Anti-epidemic film ＂You are my spring＂： Life and love are eternal themes.

Original title: Life and love are eternal themes.

The film "You are My Spring" tells five vivid and touching stories, which shows Chinese’s optimistic and tenacious mental state when fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. The work pays attention to the theme of life and love, portrays the images of ordinary people who are still smiling and sticking to their plight, and shows the transformation process of these characters from ordinary people in daily life to heroes in extraordinary times, from paying attention to small love such as family and love to carrying forward the feelings of home and country, so that the audience can feel, know and trust these ordinary heroes. The works make innovative breakthroughs against epidemic-themed films from the perspectives of film aesthetics, social significance, times value and national spirit, and cheer for people who are in a "cold spring" at the moment.

The five stories of the work take place in five different time and space scenes, with different characters. However, although these characters are separated by time and space, their ideas of "love from childhood to love" and "giving up a small family for everyone" are similar. This idea, like the same emotional bond, connects five stories in series into an organic whole.

In the first short story, Li Nanfeng is not a rich man with a house and a car in the eyes of his mother-in-law, but he can risk his life and call for send warm in the harsh environment where the epidemic is raging. It contains not only love for his girlfriend, but also filial piety to his mother-in-law, as well as compassion for the sick suffering from illness. Li Nanfeng’s behavior touched his mother-in-law, who refused him thousands of miles away, and the old man entrusted his daughter to him when he died. Shang Xiaoyu, his girlfriend who announced that she had broken up for 62 days, was also moved by what he had done, and gained spiritual strength from him to overcome her illness. His busy pace did not stop, but he became a volunteer to help more people in need. In the second short story, migrant workers Liu Erhong and Wang Dapeng, regardless of their personal safety, helped the young girl to take her grandmother to the hospital. Their caring heart and courage to stand up in times of crisis seem to be their innate qualities, which let the audience see the great energy contained in ordinary people. In the third short story, Lao Wang, the community secretary, takes care of the isolated residents at home. He built a soundproof piano room for the girl wheat who was alone at home, and hung a string of stars in the room, so that the lonely wheat felt the warmth of home. Lao Wang’s little efforts have also gained the understanding and recognition of community residents. When he was about to be sent to hospital for treatment because of overwork and virus infection, the lights in the residential building lit up and the music sounded for him. Residents used these actions to express their respect for community cadres. In the fourth story, the couple who fought in the front line of anti-epidemic can’t go home, so they have to live in their own cars.They go through where will you go every day, see their colleagues fall, patients die, and are ready to die at any time. So, the husband left his last words for his son. The text expresses the debt and reluctance to the children. But in order to protect the lives of more people, they went into battle without hesitation. Although the fifth story still tells the story between husband and wife and children, it further enriches and expands the description of Chinese fatherly love. In the film, the wife went from Sichuan to Wuhan to support the fight against the epidemic, and the husband took care of his preschool son Lele at home. In order to reassure his wife at the front line, the husband changed his previous attitude of being anxious and yelling at his children and became meticulous and patient. The fourth story and the fifth story cut into the plot with the family as the unit, showing the same frequency resonance of China’s national feelings.

In recent years, mainstream films have been constantly innovating creative techniques, whether it is the genre expression of realism or the macro theme presented by micro-narration, they are all exploring the integration of aesthetics and industry, and the compatibility of artistic expression and social effects. "You are my spring" starts with the story of ordinary people, starting from affection, love and friendship, and warms everyone affected by the epidemic with full characters and positive value output. It can be described as a masterpiece that takes into account emotional experience, aesthetic construction and value orientation. The epidemic is ruthless, and there is love in the world. In the film, sincere emotion turns into infinite power to inspire the audience and inspire us to unite, move on and persevere. (Author: Zhang Wei, executive vice president of China Film Critics Association)