Kyuka: Before Summer's End

The square frame cannot contain the overflowing blue waves at the end of summer in August and September. There are too many ambiguous backgrounds and too many vague words. Only the real emotions and silent blanks revealed by the words and interactions can make people resonate with them.

The father, who is both a father and a mother, took his twin children on a sailboat to a beach where he often took them when they were young, and also went to see his ex-wife whom he had not seen for many years without the children's knowledge. God knows how excited and expectant he was on this day, but he still guarded his pride as always, arguing with her half-heartedly, and carefully handed over the USB flash drive he specially prepared with the children's video recordings. He wanted her to know how he had diligently raised the children during her absence.

Although his ex-wife broke her promise after seeing him, he still invited her family to his boat by coincidence, and had dinner with the children - they ate the fish he caught with his superb fishing skills. Another fisherman, his ex-wife's husband, who was also good at fishing, exposed him and said that all the fish were bought from the market. His last sense of honor was punctured, and his broken marriage experience, the parent-child relationship that could not be honest with each other, and the fact that he could not catch any fish made him sink into the sea with his boat in vain. The only lifeless dead fish caught by his daughter on this trip was actually the fisherman himself.

As for the close twin brother and sister (or sister and brother), except for a turtle of the same age as themselves, the memory of their mother has long disappeared. The mother is absent, the father is taciturn, the two are partners, laughing and playing, with a single-parent family history that is not worth mentioning behind them and a useless youth that knows nothing in front of them. They are the brownies that are bitten into the mouth and then spit into the sea in disgust, the broken shells picked up by a five-year-old girl on the beach, and the deflated rubber boat without a shore in the Saronic Bay in the western Aegean Sea.

Although they had stopped asking about their mother's whereabouts, when they realized that the woman in front of them was her, they waded across the shallow sea and tried to climb ashore on the boat called mother. The younger sister finally gave the boat ticket to the older brother. She thought that this older brother who liked skirts and nail polish should be more liked by the mother who still had charm.

On the last day of summer, with a bright moon hanging high in the sky over the Saronic Bay, one ship set sail and another was fished out.

"Across the Endless Ocean to the Moon" is set on the Greek coast and tells the story of a single-parent family who unexpectedly reunites with their biological mother on vacation. The film shows the eternal tension of love and regret in family relationships through delicate emotional portrayal and poetic visual language. The film's director Kostis Charamontanis showed amazing narrative control with his debut film. He interweaves the daily summer life of a family of three with the sudden fate, and constructs a unique lyrical tone with film-textured images and lazy summer atmosphere. When the twins Konstantinos and Elsa met their biological mother Anna on the beach, the director did not choose a fierce conflict, but through the tense expression of their father Babis, the silence of their mother who wanted to say something but stopped, and the children's cherishment of the little turtle like a "letter from home", the weight of fate was precipitated into a fragmented daily life. This restrained approach made the film receive the evaluation of "light but powerful" when it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The use of symbolic imagery in the film is particularly exquisite. The little turtle that grew up with the twins is not only the only keepsake left by their mother, but also a metaphor for "losing everything" by their father. When it finally died on the dining table, the silent picture conveyed a stronger sadness than the quarrel. The details of the father's repeated fishing are a metaphor for his obsession with the breakdown of his marriage - the catch that was once full of laughter is now only an empty fishing rod and glaring sunlight. As for the actors, the twins' natural and real interactions have become the highlight of the whole film. Their tacit understanding when they were laughing and playing, their uneasiness when facing their biological mother, and their determination to watch their father leave in the end, all make the audience feel the authenticity of the pain of growing up. The role of the mother carries a more complex interpretation space: under her elegant and calm appearance, she is a lifelong guilt for her past choices. This contradiction is vividly displayed by Elina Topalidto with delicate body language. As a family-themed movie, "Across the Endless Ocean to the Moon" breaks the stereotype of traditional dramatic conflicts. It uses the changing tides of the Greek coast as a metaphor for the flow of emotions, and reconstructs fragments of memory with a retro montage technique. When the father disappears in the morning mist at the end of the film, the boat tickets in the children's hands become a metaphor for connecting the two families, suggesting that the scars will eventually settle into medals of growth over time. This dialectical thinking on "healing" and "tearing" allows the film to complete a profound questioning of human nature in a light narrative.

Story summary:

The film "Across the Endless Ocean to the Moon" premiered in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival and tells the story of a family on a summer vacation with delicate touches.

Viewers are complaining:

Director Costis Charamontanes delves into the core themes of family, nostalgia, and the passage of time: the Barbis family is traumatized by the departure of their mother, Anna, 13 years ago. While trying to maintain the integrity of his family, Barbis is haunted by past emotional entanglements. He tries to make up for the lack of maternal love for his children through this vacation, but struggles with the appearance of Anna. The leisure time of summer gives people more opportunities to recall the past. Barbis's nostalgia for the happy scenes of his family in the past is in sharp contrast to the incompleteness of his family in reality. This bittersweet nostalgia allows the audience to deeply appreciate the ruthlessness of time and the impermanence of life.

The film uses non-linear narrative and a lot of unique expressions. Like a puzzle, each piece contains an emotional code. At the same time, the director also used some experimental techniques, such as removing sound and freezing the picture, which created a dreamlike atmosphere for the film, as if putting the viewer in the character's memories. However, the film's rhythm is relatively slow. This slow rhythm is not procrastination, but gives the viewer enough time to feel the emotional changes of the character and appreciate the emotional power contained in every detail. Just like a stream flowing slowly in summer, although it is not turbulent, it can nourish people's hearts.

The film cleverly uses the natural scenery of the Greek island of Poros, integrating the beautiful coastline, blue sky and clear water into the picture, creating a peaceful and beautiful atmosphere. This natural beauty contrasts sharply with the emotional conflicts within the family, further highlighting the complex emotions of the characters. Music plays a finishing touch in the film, and the classical soundtrack complements the overall style of the film. For example, when Babis recalls the good times he had with Anna in the past, soft music slowly plays, rendering the sweet and slightly sad emotions just right.

However, the film's narrative is relatively fragmented. Although this style adds a sense of mystery and artistry to the story to a certain extent, it may be difficult for some viewers who pursue plot coherence to understand it, or even confuse them during the viewing process. The use of some experimental elements, such as comedy skits and meditation scenes, although reflecting the director's innovative spirit, sometimes makes the film's rhythm a bit chaotic and weakens the core emotional expression of the story. The theme of the film is relatively obscure, and some more casual viewers may find it difficult to capture the deep meaning that the film wants to convey at the first time, resulting in a less profound viewing experience.

For viewers who like art films, the film's delicate emotional expression, unique narrative style and exquisite audio-visual presentation can satisfy their pursuit of art films.

6.22 At the end of the Shanghai Film Festival, Shanghai was hot and humid during the rainy season, and Heping Cinema was a bit crowded.

The screen unfolds in a small square, unfolding an endless blue

The sea breeze, the ballads, the frolicking of young men and women, the trivialities of life, the long dialogues. The plot of the movie is not rich, nor is it fascinating. If it were a little longer, most people would probably get sleepy.

The film tells the story of a special vacation from the perspective of twin brothers and sisters. Growing up in a single-parent family, they rely on each other. Due to the lack of maternal love and the paranoia of their father, their living conditions always make people feel awkward. Their father takes them to an island for vacation and arranges a meeting with their mother.

The real protagonist of the film should be the middle-aged father, a proud fisherman, paranoid, strict and conceited, just like the image of most middle-aged fathers, stubborn, majestic, insisting on maintaining an unhealthy family relationship, and insisting on criticizing his son's "unmanliness". But when the irresponsible mother broke her promise and he could no longer catch fish, the father's psychological defenses gradually collapsed. In the end, by chance, the child and the unrecognized mother had dinner at the same table. The father's lies were exposed and he was pushed into the water by his daughter. He may not be able to bear it anymore and be swallowed by the endless ocean...

The film has a lot of camera language, using some freeze-frame and silent expressions to enhance the emotions, and the soundtrack is full of holiday and literary styles, but some parts may be too trivial and metaphorical (echoing the ballad of the title and the shots of the school of fish), and it is difficult to watch it if you are not in the theater. (There are also snoring sounds in the theater)

There are a lot of blank spaces at the end, and the author tends to think that the father committed suicide to find the moon in his heart, and the twins also learned to live according to their own wishes.

It can be considered a qualified art film. The sea breeze temporarily relieves the depression caused by the plum rain, but there seems to be no solution to the sadness of middle age.

I met a friend at a coffee shop and we happened to chat about this movie ticket. I did a quick check and bought a bottle of sea salt soda before entering the theater.

It is indeed as many short reviews have said, it feels like I am back to the beach I just visited some time ago, looking at the glass-colored sea water dappled with sunlight, the youthful look of the male and female protagonists, the retro square rounded-corner screen, and countless beautiful soundtracks, which filled the theater with sea salt bubbles.

Even so, this is an extremely long vlog, and it is also an 8:30 o'clock show about boring family ethics linked together by coincidences.

But it didn’t matter. The pictures, the soundtrack, the bland plot, and the drinking in the early hours of one night allowed me to fall into a light sleep for twenty minutes in the cinema with this beauty.