From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Dazzling and overwhelming—

The movie, like a rapidly spinning light gyroscope, with its multicolored halo forming a vortex of light and shadow, engulfs everyone in the Angelica Film Center, causing them to lose their bearings in illusion, memory, and reality, as imagination freely traverses boundaries and walls.

The film disrupts the timeline, interweaving the past, present, and future, while also breaking down spatial barriers, oscillating between reality and memory.

Meanwhile, Stan and Patrick, two employees from Lacuna, Inc., arrive at Joel's apartment to begin selectively deleting Clementine's memories from Joel's mind.

Patrick, the employee who has been concealing his true face, finally reveals himself as the baby-faced man who knocked on Joel's car window at the beginning of the movie; clearly, Patrick dislikes Joel, constantly attacking and criticizing Joel's apartment, attempting to belittle him.

Intermittently and fragmented, Patrick and Stan's conversation breaks through the barrier of the "memory erasing machine," echoing like a voice-over in Joel's memory world; Patrick finally reveals the answer:

He fell in love with Clementine while erasing her memories.

Therefore, he took advantage of Clementine's vulnerability, seizing the opportunity to fill the void, and began dating her; he is the "new boyfriend" hidden in the shadows when Joel went to Barnes \u0026 Noble to find Clementine.

All the clues are now connected.

On the other hand, Joel enters his own memory, selectively filtering memories in a retrospective manner, deleting all memories related to Clementine.

First, Lacuna, Inc., after all, he went to Lacuna, Inc. because of Clementine; the memories of Stan, Mary, and the doctor are all erased.

Then, the last memory before Clementine disappeared on the eve of Valentine's Day, which was also the night Clementine left in a fit of pique and chose to completely erase Joel.

Clementine appears, sporting a bright hairstyle between orange and pink, but looking dirty and greasy, like a withered mop, drunkenly collapsing on the sofa, telling Joel that she scratched his car—

The deep scratch on the car door, wasn't from a neighbor, but the marks left by Clementine driving close to the bollard when parking.

Gasp!

A collective exclamation rises from the Angelica Film Center, including Blair.

What if the scratch on the car door that Joel saw at the beginning of the movie wasn't the first thing that happened, but occurred after the two broke up and both Clementine and Joel had their memories erased?

Wait, wait, how should the timeline be arranged?

Blair has no time to think deeply; she has been completely drawn into this temporal storm, like a tiny being standing on Earth, gazing up at the entire universe.

Karen looks at Blair, her face full of confusion: obviously, she hasn't kept up with the pace, but she can't be blamed, because the amount of information is truly too vast and overwhelming, flooding her brain all at once, making it difficult to process.

Moreover, the movie is clearly deliberately disrupting the order—

The camera focuses on Stan and Patrick for a moment, then on Joel the next; sometimes the present Joel appears in the past memory space, coexisting with the past Joel, and sometimes Joel, immersed in his memory, can hear the voice-over interference of Stan and Patrick's conversation.

Memory and reality intertwine, the present and the past run in parallel, and the rapid editing and switching completely disrupt the order of time and space; the amount of detail is even more explosive, causing the entire world to spin rapidly, making it difficult to follow.

Blair gently patted Karen's knee, signaling her to be patient and watch the movie first.

Focusing all her attention, even a slight distraction could cause her to miss the key points.

Joel and Clementine had an argument.

Joel is angry, not because Clementine damaged the car, nor because Clementine came home at three in the morning, nor even because Clementine's drunk driving could harm others and herself, but because of Clementine's undisciplined and indulgent lifestyle; the differences between them are gradually widening.

Clementine exposes him, he's worried she might have someone else.

Joel calms down instead, and says calmly with a disappointed tone, "See, Clem, I assume you hooked up with someone tonight, isn't that how you usually get people to like you?"

The whole place is silent.

Even Karen covers her mouth, because that's how Joel and Clementine fell in love; Clementine invited Joel home for drinks late at night, even inviting Joel to stay overnight, but now it has become Joel's weapon to attack Clementine, he thinks she is a promiscuous woman.

Time, at this moment, presses the pause button.

On the big screen, there is silence, neither Joel nor Clementine moves, not even making eye contact.

Outside the big screen, there is silence, only the roar of engines rushing past on both sides; the rough, grainy picture inexplicably makes people feel sad.

One second it's happiness and sweetness, a pounding heart and a flutter of excitement; the next second it's a late-night argument, hurting each other in a bloody manner.

How exactly did they get to this point?

Then, Joel returns to the river of memory, following Stan's operation, retrospectively reviewing their arguments, their alienation, their frictions, those insignificant trivial matters that had long been buried in daily life, releasing signals, causing them to gradually drift apart.

Moreover, it's not just that.

Clementine wants to get married and have children, she wants to have a future; but Joel doesn't think they are ready, Clementine doesn't think so.

"You're not ready."

This makes Joel pause for a moment, "Do you really think you can take care of a child?"

As soon as the words are spoken, it ignites the powder keg, and the two begin arguing in Chinatown.

However, not everything is a disaster.

Going back in time a little, there are fewer arguments and more sweetness.

Joel still remembers the day Clementine dyed her hair orange, Clementine was so happy, spreading her arms and dancing in the room, like a child who owns the whole world.

That day, after a vigorous session of exercise, they lay in the quilt, like children hiding in a quilt castle, owning a small world of their own.

"Joel, am I ugly?"

Joel still remembers the fragility and insecurity in Clementine's eyes, the sunlight penetrating the quilt, the warm orange light falling on her face; but he felt like he saw an angel.