That night.
Professor An was sleeping soundly with his wife in his arms.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared outside the window, followed by a dull thunder and the sound of pattering rain.
It's raining.
Professor An suddenly woke up, looked out the window, and then got up carefully.
He tiptoed out of the bedroom, without even having time to put on his clothes, and came to the door. The dog in the kennel, who seemed to have not slept yet, began to bark at Professor An.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid..."
Professor An felt around on his right side, as if looking for an umbrella, but couldn't find one. He could only rush to the doghouse in the rain and picked up the dog.
The rain is getting heavier.
Professor An used his body to shield the dog from the rain, carried it into his study, and took out a blanket from a box and wrapped the dog in it:
"It might be a little cold."
He looked at the dog and smiled, but he sneezed himself.
The dog licked the back of his hand and whimpered, as if in a clumsy attempt to comfort him.
In front of the screen.
The audience looked at this loving scene with stars in their eyes.
"Professor An is so kind."
“It makes me feel really sad.”
"It turns out that dogs are true love."
"Professor An, don't catch a cold."
"He turned his study into a doghouse. His tolerance for his wife is actually a kind of respect. Such a man is really great."
"… "
The relatively sensitive female audience seemed to be particularly touched at this moment, and Professor An's personal charm gradually emerged along with the lines and temperament, in conjunction with the creation of this plot.
This is a gentle, mature and kind man.
The dog spent a warm night in the study.
At seven o'clock in the morning, Mrs. An got up and found Professor An wearing glasses and reading a book on the sofa in the living room.
"You got up so early today?"
"yes."
“It seemed to rain yesterday.”
"A-choo..."
"You have a cold?"
Mrs. An walked towards the door with some suspicion, but saw the dog quietly staying in the doghouse, wagging its tail at her.
It turned out that Professor An deliberately got up early in order to send the dog back to the kennel in the early morning so that his wife would not find out.
His expression was calm and his acting was superb, so his wife couldn't see any flaws.
Staring at the courtyard after the heavy rain, and then looking at the dog, Mrs. An bit her lip and turned back to say:
"Take some cold medicine."
“I’ve already eaten.”
"Will you send me off today?"
"Yes."
"It would be best."
His wife still didn't want the dog to stay, so Professor An had to go outside to look for the dog's owner.
He posted flyers on the streets in the morning, went to the pet shelter in the afternoon to inquire about information, and even contacted a friend who had a pet at home to ask if he had any intention of raising a dog...
After a few days, nothing was found.
Professor An could only continue to live like this. Every day, he would take the dog to the study while his wife was asleep, and then send the dog back to the kennel the next morning.
On the contrary, when Professor An's daughter came to visit her parents, she was attracted by the cuteness of the dog at first sight and said in surprise:
"I love it! What's it called?"
Mrs. An glanced at Professor An: "It's called 'Send it away tomorrow'."
Professor An smiled gently.
The daughter ignored her mother's sarcasm towards her father, thought for a moment, and said, "How about calling it Xiaoba?"
Professor An's smile froze.
Mrs. An's hand, which was making coffee, suddenly stopped, and she looked out the window at the renovated doghouse.
"Eight years."
My daughter suddenly whispered, "It's been exactly eight years since Xiao Ba died? Maybe it's Xiao Hei's reincarnation? It came to find us..."
Mrs. An had a calm expression.
Professor An suddenly laughed: "Then let's call it Xiao Ba, what do you think, honey?"
"It's up to you. It won't stay long anyway."
Mrs. An left the steaming coffee behind, turned back to her room in an almost embarrassed manner, and buried her head in the mattress.
After a moment, Mrs. An stood up, opened the drawer, and took out a photo.
The photo is of a family of three? At the feet of the three people? There is a dog.
It turned out that Professor An's family also had a dog eight years ago, but for some reasons, the dog died.
Mrs. An doesn't want to keep a dog anymore? Is it because she is afraid of suffering another blow, or perhaps also because? The appearance of this dog always reminds her of her former pet.
"So that's how it is."
"This is why Mrs. An doesn't want to keep a dog."
"I think I can understand it now. I once had a cat, but it ran away and I couldn't find it anymore. I cried for a long time because of it, and since then I have not dared to keep a cat."
"Mrs. An isn't that annoying."
"Because of the feelings he had for his previous dog, he is so resistant to the new one. It's hard for outsiders to understand this feeling."
"Did Professor An bring the dog home to comfort his wife?"
"Of course a gentle man like him would be so considerate."
"… "
The audience seemed to have some sympathy for Mrs. An, and this sympathy gradually overshadowed her indifference towards the dog.
"Hachi!"
After naming the dog after his daughter, Professor An began to call the dog Xiaoba.
He tried to take the initiative to understand Xiao Ba's habits and play with him. During the day, when Professor An played the piano, Xiao Ba would listen quietly or lick the music on the piano...
The style of this movie is very light.
The story told does not have much excitement.
But the audience did not find the film tedious or boring. Instead, they watched it with great interest, and the entire theater was filled with warmth and joy.
Everyone is willing to believe that this is a heartwarming story about a family that was comforted by the appearance of Xiao Ba eight years after they lost their beloved dog.
The movie uses a flashback technique in the way that children tell stories.
The occasional slow motion, or long shots to increase the sense of realism, as well as the natural pursuit of depth of field shots in warm films, all tell the story of this man and a dog in the most peaceful way in the first twenty minutes.
The soundtrack begins with slow-tempo piano.
The dog's perspective appears from time to time in the movie, with black, white and gray colors, allowing the audience to experience Xiao Ba's feelings to the greatest extent.
However, Mrs. An's knot was not so easily untied.
She began to try to drive Xiao Ba out of the house.
As a rational woman, she doesn't want to be dominated by soft-heartedness.
Xiao Ba stood at the door, facing the closed door. He started shouting, then whimpering, and finally lying down, but he showed no intention of leaving.
At this time, the camera turns to the inside of the door.
The audience was shocked to find that after Mrs. An closed the door, she did not go back to her room directly, but stood there in a daze.
Dusk is coming.
Mrs. An finally moved. She carefully looked outside through the crack in the door, but at that moment she met Xiao Ba's eyes staring at her.
"Woof! Woof!"
Xiao Ba shouted, very happily...
Mrs. An's tears suddenly flowed down. She turned around and walked back to the room with firm and heavy steps.
Just abandoned like that
Some viewers felt strongly sorry for the situation.
Then in the next moment, a ray of light suddenly flashed through the audience's hearts, making their eyes slightly sore!
Click.
Xiao Ba actually used his head to push the gate open and returned to the yard, his barking becoming more and more cheerful. In the suddenly accelerated rhythm of the piano, his barking sounded so joyful!
turn out to be…
In the end, Mrs. An opened the door, but left it ajar, pretending that it was still locked to deceive herself.