From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Silence, utter silence—

Quietly watching the villa crumble and vanish into ashes.

Quietly watching Joel and Clementine's memories be swallowed by sand and seawater, finally fading into darkness, the happy, the sad, the joyful, the quarrelsome, all without exception, disappearing frame by frame.

No sound, no music, complete silence.

Before my eyes, this magnificence and grandeur, yet so quiet it's frightening.

The Angelika Film Center is not quiet, because it's an open-air screening, the roar of engines coming and going, and the hustle and bustle of the subway entrance are constant, but those trivial sounds only further highlight the silence here.

In the small space surrounded by tall buildings, they are witnessing a destruction.

No wonder Joel didn't want Clementine to enter the villa and pry into his shame.

Because Joel is always annoyed, always regretful, he is not as open and sincere as Clementine, he doesn't even dare to face his own emotions truthfully.

Standing in front of Clementine, he feels so small.

Humans are actually a pathetic kind of animal, those angers, those hatreds, those distortions and grimaces, those violences and attacks inflicted on others, often stem from not daring to face the true self.

Fragile. Insignificant. Humble. Ugly. Dirty. Lowly.

The more one dares not face oneself, the more one tends to project one's darkness onto others, and then, in the name of justice, wields the knife against the weak, against the people they love deeply, and against the people who love them deeply.

Joel doesn't dare to face himself.

So he pushes Clementine away, so after Clementine erases her memory, he impulsively does things he would never try, so he strictly hides his inferiority in that villa.

Until everything vanishes into ashes.

Mouth full of bitterness, but unable to cry out.

That magnificence, that grandeur, that helplessness and bitterness, permeated the entire venue.

In the air, Blair could hear the sound of her own heart breaking.

She had a premonition that this was a tragedy, but the way the film was presented was so absurd and cheerful that it created a brief illusion, always feeling like it was a comedy, and then, without paying attention, the core of the tragedy suddenly and fiercely struck the heart when they were unprepared.

Unable to breathe.

When the world is collapsing, there is often no sound.

If even the parts of the memory about that villa all disappear, does that mean everything is wiped clean, leaving nothing behind?

Everything, in silence, fades into darkness.

The camera turns, it's already dawn, Dr. Howard finishes all his work, packs up his tools, and leaves Joel's apartment; he and Stan try to talk and communicate, but no one knows what to say about last night.

In the end, they give up.

However, without thinking too much, he gets up anyway.

In an instant, a surge of commotion erupted at the Angelika Film Center.

Not only Blair, but Karen also realized:

A loop!

This scene is strikingly the beginning of the movie, the beginning and end of the movie forming a perfect echo, although the amount of information is huge, the brain can't sort out the thoughts for a while; but those incomprehensible plots finally found an echo, goosebumps immediately started popping out like crazy.

Especially when Joel arrives at the parking lot and sees the dent in the car door, but shows a confused expression, and finally chooses to blame the neighbor next door for leaving a "Thank You" note in his windshield wiper, he can't help but smile.

Joel opens the car door, Stan closes the car door.

When Stan returns to Lacuna, Inc., he happens to see Mary packing up her things and leaving, Stan immediately chases after her.

“…If I were you, I'd come back.” Stan was too flustered, he didn't even know what he was babbling about.

Mary, “You swear you don’t know anything?”

Stan, “I swear.” Without a second of hesitation.

Mary, “So you didn’t erase your memory?”

Stan, “Of course not!”

Mary, “You never even suspected we were dating?”

Phew.

Letting out a long breath, Stan's eyes flickered slightly, “Once, maybe.”

But in the end, Stan still looked into Mary's eyes, “I came back from work, you were in his car, I saw you chatting, I waved to you, you even smiled at me.”

Mary showed a little confusion, “How did I look?”

Stan's expression was a little conflicted, “You looked happy. Happy for hiding a secret.”

Mary, “And then?”

Stan, “I never saw you two together again. So, I don’t know, I figured it was just me overthinking things.”

Mary glanced at Stan, her expression complex, but in the end, she didn't say anything, and continued to walk away with her briefcase.

And at the train station, Joel impulsively, inexplicably, suddenly left the platform, frantically rushing towards the train across the platform heading to Montauk, squeezing into the train at the last moment.

The seemingly dull and nonsensical plot at the beginning of the movie is now staged again, bringing a completely different feeling, the audience's hearts rise high along with the hem of Joel's flying coat and his running steps.

They haven't forgotten, before the villa crumbled, Joel and Clementine's final farewell, Clementine left a sentence in Joel's mind:

“Meet me in Montauk.”

A seed, a thought, also a hope.

Stan is saying goodbye to Mary, “I really like you, Mary, you know that?”

Mary looked at Stan with a sad and lost expression.

But Stan didn't wait for Mary's response, handed over the handbag that Mary had left in Joel's apartment last night, and then turned and left.

Mary put her things in the trunk of her car, the camera kept aiming at Mary's trunk, which made the audience involuntarily look over.

That is… folders and tapes. Many, many folders and tapes.

Wait, what folders and what tapes?

The camera turns, Joel and Clementine finish their all-night date, Joel takes Clementine home, Clementine says she's going to Joel's place to sleep.

Clementine goes upstairs to get a toothbrush, then Patrick knocks on Joel's car window.

At home, Clementine turns on the answering machine, Patrick is confessing his love deeply, he is trying his best to save this budding love, but he doesn't know that this love has never even started.

When leaving, Clementine casually picks up the letters, returns to Joel's car, and the two set off again.

The entire venue, attention is highly focused—

Because at the beginning of the movie, this plot was staged here, and the next second it was directly and forcibly switched to the plot of Joel crying bitterly after Joel and Clementine broke up.

And now, people have understood—at least some of the audience have understood, and some of the audience are confused because it's too brain-burning, from the timeline, this is Joel and Clementine's third encounter, that is, the reunion after the two broke up and had their memories erased.

Ahead, everything is unknown.