The film is adapted from the classic song of the same name, inspired by director Lu Gengxu’s own true story of youth, which not only has the director’s prototype, but also the youthful memories of Gao Xiaosong, Li Jian, Wang Xiaochuan and others.The story behind this film is more important to him than his first film, “Goodbye Youth”.Zhang Yimou once said that there is something very essential in every director’s debut film. The essence of the director is hidden in “A Life with You”, the eternal passion for the era of white clothes and the release of youth.
In the film, Ai Yang is a genius in architecture, good at drawing tickets, because at the orientation meeting, he fell in love with Fang Yao at first sight, and then launched a fierce pursuit. By chance, the two hook up and Ouyang sees that Fang Yao likes guitars and songs, so he makes a promise to play and sing to Fang Yao some day. Later the lie was punctured, Ouyang took up all the efforts to learn guitar and then became a campus singer, participating in singer competitions and playing and singing to Fang Yao.
The two become more and more affectionate, and on Fang Yao’s birthday when Ouyang wants to pierce the relationship, Fang Yao’s boyfriend Gong Yu appears, Fang Yao’s inner uncertainty and hesitation, Ouyang’s misunderstanding, and miss each other alive. At first glance, it seems to be about the entanglement of three people, but in fact there are only two protagonists from the beginning to the end, this is a story about youth regret.
Next, I will further explain the charm and value of the film in the context of its narrative means and expression structure. In the third part of the article, I will share three ways to maintain the intimacy between lovers with my own experience of watching the film.
At the beginning of the film, an investor approaches Ouyang, who is over a year old, and wants to buy the rights of his song “With You in My Life” and turn it into a movie. Ouyang then tells the investor about his past and his story with Fang Yao.
He and Fang Yao had a beautiful encounter, had a willing process of learning music for Fang Yao, and then happily got together after the New Year’s dance. Told here, Ouyang had ended the whole story, but was found by the investors to be contradictory and demolished the truth of this story, Ouyang only slowly said that it was actually his imagination, his inner struggle to draw a happy ending to an unpleasant story.
The real story is that Ouyang learned guitar for Fang Yao and became a campus singer. Just when Ouyang wanted to confess his love on Fang Yao’s birthday, Fang Yao’s boyfriend Gong Yu appeared and Gong Yu took Fang Yao to school abroad. When he heard that Fang Yao was going to fly early the next morning, Ouyang took out his birthday present for her and wanted to give it to Fang Yao, but at that time Gong Yu’s boyfriend happened to take Fang Yao out.
Ouyang went to a bar to get drunk, bumped into a couple in conflict, got drunk, triggered anger in his heart, injured the boy in the couple, then was locked up by the security guards, and beat up the security guards, and was expelled from school a month before graduation, also missed the campus singer competition the next day, in the rain he smashed the guitar that often played for Fang Yao, howling.
This is the truth of the story, yet it is not. This investor is Fang Yao, the heroine of Ouyang’s story, who unveils the truth of the story at the end, and also reveals to the audience the misunderstanding between them. Fang Yao has fallen in love with Ouyang and runs out at night to find him, and that night is the night Ouyang gets drunk, and the two miss out, writing the story as a tragedy.
The other is the true narration after the lies are revealed by the investor, Fang Yao goes abroad to find a boyfriend, he is expelled from school, and breaks down to write music.
Then came the investor, Yuan Jing, the Fang Yao of Ouyang’s story, who, after listening to Ouyang’s story, told another version of the narrative he didn’t know, that Fang Yao didn’t go to get a room with her boyfriend, they just found a convenient place to talk; Fang Yao didn’t dislike Ouyang, on the contrary, she liked him so much that she found a way to talk to her boyfriend about delaying the boarding time, just to go see Ouyang’s game the next day, before the trip The night before, Fang Yao ran to the boys’ dormitory to look for Ouyang, but the whole dormitory was not there, so she went to call and leave a message, and at that moment, she realized that she liked Ouyang, very, very much.
The same thing, different people to narrate the results are different, in fact, because people in the narrative at the same time bring their own views and ideas about the story, which led to different results, just like a sentence, after countless people pass, the final formation of the sentence with the original meaning is completely different, which is exactly what Rashomon expression want to get the results, put in the film, every time the audience feel that this is the end, is the truth when then to Overturned, interlaced between fiction and reality, giving the story more room for imagination, while also allowing the audience to have a sense of participation when watching the film.
The ending of the movie is that after the white clouds and the passage of time, Yuan Jing sits quietly at the bottom of the stage, watching Ouyang in the center of the stage playing the piece “You in my life”, a piece composed for her, such a performance that they missed for 20 years. Then they slowly walked towards each other and embraced together. Will the two get back together? The director did not say much, leaving this ending empty and leaving all the room for imagination to the audience.
The male protagonist Ouyang, from the beginning of love at first sight, to the whole process of pursuit, did not say straight out that he liked Fang Yao. In order to see Fang Yao was pulled by art students to do mannequins; in order to let Fang Yao talk to himself to learn guitar; in order to not let Fang Yao disappointed to participate in the campus singer competition, become a real campus singer; in order to let Fang Yao hear the songs he wrote to her put down his identity to beg the conflicted seniors; even Fang Yao’s birthday hand-carved music box did not give Fang Yao in person.
The female protagonist, knowing that Ouyang is not a campus singer, did not point out that Ouyang was studying guitar to participate in the competition; she knew that the song Ouyang sang on stage was written for her but did not say so; she understood that Ouyang liked her but did not say that she already had a boyfriend; finally she knew that she also liked Ouyang but did not have the opportunity to say so…
The white dresses of the era of raw contact between men and women and emotions, love and do not dare to speak, afraid to refute each other’s feelings, there are many in real life.
The purpose of “A Life with You” is not to make the audience lament the story or the regrets left by the characters after watching it, but to make them reflect on what they should do in order not to leave regrets for their youthful love and how to maintain a good intimate relationship between lovers.
