这部电影幕前幕后的大神厉害了，抖森Tom Hiddleston 和切瓦特Chiwetel Ejiofor主演，由迈克·弗拉纳根执导，改编自史蒂芬·金Stephen King的短篇小说，看起来像一个简单的故事，却能让观众久久难忘。史蒂芬.金是Fay我从小就喜欢的悬疑作家，以前中学读他的作品总是让人毛骨悚然，头皮发麻，但也总能学到实用的人生生活常识。现在想不到他这种经典小说之教父级人物也写出这么温馨的作品。
The Writer and the director of <The Life of Chuck>.
Stephen King's prelude for the book<The Life of Chuck>:
"Hi, this is Stephen King. I was asked to record the introduction to this slim book and have agreed to do it because unlike some of the intros I've written, it actually has something to say. So, here it is. This story should never have existed, at least not in the form it finally took. that it has become a movie, a most excellent movie in my humble opinion, is even more unlikely. And yet here we are. Life can be full of nasty surprises, as most of us know. But as most of us also know, every now and then something good happens. I'm tempted to say it's the good things that make all the crap worthwhile, but the jury's still out on that one. All I can do is tell you how this particular good thing happened. It's up to you to figure out the rest. Watching the film, especially the transcendent last few minutes, may help you in that regard.
Stories come when they will. You just have to be open to their arrival. One day on my morning walk, I was musing on an African proverb that says, "When an old man dies, a library burns down." I might have been thinking about that particular proverb because I'm getting on in years myself. The proverb led me to think about Walt Whittman's Song of multitudes." I thought to myself, what if it isn't a library that burns when a Myself where he says, "I am large. I contain multitudes? What if it's the whole world, his world? I like the idea enough to write a short story called The Life of Chuck, which was about the entire world, hell, the entire universe slowly going down the tubes because the man who perceived it, one Charles Krantz, was dying of a brain tumor. That was all. Story done, over and out. I put it in a drawer, thinking I'd rewrite it later on.
Fast forward a month or so. I'm in Boston for a couple of Red Sox games, staying at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which my kids persist in calling the Mandarin Orange. Across the street outside the drugstore, a young man is beating on a couple of overturned plastic buckets. Your basic busker, in other words, with an upturned hat in front of him for contributions. This time I thought, what if some random Mr. Businessman stopped and began to live? And what if he actually began to dance? Then a real inspiration, the kind of thing a writer lives for. And what if that guy was Chuck Krantz with his brain tumor just beginning to announce itself? That was too cool not to write because it was about the joy of life in the shadow of death.
It never occurred to me that there might be a third story, but I did like the way Chuck's life went backward from his death to his final months as a healthy man. I began to play with the idea of a final act, which eventually turned out to be act one with Chuck as a kid learning to dance and discovering the rather unpleasant secret in his grandpa's cupula. I wanted Chuck to know he was going to die because dig it. We all do know, don't we? We just kind of pretend the elephant in the room is a big gray sofa.
In the end, I had three loosely connected stories. I had to smooth them out and whittle them a bit here and there to make the fit a little tighter, but they finally came together. Luckily for me, Mike Flanagan wrote a script that turned the story's funky back-to-front format into a virtue and made it as an indie film at a time when few films were being made due to COVID and multiple strikes by film and television creators. Mike was able to thread the needle on that one because the screenplay was written pre-strike and the film itself bypassed the major Hollywood studios.
In short, dear reader, it was a miracle that the story got written, a double miracle that such a strange piece of work should become a film, and a triple miracle that the film is such a splendid little gem.
Enjoy. Stephen King,
March 30th, 2024."
它的叙事方式很克制，开头让人看得雾懵懵，很容易以为以为切瓦特中学老师和女护士前妻是主角，全世界的老师和护士都在做很相似的事：即使是末日到来没有互联网，还是开一样的家长会，说一样的话，轮不完的班，接不完的病人，靠和同事聊会儿话减压。。。埋下一个梗,谁是查克？
开始看Act 3第三幕,真不知道Act3里的Chuck究竟是“葫芦里卖的什么药”，后来Act 1第一幕用倒叙和普通对话串起查克不同的人生阶段，才发现背后探讨的却是关于生命和宇宙的重大主题。
故事以世界末日为背景，贯穿的是查克与身边人的相遇和告别。那些在危机中看到广告牌的角色，其实都曾在查克的人生中出现过。当他的生命走到尽头时，他们所处的世界也随之瓦解。影片没有试图用逻辑或科学来解释，而是把重点放在一种感性的力量：为什么短短的39年依然伟大。
这种“伟大”并不是惊天动地的壮举，而是如同你我一样的普通人，在日常生活里做出的选择，和他人建立起的感情，以及对生命本身的体验。相比起浩瀚的宇宙和漫长的历史，人类的存在看似渺小，但这些真实的情感和细碎的时刻，才是支撑世界、让生命有意义的东西。
Fay最喜欢里面老师们精心挑选诵读惠特曼的<自我颂歌>，也是令小查克茅塞顿开的这段对话：
Miss Richards:
"What is in between my hands?"
（“你看我手掌之间有什么？”）
Young Chuck (confused):
"My head? My brain?"
（“我的头？我的大脑？”）
Miss Richards:
"In between my hands is everything you have ever thought, everyone you know, everyone you will ever know or meet — in between my hands are multitudes. You contain multitudes."
（“我手掌之间，是你所有的思想，你认识的每个人，以及你将会认识或遇见的所有人——我手掌之间，是无数的宇宙。你包含着无数的自己。”）
惠特曼《Song of Myself》（自我颂歌）部分朗读全文及翻译，也是这首诗歌在开始和最后让电影情节形成闭环。
Selected excerpt from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
我难道自相矛盾？
好吧，那我就自相矛盾，
（我宽广无垠，包含万千。）
这是电影里女老师给查克讲的诗句的核心部分，表达了每个人内心丰富复杂、包罗万象的意义。
Act3第三幕 的角色纷纷现身，是因为老师曾借《自我之歌》告诉查克，人们脑海中相识的面孔、亲历的故事，这些记忆会随年岁流转变得辽阔复杂。
用想象力充盈思绪、丰沛心田，就能编织出独属于“自己的宇宙”。
也就是说，第三幕中的人物与景象，其实是查克在陷入昏迷乃至弥留之际，于意识深处浮现的幻象。
这些人与事，是他短暂生命里最珍贵的记忆碎片，他将其组合成了“查克的宇宙”。
The movie I watched this week is <The Life of Chuck>2025.
This movie is actually quite moving and easy to relate to—it feels like a bedtime story you’ll remember for a long time. Although the story uses a reverse chronology and clever structure, it really focuses on Chuck, an ordinary man, at different points in his life and his relationships with people around him. The film starts with what feels like the end of the world. Everyone sees Chuck’s name on billboards saying, “Thanks Chuck, for 39 great years!”—it’s a bit strange but also heartwarming.
Most of the plot is made up of conversations between Chuck and the people around him in various life stages. All those characters who see the billboards during the apocalypse are people who crossed paths with Chuck at some point in his life. When Chuck’s life ends, their world falls apart too. The movie doesn’t give any logical or scientific explanation for this; the director doesn’t get caught up in being realistic.
What the movie shows is that even though Chuck only lived for 39 years, his life was rich and meaningful—and that kind of “greatness” belongs to everyone. Humans might seem insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe, but the emotions, connections, and daily experiences we share actually create our own unique universe. Even if life isn’t perfect, living it fully and cherishing each moment is what really matters—that’s the deeper meaning this movie wants to express.
What intrigued me is the Carl Sagon"s Cosmic calendar:
历史白痴的我也第一次值得原来把人类历史做成日历更简易易懂。片中多次重复提到的卡尔·萨根的“宇宙日历”是一种将宇宙138亿年历史压缩到一年中的科普工具，用以帮助人们直观感受宇宙历史的浩瀚和人类出现的短暂。不过，这个宇宙日历本身并不包含对人类未来的具体“预言”或预测功能，而是一种时间尺度的类比和教学手段，
强调人类历史在宇宙长河中的微小与宝贵。萨根通过宇宙日历表达了这样一个哲学观点：尽管人类仅在“最后几秒钟”出现，但我们承担着保护生命和探索宇宙的责任。他提醒人类拥有选择未来的自由，可以选择继续繁荣或者自我毁灭。因此，宇宙日历带有深刻的警示和启示意义，激励人们珍惜当下，谨慎对待未来。
Lastly,Who is not touched by the ending song
<Parting Glass>, unfortunately there's no version credit by Gregory Alan Isakov as in movie available in YouTube. Please enjoy the High King's:
https://youtu.be/qMkQExuzL_0?si=9nGoW1CrzNmU5ksM
Life is complicated and interesting 🤔.
I will keep recording these movies and dramas I watched in my life as they are building my worlds.
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