"La La Land" is re-released today.
A few years ago, with admiration and curiosity about its sweeping awards at major film festivals, I ** this movie.
However, perhaps limited by experience, I was still an ignorant middle school student at the time, and I didn't understand it much, and even felt that it was a bit cliché-isn't it just a love story forgotten in the rivers and lakes, which is a bit too famous.
Today, many years later, I learned that it was being re-released, and out of curiosity and subservience again, I went to the cinema again to see if I could have a new perspective on it as a "university animal".
So, I was about to graduate, standing at the crossroads of my life, and full of confusion about the future, and at the moment when the lights were on, I was still sitting in my seat with tears in my eyes.
I finally understood that under the surface of a love movie, it was the difficult struggle to face dreams and reality, the infinite sighs brought by regret, and the reverie of another life many years later, but the other party told me that there was no if.
So it doesn't matter, there is no right or wrong choice to embrace dreams or face reality, the important thing is to have a clear conscience and go all out, and we will eventually reach the other side.
On the road to chasing dreams, the two protagonists are working hard separately, and they fail and start again.
Mia was influenced by her aunt and aspired to be an actress. For this reason, she even dropped out of school, gave up the privileged life of a lawyer at her fingertips, and worked in a coffee shop on the set.
But when she auditioned, she was either interrupted emotionally, or the casting director didn't pay attention to her performance. She was repeatedly frustrated.
Sebastian has an enigmatic insistence on traditional jazz, and he wants to open a pure jazz bar to perpetuate this disappearing style.
But no one likes to hear it among young people nowadays. He can only survive by playing popular and boring music in the restaurant.
Two frustrated young people, looking at each other unpleasantly in a traffic jam, and sparks of love under the dreamy pink and purple sky.
He saw her persistence and courage in chasing her dreams under the ordinary surface, and she saw his eyes and heart sparkle when he talked about love.
Two like-minded, talented, and talented souls naturally fall in love with each other.
They support each other, encourage each other, and move towards their dreams together. It's as if each other is another self in the world.
During that time, all the relationships were so romantic and beautiful, until Sebastian heard Mia and his family fighting **, and defended him, a person who did not have a stable job.
To support his family, he joined a pop jazz band he didn't like. This became the fuse for a breakup in the future.
The band mixed up and toured wave after wave. The two get together less and leave more.
Mia was full of doubts after listening to a performance, and she knew that this was not what the other party was after.
She asked what was in her mind: "Do you really like what you're doing now?"”
But Sebastian said, what does it matter, didn't you want me to do it?No one listens to jazz anymore.
But what Mia likes is Sebastian who insists on her own aesthetic and can do anything for the things she loves. He would say when he was afraid of not being liked by the audience, why should he care if they liked it or not.
Sebastian, who insisted on himself at the beginning and disregarded the eyes of others, became the first to give up his dreams and succumb to reality.
As a result, Mia, who didn't want to see Sebastian give up her dream, broke up with Sebastian, who had accepted reality.
On the other hand, Mia's self-written and self-performed one-woman show has few audiences. Mia, who heard the audience's complaints, finally collapsed under the double blow of her career and emotions, and she fled back to her hometown, ready to forget her dreams.
Maybe there is still a fire in her heart that has not been completely extinguished, or maybe it is to protect her dream of another self, Sebastian encourages Mia to accept the next audition. Mia behaved very well.
In this way, two young people on the road to chasing their dreams, one embarked on the road of acting of his dreams, and the other returned to reality and became a reliable adult.
Years later, both of them are on the right track in life. Mia fulfilled her long-cherished wish and became a star, and Sebastian opened her own bar where she could play whatever she wanted.
When they reunite, the two people look at each other from afar, as if representing the intersection of dreams and reality.
You see, I finally got what I wanted.
You see, I'm not having a bad time facing reality.
For Sebastian, he has lost not only his former soulmate, but also himself who has lost his busy livelihood, and the saxophone and classical piano that are no longer pure.
Although now, the original goal has been achieved, and his own bar is also booming. But those lost years can never be remedied.
And for Mia, there are stumbles and frustrations on the road to sticking to her dreams. The vicissitudes of life have been exhausted before becoming famous, and the high-spirited spirit after becoming famous must require more hard work and courage day and night in exchange.
No path is easy to follow.
If you choose to stick to your dreams, you must give up a stable life, peaceful days, and usher in one unknown bump after another.
Like Mia, we don't know how deep she struggled when she decided to drop out of school, give up her lushy life, and give up the enviable profession of lawyer.
But we can see her despondency when she is unknown and unappreciated, as well as her inner panic and uneasiness.
But when she told her aunt's story, she firmly said that she would do it again if she had to do it all over again.
We know that if we do it all over again, she will still give up a stable life and plunge into the unknown torrent of dreams.
Choosing to return to a stable and peaceful life may require compromises again and again, shrinking one's dreams or even making them disappear.
Just like Sebastian, giving up his dreams is so painful for a person like him who has never flinched for most of his life, but in order for the two of them to live a better life, he took the initiative to accept this pressure from reality.
Isn't it a sign of courage that he bravely took on this responsibility and faced the impact of life?
When we go to school, we are always taught to keep to our dreams, to take risks, and not to be mediocre.
But as we grow older, have more experience, and come into contact with society, we know that many things in the world are not as we wish.
At this time, we were persuaded to know how to compromise, know how to retreat, and survive before we can live.
So confusion is inevitable, how do we live the right life?
The movie tells us that at the crossroads of life, there is no good or bad difference between the two roads. Different values, different life circumstances, and different choices are made.
Some people choose to stick to themselves, and some people choose to take on life.
You can choose the Kangzhuang Avenue or the Sheep Intestine Road. No matter which way you go, it will eventually take you through the ups and downs of life and reach the other side.
As long as you look back on the past without resentment and have a clear conscience, it is the best choice.
The climax of the film is accompanied by Sebastian playing the song he first met, and a ten-minute play in the form of a stage play is staged, imagining the days when the two are still together.
Through the screen, I seemed to hear the young man whispering:
If I had hugged you in the beginning, I wouldn't have passed away with you;
If your one-man show is overcrowded, I'm not absent either;
If I stay with you until I finally start a family;
If the people listening to jazz right now are me and you;
It would be nice if there was no quarrel over livelihood. If only the dream could come true well. If only you could get everything you wanted. If ......
It's a pity that there are no ifs.
Life is like this, there are few wishful things, and regrets and regrets are always accompanied.
Reminds me of Byron's poem-
If I see you, it will be years away. How I greet you, with tears, with silence. ”
At that moment, all the regrets and unwilling emotions came to me, and I couldn't help but cry for this sadness.
How beautiful fantasy is reminds people of how regretful reality is.
I sometimes fantasize about whether if I had made a different choice would have turned out differently.
If I had accepted that boy's confession in the first place
If only I had been able to brush up on a few more college entrance examination math finale questions;
If I hadn't chosen my current major;
If only I had realized my true quest earlier;
If, if. But there is no if.
What we can do is to smile at the moment of reunion. Respect the naïve and passionate memories of the past, and also respect the self who has returned to reason now.
Then they each embarked on a new life of their own.
Don't glorify the road you haven't trodden.
Because no matter which choice you choose, you still have to take the detours, you still have to pay the price, and you can still harvest the fruits that you should reap. That's part of growing up.
Struggles and hesitations at every stage are essential lessons in life.
We just need to know that dreams and realities are difficult to achieve, and there is no right or wrong choice in life.
The moon and sixpence, as long as you can get one of them, is already a blessing.