A few friends told me that Aftershock 2010 directed by Feng Xiaogang is a very good movie, or at least it's the top selling movie in 2010. Like directors Akira Kurosawa and Steven Spielberg, Feng Xiaogang is one of my favorite directors and I watched almost every movie he directed.
The movie, Aftershock, used the Tangshan earthquake as background. The Tangshan earthquake took place more than 34 years ago. It was one of the largest natural disasters of the 20th century, a 7.8 earthquake with an epicenter in a city of 1.6 million people, followed by an aftershock that also reached 7.8 less than a day later. The official death toll is over 240,000, though many estimates have it as high as 700,000.
Though I was still a child that time, I remembered that when my father returned from one of his sea voyage (he was an assistant pilot for cargo vessel who traveled far), I was taken to his vessel and met with one of his colleague, whose hometown was from Tangshan. The man looked very sad and he did not really talked much. When my father and I was going to leave the vessel, he stood up and thanked my father of supporting him all these days. Only later I learned that his wife and his teenage boy were both killed in the earthquake, luckily, his parents, who lived outside of the city center, survived. At that age, I didn't really feel the pain of this man, but years come and go, whenever people mentioned Tangshan, I remembered this man, or more precisely, I remembered his sad face. Now that I have encountered death and now that I experienced the love and care by others, I start to feel the sadness of this man. It's 34 years later that I learned and knew the feeling of this man.
I probably won't say much to the man, even if I knew what to say then (34 years ago). I think I would just sit quietly with the man, possibly hold his hands, give him a hug, or even cried with him. A drop of tear is heavier than a thousand words and I prefer to stay silent, or you can call it peaceful!
No comments:
Post a Comment