on the market. Our literature and art's exploration of mature women's lives is pale and boring, with zero recognition. Our directors seem to only think that the audience is ignorant and lacks quality. All criticisms are cyber violence and should be stopped, let alone seriously reflect on a small question.

Director Li Cangdong dared to name a movie a poem in a rapidly expanding commercial society. It is courage and character.

Some Douban netizens discovered that the word "poetry" in Korean looks like a person hitting a wall, or like a person dragging a boat forward.

The plot of the film "Poetry" is not as simple as the name. It mainly has two lines, one main line and one sub-line. The main line is in the light and the sub-line is in the dark. The main plot is the story of Yang Meizi learning poetry, learning to compose poetry like Xiangling in the Red Mansion, and going from ignorance to enlightenment. The hidden clue is that Meiko's grandson, together with five classmates, raped a girl from the same school and caused the girl to commit suicide by jumping into a river. Meiko went from being overwhelmed to finally repenting and reporting on her grandson, achieving her own redemption. The two lines run in parallel and are integrated seamlessly, without any trace of mechanical application or forced embedding.

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At the beginning of the film, a group of students were playing by the river. Unexpectedly, a female body emerged from the river. At the same time, Yang Meizi, who was in her sixties, went to the hospital for examination. Physically, she did not know at this time that she had already suffered from Alzheimer's disease, also known as Alzheimer's disease, and her memory and intelligence would gradually decline.

Meiko is a beautiful old man. Although she is over sixty years old, she still loves beauty. Every day when she goes out, she wears a floral skirt, high heels and a beret that are not suitable for her age. She is elegant and gorgeous. Like a butterfly. But she is not an old lady from a wealthy family, she is an old man who is still struggling to make ends meet. Her daughter was divorced and left her grandson in her care. She relied on monthly government relief and income from working as a part-time nanny to maintain her life and take care of her grandson. However, despite the hardships of life, she never gave up the pursuit of beauty. She not only made her appearance pleasing to the eye, but also loved all the beautiful things in life. She also loves poetry very much, which has been Meiko's ideal since she was a student. She longs to be able to write poetry.

Walking out of the hospital door, she encountered the female body in the river in the opening film being pushed to the hospital, and the girl’s mother cried in despair when she saw the body wrapped in white sheets...

Meiko watch When she saw the flyer for the poetry training class, she signed up to participate. She really wanted to learn to write poetry, but she couldn't write. In class, the teacher said that when writing poetry, one should write about the most intuitive feelings at the moment. So Meiko brought a notebook to record the beauty that touched her anytime and anywhere in life. Meiko lives a very mediocre and trivial life, taking care of her rebellious and ignorant grandson every day. When her grandson goes to school, she works as a nanny for an old man who is disabled and has to take care of everything for him, including bathing. private matters. But even in such a life, she can still often find beauty in it, whether she sees flowers or hears water. But in the eyes of outsiders, such an old lady is a little abnormal, even neurotic.

The body of an old man, the feelings of a girl, love of beauty, innocence and simplicity.

One day, a strange man found Meiko and asked her to discuss an important matter. It turned out that the girl who committed suicide by jumping into the river some time ago committed suicide in despair after being raped by six boys in the school. of. Before committing suicide, she wrote down all her secrets in her diary. Now the diary was discovered by the girl's family and they began to negotiate with the school. In order to protect its reputation, the school chose to keep the matter quiet and hoped that the parents of several boys could sit down and discuss a solution. While the men were drinking and drinking, Meiko walked out and saw the beautiful cockscombs outside. She recorded it.

Meiko went to school to visit her grandchildren, and when she saw that they were able to play ball as if nothing had happened, she recorded it again.

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The fathers of the remaining boys believe that Meiko is a woman and women are easier to talk to. It is best for her to take the responsibility of persuading the girl’s mother to accept monetary compensation and settle the matter. . Meiko accepted the commission from several fathers and went to the countryside to find the girl's mother and interview her.

She came to the girl's house, but there was no one in the house. Meiko couldn't help it, so she went to the fields to look for it. However, as she searched, she forgot the purpose of her trip and became intoxicated in the big house. Fascinated by the beauty of nature, he took out his notebook again and recorded the shock to himself from the fruits on the ground. She met a working peasant woman and had a pleasant conversation with her, praising the scenery of the countryside and the sweetness of the fruits. Meiko didn't know that the peasant woman in front of her was the girl's mother. While talking, Meiko forgot the purpose of her trip, and her journey of atonement turned into a journey of seeking beauty.

At the girl's house, Meiko stole a photo frame of the girl and put the photo frame on the dining table when she came back. However, her grandson looked at it and was still indifferent. After Meiko came out of the girl's home, she walked the girl's path again, walked through her school, and walked across the river where she committed suicide. At the home of the old man who hired her, one day, the old man asked her to feed him in an unusual way. She took aphrodisiacs and made a sexual request to her, but Meiko sternly rejected her. She felt very sick and fled quickly, never to go again. But this time, Meiko unexpectedly came to the old man's home again, and took the initiative to feed him an aphrodisiac, and helped him take a bath as usual. In the bathtub, for some unknown reason, Meiko took the initiative to sacrifice herself for a dying and disabled old man. Gave him sex. This must be the same humiliation for her, or as the girl.

The fathers finally met the girl’s mother as they wished and agreed on the price of compensation. Meiko needed to compensate five million, but she didn’t have it, so she chose to see the old man and asked him not to ask for reasons to lend her money. . The old man was dissatisfied with the idea that Meiko had used the previous incident to extort money, but Meiko finally got a loan to pay compensation.

Meiko walked the path of a girl again. In her home and school, she even experienced the same humiliation as she did. She seemed to have an epiphany about the meaning of the poem. Meiko finally reported her grandson to the police. On a quiet night, the police came and took her grandson away. Before her grandson was taken away, Meiko trimmed his nails carefully and told him that his body should be as clean as his soul. Meiko finally wrote a poem and put it on the podium of the poetry class. It was a confession poem to the girl. The writing was poor, but the feelings were sincere. She didn't come to class, she came to the bridge where the girl jumped into the river and wandered. Open ending...

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Many people will say after watching this movie that Meiko is an old literary young woman. She may not have much culture, but she is extremely persistent in her yearning. Beauty, she still wears unfashionable skirts and high-heeled shoes after she is over 60 years old. She is still in the mood to learn and write poetry despite aging and Alzheimer's disease. With an indescribable dislike, with a general disdain for literary youth. She is as out of place as the floral dress she wears. She is the scenery and a silent Buddha.

The film "Poetry" adopts an embedded narrative mode, with small stories embedded in big stories. The short story inside is that Meiko learned about her grandson's crime, and after all kinds of struggles, she still exposed him.

The big construction, the big proposition and the real core story outside are that Meiko has always been chasing the poetry and beauty she longed for in her girlhood. She wanted to learn to write poetry, but she couldn't get it. However, she experienced the entanglement in worldly dilemmas and crimes. After struggling, she suddenly realized the true meaning of beauty, and finally wrote a good and sincere poem.

Meiko’s study of poetry is also a process of finding herself. When she was just starting out, she desperately wanted to write a poem, but she couldn't. When she sees flowers, apricots, and rushing rivers, she always has reverie. This is a normal reaction of a delicate-minded person to the objective beauty in life. She recorded the shock to the soul caused by the beautiful scenery, but she could never turn it into a poem.

Until she tried to walk through the girl's life personally, and even experienced the humiliation she had suffered. Her illness made her forgetful and dull, but her naturally sensitive heart and compassionate feelings still made her repent in front of life, and then she had a profound enlightenment and understood the true meaning of poetry.

Beauty exists objectively, but beauty does not mean that you can bypass crime and punishment and compose poetry and painting alone. Meiko was slow and neurotic due to illness, but she finally found that she could not bypass the guilt in her heart. , regret and sin, but simply to express emotions, appreciate beauty and create beauty.

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In the Chinese literary tradition, what is poetry? "Poetry expresses ambition", "Poetry expresses ambition in the heart, and speech becomes poetry", "Three hundred poems can be summed up in one sentence, saying that thoughts are innocent", "Poetry is related to emotion and is exquisite". Obviously, our tradition agrees that poetry should originate from everyone's true inner feelings. We all know that writing poetry depends on true feelings, but often the deep feelings are always speechless. Just like Zhuangzi's theoretical point of view: "If you fail to express your meaning, you will forget your words if you are satisfied." Meiko is full of emotions about life and poetic. She pursues beauty persistently like a girl and is innocent and compassionate, but she cannot write poetry. A good poem comes from the true feelings in the heart and must be sincere. Since it wants to be true, it must face the truth of life, face the unbearable and regrets honestly, repent bravely, and maintain the original intention.

Adorno once said: "After Auschwitz, poetry is barbaric." This means that when you have experienced Auschwitz and the concentration camp, you can no longer use pure Lyrically, writing poetry from a purely aesthetic perspective. Similarly, after Miko experienced her grandson's sins, she could no longer look at the beautiful world with an aesthetic attitude.

This is the most ambiguous despair in the world for Meizi, who is rich in spiritual beauty.