SONG OF SPRING 阿尔茨海默症让65岁的她重新成为女儿 [真实影像×VICE]

“阿尔茨海默症让65岁的她重新成为女儿”，刊登于VICE。

This Director Is Giving China’s Elderly Women the Spotlight

阿尔茨海默症让65岁的她重新成为女儿

Writer: Pan Qianyi / Translator: Koh Ewe / Editor: Lu Jialin

"SONG OF SPRING" TELLS THE STORY OF A 65-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WHO STARTS TO LOSE HERSELF TO ALZHEIMER'S, WHILE HER 85-YEAR-OLD MOTHER ASSUMES THE HEAVY RESPONSIBILITY OF CARING FOR HER AGAIN. PHOTO: COURTESY OF REAL IMAGE MEDIA COLLECTION

Feng Jizhen, a retired physics professor turned volunteer sanitation worker, has long grown into a life of asceticism and discipline, never taking a day off even during the worst weather. The 65-year-old, who is also the sole caregiver of her aged mother, thrived in her routine—that is, until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which threatened to turn her into an entirely different person. 

Soon, Feng finds herself with a failing memory, grappling with intense feelings of self-loathing, unprecedented waves of agitation, and even violent tendencies towards her mother. In the face of her daughter’s debilitating condition, 85-year-old Jiang Yuzhi, once frail and timid, takes on the task of a fearless caregiver in a stunning role reversal.

Song of Spring, a film by Chinese director Yang Lina, tells the story of this mother-daughter pair whose lives take on a new glow during Feng’s losing battle against Alzheimer’s.

In the film, stricken with dementia, Feng appears at times dazed and numb, and at other moments, intensely agitated. Her diagnosis has also severely impacted her mother.

“I feel like motherhood is full of complex emotions,” said Yang, who compares human motherhood to that of salmon, a species that expends so much of its energy birthing children that they die shortly after spawning. Through the film, Yang hopes to raise awareness about the challenges of being an elderly woman in China while caring for a debilitated child.

But despite Feng and Jiang’s tragic circumstances in the film, Yang thinks that it’s still possible to see the silver lining in their uphill battle. In one of Feng’s hallucinating episodes, she blurted out a cryptic message to her mother: “Mom is the ocean, I'm a drop of water, and dad is a whale that can't swim.” The child-like metaphor was a glimpse into her inner world, where the love of her mother is represented by a vast ocean surrounding her. In the film, the sea is also a key motif for the pair’s relationship, making appearances at the most significant moments of their interaction.

THE SEA IS A KEY MOTIF FOR THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP IN "SONG OF SPRING." PHOTO: COURTESY OF REAL IMAGE MEDIA COLLECTION

Besides the emotional exploration of family ties, Yang said that the characters in Song of Spring are also a tribute to a tragic generation of Chinese intellectuals who have emerged from historical trauma. Feng’s family of intellectuals—her mother a Chinese language teacher and her late father an archaeologist—represents some of the prime targets of Maoists before and during the Cultural Revolution, where educated individuals were persecuted for their links to privilege.

“As the cornerstone for a civilized society, cinema has to look back at these female intellectuals. The movie is a tribute to the old generation of intellectuals,” said Yang.

Song of Spring is the last in Yang's trilogy of women-centric films. Longing for the Rain, the first of the trilogy, premiered in 2013 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam but was banned from release in China for its theme of female sexual desire. The second film, Spring Tide, which told the story of three generations of women, found its way to an audience through streaming media in 2019. Water, a prominent motif for the fates of the three protagonists in Spring Tide, makes a similar reappearance in Song of Spring. 

While the trilogy was filmed over the span of a decade, Yang has maintained a strong focus on women’s issues—from their work life to family relationships, sex, marriage, and death. 

“I am loyal to feminism,” Yang said of her choice to produce predominantly women-centric films. “I don’t mind at all being defined as a feminist director. I tell the story of women’s lives, I gladly accept that.”

“Under the East Asian society’s scrutiny of women, from the love lives of older women to marriage, I think we need more tolerance, focusing on these women’s inner world and real lives.”

In partnership with Real Image Media Collection.

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This Director Is Giving China’s Elderly Women the Spotlight

阿尔茨海默症让65岁的她重新成为女儿

Vice In partnership with Real Image Media Collection. 

真实影像甄选

“前两天跟爸爸打电话，听他说起鲑鱼的繁殖过程。这种鱼类每到繁殖期，就会溯河洄游几千公里，回到故乡产卵。而在排卵结束后，则会毫不犹豫地跃进巨大落差的瀑布。”在中文里，“鲑鱼”与“归鱼”同音，它们返回出生的河流仿佛出于一种本能与宿命。“鲑鱼产卵之后的向死而生，让我觉得母性的情感是复杂多样的，人类的繁衍生息与世界万物都是相通的。”导演杨荔钠的作品《妈妈！》正讲述了家庭故事的普世价值所在。

《妈妈！》（Song of Spring）是杨荔钠作为编剧和导演的最新一部作品，讲述85岁母亲蒋玉芝和65岁女儿冯济真共同生活。因为年幼对父亲的去世负有责任，女儿常年抱着愧疚过着近似出家人般清规戒律的生活与母亲相依为命过了几十年，直到阿尔茨海默病的出现把她变成了另一个人。在患病的日子里，年迈的母亲付出顽强的生命力重新担负起照顾女儿的重任，时光仿佛慢慢回溯到以前，妈妈和女儿两个生命在这进程中彼此成全与辉映。

电影在一对中老年母女间展开，围绕她们的身体、生活与思考为主体，这在中国电影里较为少见，尤其在院线电影中。两位女主人物背景设定上，导演在剧本创作阶段就刻意设定为老一代的高等知识分子，他们从民国走来，经历过国家重要的发展历程，以及建国后公序的混乱与重建，镜头所呈现老年母女俩看似最日常的生活，隐藏着过去的历史给他们带来的伤害与深痛。但曾经的高等教育经历与家庭教育传承在这对中老年母女身上并未被抹去，甚至清晰可见。而且母女更以给早逝父亲曾经的科学考古日记手稿整理出书为共同目标。“1982上映的影片《人到中年》（People at Their Middle Ages）就曾聚焦于当时的女性知识分子。作为文明社会的基石，影像有必要回望她们的身影，电影也是为了向上一代知识分子致敬。”，导演提到。

《妈妈！》不止表现出主人公身上应有的语言习惯与精神样貌，更聚焦在此年龄段女性普遍有的心理与生活困境。电影中患有阿尔茨海默症的女儿呆滞和麻木、狂躁与愤怒像一根针扎进亲人的心里，疾病的尖锐无法避免。每个家庭都有独属于家人的默契，影片中父亲虽然缺席却也一直在母女的精神世界中，存在于女儿和父亲间的往事回忆，存在于女儿和母亲在餐桌前打三下响指的仪式感，存在于女儿的日夜所梦，甚至出现在失智后的幻觉中。但从阿尔茨海默症确诊的那一刻开始，亲情在疾病面前就已不能两全。阿尔茨海默症的过程与人类的发育方向相反，患者逐渐失去人格和才能，以完全依赖他人而告终。疾病蚕食着患者的寿命与家庭的精力，让世间最亲密的人失去联系，早已宣布输赢，却必须踏上跑道。这种角色与故事的悲剧性，家庭关系中的遗憾和无奈，在杨荔钠看来同样是很珍贵的东西。女儿发病时的幻觉，说着平时不会说的话，这并不是偶然的，而是她内心世界的一个写照或愿望，是自我的实现，也是和父母的联系。

电影《妈妈！》的原名叫《春歌》，是杨荔钠“春之系列”的第三部收官之作。2013年的《春梦》（Longing for the Rain）在鹿特丹国际电影节首映，而后作为少有的华语作品获得金虎奖提名。作为一部纯作者向电影，《春梦》现实而大胆，从中文来看，片名即故事。“春梦”作为线索贯穿全片，通过女性的情欲，最终探讨女性世界的精神问题，无关宏大叙事，只关心人，关心生命本身。但因为涉及性相关的敏感话题，在中国内地无缘公映，甚至无法在内地网络上找到观看途径。

6年后，杨荔钠的《春潮》（Spring Tide）通过流媒体与观众见面，相比前一部的直白与大胆，《春潮》仍未脱开现实的身，却在更在逼仄的空间中采用了相对克制的镜头语言，讲述了祖孙三代的血脉联系，与时代隔阂下原生家庭的疏离。从不避开亲密关系间的矛盾，是杨荔钠一直以来创作的本能与习惯。有观众曾在《春梦》的映后提问，片中的裸露镜头是否可以克制一些，她不予置评。让必要的表达顺其自然地发生，这在东亚的社会评价体系下并不容易，即使《春梦》无法上映，她还是会做出同样的选择。

杨荔钠少年学习舞蹈，做过舞蹈演员，也曾在话剧团担任戏剧演员，之后自己开始拍纪录片，拍自己眼睛看到的。她的纪录片《老头》（Old men）在中国当代纪录片史上占有重要一席，曾获得日本山形纪录片电影节亚洲新浪潮优秀奖、巴黎真实电影节评委会奖。

曾经的演员经历，也成为她在《妈妈！》剧本阶段的创作动力，“我很想为这个年龄段的女性演员写出这样的戏剧。”一直以来，她对自己的创作不疾不徐，坚持态度，陆陆续续拍过多部纪录片与剧情片，她认为不同类型片子适合的工作方式不同，会相信团队的建议。从春之系列”的第一部《春潮》（2013）的被禁，第二部《春潮》由于全球疫情电影院关闭，只能通过流媒体与观众见面，到第三部《妈妈！》（2022）的全国院线播放，10年走来，她很清楚中国电影市场生态的艰难，也很清楚疫情前后世界的落差。“在任何时期，任何情况下，每一部能出品的片子，自己都很珍惜。相对剧情片，纪录片相对自由，我的摄影机也是我的一支笔，我还是能完成自己作品的创作。”春之系列创作横跨几乎十年的时间，三部作品风格各异，但始终聚焦女性主题。导演关注女性的成长、生活、工作、家庭、情欲、婚姻、疾病、衰老、死亡，几乎是女性的一生。被问到如何保持热情并且在创作中一以贯之？“我对女性主义保有忠诚”，这是她给出的回答。

电影中女儿有一句台词“妈妈是大海，我是大海里的一滴水，爸爸是不会游泳的鲸鱼。”大海是她们的精神家园，海浪象征母爱的力量也代表人生的浪潮，她们在海边跳舞回到了人之初学走路的时候，生命本来就是轮回重来，反之大海也同样以她的胸怀拥抱世间所有热爱她的生灵。这成为《妈妈！》的结尾，同样的意象也在《春潮》中出现过。水流、湖泊、盲人口中的大海，以及同样作为结尾的奔涌向前的水流，主角追逐水流，奔向湖泊，虽在整片中显得些许魔幻，但也表现出冰凛过后，《春潮》涌动，怀有柔软，抱有希望，也代表老中青三代女性间的传承与希望。

回看自己“春之系列”三部以女性为主题的电影，她认为这并不是一个终结，恰恰是一个开始，更像一个延续，因为在自己未来所有的创作中，她的影像也不会离开女性世界。面对社会舆论场对女性议题的讨论或排斥，杨荔钠没有犹豫：“我完全不介意自己被定义一个女性导演，我就是在讲述女性的命运，我完全乐意接受，在男权社会中做个女导演挺好的。”即使社会意识与形态已有不少进步，但不可否认的是，女性仍然需要更多的关注。“女性不是在争夺一个强话语权，在东亚社会对女性的审视下，无论是对女性中老年时期对恋爱的向往或是结婚的看法，我觉得更多需要一种宽容，不浮于表面，更多专注她们的内心世界，她们的真实生活。”

《妈妈！》目前已在中国内地院线收获约7500万的票房，聊到下一步计划，杨荔钠还想延续经历继续拍关阿尔茨海默症疾病的纪录片，让社会更多关注到他们。另外计划中的剧情片会讲述婚姻、妻子、姐妹，“婚姻关系里的权力关系、话语权关系、孩子的抚养等等，我想这也是一个很永恒的话题，婚姻关系里面所面临的所有问题，然后我觉得都可以探讨，都可以被重复拿出来讨论。”