Tears! This is a true documentary: when a family of ten is expecting him to die ...

Nine years ago, a documentary called The Sound of Cowbells was released in South Korea.

It told a story about the mutual companionship between an 8-year-old man and an ox who had been with him for 4 years.

Chung-Ryoul Lee, the director, spent three years following the film and made it into a 79-minute documentary.

As soon as it was released, its reputation exploded.

The shooting cost of 2 million RMB, however, reached 3 million viewers and 12 million RMB at the box office, and won many awards, making it the most successful documentary in Korean history.

At the beginning of the film, an old couple over eighty years old bowed down in front of a tower and prayed for the dead.

The wife asked, "You must be sad." The old man was silent for a while and said, "All dead, stop talking."

Cui Yuanjun, an old man, and Li Sanshun, a peasant woman, are an old couple living in the northern mountainous area of Jingbei, South Korea.

At the age of 2, they still can't put down their work and go back and forth between their homes and fields all day.

When the old man was eight years old, his left foot was necrotic due to acupuncture, leaving him disabled and unable to move, so farm work became a big problem.

Fortunately, there was a yellow ox at home, and the old man drove his ox cart to the fields every day to support his nine children.

In spring, I went to Qiu Lai, and the sun was cold and frost. Time flowed slowly in repetition, and I saw all the children grow up and go out of the village to a big city like Seoul.

However, the old people stick to this land, farming and resting together with the old cows who have been with them for decades.

In the old people's mind, the ox is a friend, but also a family member.

Strangely, the average life span of a cow is about fifteen years, but this old cow of Grandpa has lived for forty years ...

The life span of the old cow has already exceeded the limit of the cow's life, and it looks mottled, sluggish and cloudy.

the veterinarian said: the cow can live for one year at most.

The old man smiled and replied, "No, it's not true."

Do you believe that such a thing as death can be pretended not to happen?

He is still driving the ox cart as usual, making it at sunrise and returning at sunset.

Even though the ox is trembling at any moment, the old man still won't let it stop.

this obsession and stubbornness are puzzling. doesn't he feel sorry for the ox? Do we have to squeeze it to death? The seemingly cruel old man actually loves the old cow more than anyone else.

Every day, the old man drives the cows to the paddy field and lets them graze on the ridge.

When other farmers had already replaced traditional farming tools with machines, the old man still insisted on doing it himself, fearing that harvesting by machines would be too wasteful.

people who have tasted poverty know how to cherish it best.

every time after a bumper harvest,

it is sent to children far away.

Compared with the old people's reticence, wives are more talkative and often complain about mundane trifles.

Sometimes, she is jealous of the cow: "You treat it better than me."

The old people don't buy ready-made feed for cows. They get up every morning and mow the grass with a sickle as feed for cows. They are very tired.

The old man is determined not to spray pesticides into the fields. When others spray pesticides, he immediately puts a halter on the cows for fear that they will eat poisonous weeds.

For grandpa, it is no longer clear whether raising cattle is for working or working is for raising cattle.

But the old man always enjoys it. Every time he talks about the old cow, his eyes are narrowed, like a star shining in his eyes.

once the old man fell asleep on the cart, and the old cow kept pulling him home.

Although the children are not around, the old man is not lonely when he is with the cow. "To me, it is better than people, although it is not human and can't talk".

Even people around you say, "This cow is better than your child."

in this way, the old cow is already trembling, and the old man is also stumbling.

Everyone and a cow have reached the age where they can't compete with their destiny. Illness and pain all come to us.

Even though the doctor has warned the old man that he can't work any more, the old man still stubbornly drives the cows to the fields in the early morning.

He said, "People have to work as long as they live, unless I die."

when he was seriously ill, his children drove back and sat around for dinner.

The old man sat on one side silently, but when he was very busy, he became more and more speechless.

why do you feel so lonely when you are obviously the closest family?

The old man didn't speak until his daughter and his wife discussed selling the scalper.

The old man suddenly raised his head, looked over, and then drooped his head.

the cow is old and should be sold. So, what about getting old?

The old man didn't say anything, but he just took the old cow to the cow market. But because the old cow was too old, there was no market at all, but the old man made a sky-high price.

naturally, we have to take it back.

The ox may have felt everything around him, too, and tears actually fell in his eyes.

That tear is like a guarded touch and a mocked grievance.

Perhaps the one who knows the old man best is the ox, because they have a similar life.

At that moment, the audience may understand why the old people never listen to dissuasion, even if they are old, they don't want to be idle.

Because he is struggling with the years, he is proving that he is not useless. Only by working can he create value. Although his destiny cannot be violated, he still refuses to accept his old age.

The same is true for the ox. If the ox is idle, it will soon die. Only when it feels existence can it persist in walking and living.

Sure enough, the ox that the veterinarian predicted could only live for one year lived for another three years.

Until one morning in the winter of the third year,

the ox collapsed in the cowshed and didn't get up.

No matter how the old man called and dragged the ox, he couldn't get up.

The old man finally stroked the ox's head, combed its hair, and cut off the bronze bell and nose ring that had been tied to the ox all his life.

Say goodbye at last, and then say slowly, "Go safely."

The ox closed his eyes as if he had given up all his wishes.

The earth in the shovel covers the old cow little by little.

In this life, I can only send you here.

The figure of the old man who lost the old cow is getting thinner and more lonely. He often sits under the tree for hours, and the cow bell in his hand is rattled by the wind.

This documentary called "The Sound of Cowbells" has no gorgeous scenes, no powerful star cast and no profound lines.

It only has simple and real shots, plain dialogue and real touching stories. But it is enough to make many people cry.

The person who made this documentary is Chung-Ryoul Lee, an artist who once had suicidal tendencies.

After filming this documentary, Niu died, but he lived. He not only saved himself, but also touched the whole of Korea.

In retrospect, Chung-Ryoul Lee was filled with emotion: I am alive anyway, thanks to this old cow and this old man ... "

As a Korean independent documentary director, he had planned to commit suicide. There are two things that saved him: first, he thought he was too fat and decided to lose weight before he died in order to "die better"; Second, at this time, a friend introduced him to the story of a cow and an old man. The investors of "The Sound of Cowbells" planned to shoot for one year, until the old cow died. Unexpectedly, the cow lived for three years, the investor ran away, the photographer ran away, and the sound recorder ran away ... No one expected that "The Sound of Cowbells" became the first documentary to top the box office in Korea over the weekend, and moved the whole of Korea.

Chung-Ryoul Lee, who has been filming people on the edge of the city for many years, once had deep doubts about his beloved career. At that time, even his wife left him with her daughter. People in their forties are better off dead than mixed up like this. Just when he wanted to die, it suddenly occurred to him that a documentary director was going to die, which might be an excellent subject. At this time, someone told him the story of a cow and an old man ...

Things in the countryside are actually very kind to Chung-Ryoul Lee. He grew up in the country, and despite his efforts to enter the city, he always felt like an outsider at heart. "When my friend talked about the old man and the cow, I immediately heard the sound of the cow bell, which was my father and the old ox around him." At the first time, the name "The Sound of Cowbells" appeared in his mind.

I started filming the old man Cui Yijun in 25. The 78-year-old man never understood what Chung-Ryoul Lee wanted to do. The old man has nine children. The eldest is an art teacher, and he is an art colleague with Chung-Ryoul Lee. Persuaded by the boss, the old man finally accepted Chung-Ryoul Lee. After turning on the phone, Chung-Ryoul Lee tried to stay away from the old man, trying to hide the camera or take candid photos from a distance. Because at the sight of the camera, grandma has to change into beautiful clothes, and both of them are very uncomfortable.

follow up for 3 years, condensed into 79 minutes. South Korean film critics praised "The Sound of Cowbells" as "seeing green warm film in the cold". Then glory continued, and the 13th Busan Film Festival won the Best Documentary Award, and the audience of Seoul Independent Film Festival voted for the Best Film Award, representing South Korea in the St. Denis International Film Festival in the United States ... The Voice of Cowbells even brought the whole documentary success. After the great success of The Voice of Cowbells, independent documentaries began to be shown in Korean cinemas as a genre, and several films successively achieved commercial success. For example, Don't cry for me in Dongji, which shows Koreans preaching in southern Sudan, Africa, and Tears in Amazon, which was filmed in the jungle of Brazil ...

It is reported that the Sound of Cowbells was later released in the town where Grandpa Cui Yijun was located, with more than 3, people. Now, Cui Yijun's old man's home is a bit like a tourist attraction. Many buses stop at their door directly. When tourists get off the bus, they say, this is Cui Yijun's home. Where is the grave of the ox?

This article is integrated from Southern Weekend, Sohu Culture and Douban Film.