This director is vindictive.

Chapter 167 Death is tears and crying, and silence after the funeral
The funeral shop of the seventh family.

It has been several days since his father passed away.

That day, Chen Mo made an appointment with Lao Qi, and they met in his shop.

"You are such a busy man, but you actually have time to take the initiative to look for me for tea and chat. It's strange!" Lao Qi teased with a smile.

"I really came here for work this time." Chen Mo said with a smile.

"Work matters? What do you mean?" Lao Qi was a little surprised.

"I want to make a movie about funerals, and I came to you for advice." Chen Mo said with a smile.

When Old Seven heard this, his eyes lit up and he asked, "Something like 'Departures'?"

Chen Mo nodded and said, "Yes, how about using you as the prototype?"

Lao Qi shook his head and said, "Not so good! My kind is too weird. Don't you guys focus on making movies that appeal to the masses?"

"Our industry has been misunderstood enough, so please don't let people misunderstand us even more." Lao Qi said with a wry smile.

"Movies are originally based on life but are higher than life. I think it would be quite good to film your story." Chen Mo really thought so.

After returning home that day, he began to recall the films "Departures" and "Life Events" that he had watched in his previous life. He actually preferred the narrative style of the former.

In Chen Mo's opinion, Lao Qi's deeds are actually quite interesting.

He wanted to make a movie about funeral themes, and Lao Qi is a real person. Although his story is rather bizarre, his existence is reasonable!

The key point is that Chen Mo finds it quite interesting to interpret the topic of death and funeral from Lao Qi's special experience and perspective.

The angle is definitely novel enough.

"Okay, you are the director, you have the final say. I don't have any objection. What do you want to know?" Lao Qi asked with a smile.

"Just say it casually." Chen Mo said with a smile.

"Then let me tell you about some of the things I encountered." Lao Qi said after thinking for a while.

"Of course. It would be best if it's something you think is special. Maybe it will be put on the big screen." Chen Mo also said.

"Let me think about it! I got it. I remember the first time I took on a client who wanted a one-stop nursing home and funeral service. When I received the call and went to see him at the nursing home, how should I say it? I was quite confused." Lao Qi recalled, with a rather strange smile on his face.

"You know, even though the people who come to us are all alive, we're doing business with the dead. I mean, business with people who are already dead. Most of the time, it's commissioned by their families, children, and the like.

That was the first time I received a commission from a living person.

That old man lived in a nursing home. At first, I actually thought he was a lonely old man.

But it turned out not to be the case. On the contrary, he had two children, grandchildren, and a whole family."

Lao Qi’s words also made Chen Mo curious.

"Since he has children, grandchildren and relatives, why did he ask you to take care of him in his old age and see him to the end of his life?" Chen Mo was puzzled.

"Are the children unfilial?" Chen Mo asked suddenly.

"I thought so at first," said Lao Qi.

"But what's the result? Yes and no!" Lao Qi said strangely.

"Tell me in detail!" Chen Mo became interested.

"You might say the children are unfilial, but they have never been short of money in providing for their father's retirement. They even arranged for him to stay in a high-end nursing home, paying several thousand yuan a month.

But speaking of filial piety, I heard from people in the nursing home that his children have never visited him once.

Later I found out that all this was actually the old man’s own fault!
The old man's wife was accidentally beaten to death by him, and he was sent to jail for this. When he was released, his children had grown up, started their own families, and were doing well.

The old man has been seeking forgiveness from his children, but how could his children forgive him after what happened?
The old man felt very guilty towards his children. He had been living alone until he was sent to a nursing home. Although his children were unwilling to forgive him, they still fulfilled their responsibility to support him.

He just wanted them to be there for him until his death, but that was unlikely.

This is why the old man came to me. He said he didn't want to die without anyone to mourn him. He knew he had let his children down and didn't expect them to forgive him, but he just wanted someone to see him off when he left."

"I really dislike that old man. After all, he is not a good person.

When he was young, he was addicted to alcohol and gambling, and liked to beat his wife when he was drunk. His children were still willing to support him, which they thought was the most they could do.

But, the money they offered was indeed quite a lot, and the person was about to die, so the dead are the greatest. So I took the job.

His funeral was quite sad, to be honest. The old man had the foresight to have his children come, but his biological children stood by with blank expressions while I, his fake grandson, burst into tears in the mourning hall. To be honest, it was so awkward.

"Honestly, after working in this industry for so many years, I've seen so much, so much that I feel like I've become numb. In fact, the most painful thing is not those who die of old age, but those who see their loved ones die.

Especially the children, eh!" Old Seven suddenly sighed.

"Anything else? Say a few more." Chen Mo asked Lao Qi to continue while recording.

Old Seven's mouth was dry as he spoke, and he said unhappily, "Hey, Director, what are you asking me to do? You didn't even offer to pour me some tea!"

Chen Mo quickly said, "Okay, you tell me, I'll make tea!"

He made tea while listening to Lao Qi continue talking.

"There's another one that left a particularly deep impression on me. It's about being someone's son or grandson. I've taken on this kind of job many times, so it's not uncommon. But have you ever heard of being someone's husband?" asked the seventh brother.

"Pfft, be someone's husband?" Chen Mo looked confused.

"Yes! To be someone's husband and see his wife off." said the seventh brother.

"You take this kind of job?" Chen Mo was speechless.

"Why not take it? Making money is not shameful!" Lao Qi didn't care.

"Tell me, what's going on?" Chen Mo was really curious.

"How should I put it? When I first met the client and he made this request, I was really a little confused because the client was the deceased's husband."

"When he first arrived, he didn't look sad at all. Instead, he was talking and laughing."

"I was quite disdainful of him at first, because that's not how they do things! After all, we're husband and wife, right?"

Chen Mo nodded, but listening to what Lao Qi said, there must be something else behind it.

"You know, he had quite a lot of requests. He even wanted me to wear a school uniform and cry. Honestly, that's the most outrageous request I've ever seen. Asking someone to play the role of his wife's husband, and then asking him to wear a school uniform and cry? It's outrageous."

"But they gave a lot! And in our business, the most taboo thing is to get to the bottom of things, so I didn't ask too much."

"At the funeral, the woman's parents, especially the deceased's father, fainted from anger when they saw me mourning for his daughter. What kind of thing is this?"

"And the friends and family who were there were pointing and talking. What could I do? I was paid to do something, and all I could do was cry."

"But I didn't expect that the woman didn't even make it to the seventh day, and her husband died!" Lao Qi stopped talking abruptly!

"What does that mean?" Chen Mo was a little confused. "Literally, her husband is dead! He committed suicide!" Old Seven sighed.

"I later learned that the couple were high school classmates who had been together since high school and married after graduating from college. They had a very happy life after marriage, but unfortunately, things went wrong and an accident happened.

The man did not not love his wife, on the contrary, he loved her too much. The reason he did that was because he and his wife had an agreement that whoever left first should not cry.

That man committed suicide out of love after his wife's funeral! Well, I used to really think that there was no true love in this world, but after that incident, I feel that we should not take anything for granted.

You said that before that, who could have guessed that the result would be like that?
"I just attended the funeral of someone's daughter-in-law, even playing the guest role as a family member. And then a few days later, I attended the funeral of a client. We've lost a couple all at once. I hope they can be husband and wife again in the underworld," said Old Seven with deep emotion.

"Pour the tea! You have no tact at all!" Lao Qi said, looking at the empty teacup, and said unhappily.

Chen Mo rolled his eyes, but still made him a cup of tea.

Afterwards, Chen Mo listened to Lao Qi talk about several more things, which really broadened Chen Mo's horizons.

Therefore, all beings are equal in the face of death!
Chen Mo got a lot of materials from Lao Qi. According to Lao Qi, he had sent so many people away over the years, which made him feel indifferent to death.

Mainly because I have too much contact with it.

To the extent that even when his own grandfather passed away, he couldn't cry.

On the one hand, it is certainly because of the conflict between the grandfather and grandson. On the other hand, it is also because they have seen too much death and separation of life and death, and have become numb.

As for Chen Mo, he felt that many of the materials Lao Qi mentioned were even more exciting, more bizarre, and more touching than the movie.

But for a moment, it made him a little confused.

He had previously thought of making a movie about funerals simply because he felt that there was a lot to be explored in this subject, and it was also a relatively rare subject. But now, although he also thought so, there was too much material, which made him a little confused for a while.

As for filming it directly according to the original script of "Life Events", on the one hand, Chen Mo couldn't remember so many details, and on the other hand, to be honest, Chen Mo also felt that the movie was not to his taste.

Although there are indeed several "major life events" in "Life Events", to be honest, the main theme has actually been deviated.

In Chen Mo's opinion, what he remembers most is not the "major events in life" but the father-daughter relationship.

There is nothing wrong with filming the relationship between father and daughter, but the biggest problem is that the title of your film is "Life Events", and it is comparable to the Japanese film "Departures", which tells a funeral theme.

But in the end, all that was left was family affection.

What Chen Mo remembers is that the "big thing" which is the key word of the whole film, when his father slowly reads out "There is no big thing in life except death", it can indeed make people's emotions surge. However, when he thinks about it carefully, is this theme really what the film wants to express?
It gives people the feeling that it is just a nice-sounding motto. Mo Sanmei snatched her father's ashes and blew them into the sky, which probably showed that this so-called "big event" was just a joke. Although we don't ask the protagonist to really "respect life and fear death", the "major event in life" plus the demand for "creativity" in the will resulted in a sky full of fireworks on the river beach, which is a bit too impulsive and arbitrary.

Moreover, to be honest, the tone or theme of the movie itself is "major events in life", that is, death and posthumous affairs.

In the eyes of Chinese people, matters after death are also a big deal.

It is serious and solemn!
Although there is no requirement to be solemn and dignified, you have to follow the theme!

In Chen Mo's opinion, the original version of "Life Events" was a bit too ambitious, but unfortunately, his actual strength did not allow it!

There are too many things in life, and a movie of just one or two hours often cannot tell them all thoroughly. After all, many people live their entire lives without understanding them. So it is better to pick out a few of the three thousand things, tell the story in detail and thoroughly, which may make people empathize more than trying to cover a big and comprehensive topic.

It is true that everyone will die in their lifetime, and death may become a "big thing" that everyone cannot avoid. However, before death comes, we still have a lot of time to love, hate, experience separation and reunion, feel joy and sadness. How can these feelings and experiences be called "small things"?

This is also the reason why "Departures" was praised while "Life Matters" received mixed reviews.

Therefore, if Chen Mo wants to shoot "Life Events", he will definitely not follow the original plot.

He wants to be original, or he may draw inspiration from "Life Events" and "Departures", but he will not make it like those two.

It can be considered as an attempt of my own.

Chen Mo had thought about making his own movie earlier, rather than just copying. Although this time it will inevitably be influenced by "Life Events" or "Departures", the content will definitely be different.

As for what the outcome would be, Chen Mo honestly wasn't sure.

But he can afford to lose now, so he is not afraid to try.

In the following days, Chen Mo also specially attended several funerals.

Go and observe closely how people react and behave in the face of death!
In fact, many people have been taught from childhood that death is never a positive concept. For loved ones, it brings pain and regret. For those unrelated, it is unlucky. Consequently, death is often associated with tears and wailing, and the silence after the funeral.

Chen Mo didn't think about changing this perception, because death could not be a light-hearted and happy topic.

However, Chen Mo discovered that from the perspective of a funeral director who handles other people's funeral affairs as a profession, such as Lao Qi, he always appeared very calm every time he handled funeral affairs for someone. For the family members or relatives and friends, they were undoubtedly sad and desperate.

But for funeral directors, their hearts are very calm.

Chen Mo asked Lao Qi how he felt.
"What do you feel? To be honest, I don't feel anything! Because I've seen it too much! Many people don't understand and think we are cold-blooded, but damn, if we were like those family members, we would have gone crazy long ago!" Lao Qi said disapprovingly.

“In fact, if you really want to make a movie about funerals, if you want to start from the perspective of practitioners like us, such as "Departures", it is best to shoot the ones who have just entered the industry, because only those who have just entered the industry will have so many feelings and so many emotional fluctuations. Like us, to be honest, most of the time, we don’t feel anything.

I couldn't even cry when my grandfather passed away, what do you think?" said Lao Qi.

Lao Qi's words also gave Chen Mo a deeper understanding of this industry.

It is indeed strange to expect someone who has been working in the funeral industry for many years to be deeply moved by the death of an unrelated person.

The average person doesn't see as many deaths as they do in a single day.

"Will you have nightmares?" Chen Mo asked curiously.

"Yes!" Old Seven nodded seriously.

"It really does. Most of them die suddenly. To be honest, most people can't do this job. Even we are afraid sometimes and have nightmares out of fear. But which job is easy these days? None of them are easy!" Lao Qi said again.

Chen Mo summarized the problems existing in the funeral industry.

First of all, working in this industry requires sacrifices, and it is difficult to be popular with the opposite sex because few people can understand them. It's like a profession like forensic medicine, where you often deal with corpses. If you don't know, it's not a big deal, but once you do, few people will really not mind.

Therefore, a rather strange phenomenon has emerged, that is, this industry is usually digested within the industry.

The second is social exclusion. Although this profession pays well, many people still look down on it.

The family is not harmonious. It is difficult for the seventh child to truly accept the arrangements of the family from the beginning. He couldn't even cry when the old man passed away. How can he not feel resentful?

Another thing is that people in their industry are generally regarded as "eating dead people's food", who only want to make money and have no humanity!
All people know is how profitable this industry is, and how much a corpse retriever gets paid for each dive. They think it's all about making money from the dead.

But think about it the other way around, why is this industry so profitable, yet looked down upon?

That in itself speaks for itself.

If you can make so much money, wouldn't everyone be vying for it? But why don't those who do it achieve such success?

It’s because this industry is really not that easy to work in.

But there has to be someone to do every industry!
It’s just that in the past, people rarely paid attention to people in this industry.

Even Chen Mo, whose family is in this business, rarely really gets to know this industry in depth. It's not because he has any other thoughts, but because there is still some distance between them deep down.

Don't be fooled by many people saying that selling graves and doing funerals are both profitable and not shameful, but what is the reality? Is there really no discrimination at all?
(End of this chapter)