In 1941, in Michigan, USA, beautiful girl Ethel fell in love with pilot Teddy. Teddy’s friends Chuck and Jack fell in love with her at the same time. Teddy will go to Ireland. They will get married secretly and make an appointment to love each other till the end of the world. As expected, Teddy died, leaving behind a young widow who was infatuated with herself. Ethel did not know that Teddy had arranged her ” funeral” for her good friend Chuck before she died. Ethel took ten years to accept the man who loved her and gave birth to a daughter. Chuck had no distractions and waited patiently for ten years, and finally kept the cloud open. – they are all in order to stick to the promise, Ethel promised teddy never forget, never leave, chuck promised teddy to love Ethel’s life. Fifty years later, the ring of love between Ethel and Teddy was found in Ireland. Witnesses who witnessed Teddy’s death told her that Teddy’s last words were to tell Ethel that she was free and should love the person she fell in love with in the future.
This is the main plot of the American movie ” ring, lover” and the story is sad. The flower and beauty of that year are now in their old age, only to find that the promise they kept just missed their whole life. Of course, this is not the original intention of storytellers.
Old Ethel, who has lived the rest of her life on alcohol and memories, said at the end, ” We are always influenced by promises. You can’t escape your oath. ”
Is this really the case?
John galsworthy gave a slightly different explanation in his short story Apple Tree in 1916.
It is a very beautiful road. This once romantic youth has just arrived at the silver wedding anniversary. After traveling here, his wife set up an easel to sketch. He sat under an apple tree reading, behind which was an old wall, and in front of him was an old apple tree, a cemetery dedicated to burying suicide … His thoughts returned to 26 years ago. Everything is remembered, the promise that will never be fulfilled.
Twenty – six years ago, the girl was 17 years old and grew up in the countryside, simple and moving. He also passed by here and easily fell in love with the girl. They hugged and kissed under the apple tree. When night came, they agreed to meet Yan Hao. He told the silly girl that he would take her back to London and marry her.
The days of indulgence were short. He met several traveling classmates. He joined the team and played all the way. Only two days later, he fell in love with his classmate’s sister, who later became his wife who went to the silver wedding with him. He also visited the place where he swore an oath to the girl in the countryside, and saw the girl’s lonely figure and the look of hope, but he still walked past and never came back.
Twenty – six years later, in the golden sunshine, he silently heard an old man tell him the girl’s final fate. In the pond near the old apple tree, the girl sank. People said her heart was broken. Otherwise, how could a girl as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade be willing to cut herself off like this?
He walked away and the story could not be continued. No one else knew about the promise except the two of them.
There is a Korean movie, Palm Grove, which, like Apple Tree, talks about promise and waiting.
Qiao Jia Island by the sea is inhabited by Grandma, Mother and Hua Yan. It’s not a tropical beach, but a forest of palm trees. Renrui, a rich son and a famous lawyer, went to work on the island and met Hua Yan, a female worker. Renrui fell in love with Hua Yan and went home with a drunk girl. The girl fell asleep. Grandma told the handsome young man the story of palm trees. It was a story about waiting, including the bitterness and sorrow of two generations of women and the life delayed.
As a teenage mother, she welcomed her stepmother, who was only two years older than herself, and they became the only bosom friends of each other. The father quietly sold his daughter, and when the stepmother found her daughter, she was already the wife of the hunchback man. After such a long time, one day, her daughter was driven back to her mother’s family by her mother-in-law because she could not give birth. Then, the father died suddenly and violently, and the girls finally felt liberated. The days were hard, but they comforted and encouraged each other. They must insist and find a reliable and good man.
They waited for a stranded ship to arrive. The handsome captain made them feel relaxed. The mother encouraged her daughter to change into the most decent clothes to help them and herself. There are no other women on the lonely island. Is the captain really in love with this bad karma woman who is isolated from the countryside? Only he knows. What we saw was that he possessed this woman, not only her body, but also her hope for the future. He said that he was eager to end his wandering life, and when the voyage was over, he would regard this place as his permanent home. He is leaving. They bid farewell to each other on the bank. He left behind young palm seedlings. He said that when Jesus’ followers welcomed the return of the Lord, everyone was holding palm leaves. He hoped that this poor woman who was full of happiness could plant this palm tree and then hold palm leaves to welcome him home. For a poor woman who has fallen into the lowest ebb of despair in her life, isn’t such a man who makes a firm promise her dream, her steamed bread and her master? She will wait until she dies. However, until she gave birth to her daughter Hua Yan, palm trees on the beach had become a forest, and the man who made the promise still did not come back. The only thing she waited for was a photo showing two generations of women with their eyes lit up by hope.
Many years ago, I wrote a short article called ” Promise”. At that time, I thought that commitment was a means to an end. After reading ” ring, lover” and reviewing ” palm grove” and ” apple tree”, I have a question that I cannot answer: when a woman lives to never believe any man’s promise of common happiness and future and can live bravely, is she reborn or dead?
There is an English song with a dim and rambling melody. The question is always repeated over and over again: ” Do you remember?” In fact, the same is true of promises. Those who remember them are not necessarily the majority, are they?
