Film Review 18 Gifts: Seeing You Through Time And Space

      From "Hello, Li Huanying", which broke many film viewing records in succession, to "little mother", the touching "little mother" in the main competition of Berlin Film Festival, and "Eighteen gifts", which won many nominations of Italian David award in 2020, directors all over the world have used the "crossing" technique to describe the deep feelings and fetters between the two generations. If "Hello, Li Huanying" is a daughter's affectionate look back on her mother's past and the background of her era, while "little mother" examines the mental process of women's life in the way of returning to childhood, then the "Eighteen gifts" is a more melodrama narrative style, in which Anna, who has lost her mother since her birth, can, after an accident, Return to the origin of their own life and complete the blood reconciliation with her imaginary mother Eliza.

      At the beginning of the movie, 40 year old pregnant woman Eliza accidentally discovers that she has cancer during an examination. Although she can save her fetus, her own life will be in danger after childbirth. She was in great pain. In order to be able to accompany her as much as possible, she began to prepare gifts for her daughter's every birthday before she was an adult in the last days of her life. It was a time-consuming and labor-consuming project, and it became Eliza's last wish before she died. Because she knows that her daughter will eventually feel the love from her mother in a strange way in her most rebellious period.

        Although the film is called "Eighteen gifts", it is not rigidly attached to the mother's meticulous process. After a brief introduction to the background of the story, the film leaps forward to the time when Eliza is no longer alive, and the girl she gave birth to has grown up gradually. Although she lived in a loving family, Anna was troubled by the lack of her mother. On her 18th birthday, the conflict between her and her father escalated, and eventually she left home. The angry Anna met with a car accident on the way to the tunnel entrance, and the bright and dim expressway was like an umbilical cord leading to the wooden ladder, which brought it to the moment of meeting her mother Eliza again. Then, with a lot of shock and surprise, she met her parents 18 years ago - the same block, the same house, the same family. Anna, like an omniscient spectator, examines the hardships of her mother's pregnancy in September and accompanies her to meet the arrival of death. In the process of getting along and waiting, Anna gradually understands her mother's behavior, enjoys the parent-child time she never had, and naturally participates in the process of her mother preparing her birthday gifts. In the meditation, she gradually put down her resentment and touched the emotion that has been deliberately avoided.

      As a popular film, "Eighteen gifts" is full of brain power in the narrative structure. For the traversal plot, who goes through? When to cross? In what era? It is often quite a test of the writer's skill. This film can be said to be watertight in the plot setting, the audience with Anna came to the past, to see Eliza is about to give birth. The relationship between the two is not broken, from tension to mutual recognition, every small progress affects people's hearts. Especially when the scenes of choosing gifts and exploding apple rings before crossing reappear, the audience in front of the screen finally felt the relief of "waiting for more than ten years to finally solve the mystery".

      The story of rebirth of the dead represents the director's wish for a better and lasting life. At the end of the film, the audience is clearly informed that this Italian woman who is still tirelessly preparing 18 birthday gifts for her daughter despite her serious illness once existed. The director uses this story to praise the mother's love, and the film itself has become a tool to lead people through time and space to reproduce the great mother once was. However, after being moved by a snot and a tear, what the film leaves to the audience is not much more than the appropriate sensationalism. The reason may be that we have seen so many selfless and great mothers who have the spirit of self sacrifice. We also hope that they can have a wonderful and satisfying life, instead of devoting all their energies to others unconditionally, even her dearest daughter. In this sense, perhaps the "Eighteen gifts" can make the audience cry in two hours of viewing time with its exquisite structure, but it is still the most mediocre and routine film.