However, if the many erotic scenes in the film are regarded as Park Chan-wook's representative audience, voyeuristic and consuming women's bodies, it is inevitable that this famous contemporary Korean film director, who has always been "ruthless", has always been curious and respectful of women's potential. Like the elegant and vengeful gold in "Kindly Gold", the men in "Miss" are again high and powerful, but they are just a stumbling block in the "true love declaration" of Xiuzi and the "girl" Shuji, and they need to find a way to kick them away.
In addition to revealing the relationship between the characters by means of stage play, the movie "Miss" has a typical Park Chan-wook style. According to his own words, "this is a thriller movie with clear characters and a twist." British female writer Sarah Waters's original novel "Fingerman's Love" and the BBC drama of the same name, eroticism, violence, revenge, reversal and other elements are all available, but Park Zanyu only compares the Victorian aristocratic lady with the The maid's love story is used as a source of inspiration, and these elements are eventually enriched by him and become the signature of no other branch. The evolution of the fate of the main characters has almost no substantial connection with the era in which he lives.
Even if men participate in erotic scenes, it is useless
. As soon as "Miss" appeared at the Cannes Film Festival this year, the erotic elements were magnified by the preview media. Park Chan-wook changed the story to Korea during the Japanese occupation era in the 1930s, because the nobles who still existed in Korea at that time voluntarily or were forced to change their nationalities by marrying Japanese nobles. In particular, my uncle's "character development record" is an important foreshadowing. And erotic culture is second to none in Asia and even in the world, Japan, naturally there are enough reasons to "intervene" in the story.
In the four erotic scenes in the film, Shuji and Earl each participated in half with Xiuzi. Compared with the implicit and obscure descriptions in "Fingersmith Love Picking", although they are unusually "dry firewood and fire", they are just like several naked sex scenes between Mr. Yi and Wang Jiazhi in "Lust, Caution", which are indispensable to Ang Lee. The necessary drama to advance the master-servant relationship.
In the two scenes between Hideko and the Count, whether it was her escape by "returning it in her own way", or the wedding night that the Count dictated when he was imprisoned by his uncle, there was no substantial relationship between the two—even if the Count revealed his true feelings, Xiuzi Also unmoved. The two "completed the bridal chamber" in Hideko's self-blasphemous moans, and even the manufacture of "Luohong" is not done by men like in "Fingersmith Love Challenge", but Hideko with a proud and contemptuous look, in front of the count. Cut the palm of her hand, men are useless to her.
The first physical contact between Xiuzi and Shuji is shown in the first and second parts of the film, but from the perspective of Shuji and Xiuzi respectively. In the chapter of Shuji and the earl deceiving Xiuzi, Shuji, under the "temptation" of Xiuzi's words, finds out candy to demonstrate the intercourse between men and women. When Xiuzi and the Earl cheated against Shuji, the scene was extremely detailed in Xiuzi's subjective narrative, implying that she also fell in love with Shuji long ago, and sex is the realization and improvement of love.
After the two women successfully tricked the Count into escaping the manor, they unleashed their lust on the cruise ship. This scene is very short, but no matter the medium shot or the close-up shot, the two of them are almost always drawn in a neat way. Even when they take out the Burmese bell to imitate the actions described in the book, they are symmetrical and orderly, suggesting that they are more symmetrical than men. The violence and coercion of women, the two who lost their rings and gloves, absolute freedom and equality in identity and sexual relations.
Women work together to complete self-awakening and cognition
. Different sex scenes directly illustrate the two reversals in the narrative to promote master-slave love. The film also uses contrasting shots many times to point out the changes in the relationship between the two themselves and the people around them. .
One of the representative works of Ukiyo painter Katsushika Hokusai in the Edo period of Japan, "Octopus and Ama", appeared twice in the film. The first time he appeared, the Earl was discussing the business with his uncle, while copying the painting leisurely, as if everything was under the control of the two of them. On the night when Xiuzi and Shuji fled, the two came to the library, and this picture appeared again, which made Shuji understand that Xiuzi had lived in hell for more than 10 years, aroused her inner anger, and started to destroy the obscene books. Driven by , he also conquered the demons and summoned the courage to destroy the past, completing the behavioral and psychological transformation from being restrained by men to freeing them from men.
Later, Sook Hee smashed the cobra statue standing at the entrance of the library (compared to the fingers in the same position in "Fingersmith Love Picking", the cobra is undoubtedly more a symbol of taboo and lust, male power and bondage). Before that, it prevented her aunt from escaping from the library and Sook Hee approaching the library, leaving Hideko to follow in the footsteps of her aunt who committed suicide, at the mercy of her uncle. And the cherry tree that her aunt hanged was a sign of a new life for Xiuzi. Her feigned self-termination was exchanged for the proof that she and Shuji loved each other.
The letter they wrote to their uncle when they were freed, together with their ruined library, is in the form of text that runs through the entire film, allowing Hideko to successfully avenge her uncle-although several times in the film, her uncle was physically violent to Hideko. (At the beginning of the second part, she was severely beaten by her uncle with a bell.) But more often, her uncle used obscene books to enslave her, making her like her aunt before her death, and her nerves were always as frightened as a bird.
It is precisely because the master and servant are motivated by each other to complete self-awareness and cognition, the story of the third part of "Fingerman's Love Picking", "The civet cat for the prince", does not have the value of existence in this film, and Park Zanyu adds and deletes roles. , are also for new content services. And the same-sex couples in "Fingerman's Love Picking" did not express their desire to each other until the end, and at the same time they knew the pain of the past, and they would definitely jump out from time to time to disturb their future companionship. The two in "Miss", But it entered the new world with the color of a fairy tale, and even the vast sea at the end did not see the violent waves, only peace.
The bright and quiet ending given by Park Chan-wook blocks the audience's imagination that the relationship between the two may be in crisis. In the face of love, the audience and they forget together that the two were initially bewitched by the earl to approach each other's purpose.
"Elegant and humorous" Ha Jung-woo casts the right embrace
After "Miss" ended its trip to Cannes, related topics continue to this day. Lily themes, explicit scenes, and twists and turns are certainly the reasons for the heated discussion. The scenes in the film that combine traditional Japanese and Western architecture, and the characters, especially Hideko's classic and elegant costumes, also constitute a movie. point. It must be because the main creative team has cooperated with Park Zanyu many times and is familiar with the director's style. There are many different design elements in the film, and they are combined to achieve a unique beauty.
The four leading actors who collaborated with Park Chan-wook for the first time, in addition to the newcomer Kim Tae-ri who plays Sook Hee, and Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo and Zhao Zhen-hung who play Hideko, the earl, and the uncle respectively, all have subversive performances in the film, taking off clothes or doing bad things. Accessibility. Among them, Ha Zhengyu, one of the most powerful actors in South Korea at present, has almost rebelled against the many classic images he has performed.
Ha Jung-woo has created thousands of different characters in films with different themes, such as "Chaser", "The Yellow Sea", "Terrorist Live", "State Representative", "Client", etc. , Athlete, a martial artist, it seems that there is no role that he can't play. In "Miss", the earl, who is between the liar and the prodigal son, can be flirtatious and affectionate, can deceive people and can be deceived. He bites down the peach juice and splashes all over his face, which makes people laugh and imagine that he was violently tortured by the earl He never forgets to enjoy a cigarette when he sees blood, and he breaks through the previous image. No wonder Park Chan-wook gives a high evaluation of "I am amazed by the performance of both elegance and humor."
Recalling that when "Miss" and "The Cry" appeared at the Cannes Film Festival at the same time this year, some fans saw that Luo Hongzhen and Ha Zhengyu, who had attracted widespread attention at the same time due to their cooperation in "Burst Audio-Visual", both "find a new love" and once made a sound. Sigh, but judging from the presentation quality of the two films and the actor's personal artistic pursuit, Ha Jung-woo's "giving his arms" to Park Chan-wook is an exceptionally correct choice.
PS, published in Beijing Youth Daily on August 19.
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