Note: This article contains serious spoilers
Mo Sanmei (Zhu Yilong) is the type of person we can't help but avoid when we pass by.
He was once imprisoned for a fight and was just released after serving his sentence; he had a short head, a floral shirt, a shorts vest, a gold necklace, and slippers, spitting and spitting everywhere; his girlfriend (Wu Qian) left him after he was released from prison , is pregnant with someone else's child; he has a tense relationship with his family, and always thinks that his old father (played by Luo Jingmin) looks down on him; he is engaged in the funeral industry that "eats the dead" in the eyes of outsiders. But he lacks recognition and has no interest in this line of work...

"Life Events" poster

Mo Sanmei is a little person who is gradually marginalized by society. I wouldn't say how bad he really was (jail was a spur of the moment), but to say his life would continue to be bad, that's a real possibility. Those who are cynical and give up on themselves often send out a distress signal. When no one gets it, or no one is willing to rescue them, they really put it down, using indulgence and depravity as free and easy, to cover up the loneliness and desolation in their hearts.

Mo Sanmei (Zhu Yilong)

It can be said that in this cruel society, there is a high probability that there is no light in their lives. The good thing is to stop taking detours, marrying a wife and having children, and living a mediocre, self-contained life; the bad thing is that if you don't pay attention, you will become an ex-prisoner who commits crimes again in the social news. Going further and further on the road of no return.
It is quite surprising that Zhu Yilong interprets Mo Sanmei. After all, Zhu Yilong's image on the screen and on the screen is mainly "literary". This time, he made a breakthrough as a low-level rough man and a ruffian who does not leave "Lao Tzu" in three sentences. His appearance is also similar.
Mo Sanmei was lucky, he met the little girl Wu Xiaowen (played by Yang En again). Although in the beginning, Xiaowen appeared in the form of his nemesis.

Wu Xiaowen (played by Yang En also)

Xiaowen's grandmother died. In the eyes of Xiaowen, who didn't understand life and death, her grandmother was hidden in a black box and was transported away by Mo Sanmei. She found Mo Sanmei and asked him to inform her grandmother's whereabouts.
He grew up with his grandmother, and his parents disappeared. Xiaowen has the precociousness, intelligence, stubbornness, and "jianghu spirit" of children at the bottom. She has Nezha's two vases on her head, and Nezha's red spear in her hand. She also has Nezha's temperament. You were specially sent by God to destroy Lao Tzu, right?"

Mo Sanmei couldn't stand Xiaowen

But Mo Sanmei soon found out that she and Xiaowen had the same affliction, and her fierceness was only protective. When Xiaowen lost his grandmother, it was probably like he lost his lover and lost his support in life; Xiaowen, who became an orphan, could only be fostered at his uncle's house, and his aunt obviously did not welcome this "uninvited guest". Accepting, lonely and helpless... "I just can't see these monsters bullying people", he gave Xiaowen a home.

Mo Sanmei and Xiaowen share the same illness

People in the world have written about love and sang about love countless times, but if love has a shape, "fetters" must be one of them. They entangle us like ropes. transfer and flow in between. When Mo Sanmei unexpectedly took on the responsibility of "father", he took care of Xiaowen's diet, sent her to kindergarten, and held parent-teacher conferences for her... His life began to gain weight, the kind of lonely, suspended The floating feeling gradually disappeared, and there was something faintly tugging at him.
This is an unprecedented feeling of solidity, getting and giving is touch, and love and being loved also have a real feeling. Mo Sanmei, who was originally covered in thorns and who refused to accept anyone like Sun Wukong, became softer.
Knowing that Xiaowen was likely to leave, his eyes were full of unknowing fragility, and he asked, "You won't...will you forget me in the future?"

"You... won't you forget me in the future?"

He once said fiercely to Xiaowen, "Your grandma was burned and turned into smoke... You will never see her again, do you understand"; but later he told Xiaowen that grandma became a cigarette The stars in the sky will enter her dream.

Mo Sanmei comforts Xiaowen

When he was like a Xiaowen whose father was anxious to "get lost", "What are you running around in the middle of the night, what should you do if you run away?", Xiaowen recited instinctively with a crying voice: "My father My name is Mo Sanmei, my family lives at No. 73 Huaian Road, Yuhua District, Yanjiang City, and I will not lose it." The audience's heart was broken together with Mo Sanmei.

very tearful moment

When Xiaowen told him, "Grandma will never come back, but I'm not afraid anymore, because I have a home", Mo Sanmei couldn't hold back her tears, Xiaowen hugged his head and gave him great comfort ...

Xiaowen also cured Mo Sanmei

Not only was Xiaowen redeemed, but Sanmei Mo was also redeemed. He obtained the most precious identity in his life - "Xiaowen's father"; he originally had no expectations for his life, thinking that he was a puddle of mud, but now he accepts himself, and he is the soil for cultivating flowers.
The bond between Mo Sanmei and Xiaowen is the main narrative line of "Life Events", but the movie doesn't stop there. Under the keyword "transformation", several narrative lines are intertwined to form a polyphony.
Like father and son. The relationship between Nezha and Sun Wukong is also interpreted in the relationship between Mo Sanmei and her father. Just like Nezha finally doesn't have to eviscerate his bones to return his father, so Sun Wukong can also reconcile with Wuzhishan.

father and son reconciliation

Such as the funeral industry. "Life Events" is one of the rare films in China that takes the funeral industry as its entry point. The public has always avoided it, just like many passers-by in the film feel "unlucky", and Mo Sanmei herself once despised this profession. .
However, he gradually realized what his father said, although this profession "can't be looked down upon by the able-bodied", but "the impatient can't do it". They send the deceased on their last journey and let the deceased leave with dignity and dignity. They must have a "sage heart", and they must have awe and great love.
When Mo Sanmei comforts Xiaowen, every star in the sky is someone who has loved us, and grandma will accompany Xiaowen in the sky; in Xiaowen's eyes, Mo Sanmei has become a "star planter", It was he who sent his grandmother to the sky, which is what the film's English title, Lighting Up The Stars, refers to. This warm title may break our prejudice against the funeral industry.

The father in Xiaowen's eyes is a man who "plants stars"

Like life and death. Chinese people are afraid of death, taboo against death, and have been unable to form a correct view of life and death. Since death is an inevitable festival, perhaps we should learn to look down on the "big event" of death and treat it in a lighter and simpler form; but in every moment we have life, we should treat it as a "big event" and live it well. Intense and colorful. However, in real life, there are too many putting the cart before the horse. If you don't treat the living well and don't treat life well, you can only make death rituals carnival and extravagance, trying to make up for guilt without help, tossing others and tossing yourself.
Mo Sanmei's father sent away countless people in his life. He saw through the essence of life and death and never attached to any death ceremony. His ashes finally turned into fireworks and sparks all over the sky, and his life and death were as brilliant as summer flowers.
"Events in Life" is the debut novel written and directed by Liu Jiangjiang. Liu Jiangjiang's grandfather is engaged in the funeral industry. The director has been fascinated by his childhood and has more awe of death. Han Yan, who served as a producer for the first time, previously directed "Get Out!" "Tumor Jun" and "Send You a Little Red Flower" both involve the issue of "life and death", and "Major Events in Life" are similar in effect. Heavy death forms intertextuality with warm expression; humanistic issues are harmoniously compatible with commercial visibility. This is a type of film that is currently extremely scarce in domestic films. The film market that is deserted under the epidemic needs such a film.
Emotionally, I hope that "Events in Life" will sell well, and rationally I have to admit that this is not a perfect movie. It's stuffed with too many things, too many issues, sometimes it's reminiscent of "The Undertaker", sometimes "The Thief" (especially the final scene, this "temporary family" watching the stars together), sometimes it's reminiscent To "White Rabbit Candy"... Although the director made every line smooth and natural, complex and not chaotic, but its expression was within expectations, and due to various factors such as length, it was necessary to dilute those more Real cruelty, eliminating those subtle and complex parts of human nature.
The premise of this story is that everyone has a clean and transparent soul, which is at most temporarily dusted by reality; when we want to live hard, all the resistance of reality disappears. Obviously, such a beautiful story can only exist in movies. There are too many Mo Sanmei who have taken detours after being constantly marginalized, and not every Xiaowen can grow up like an angel; real life may be bright and bright, but often misfortunes do not come singly. "Life Events" is very warm, but it also seems a little thin and innocent. Perhaps this is a compromise under commercial considerations.
This does not prevent us from being moved by the film. As little people, the weapons that we can rely on in many cases are those beautiful qualities in human nature, kindness, bravery, justice, magnanimity... It is too difficult to retain a pure soul under the weight of reality, at least in movies, when we are During the time when the movie was touched and influenced, we were filled with positive beliefs.