1
Central Station is a film about searching. On the poster of the film, it reads: "The boy is looking for his father, the woman is looking for her conversion, and Brazil is looking for his roots." At the beginning of the film, the first to appear are people who want to write to others but can't write, who tell Dora, who writes to ghostwriter, all of their thoughts, complaints, and hopes. The protagonist, Dora, seems to have become commonplace, and she can not only quickly record what these people say, but also help them make words and sentences to express their inner thoughts. For this old maid, who was once a teacher and wrote letters on behalf of people at Grand Central Station after retirement, the profession was just a livelihood to make a living. She did not care at all about the anxiety, apprehension, and pain of those who asked her to write letters, and adopted a casual attitude towards these letters. She sent letters that she thought were important, and left them unimportant, even tearing off some letters that she thought were boring. Like many people who work in big cities, everything she does is just routine, without the slightest sense of responsibility. When someone asked her if she had sent a letter, she was free to find excuses to prevaricate. Lying is already commonplace for her. Perhaps it is that she has experienced too many ups and downs in life, seen too many vicissitudes of the world, and her heart has long been insensitive.
Dora is the portrait of most people in our time. People only do their own thing and lack care for others and responsibility to society. There is a lack of understanding, communication and trust between each other. Pursue a profession you don't like, have no passion for work, and are passionate about shopping and entertainment. In fact, living such a life is not what people want in their hearts, but it is the result of a life choice. For everyone, fate and choice are closely related. When Dora meets Joshua, an important choice is suddenly placed in front of her. Penniless and helpless, Joshua asks Dora to write to his father, but Dora refuses on the grounds that he has no money. Joshua wanted to return to his mother's letter to his father, and like a wandering child, pestered Dora in the train station. Perhaps with a hint of compassion, Dora brings Joshua home. But he was soon sent to human traffickers to get a sum of money to buy a TV.
Man's conscience is sometimes obscured, but not completely extinguished. A friend's words, everything always has a bottom, so that Dora can't sleep at night, tossing and turning. Finally decided to help Joshua find his father. In Dora's heart, Joshua's father was a frequent alcoholic and wife-beating man. Because of her own father, that's the kind of person. Dora is cold and suspicious, which has a lot to do with the fact that she has been away from home since she was a child and is lonely in middle age. A person who rarely feels the warmth of the family and lacks love will inevitably close himself off and resist communication. And two young and old, who are also lonely and distrustful of each other, embark on a journey of searching.
2
During the journey, Dora sprouted her old ways and wanted to leave herself, leaving Joshua alone to find her father. But this stubborn little boy was inseparable from her. In desperation, the two penniless people had to take a ride to continue to move forward. The countryside was more tranquil than the hustle and bustle of the city, and they met caesar, the kind driver. Along the way, Dora has a tacit understanding with this equally lonely person, but in the end, due to Caesar's retreat, she loses a chance to get love. Unconsciously, Joshua developed sympathy for Dora. On the Day of our Lady of the Lamps, her cry completely changed Little Joshua's view of her. The distance between the two people is getting closer and closer, and they take a group photo at the town market. Despite reaching his destination, the search for Joshua's father was full of twists and turns. But in the end, Joshua met his two half-brothers and got the news that his father was about to return home.
Joshua returned to her home, and Dora saw the power of trust. On the way home, she recalled the good old days between herself and her father. It turns out that understanding and tolerance can really make a person's soul reborn. At the end of the film, Dora walks out of Joshua's house in the early morning, and the road ahead becomes brighter and brighter. Mutual understanding, communication, and support along the way have allowed Dora and Joshua to build a deep friendship. "If you miss me, just look at our group photo, I say this because I am afraid that one day you will forget me." 」 On the bus and up the hill, Dora and Joshua watched their group photo at the same time, smiling happily on their faces.
The film's search for themes is obvious, the story takes place in Brazil with a Catholic cultural background, and some people with religious names such as Jesus, Moses, Isaiah, Joshua, and the related prayer of thanksgiving: "God, I thank you for sending us this year's rain and harvest." "Almost all of them come from or appear in distant villages.
In the film's director's view, the father of the boy, the conversion of the woman, and the roots of Brazil are all in the countryside. Joshua's search also begins in the city and ends in the countryside. He eventually stayed in the countryside as well. Because his home was there, so was his father. And it was during her common search journey with Joshua that Dora was spiritually baptized.
3
At the beginning of the film, Joshua's mother believes in Dora instead of his father; Joshua does not believe in Dora but believes in his father. The two are in stark contrast. At the end of the film, we learn that it was Joshua's mother who left his father, left his country home, and went to a strange city. And eventually, Joshua returned from the city to the countryside, to his home, to the brethren. There is an old Chinese saying that no one is a sage, who can be blameless, and if he changes it, he will be very good. In the film, Dora used to be a casual, cold and selfish person. But she did not blindly sink, but chose to look for another possibility. Although she was not sure at first, and even wanted to give up in the middle, after all, because of a trace of conscience and a little responsibility, she accompanied the little boy all the way, and finally obtained spiritual awareness and spiritual conversion. In fact, for both Dora and Joshua, this journey is not an end, but a new beginning. For they, including Moses and Isaiah, were still in a state of waiting.
But "Central Station" is different from "Waiting for Godot", in both works, although the characters have expectations, the father who the former is waiting for is Jesus, while the latter waits for no one. Of course, for many, Jesus is only the Savior of Christians, not the God of the whole world. But if a person claims to have faith, or is willing to have faith, but does not accept explicit faith, then he can only be a person who waits for Godot. What is the difference between a person who Godot is or when Godot will come, and who is confused and confused all day, and Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot?
We live in an age of lack of faith and spiritual nihilism, and the reason we say "God is dead" is because we have already killed God in our hearts. It was we, not others, who crucified God on the cross. As Nietzsche said through the mouth of the "madman": "God is dead!" God is really dead! We killed him,...... You and I, we are both murderers! There is a passage in the New Testament John that says, "The light came into the world, and the world, because its works were evil, did not love the light but loved the darkness, and it was here that they were condemned." He who does evil hates the light, but does not come to the light, lest he be blamed for his deeds. But the one who does the truth will necessarily be the light, to show that what he does is to walk by God. Man cannot believe in God because he refuses to confess his sins. But he who humbles and repents will be saved, and he who trusts sincerely will see God. As the New Testament Gospel of Matthew says, "Blessed are those who are humble, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs." In the film, it is Dora's repentance and Joshua's faith that allows them to find a spiritual home and a spiritual home.