I read a lot of comments, but most of them are saying that the two roles of father and mother are the metaphor of squid (or octopus or squid) and whale. I don’t think this movie is about parents, but it’s about the brothers.
There is a section in the plot that my brother and the psychologist recalled that squid and whale were only mentioned when they were young. Afterwards, he said more importantly, there was no father in his memory, that was before his brother was born.
I think the role of father has always been a repressive and angry image at home. After his aura of writer and profound literary knowledge faded, he was an old man who was disgusting.
My brother’s best memory was actually with his mother. He should have liked his mother more and hated (or feared) his father just like his brother. But with the birth of his younger brother, the mother's care he enjoyed was at least halved. So he turned to seek "flattering" to his father in the family. This is why he looks closer to his father on the surface, and agrees with his father's point of view more. In fact, it is hard to say that he has talent or interest in literature and art.
Part of his hostility towards his mother was inherited from his father, and part of it stemmed from his mother's reduction in love for him because of his younger brother.
Squids and whales are the source of his fear, and his mother is his umbrella. So at the end of the film, he refused to accompany his father and ran to the museum to see squid and whales. He needs to face up to what he has been avoiding.
I don't think that the fight between the squid and the whale in the ocean alludes to the disagreement between his parents. I think this connection is far-fetched. He may be afraid of squid and whales, or he may be afraid of dinosaurs and Ultraman...In short, the fear of childhood growth is the key. So the protagonist is actually the older brother, and his childhood is the main thing.
Such a story is very important to control the heat. It is neither a sad nor a comedy. There are no more tricks in the director's shots. There are a lot of shaking hand-held lenses, I think this might make the movie look less heavy.
Maybe it is because of the background of the screenwriter, there are many dialogues in it. But the front and back shots of the dialogue seem a bit dull...At this time, the characters can only be handed over to the actors. The actors played really well.
The brother who played the role of the social network later, the two people really feel alike. Cocky, a little bit arrogant and a little bit ridiculous...
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