One,
In the ancient myth of China, people will walk on the road of death. There is a river on the road called Forgetting River, and the bridge on the river is called Naihe Bridge. After crossing the Naihe Bridge, an old woman is selling Meng Po soup. After drinking Meng Po Tang, you will forget everything in your past life and be reborn again. What you experienced in your previous life will be recorded on the Sansheng stone beside the Forgotten River.
From the day of birth, human beings have been thinking about life and death, hoping that they can live forever. Later, I found it impossible to live forever, so I pinned my hopes on the afterlife. Whether it is an earlier myth or a later religion, their theories are almost all based on this life, the afterlife and reincarnation. So the gap between death and reincarnation gives people a lot of imagination. What are people doing these days?
In China mythology, there is a saying called Naiheqiao Meng Po Hall, so in Japan, there is a transit station in the kingdom of heaven.
Next Stop, Heaven tells the story of a transit station in heaven. The author is Hirokazu Koreeda, a famous Japanese contemporary director. Hirokazu Koreeda/Kloc-0 was born in Tokyo in 1962, and/Kloc-0 graduated from Waseda University in 1987. After graduation, I entered a TV production company, starting with making documentaries. 1995, he finished his first film "Magic Light" and began to make his mark in the international film industry. Next Stop, Paradise is the second film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, and the novel of the same name is his first novel.
Hirokazu Koreeda entered the film and television circle from the documentary, so he used many documentary techniques in this Next Stop, Paradise. For example, the characters in the book communicate one-on-one in chronological order every day, and the way of communication looks like a talk show, so the story moves forward in the questions and answers of the interactive parties.
Second,
The story told in Next Stop, Heaven takes place in a transit station leading to heaven, which is a fictional place of the author. After death, people will come here first, and with the help of the staff, in three days, they will choose the most precious memories in their lives and shoot them into video materials to stay. After that, people's other memories will be completely erased and they can only go to heaven with this only memory.
Those who have not been selected in these three days will stay here and become the staff of the paradise transit station to help everyone who has passed away find the most precious memories. Some of the staff here have worked for decades, and some have just arrived here. But no matter how long they stay here, they will keep their age and appearance after death.
The transit station in heaven is like the Naihe Bridge. Once it is over, it is another life. The only difference is that you can be reborn with a little memory of past lives. If a person is afraid of making mistakes in memory, or is anxious about making choices, then there will be videos recording all their experiences in his life, just like a resume engraved on the stone of life. In other words, in the transit station of the kingdom of heaven, you can watch yourself from birth to death and relive all the joys and sorrows of the past. It's like watching your own biographical movie.
Third,
What is your most precious memory? What moment in life can make people want to miss even in the next life? These people who have just died are very different in age and experience. Faced with the choice of memory, some people are happy and angry, some people are happy and some people are silent, and some people are at a loss. But in the end, they all accepted the reality. Some people quickly choose their most precious memories, some people hesitate, and some people even refuse to choose directly.
Hirokazu Koreeda's greatness lies in that he said so many different things, but in fact there is only one real intention, that is, how to face everything in front of him after reading this book. Because this may be the most precious memory in the future. Let readers see the preciousness of life from the side of death.
In "Next Stop, Paradise", Hirokazu Koreeda also hides a selfishness, that is, the importance of secretly transmitting video materials to people, thus turning the transit station in heaven into a simple film shooting scene.
Here, people's lives are preserved in the form of videos, one a year. A person's life is like a movie, life is a movie, and a movie is life. The most precious memories people choose will be re-filmed.
There are directors, props, costumes and so on. At the transit point in heaven. It may not be as good as the blockbuster production, but the staff here are very dedicated. They will communicate with the protagonist before shooting, and the staff will be willing to be a supporting role and a green leaf when necessary, and try their best to satisfy all the wishes of the people who are about to go to heaven. And movie clips become eternal existence, not only in this life, but also in the future.
So at the end of the novel, a young man gave up his choice and was willing to stay in the transit station in heaven, while a staff member who stayed here for 50 years finally made up his mind to take his working experience in the transit station in heaven as his most precious memory and cherish it forever.
"Next Stop, Paradise" pinned the author's loyalty and love for his career, leaving readers a space to think about life and sowing a piece of hope. People who love life might as well go to the movies more. Peeping into life and finding yourself in movies is a wonderful experience.