He was an orphan abandoned on a steamboat and was taken in by a kind-hearted stoker on the ship. However, good deeds did not receive good returns; the stoker died in an accident, and the few-year-old 1900 became an orphan once again. His extraordinary talent allowed him to become a piano virtuoso without any formal training, but fate also made him innately wary of the mundane world. He never dared to leave the ship for land, simply because the endless skyscrapers of New York and the ceaseless crowds made him feel insecure. Even after he encountered a girl he fell in love with at first sight, after much contemplation, he still gave up the impulse to go ashore to find his first love. He remained on the ship forever, and when his only good friend warned him that the abandoned ship was about to be blown up, he still refused to leave. Thus, 1900, who had never left the Virginia from the moment he was born, perished as the ship sank into the sea. 1900, a person with no birth records or identification, disappeared from the world without leaving a trace, just like music notes that fade away, leaving no mark.
Some films leave you feeling overwhelmed and restless after watching, and you don't know how to put your feelings into words; your mind is full of thoughts, but you don't know where to begin. "The Legend of 1900" is such a film that I cannot stop thinking about and yet am lost for words about. After watching the movie, my only feeling was loneliness—true loneliness. But was 1900 really lonely? Many times afterward, I felt that he was not lonely. He had endless musical inspiration, countless talents, and innumerable flowing notes. In fact, he wasn't lonely; it is we who feel lonely because we lack the brilliance of genius, the innate uniqueness, the independence of character, a fulfilling inner self, and recognition or satisfaction in this world. From 1900, we see our own humility, our deficiencies, and our drift, and thus we experience loneliness.
As individuals living in this world, we are labeled with various titles and identities from birth to death. When we are born, our parents give us a lifelong code, our name; we are registered for household documentation, and at eighteen, we get our ID cards. In school, we are students; once we work, we get promotions. When introduced to others, we are someone's child, parent, friend, or colleague. Which of these is the real me?After all these things are removed, are we still ourselves? Can we still find ourselves? 1900 is a child without a birth certificate; he does not belong to any country and does not have a name in the traditional sense. If he dies, you cannot find any trace of his existence in any records, and perhaps few people would remember him. He also does not have a grave to store his remains, yet he truly existed and really lived. How did he prove his existence? I have always felt that 1900's life embodies existentialist thought. He disregards rules, he disregards the rules recognized by society; his fear of going ashore is actually a refusal to go ashore, a disdain for going ashore. He values his own existence more than the world's recognition of himself. He can easily defeat the pioneer of jazz and express contempt for him. He can earn immense fame and fortune through his talent, yet he refuses to separate music from himself. He can use music to explore everyone's hearts, travel within music, find his own love, but he does not pursue it like ordinary people. He gently tosses these into the sea, retracting the step toward land. According to existentialists, people live in a world that is opposed to themselves and full of disappointment. One's position in the world is uncertain. Even a person with absolute freedom is a troubled and unsupported solitary individual. Although humans have the freedom to choose, the future life they face is chaotic and purposeless. They merely walk blindly into the future, knowing only that the real end of life is death. Death, as the final destination of life, holds profound significance for personal existence. Therefore, existentialists are pessimists; in their eyes, life is a tragedy. 1900's life is inevitably a tragedy, one he can foresee. “The city is so vast, I cannot see the end. I stop not because of what I see but because of what I do not see, because of the unseen. The endless city has everything but no end. I need to see the end of the world. Went ashore, and then where to go? Love a woman, live in a house, buy a plot of land, gaze at a view, walk a dead-end path—too many choices and I cannot decide. Endless, contemplating back and forth, don't you fear a mental breakdown? How could such days be endured? I cannot abandon this ship, I would rather abandon my own life.”"I like to close my eyes and repeatedly listen to the piano pieces from '1900' that help friends overcome seasickness, imagining that I am also sitting on that ship, swaying with the waves. The music at that time could engulf a person, making you lose yourself, making you feel completely free, making you unable to sense your own existence yet making you acutely aware of the pleasure of existence. You can feel flying, you can feel spinning, you can feel jumping, just like traveling in early spring or surfing in summer. Here, there is only beauty, only the beauty of existence. I thought this was life, the vivid presence of beautiful existence."
