The premise is, this man's girlfriend breaks up with him. Their anniversary was May 1st. In hopes that she'll come back, he finds a can of pineapples each day that is set to expire on the 1st and eats it. It becomes an obsession, a ritual. After this clip, the night of April 30th, he takes home all the expired cans of pineapples and eats them all until he's so sick he vomits (symbolizing him finally purging the relationship)- and that night he meets a lady..
In the follow up movie to Chungking, 'Fallen Angels' which I watched recently and briefly reviewed, again the same actor Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a man who went mute after eating an expired can of pineapples.
I couldn't figure out what this meant to me, but it stuck in my head. Sometimes the symbols that hold the most relevance stick, almost floating above my head for a while before they click. Today I had that AHA moment walking home.
As you can see in the clip, the character describes the hard, enduring process of growing pineapples, of picking them, almost as delicately and sentimentally as describing the beginning process of a relationship. You really have to nurture it before it can become yours, and this process of becoming "yours" is like putting it in a can. Of course he's reluctant to throw out the expired pineapple- after this whole process, after you finally have it in your can, it's heartbreaking to just dispose of it. This represents his reluctance to get over his ex girlfriend, even though the relationship is about to rot and become worthless (even the homeless lady doesn't want it!)
The relevance of this became clear to me today. In instances personal, and impersonal, this topic has been perpetually in my mind as I couldn't understand what it was that I, and others, are afraid of upon stepping into a defined relationship. In the past, I've agreed to be in relationships with people I didn't like that much, but why, when it comes to people I really do like, am I reluctant? Part of me wants to, and part of me is terribly afraid. I'm afraid that after this sensitive process of growing and harvesting the pineapple, after I put it in a can, there's inevitably going to be an expiration date- because the FDA won't have it any other way. You can't sell cans without expirations- that's illegal and a total health hazard.
This is bad because it sends a mixed message that I may not be that interested, when really, I'm actually trying to keep that person in my life.
If you take a fresh pineapple, one that you've grown, and you don't package it in a can and put in all the artificial sugars and the preservatives, maybe it will have a shorter shelf life, who knows, but there won't be an expiration date. Yes it'll get moldy and probably rot, but at each stage, even when it's gross and covered with fruit flies, there's always a bit of fresh pineapple inside that you can salvage. You can do more stuff with it, cut it however you like, even freeze it to keep it fresh longer. And even if all the insides rot you can still cut it all out and make a cool cocktail bowl or pineapple fried rice bowl out of the outsides of the pineapple. And the leaves, they take forever to decompose. Poor pineapple in a can, how miserable it must be. I want you to be able to breathe and be whole and not separated into little pieces and marinated in juices that aren't yours and stuck in sterile metal isolation. With an ugly green wrapper slammed onto you.
This brings me to the second movie, Fallen Angels. The dangers of eating a can of already expired pineapples, as if eating almost expired pineapples and puking isn't enough, the second movie shows us what can happen if we still try to hold on to something that has already gone bad. He becomes mute- it's like it destroyed his ability to connect with others. (In the past, I've had a relationship in which it was on and off, and I wish I had put my foot down after the first break up. What ended up happening was an emotional roller coaster that killed a part of me ruined my ability to connect with people I dated afterwards)
Maybe sometimes it's better just to avoid packaging. Maybe not. I don't know. Can you use formaldehyde on a pineapple?
M
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