I've always been watching movies and don't like to know the plot first, it's better not to know anything. That's how the film goes. With curiosity about its name.
Accompanied by a somewhat bleak humming, the picture of the American countryside slowly unfolds. The two children are happily jumping on the trampoline, and this joy is not in harmony with the slightly desolate surrounding environment - dilapidated houses, muddy roads, and messy homes, subverting the romantic imagination of the countryside of this richest country . It turns out that there is also poverty in the rural areas of the United States, and it really exists.
A girl named Lei skillfully manages the housework, takes care of her younger siblings, and takes care of her mentally ill mother. One day, the arrival of the police broke the otherwise peaceful life. Lei's father was arrested for drug production. He mortgaged his house and all his property and was released on bail. Back for trial, Lei's family will lose all their property, including their only place to live. So, the only thing Rei wants to do and can do now is to do everything possible to find his father. Otherwise, you will face living on the streets. This is how the story begins.
Beginning with seeking help from her uncle, Lei tries to find anyone she can who might know her father's whereabouts. However, no one wanted to help her, no one wanted to make trouble for themselves, and no one wanted to be a troublesome witness. In the end, he learned that his father had been killed, killed by his father's former accomplice, the leader of the local gangster, and sank to the bottom of the lake. After Lei's many searches and efforts, he also sympathized with Lei's life experience. The gang members finally found out with conscience that on a winter night, they brought Lei Meng's eyes to the lake where his father's body was buried, and sawed off his hands with a chainsaw ( This is where the title of the film comes from), which was handed over to the police to prove that his father was dead. Ray and her family finally keep their home and property that will keep them alive.
The whole movie is sombre in style. The winter sky, white to the end, and uninhabited villages are an unbearable reality. 17-year-old Lei supports the entire family alone, with a mother who can't take care of herself, younger siblings, and a father who was arrested for drug production and eventually died in the wilderness. But this girl never showed weakness or fear. She was as strong as a wall, sheltering the three family members who needed her care. Even the police handling the case at the end sighed: I don't know how you did it.
It's deeply heart-wrenching that the film reflects a celebration of an intense vitality and maternal power that bursts out of Lei, yet at just 17 years old. The cruel reality does not take into account that Lei is still a minor girl. The law of adults is that the weak will eat the law, and Lei has no choice.
Movies about women are seen every year, but most of the past movies are women who are positioned as the cared and loved roles of wives or lovers relative to men. In this movie, men or parents are absent, Lei. The father I was looking for did not appear from beginning to end, but only existed as a clue. If according to Beauvoir's statement that women are "second sex", then the traditional "first sex" of men in this film is hidden, and women become "first sex", and they are underage women . And the vitality that she possesses to not fear the storm is believed that many men will feel inferior when they see it.
Vitality, tenacity, and strength are excellent qualities that belong to all human beings. These discourses, which have been occupied by male images in the past, are slowly being transplanted to women in the postmodern context. With the rise of feminism, the centrality of men, which used to be taken for granted, is increasingly being challenged. It seems that more and more people are recognizing that women have greater resilience and tolerance in the face of huge disasters, and can burst out the power of hope in the most desperate times.
I don't know which philosopher in the past once said, "Woman, your name is weakness".
I thought maybe he didn't get to see the movie.
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