The coincidence you think is actually my long-planned intention. Because I love you, even loneliness has a touch of sweetness in it. The spring of April is often rainy, hazy rain, lingering drizzle, torrential downpour, appearing in turn, seemingly to wash the entire city clean. This gloomy weather, thinking back to the sunny days, sometimes as the film’s protagonist that with a white dress to go out for a walk, or walk aimlessly, if there is rain, will hold a red umbrella, umbrella must be red, if wearing a red dress, will hold a transparent umbrella, you know for girls, in addition to umbrellas is a tool to avoid the rain, but also part of the dress, everything color are harmonious, party to go out, is so stubborn.
I suddenly remembered a movie called “April Story”, which seems to add to the atmosphere of this month, so I looked it up and revisited it. I watched the train in the movie slowly start, and outside the window the family waved goodbye to Yuno and was drowned out by the train whistle, and it was snowing heavily in Hokkaido, and she was about to go from the northernmost tip of Japan to the warm southern city of Tokyo. I couldn’t see her expression, only her fingers stroking the foggy windows, as if she was saying goodbye to her family and home. She is alone on this journey of love, and at this moment she and we do not know what will happen in the days to come.
The dream-like romantic cherry blossoms at the beginning of the film made me think it was snow, and I have never seen real cherry blossoms until now. I can’t imagine what it’s like to run under the falling cherry blossoms. Excited, happy, or just used to it and not caring? The driver drove the car with wipers brushing the cherry blossoms so as not to block their sight, I couldn’t help but smile, when it really is cherry blossoms like snow, beautiful let people feel that the whole world is gentle pink. The cherry blossom snow continues, slowly piano sound accompanies, everything is light, just feel comfortable and cozy, as if they also become the romantic cherry blossom in the movie, gentle and soft.
A few days ago, I was chatting with a friend and asked, “Which movie character do you think is most like you? She came from the cold Hokkaido to this warm place to study, eager to make friends but not knowing how to get close to people, so she is similar to me. I am also very eager to get close to others, but whenever I meet with strangers, I am always timid, I don’t know why I am timid, but I don’t know what to talk about with strangers, but I am too proud to let others find out that I am nervous, so I don’t say a word, so I am indifferent – this is to hide my true face. Often the other party asked a question, I will answer a sentence, never say a word more, until we get to know each other, is a different picture. Many friends say that when they first meet me, I am quiet as wood, cold as ice, and people seem to be separated by a mountain of distance, can only look at each other from a distance, but can not intimately talk softly, but if later that person and I make friends, only to know my nature, is not what they had expected, only to know that I love to laugh, cry and talk, often talk with people, talk, as if no one else –The outgoing nature of my character was revealed without any reservation, so they all lamented that everything was an illusion, and that it was only when they got to know each other that they got to know you.
When I saw Yuno introducing herself to the university, she said she was very cheerful, and I suddenly wanted to laugh. Even though the film has only just begun, I know she is a quiet and introverted girl, from the time she tried to help the movers move the furniture but couldn’t get started; from the time she offered to be nice to the neighbors but didn’t know how to talk to them; from the time she introduced herself as a cheerful girl somewhat sheepishly. When she was asked why she chose this university, she was shocked, as if she had never expected to be asked this question.
I had heard that the streets of Japan are neat and clean, and once again in the film proved to be so. Elno always wears a long skirt and rides her bicycle alone through the clean streets. She was looking for a bookstore called Musashino-do. I thought she was just as fond of books as I was, because I always asked people about bookstores in the neighborhood whenever I went to a new place, and then I bought a few favorite books there, carefully writing on the first page that I bought this book at a certain bookstore in a certain place on a certain day in a certain month in a certain year. I always thought that when I was old, it would be a happy thing to open my books and look at the names of places, and I could even proudly tell my children and grandchildren: “When I was young, I went to many places and read many books, and look at these books, each of them has my memories.” It was only later that I learned that Yuno did not only love reading books, but that her heart was as silent as the cherry blossoms.
Watching Yuno drill her fishing rod over and over again in the open grass, her life was calm like a lake, not even a ripple, and bland like plain silk, and no pattern nor gaudy. She is always alone. She always watches movies alone, goes to bookstores alone, makes curry at home alone, and wanders the streets alone on her bicycle. Enjoying the lonely and beautiful time of being alone, only the person concerned would know its pleasure. And because she has love in her heart, there is a touch of sweetness in the loneliness. This is also somewhat like my life, I often watch movies alone, read alone, go for a walk alone, write their moods alone at the table, write in the book or the movie gains, life is dull and monotonous, but feel that the day is incredibly rich and full.
Her life was so peaceful, just like her person. But that day, that very day, when she faced the boy in Musashino Hall bookstore, she panicked. This panic led to everything, and it turned out to be a story about a crush. That’s why when asked why she chose this university, she couldn’t say why; that’s why she went to the cinema to watch a long-ago black-and-white movie because the hero’s name was also Yamazaki; that’s why she secretly took the nametag that said “Yamazaki” when no one was around. She collected everything about him, and it dawned on me.
