Cruel youth, a concern
Dayu
At the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, which ended in early March, a work that was not "amazing" from the plot to the lineup stood out and won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear Award, which is also its director Eliza Hitman ( Eliza Hittman), after being nominated for the 2017 Locarno International Film Festival, has once again entered the international A-type film festival and won the award by virtue of the youth film that has always been dedicated. This "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" film composed of four adverbs in parallel is difficult to remember for a time, and there is also the suspicion of fiddle with the text, but after watching the movie, I have to admit, That's how straightforward and powerful. Straightforward, because these four words are the word combination sequence with the highest repetition rate of the female lead in the whole film. Powerful, because every word you choose to use is a degree, and after each degree, it will make people match her turning points in life.
The 17-year-old girl Ocho Callahan, who lives in a small town in Pennsylvania, USA, has an independent personality. She went to the clinic alone after being unwell for many days and was told she was pregnant. After taking medication, beating the abdomen, and other attempts to spontaneously abort, the family, accompanied by cousin Skyley, went to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York for surgery. The film recounts the unknown interstate journey between the two girls.
Two songs of Ochiu
At the beginning of the movie, at the student party, Ouqiu sang expressionlessly with his guitar on his back: "He forced me to do things I didn't want to do ... But he always gave up because I loved him. I couldn't help but listen to him." Fixed on her face. The close-up shot on the page conveys the adolescent girl ’s ignorant and confused feelings about love. As she sings in her song, it is painful and resisting, but she ca n’t break free, which is also buried in her life after a little bit of life. Foreshadowing.
At the end of the film, Ou Qiu and his cousin and the boy they met on the road sang on KTV. At this time, Ou Qiu had completed the preparations before the operation, and the next day he would remove the big stone in his heart. She sang: "Your heart may be broken tonight, but tomorrow morning will be warm." Compared to the confusion and helplessness at the beginning of the opening chapter, Ou Qiu and cousin felt a kind of life in the past when the two were sadly about to end New hope never seen before. This hope comes from coexisting with the cousin all the way through the muddy warmth of life, but also from the frank acceptance of his life experience and making difficult decisions.
Four degree adverbs
"Never, rarely, sometimes, always" These four words at first glance are full of charm of literary temperament, but for Ou Qiu, it is an index that reveals her life experience, but also a few from beginning to end. The girl who showed the emotional fluctuation completely defeated the weapon. Ou Qiu in the film even pretended to be calm when he first learned that he was pregnant. Even without anesthesia, no tears were shed when he used a paperclip to pierce his nose through his nose. But when accepting the staff ’s routine question before the operation, the four options given to the other party ’s question were “never, rarely, sometimes, always”, when their answer changed from “never” a little bit When "always", the cold girl who had never responded to any humiliation in school, family or working supermarket can no longer be as hard as she was, from hesitant silence to tears, and finally she held tightly Hand of social worker. Corresponding to these options are a series of private personal safety issues about sexual history and victimization history, such as "have you been forced" and "have you been subjected to violence"? The movie did not arrange for Ou Qiu ’s emotions to blew away from here, nor did he continue to unfold, to portray the existence of this violent man behind Ou Qiu, and did not reproduce the “tragedy” in our experience. Through a few questions and answers, Ou Qiu ’s experience behind him can be easily related to the audience, and "Who is the perpetrator? Why is the violence?" Seems to no longer be the focus of attention, it reminds us There is not only one Auqiu, and there is not only one perpetrator. These multiple-choice questions are asked by every woman who walks into this rescue alliance, and among them, perhaps not only Aoqiu will choose "always." This is the climax of the whole story and the most successful narrative of the screenwriter (and director).
Opposing men
Although the "father of the child" does not appear in the film, this abuser who is easy to cause resentment, the male characters that appear intentionally in several films seem to be the opposite of Oqiu and even the entire female group without exception. .
Male students of the same age as Aoqiu will humiliate her through filthy words or actions; Aoqiu ’s father, who needs a wife ’s care in his life like a giant baby, is also an expert on language violence at home, and he has no love and respect for his wife and daughter. In the working supermarket, the middle-aged male customer who checked out was a greasy man who talked to his cousin; the supermarket manager was a sloppy man who would take advantage of the oil when he checked out at the checkout; a well-dressed exposed male passenger appeared on the night shift subway in New York; The boys of the same age who met by chance on the bus looked sunny and enthusiastic, but when they finally agreed to lend them money, they did not forget to take advantage of their beautiful cousins. Although these male figures are not difficult to find a match in real life, all of them appear in the network of Ouqiu's fixed life circle and maneuvering journey, which is deliberately suspected. It is hard to say whether this is the male world in the eyes of the protagonist Ou Qiu, or the male world in the eyes of Hitman as a female director, but fortunately these men are more of a solidified symbol, and do not directly participate in and influence the narrative itself, otherwise in Once feminism is over-grafted in a youth movie, it's hard not to be criticized.
Warm moment
Cousin Skyley is kind and beautiful. After learning that Ochou ’s decision to go to New York, he took the risk and stole money from the accounts on the day of the supermarket ’s work to support him. In this cross-state journey, she also took the hard work of dragging the suitcase all the way, making her relax and cute as Oqiu changed magic before surgery. Even so, under the tremendous psychological pressure of being shy and hungry in the bag, staying at the overnight station, and being in a strange metropolis full of potential dangers, the two close sisters who were clever in the past inevitably had a verbal dispute. Leave. But they did not go far from each other. Aoqiu found Skelly who was wearing makeup in the desert of the station, and she did not forget that Smelly was putting on makeup. She looked speechless and didn't have an extra line. Skelly took Aoqiu's lips and carefully applied her lip gloss. The two are reconciled as before, and the moment of smearing is the easiest and most effective way to bridge the beauty of adolescent girls.
In order to make up for the expenses for returning home, Skyley reluctantly went out with the boy he met on the road to get money for a long time, and Ouqiu took to the streets. Eventually, he saw on the platform that he was being kissed, but he did not resist because he wanted to borrow money. Skylare silently extended her little finger, bypassing the circular column on which Skylare was leaning, and tightly hooked her finger, giving her the promise of "I am here to accompany you". Even the closest girlfriends inevitably have quarrels. If you hate it at that time, it will turn into a warm moment of interdependence at this time. These casual essays give the slightly cold story a proper warmth, and this is also the most memorable moment in the cruel youth story.
Like most female directors, Hitman naturally has delicate emotional tentacles, but the commendable value lies in the coldness and temperance above its sensitivity, which makes the film sad and not sad in terms of emotional expression, and can also show the flower of hope in despair. Compared with single chaos, struggle, disappointment, and barrenness, this is more in line with the essence of youth-break free in the swamp of the dark night, and occasionally can also look up and see the warm morning light. In the processing of mirror language, there is not too much carving and decoration, and some places are even "inattentive", which creates the authenticity of semi-documentary films, and is more in line with the natural and rough nature of youth-themed movies. The stories told in the play may be happening around us every day; the unexpected sinking in youth has no country and gender, and it is everywhere-this time, there is a cold and warm concern, it is called "Never, rarely, sometimes, always."