"Later, nostalgia was a short grave, and I was outside and my mother was inside."
"Nostalgia" in the modern poet Yu Guang is Xiaomei's earliest understanding of the concept of hometown.
When I was a child, I didn't understand what my hometown was, what was nostalgia, and when I grew up, I left my hometown with my back well, and I knew that I didn't see it for many days.
The famous Canadian director Guy Martin expressed his thoughts about his hometown Winnipeg through the lens -
My Winnipeg
My Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba and the largest city in Canada, located in the heart of Canada.
The male protagonist "I" finally got his wish and got on the train leaving Winnipeg, eager to escape the city as soon as possible and escape "my" mother.
On the rickety steam train, "I" was drowsy, and between the confusion of consciousness, the things of the past appeared in "my" mind one by one.
"I" lived as a child in a two-story white detached house at 800 Alice Street.
The house was the largest but most eccentric in the whole street, and "I" was both proud and ashamed of it.
In the front yard on the first floor is a beauty salon opened by my mother and aunt, which specializes in doing hair and chatting with housewives.
There are seven rooms in the back part of the first floor, where the aunt and grandmother lived.
The whole second floor is where "my" family lives, and there are two brothers and an older sister in the family, and the family of six lives here.
My room was just above the shop, accompanied by the noise of the hair dryer and the peculiar smell of the styling spray, where "I" spent my entire childhood.
Later, my parents sold the house and watched the appearance of the house change again and again, which was no longer what "I" remembered.
No matter how big it is, how new it is, how gorgeous it is, it is not my home anymore.
The Sharbrook Pool is one of "my" favorite places to go, with three floors.
The pool on the ground floor is dedicated to swimming for a family, the pool on the ground floor is only open to women, and the pool on the second basement floor is only open to men.
"I" and "my" friends like to swim in the second basement floor, and sometimes even if they don't swim, "we" will bounce back and forth in the changing room with their bare arms all day.
"I" distinctly remember the cold water in that pool.
There are rumors that the water here comes from glaciers, which is why it is so cold, and "I" as a child was convinced.
But then the first and second floors of the underground were closed, and the world that belonged to the little boys disappeared.
In Winnipeg, the most famous sport is ice hockey, which has its own ice hockey rink.
This massive hockey rink is one of the most memorable landmarks in Winnipeg's history, a place where all men are frequented and where "I" was born.
"My" father worked on the Winnipeg Mullen ice hockey team, and as a child , " I " could follow my father into the backstage athletes' locker room and see these hockey stars up close.
Taking advantage of the gaps in the players' baths, "I" also stole their jerseys and put them on their bodies, imitating their heroic posture when they scored goals on the pitch.
Until Eaton Declared Bankruptcy, the city government planned to demolish the Eaton Department Store and rebuild a larger and more luxurious ice hockey rink on the original premises.
With the new stadium, the old stadium naturally cannot escape the fate of being demolished.
With a blast, the old Winnipeg Ice Rink tumbled down, along with the collective memories of Generations in Winnipeg.
In addition to the swimming pool and ice hockey rink, the old trees in the middle of the road, the amusement park that brings joy, all of which cannot escape the passage of time and disappear one by one.
The fading of the situation is not the most torturous, the departure of relatives is.
After his father's ice hockey team was disbanded, he began to be depressed, coupled with a serious smoking addiction, so that his father died early.
After my father left, my mother had to take care of us alone, which made her extra nervous about everything.
The mother has the magical ability to see through the essence of things at a glance, and like a giant, she can see through all lies.
"My" brother Cameron also died young.
The successive departures of relatives make "I" want to leave this sad place even more, and the only thing "I" can't rest assured of is my mother.
As the memories came to an end, the train had reached the edge of the city, and it would not be long before I was leaving Winnipeg.
How "I" wished there would be a national girl to take care of the city and "my" mother, and to make up for the city's original regrets and regrets.
Hopefully, she will be able to reopen the second and third floors of The Sharbrooke Pool like a god, so that the old Winnipeg Ice Hockey Rink can rise again and the departed souls can rest in peace.
Winnipeg hosts an annual scavenger hunt where contestants walk through the streets of Winnipeg in search of treasure, and the winner receives a one-way train ticket to leave the city.
Curiously, no winner in more than a hundred years wanted to leave Winnipeg with a train ticket.
Because, the real treasure has always been here.
As a native of this place, when you walk through the streets and alleys you are familiar with, and look at your hometown so closely, you will never want to leave again.
And "I" never got on the train leaving Winnipeg, and "I" never fled the city.
It was all just a dream "I" had lying on the couch, a dream about my hometown.
Storytelling-like narration, sparse and loose pictures, flashing entries.
The first time Xiaomei saw such a performance method was in "Bean's Golden Week", and the video that Bean finally played in the movie theater.
This kind of difficult technique is not something that can fit any theme.
The huge mother who appears outside the train invites someone who is exactly like her own family to play her own family.
Being able to combine these illogical but imaginative dreams with this technique to express his thoughts about his hometown is what director Guy Martin is good at.
Hometown, a place you want to escape when you are there, and miss it after leaving, just like the male protagonist in the movie.
Sometimes, we will dislike our hometown for being so bad and inadequate, but we will never allow outsiders to say bad things about our hometown.
Hometown is our second mother, a presence full of contradictions that makes us love and hate at the same time.