Rather than trying to straighten out some plots and find answers to some questions, the movie is so captivating that I want to immerse myself in it again.
When I watched it again, I wondered what kind of film this is. War movies are definitely not. Romance?
With this question in mind, I went back to the movie. The film leaves people with two questions that they can play freely, and I am afraid that people have different ideas.
Why did she suddenly leave after being promoted to serve as a guard in a concentration camp?
Why did you choose to commit suicide a week before you were about to be released from prison?
When I was thinking about two questions, I thought of Chekhov's novel "The Woman with the Dog" that Mike read to her.
Mike was late that day, sat down a little impatiently, took out a book, and read it absentmindedly.
He said he brought a new book, "Women with Dogs," about the new faces at the dance.
At that time, there was a new classmate in Mike's class, a very beautiful and lovely girl Sophie, like a bright sunshine.
Finally, when Hannah committed suicide, Mike came to her cell and saw Hannah's excerpt from "The Woman with the Dog" on the wall.
When I watched the film for the second time, I watched the feud between them with great attention.
The first time was when Mike went to see Hannah on the tram, and when he angered her, she was utterly furious.
In people's usual thinking, she may have thought that she did not want to see her in public and open up their unreasonable relationship.
She said that she was obviously in the first car, but he got on the second car. He didn't want to see her, but he just thought maybe she would kiss him there.
The second altercation came after Mike read The Woman With the Dog and accused Hannah of never caring about his feelings.
He said it was his birthday and that his friends had a party for him, but he didn't go to her because of her.
He said: You never cared about my feelings, always came according to you, everything was done according to your wishes. I always apologize.
Hannah said angrily: You don't have to apologize, and no one has to apologize. Going to your party, you didn't think so.
Then she bathed him, like a mother bathes a child, without the tenderness of the bathtub before.
His body was stiff and at his mercy, there was no smile on his face. That initial passion and attachment was gone.
He kissed her again and made love to her, but gradually stopped. Something has changed between them.
Hannah says: Go back to your friends.
What kind of person is Hannah?
She has no sympathy, certainly not. She doesn't care about picking ten people to die every month, seeing hundreds of people burn to death in the fire.
But with such a person, can you deny that there is a beautiful love hidden in her heart? Does love have any qualifications?
Mike read the novel to her, "he put his cold hand on her lips, she died, took all hope", she cried sadly.
Hearing the singing in the church, she was infected and cried like a child, saw Meier's smile, laughed again, then laughed and cried again.
At that moment, I felt how lonely life is. Such feelings are also consolation. Only by loving each other can we feel warm.
At that time, she was wearing a bright skirt, and she was different from the hard, stern and determined woman in the usual uniform.
In prison he wrote to Mike: Please record me more romance.
Some people may believe her request, but she does know how to love.
Perhaps it can be said that she is not human, and only in love does her heart become soft.
Perhaps, I am just a narrow love animal, I can only think that her departure is because of love.
The talk of the book was about new faces at the dance, she knew what that meant, and sooner or later Mike would be back with his peers.
At this time, her indifference, calmness and determination prevailed, no doubt, even if the position made her smile after the promotion.
When I asked someone why she went to a concentration camp, the person said she had a uniform addiction and that was the reason. But I can't agree.
Hannah may be a bit of a uniform freak, but she does get a feel for it when she puts on her uniform and button her up.
But she is definitely not a person with any political leanings. She went to the concentration camp just to cover up the truth that she was illiterate.
That was a coincidence, not her choice. The reason why it happened in the concentration camp was the director's arrangement, so that there was a later plot.
It's natural to condemn her morals, and anyone with a conscience will condemn her cold-bloodedness, but that's not what I'm talking about.
I talked to another person who saw the movie why she chose to kill herself, and he said that she felt guilty and guilty because of her guilt.
Totally wrong. Hannah never felt guilty for her actions, she never felt guilty at all.
In court, she said that prisoners kept coming in, and that old prisoners had to make room for new prisoners.
When the judge asked her to single out people to vacate the cell, and said, you, you, you, have to be sent back to be killed?
She asked the judge: What would you do if you changed it?
It's amazing how she defends and asks her questions for granted and not at all wrong.
When asked why they didn't let prisoners escape when the church was on fire, she said they were guards.
She said what is the duty of the guards for the prisoners not to let them escape. When the door is open, there will be chaos, and they have a responsibility.
OMG! This woman is simply unreasonable, but her behavior is in line with the laws of the time, but it is against human nature.
There, I think the writers and directors played a little trick and used Mike's professor to make their point.
The professor said: People think that society operates according to so-called morality, but in fact it does not. Society operates under the norms of law. There is nothing wrong with you working in Auschwitz. Of the eight thousand people working in Auschwitz, only 19 were convicted, six of them murder. To prove murder, you have to find out the motive, that's the law. The question is what if it was wrong, but in line with the law of the time, but not in our current law?
A student said to follow the law at that time. I didn't see if Mike said it. The professor said yes, it should follow the law at that time.
Another student asked angrily but was that too narrow?
The professor said: Yes, the law is narrow. But on the other hand, people who have killed people tend to realize that killing is wrong.
But Mike told him that he understood a situation that could turn it around and even send a sentence. He asked Mike why he didn't see her.
Mike said how could he. He said that the key is not how to think, that is not important, what is important is how to do it.
It's the same thing that Hannah ended up saying.
My thinking is that Hannah was a cold-blooded, unsympathetic, unsympathetic person, but she shouldn't have come to take the blame for the Nazis.
Of course, the hope was that the guards had humanity, used their power, and risked their lives to save prisoners, rather than being accomplices to the Nazis.
But in any case, the crime should not be borne by someone, that is too unfair and too lenient to those in power.
Hannah's life was cold and lonely, and the only bright spot was the affection Mike brought her.
There are two paragraphs in total, the first is the time when they first met, Mike introduced him to a beautiful world of words.
He read novels to her every day, and that part of the movie was my favorite part. It was an indescribable time.
Because I am a person who can derive great joy from words, anything in the form of words has power on me.
That part reminded me of the time of the Haitang Poetry Society in "A Dream of Red Mansions", which was the most beautiful time in the Grand View Garden.
He read the Odyssey to Hannah.
Hannah asked what was written, and he said: The journey, it's about what happens on the journey.
I couldn't resist copying all the words he read during that time in the movie:
Sing me his story, muse, his ups and downs.
After conquering the magnificent city of Troy, he wandered the world and wandered everywhere.
He put his cold hand on her lips, and she died, taking all hope away.
I searched around and through a small door I found a bedroom, surrounded by vines, where a man was sleeping soundly. In a trance, old Jim's voice sounded again: When you graduate, I hope you will find a place that only God knows, and fall asleep unconscious.
I am not afraid, I am not afraid, through hardships and dangers, dangers only make my love flourish, make it more ardent, and make it fragrant.
I am your only guardian angel, and your death will be more magnificent than your life. God called you back and looked at you and said there is only one thing that can make the soul whole and that is love.
The earth is immersed in the sparkle of stars, a bright light.
In the concentration camp, she picked some young girls to read to her and sent them to die.
She was horrified when her handwriting was tested in court, and I think she was more horrified by the revelation of illiteracy than by death.
So she said firmly and without hesitation: No need, I wrote the report.
That would amount to admitting her guilt, going to jail or dying. She would rather die than reveal her ignorance.
I know, it's not vanity, nor the inferiority complex Mike said, but the unspeakable love and awe of words.
Mike, who was studying law at university, was shocked and disappointed when he saw Hannah, who had disappeared for eight years, in court.
He had been with Hannah, a woman twenty years her senior, and even in Western countries, it was unethical at the time.
His behavior is deviant, but his morals are traditional and well-behaved, like all people with a conscience and a sense of justice.
He could never forgive Hannah's behavior. He cried sadly when he heard the sentence of life imprisonment, but he never told the truth.
He also tried to visit Hannah in prison, but escaped at the last minute.
After his divorce, he started sending Hannah novels to prison, but he never visited her, not once.
His expression was stern as he read, while Hannah's face softened, even with a sweet smile, beginning to open up.
Hannah learned to read and read, and she wrote him letters, which he read and put on his desk, backed away in shock as if stunned.
That's not the result he wanted. He doesn't seem to be echoing Hannah because she's guilty, unforgivable.
Hannah asked him to reply, but he put Hannah's letter in an envelope, threw it into a box on the ground, and kicked the box door with his foot.
That box already contained many letters from the prison.
He had a bit of a defiant disgust look that made me sad.
I was moved in the second half of the film, when Hannah received the tape from Mike.
The shock on her face, she pressed the PLAY button to hear him reading "The Odyssey", then turned it off and on again, it was sad.
It seemed that many years had passed by then, and in the years before that, Mike had never been seen, and I don't know what kind of loneliness she was living in.
In the second part of the movie, what I particularly liked was that Mike kept reading novels and recordings to her, and Hannah in prison kept listening.
Although what Mike wants to express is not love, he is no longer nostalgic for the time they spent together, but the intersection of spirits is still shocking.
Sing to me his story, Muse, of his ups and downs.
After conquering the magnificent city of Troy, he wandered the world and wandered everywhere.
In the Temple of Death, they fasted and prayed, hoping that others would come to meet. Those heroic spirits who have passed away, warriors who have long since passed away, and even those ancient heroes, come, forge swords into plows, and rest with me. Came to my bed and we mingled. We will love forever. Unless you point to the sky and destroy the earth, swear and swear, swear that you will never betray me again, and secretly murder me. As I said, she immediately vowed never to harm me again. After the oath, we intertwined in her extravagant bed.
A young lady, with her rose-like fingers, stroked her gleaming hair again, and led them through the courtyard of Yinggeyanwu to a feast full of delicacies from mountains and seas. The hospitality of the princess made them linger.
The cold wind whimpered, the sea roared, between the vast sea and the sky, the seagulls sang, the dolphins played, and the end of me was rebirth.
Wow, Anatole, I have to admit I'm jealous. Anatole, I was shocked, I tried to flatter you, and you turned a blind eye and fell into a deep sleep.
"Woman with a Dog" by Chekhov. The talk was about a new face at the dance, a lady with a dog. Dimit Dimitchiev, who had been living in Yat for two weeks, got bored and started looking for fresh faces. Sitting in the attic, he saw a young woman walking by the sea.
Finally heard this book again. She must have kept in her mind his impatience and uncertainty that day, his wavering, and he would leave sooner or later.
What kind of book is that, what kind of new members are at the dance. She went to the prison library to borrow "Woman with a Dog".
Worried, she hesitated but said the title of the book decisively. I was relieved and relieved when I heard the administrator say that there was that book.
She turned on the tape recorder, and compared the words in the book while listening. She stretched her fingers to count the words she heard, showing a puzzled expression.
Then he took a piece of pencil from the tea box and clumsily drew all the THE on the book. Seeing there, I couldn't help crying.
She finally learned to write and wrote the first letter to Mike: Thank you for making so many tapes for me, I love it.
I suddenly couldn't stop sobbing. Tears couldn't help but think that this is definitely a love story. Anyway, I have to think so.
Even if there is no echoing feeling, it is beautiful, even if it is humble, it is worth cherishing. I have forgiven her for everything she did.
But Mike couldn't forgive her. When he heard the news that she was going to be released from prison, he was not happy at all, but conflicted and worried.
He went to see Hannah and was not disappointed that she had become an old lady, but he was disappointed that she was still not enlightened.
—You are grown up, child.
- I have a friend who is a tailor, he will give you a job, I found you a place to live, it's not big, but it's good, what do you think?
--thanks!
——Now that society has progressed, as long as you make a phone call, you can listen to people telling stories. And the public library is also very close. You read a lot of books.
—I still like to hear people read it to me. It's not possible now, is it.
--Are you married?
--over. We have a daughter. She's not as good as I expected, and I may be asking too much. So we got divorced.
——Have you thought about the past well over the years?
- You mean the time we spent together?
--Do not. I'm not talking about those days.
——To be honest, before the trial, I never recalled the past, never.
- Now, how do you feel now?
- It doesn't matter how I feel, it doesn't matter how I think, the dead are gone.
- I don't know what you have learned?
- What have I learned? Boy, I learned to read.
- I'll pick you up next week, okay?
--good idea.
——When you got out of prison, should we keep a low profile or celebrate?
- Be quiet.
—Ok, keep it low-key.
- Take care, child.
--the same as you.
- See you next week.
Mike was heartbroken and disappointed to hear that Hannah's years in prison had not made her realize.
Hannah had never looked forward to their future, but was disappointed when she realized that Mike could no longer read to her.
The meeting after more than 20 years is a desperate and fatal blow to each other. Mike believes that there are too many grievances between them.
While Mike furnishes Hannah's room, she steps on the book she loves and gives up her life.
When he took Hannah out of jail with a bunch of flowers, he saw only her relics left in the cell.
"Woman with a Dog" reappears, and Hannah transcribes the sentences on paper and sticks them on the wall.
I know that this is just a love movie, not a war, nor a reflection on war, just a love story with a war background.
Mike saw the note on the wall, and listened to the guard reading Hannah's suicide note, explaining the funeral, and he cried sadly.
Hannah's letter was to the guards, not Mike. She had figured out that she would never write those unanswered letters to Mike again.
I forgot if I ever cried at this time, I just felt that the years spent in the cell were the happiest time in her life.
She enjoys the world of words brought by Mike. When all this is lost, the meaning of life to her does not exist.
Perhaps, words, love, anything we admire, trust, believe, or convert to is a sweet cage.
Isn't everyone willing to drink poisonous wine with a smile when facing the one they love?
Mike may have forgiven Hannah, he went to the survivor according to Hannah's last wish and gave her her money.
But she refused. Of course, she must refuse, that history cannot be easily erased, and she cannot betray her own nation.
When Mike told her that Hannah couldn't read at the time, she asked: Is this an excuse for what she did?
She said: "People often ask me, what did I learn in the concentration camps? But concentration camps are not educational institutes. Do you think it is like going to a university to get an education? We didn't go to school there. Hope you can understand this. What do you want me to do? Want me to forgive her? Or to keep yourself from feeling guilty? Do you know what good advice I have? If you want to vent, go to the theater, go, look for it in literary works, not in concentration camps, from which you can learn nothing and nothing. What are you giving me money for? The money is of no use to me, and if I were to donate it to any anti-Jewish organization, it would seem to me to condone her crimes. I have neither intention nor will I do it.
By the end of the movie, I was disappointed with Mike.
I can forgive him for not forgiving Hannah, but I can't forgive his betrayal.
The dignity that Hannah defended with her life, the dignity that she paid for everything and her freedom to maintain, was easily betrayed by him.
He shouldn't tell the truth, she didn't want to use this as a price to make others forgive her. If she wanted to, she would have defended it long ago.
What's more, this is not her personal crime and should not be shouldered by her personally. Even if there is a judgment, it should be her morality.
The director should not be kind to Jews. It can be seen from his choice of actors and her performance.
Although the Jewish survivor deserves sympathy, she does not make people feel sympathetic to her like a victim.
She has no affinity at all, looks mean, self-righteous, superior, accusatory, and people can't help but feel resentful.
But to make her accusations and vitriol right, no one will forgive easily, that would have been an unforgivable crime.
How can a nation's almost destructive disaster be forgiven so easily with a single person's repentance? It is absolutely impossible.
It cannot be forgotten and cannot be resolved, even the almighty time cannot do it, forgetting the past is tantamount to betrayal.
Sometimes no hatred and no revenge doesn't mean forgiveness, just lack of ability and lack of timing.
If revenge will lead to greater persecution by the enemy, it is better to pursue prosperity and mutual benefit under the surface harmony.
But where history is forever, hatred will never be forgotten, even death cannot be dissolved.
She played Hannah so well, the girl's beauty in "Titanic" has disappeared, but the acting is perfect.
In this movie, she is stern, serious, and radiates cold and quiet like moonlight. heartstrings.
Regarding nude scenes, I don't think it's too much, because what I see is love, not just sex. It's a plot, not a gimmick.
But I think the reason why she can be naked with her out of shape body is because she is facing a child, not a young mature man.
When I read "Binu" before, I found that there was no one likeable character in it, and I deeply felt that such a work would not be liked.
But what amazes me is that there are no likeable characters in this movie, but it moved me deeply.
It was the enduring feelings that had been eroded by the long years that touched me, as well as Hannah's fascination and awe for words.
I think that feelings that will not change after a long time, whether it is love, family, or even hatred, are worthy of tribute.
So, in my eyes, this is a very emotional movie. This is my understanding of this movie.
It's also the best and most moving movie I've seen in about a year.
(2009.03.12)
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