The style of the film is very similar to Polanski's film "Shadow Writer", both of which reflect a young man who is just starting out and suddenly finds himself in a huge situation and begins to struggle against his own destiny with the external environment. What's more is that the shadow writers are more fascinating in suspense settings, and the Presidential Killing Bureau, because of the protagonist's excellent performance, further highlights the personal change in mentality and strong intervention in the environment and destiny.
As my title says, Steven's character transformations at the beginning and end of the film are at the heart of the film. At the beginning of the film, Steven is an aspiring young man who has great enthusiasm for politics and therefore gave up the high annual salary in the business field. This is reflected in his conversation with the female reporter Ada. Despite Ada's repeated reminders of his situation, he did not hesitate to do what he thought was right, and had no doubts in the personal ability and charisma of presidential candidate Governor Morris, who he was leading the way. America on the right track. However, the old ways and darkness of politics are beyond the control and prediction of a fledgling young man. As the story progresses, Steven gradually senses the variety of cunning, jealousy, pretense, and scheming hidden in this unfathomable realm.
Until he accidentally discovered the truth of the governor's sex scandal and the suicide of the heroine of the sex scandal, Steven went through a process of "knowing the truth and I shed tears". Since then, he has come to his senses, put his former ideals behind him, and embarked on a path. In order to achieve the goal, I swear to never give up. Seeing people to kill people, seeing Buddhas, and killing Buddhas is the road of no return. Although from the last shot of the film, what we see in the eyes of the protagonist is still his uncontrollable self-destiny and the turbulent and uneasy fate that may come. In the face of the entire institutional environment, an individual will always be just a cockroach to a tree. You think you are playing politics, but in the end you find out that you are actually being played by politics.
There are two classic films in my mind that reflect the personal and institutional environment. One is "Goodfellas" by Martin Sykes, which tells the history of how a young man learns to struggle carefully in the bloody underworld. The other is Peng Haoxiang's "Exodus", which more profoundly reveals the system's repression of individuals and the helplessness and struggle of individuals under such repression. There is a passage in Kafka's "Castle" where the proprietress said to K, "However, this last, the smallest, disappearing hope, which does not exist at all, is your only hope. Behind the insignificance of man is the huge absurdity and nihility of life.
I'm still not optimistic about people who always claim to stick to what they want to do. People always change themselves, it's just a matter of how much.
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