Silent sunny afternoon: the topic of life and death from the perspective of warm literature

I didn't know there was such a special documentary until I overheard Christine writing the theme song of the same name for the movie Silent Sunshine Afternoon.

After some understanding, I found the movie resources in my heart, but I was surprised after watching it.

At the beginning of the film, Lin is talking with his daughter about his wife's upcoming whereabouts.

The daughter said hesitantly, "I don't really want to put her there."

Father is asking, "Did Mom tell you where she is now?"

The daughter thought for a moment and said, "It should be a good place."

My father said, "I want to say that my mother is fine."

The daughter finally began to have some doubts, and then turned to affirmation: "It should be, right? Yes. "

Yes, my mother is going to leave her body and go to a good place.

Father and daughter often chat, but they don't see too much heaviness, sadness, and even some carelessness, as if talking about the destination that the hostess at home is going to travel.

As early as more than ten years ago, swimming coach Lin and his wife E signed a donation book. After the death of his wife 20 12, Lin donated her body to the Medical College of Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan as a "general teacher" according to her wishes.

When the remains are sent to the medical college, they should be embalmed first, then stored, and then dissected when conditions are ripe.

During the storage period, Lin will drive more than 250 kilometers from Chiayi to Taipei to visit his wife E every one or two months.

Even in the freezer, he always touches his wife's head through the storage bag and gently calls her "wife" over and over again. Tell her about the trivial things at home: things about sons and daughters, things about yourself, and other things. ......

He seems to be used to talking to his wife like this, and he is also used to his wife's existence as a "general".

This is not an ordinary documentary, it makes the audience understand for the first time that they can still stare at life from this perspective.

There are two versions of Silent Sunshine Afternoon.

The short film was 15 minutes long, and won the best international potential award of CCDF4 and ASD special recommendation award in 20 13, and the second place in the documentary award of New Taipei City in 20 14.

On March 24th, 20 17, a 73-minute feature film was released in Taiwan Province province, with a douban score of 8.3.

This documentary aims to lead the audience to stare at death and think deeply about the meaning of life from the perspective of family members and medical students of anatomy class.

The thought-provoking life story in the film once made it into the largest Canadian International Documentary Film Festival (Hot Docs) in North America.

The film has changed the audience's impression of narrative documentary, which is straightforward, serious and even cold, with a large number of aesthetic perspectives and perfect composition, warm colors with high saturation, and even soothing ethereal background music. These elements will make the audience have the illusion of watching a Taiwan Province provincial-level literary film at some moment, and also feel that the director seems to be deliberately weakening the topic of "life and death" and the sadness caused by death.

Some people say that this is a documentary about farewell, while others say that it is a documentary about promoting the donation of remains.

Not really.

The origin of filming is that when Taiwan Province AIDA TV Station was planning the Taiqing, the TV station gave several topics, one of which was "The Story of the General's Teacher".

Originally, many people just thought that the average teacher was the "teacher" who taught anatomy, but they didn't know that the "average teacher" was actually a corpse, lying there teaching students with his own body.

Perhaps because China people are influenced by traditional ideas, there are very few people in society who are willing to donate their bodies for teaching after death. Therefore, there is a serious shortage of teachers in medical school teaching.

Chen found this topic very attractive, so he began to investigate in Tzu Chi Medical College and found the interviewees. But later, because Tzu Chi decided to shoot it himself, the cooperation between the two sides ended in failure.

However, Chen studied deeply for a long time and thought it would be a pity to give up, so he decided to continue filming, so he called the medical school to ask. Finally, Lin, the protagonist in the documentary, was found through the medical school of Fu Jen Catholic University, and was followed up for a long time, which profoundly explained the mental journey and outlook on life of Mr. Lin's family who donated the remains.

Although the film is a heavy topic about life and death, it uses the artistic expression of literary films to show "warmth" as much as possible.

From the scene of feeding stray dogs at the beginning of the film, it can be seen that Lin must be a caring and warm person, but when his wife was alive, she took care of the housework and took care of the children, while he was too busy with work and secular affairs to communicate with her. After her death, his life suddenly changed, and then he realized that there were still many things he hadn't told her.

For more than two years, the pain caused by his wife's departure seems to have subsided. In front of the camera, he talked and laughed with his friends, and even laughed at his friends for teasing his wife as a general education. But the close-up reveals the micro-expression on his face after he smiled, and still reveals his inner bitterness.

As my daughter Lin Yingru said when she recalled her mother, there was a great shock after she left, that is, she had to get used to life without her, and suddenly found that our life had been taken care of so well that it was gone after she left.

Because the whole family was very busy on the day mom left, no one was sad. It was not until the body was sent to Duff Medical College that life calmed down and there was no one at home. Suddenly, I felt very lost, only to find that I had a lot to say to my mother.

The funeral, which was postponed because the whole journey was not completed, made the family feel as if something had not been completed, but Lin seemed to adapt to the current living conditions temporarily.

The daughter has some resentment towards her father, so she is not very grateful for many of her father's practices. She and her brother and father are at home at ordinary times, which is incredible to outsiders. They never eat together at ordinary times, they are busy under one roof, and there is not much language exchange.

My daughter has something to discuss with her father, but she will express it in words.

However, with the end of the mother's corpse storage period and the opening of the anatomy class of the head teacher, Lin's family began to think about where the end of life was. What do you mean "alive"? A series of problems, such as Mrs. Lin's departure and becoming the head teacher, have actually contributed to the easing of the relationship between father and daughter.

Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan is an Pontifical Catholic University founded by the Roman Catholic Church and directly under the Vatican Ministry of Education.

The unique Catholic background of this university makes the donation of the "head teacher" more sacred, and every step of the whole process strictly follows the Catholic ceremony, so that the audience can perceive the piety and respect for life of these beneficiary groups in medical college through the lens.

Nearly a quarter of people in Taiwan Province Province believe in Buddhism, and Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifice is very grand in Taiwan Province Province. On this day, the church staff of the medical college will pray for the general teacher and some dead animals.

They said: "This is the part where we think we can use faith to integrate with some ideas of ordinary people." .

So the camera will see the church staff and ordinary believers singing hymns with crosses. There is a cross on the desktop, with a statue of Jesus and a tribute from traditional Buddhism, and even a burning incense candle next to it. There seems to be no sense of disobedience in this shot.

Similarly, the grand ceremony before dissecting the "General" was also in the ritual atmosphere of Catholicism, and the whole process of incense burning and worship was completed.

The essence of Catholicism is a kind of "great love", which is "self-sacrifice and dedication, so that human beings can get rid of suffering and sin and gain eternal life". What the "head teacher" has achieved is such a "great love" in line with Catholic teachings.

This collision of eastern and western cultural beliefs has completed the integration and unification in Great Love.

"Master General" needs a grand ceremony before anatomy, so the anatomy teacher began to give ideological education and guidance to students before anatomy class long ago. She teaches students how to communicate with the family members of the "Master General" so as to understand their mental journey and what kind of person the "Master General" was before his death, thus making such dedication.

The purpose is to let the students know that what you want to dissect is not just a cold corpse, but a living person. Give your body as a teaching aid to them and let the students know the value of life. Otherwise, even on the dissection table, it is "no different from pork in the vegetable cutting market".

This is Chen's thinking at the beginning of filming this film: "People usually live to make a little contribution to the world, and the teacher died before he started to exert influence. It's amazing." These medical students don't know the general practice teacher, but according to the regulations, students must visit the family of the general practice teacher in the summer vacation before the anatomy class. So when the general practice teacher becomes the family of someone you know, what kind of mentality will you use to see him? This is just in line with my thinking about the relationship between doctors and patients. "

Thus, the meaning of education has changed from the pursuit of knowledge to the awe of life. The "general practice teacher" under the scalpel is no longer just a cold corpse, but an acquaintance friend or a relative of a friend's family, which stimulates students to think about the "doctor-patient relationship" in their future work.

As the closest person to the general teacher except medical students, going deep into the anatomy class of medical college is a life education with great impact for photographers. When shooting, they found a cabinet in the corner of the autopsy room, which was filled with various tools, including electric drills, saws and hammers. .......

"I didn't really see it. It's hard to believe that five or six young people tried their best to saw a skull. They have to cut their bodies very hard and look like car mechanics. "

"Standing next to the dissection table, the biggest shock is to see a dead man lying on the dissection table, which is easily manipulated by many people." They sincerely lamented: "It turns out that life can only be like this in the end, but this is already the ultimate influence that this body can exert."

After making this film, Chen's outlook on life has changed a lot. He said frankly: "When facing setbacks, you will feel that life is so bitter. When you are relaxed, you will think, how can life be more profound?"

Details determine success or failure, which is fully reflected in this film.

There are no classic pictures or shocking shots. This movie just experienced one thing with Lin's family. However, many details support the whole movie.

About the title:

The title of Silent Sunshine Afternoon is the summer when Chen went to Fu Jen Catholic University for an investigation. Every Monday afternoon, the Department of Medicine has an anatomy class. Every time I pass by the China-US Hall in front of the medical college, I can see that the sunshine on the whole campus falls in a quiet atmosphere, which is similar to the classroom atmosphere of anatomy class. At that time, he thought it was great, so he later named the film Silent Sunny Afternoon.

The English name seems to be more appropriate, "The Silent Teacher", translated into Chinese-A Silent Teacher.

About language:

Taiwan dialect sounds very slow, with an indisputable sense of softness, occasionally mixed with some Minnan dialects, including Lin, including Lin Yuru, including anatomy teachers and medical college students, giving the audience the feeling that the opposite person is telling you a story about life in detail with the experience of Ta.

Even on the topic related to "death", the whole film can't hear any words like "death", "death" and "death", instead of using the Buddhist term "death" to simply "death".

It seems that the depression brought by "death" has been eased circuitously and replaced by people's longing for "the afterlife".

About montages and close-ups:

Celebration scenes with traditional elements of China, including incense, tributes and various Catholic elements and ceremonies mixed together.

The place where weeds sway, the dusk when birds fly, the rain on the window glass, the blue sky by the sea. ...

These shots interspersed in the whole story let the audience see the quietness of the years, as if time is slowly flowing, and suddenly forget the sadness of the story itself at a certain moment.

The montage in the film can always arouse the audience's infinite reverie through the quick cut of the lens, and inadvertently enhance the appeal of the film.

The day before Mrs. Lin's body was about to be dissected, Lin, who had always been optimistic and humorous, finally burst into tears. Echoing his tears, it was the water drops in the storage bag of Mrs. Lin's body, which aroused the audience's infinite emotional resonance.

After the autopsy of "General" was completed, the silk thread on the gauze-wrapped corpse floated in front of the vague background, which inevitably made the audience feel a little sad about the fate of "General".

About people:

The detailed handling of characters in the film is also an important element to express emotions.

For example, the lyrics of the song that Lin and his friends sang in KTV: "Love, I really love you, please help us get together as soon as possible." This is a true portrayal of Lin's heart.

In the film, there is a shot of Yu Xu's face on the top view of the general dissection table. You can see that the face has collapsed and the skin has turned gray. The realism of "a face with no blood" makes people feel a little shaky.

Just like the director's original intention of shooting this shot: it's hard to see a person being dismembered like this. I know her face will be dissected eventually, so I want to keep her intact for the last time, because I have interviewed her family for a long time and heard many stories about her. Although I haven't spoken to her, it seems that she is my friend. So, the only thing I can do for her is to keep his face intact in the film.

During gross dissection, a burst of students' laughter broke out in the autopsy room. Many people think that this is the director's original intention, which makes the audience have some doubts: on the one hand, they think that this may reflect some people's attitude towards anatomy, on the other hand, they think that students need some emotional adjustment and don't have to keep a serious attitude all the time under the depressing work of dissecting the human body.

Not many people can quickly get out of the shadow of the death of their loved ones in a short time, and the sun is still shining every day.

Even if it is the last wish of the deceased relatives, even if the consent form has been signed, many people will regret it at the moment when the body of their relatives is about to become the "head teacher".

Because I don't give up, because I can't get past my heart.

Even the anatomy teacher in the film frankly spoke his inner thoughts in front of the camera. Before her death, her father asked her to be a "head teacher" in her college. She said to her father, "I can't help it. Your daughter is not that great." "I've been a teacher for so long, but I'm still sad to see the head teacher. If my father wants to be a general teacher under the students I teach, I will still touch it, so there is no way.

When her mother brought up the same topic with her, she tried to avoid it.

This question is very realistic and cruel. Basically, everyone can't get through the hurdle in their hearts. Their loved ones are gone, and the lives of the living have to go on. They can't live while thinking about sending the bodies of their loved ones to the autopsy table of medical college.

Talking about his family, Chen said, "I found that I can't do it either! I just know that it is really difficult for people to let go when they are not really facing death, so when I was filming Mr. Lin Huizong, I was worried about whether he and his family really let go. "

In 20 17, there was a short film "Teacher General" with the same theme.

This 15-minute film tells the story of an ordinary family in Jiading District, Shanghai. An old mother is seriously ill and plans to donate her body after her death. The eldest son thinks that the wishes of the old mother should be respected, but the second son disagrees. My daughter is a doctor and is in a dilemma. Volunteers walked back and forth with the agreement several times. It is not clear how to solve it in the film, but the answer may be in the conversation between granddaughter and her mother: "Grandma is so brave." No matter how old the child is, the old mother still takes the lead for herself and makes the final disposal for her body.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, Magic King's grandmother, who was concerned by many netizens, also left. Magic King's mother became the first family member to donate a patient's body after her grandmother died. It is because of this first one that the second and third appeared. Until April 5, there were 28 body donors in Huoshenshan Hospital. These donors, because they have suffered the loss of their loved ones, don't want others to be like them.

Magic King once said that after the donation, her mother's heart was also intertwined with guilt, pain and relief.

But it is precisely because of these selfless general practitioners, family members and medical researchers that the speculation of many cases has been confirmed, the use of artificial lungs has been promoted, and the skills and methods of intubation have been improved. It is in this way that the seventh edition of novel coronavirus's Diagnosis and Treatment Plan for Infected Pneumonia was created, which effectively controlled the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

According to the survey data, only 56.29% netizens are willing to donate their bodies or organs according to their relatives' wishes, and 4 1.2% netizens think that the deep-rooted traditional cultural concept is the main reason to prevent people from donating their bodies or organs.

Perhaps, it is because of all this that Chen made this film at that time:

"I want to borrow this movie to talk about what is really alive? Is a living body with breathing, heartbeat and pulse really alive?

The continuation of life depends not on breathing and blood, but on spirit and influence.

Should doctors thank patients for their experiences and patients for their contributions to society?

Death is a problem that everyone will encounter. In the face of death, everyone is at a loss

I also hope that the audience can think about the right to use their bodies when they are still very rational, and tell all the people around them who care about themselves to make the most correct decision. "

Silent Sunshine Afternoon is such a documentary, which can make people rethink: how to treat "life" and how to understand "death".

The picture came from the network and has been deleted.