The movie "Stoke" is a suspenseful drama directed by South Korean director Park Chan-wook and released on January 20, 2013 at the Saint Denis Film Festival.
In the film text, the multiple use of symbols makes the film intriguing.
As one of the symbols of the film, "Spider" undoubtedly played a crucial role in the development of the heroine Idia's character and in revealing the theme of the film.
The film tells the story of the girl Idia Stoker's father who died on his 18th birthday, and then at his father's funeral, a handsome man, Charlie, who Idia never met but claimed to be his uncle, appeared.
In the face of this unknown but gentle uncle Charlie, Idia and her mother Eve have a very different attitude: Eve shows unabashed enthusiasm for Charlie, while Idia is wary but hard to resist his charm.
At the end of the film, Idia found out about the perverted murder of her uncle Charlie, shot Eve when Charlie wanted to kill him, and left alone.
The tone of the film is dark and gloomy, with Idia's character development as the main line, and symbolism is used in many places, such as the scene of Idia hunting with her father, the scene of the dung beetle rolling dung balls and so on.
In most films, it is not difficult to see the use of symbols, such as the shaded background painted in "Dr. Caligari's Cabin", the Gothic architecture in "Interview with the Vampire", and so on.
In "Stoke", the spider appears on Idia twice, and it is not difficult to infer that the image of the spider is closely related to the character development of the heroine Idia.
The use of "spider" as a symbol
A symbol is a combination of "object image" and "mind image", which is used to express an abstract concept of things or an image of philosophy.
Being good at spinning is one of the "images" of spiders. In ancient social production, women's red and spinning were indispensable skills for women, so people often associate spiders with women.
For example, the actions of the spider described in Emily Dickinson's poem "A Spider Holding a Silver String" are her real life portrayal; Spiders are all females even after they transform into human form.
In addition, spiders often use their own webs to trap prey and protect themselves, which can be regarded as the second "image" of spiders. The emergence of "Spider Woman" is intended to symbolize a relationship in which women take the initiative to attack and men are passively captured.
It is not difficult to see that the spider appears as a symbol in numerous works of art.
The spider in the movie "Stoke" appears on the girl Idia twice, which shows that the director fully considers the various connections between spiders and women, and must have an abstract meaning beyond the "symbol" itself.
Spider as a symbol of "sex"
When the spider first appeared , the film had just started. Idia's father died tragically in an accident, Idia was in grief, and her mother, Eve, entertained the guests of her husband's mourning at home.
When Eve asks Idia, who is playing the piano, to help in the kitchen, a spider creeps up to Idia; Idia defies her mother with silence, while the spider crawls up Idia's calf.
Idya has always been at odds with her mother and has been close to her father.
Mother Eve's indifference to her father's death made Idia very disgusted, especially her mother's special affection for her uncle Charlie of unknown origin, which made Idia disgusted with this smiling and polite uncle Charlie.
Later, Charlie did not leave after attending the funeral, but stayed at home with his mother and daughter Idia. He was willing to cook, take care of the garden, and please his mother Eve, and often went to school to pick Idia up from school. .
Although Idia didn't take it seriously on the surface, but Charlie's series of behaviors have made Idia feel good about this smart and handsome "good man".
Later, when playing the piano with Charlie, Idia enjoyed it immensely, reaching a "climax" in the sound of the piano.
At this time, the spider appeared for the second time, crawling from Idia's calf to the inside of the skirt.
Idia is eighteen years old, and she is in love, the age of transition from a girl to a woman.
When Uncle Charlie appeared at this time, not only was he impeccable, but he also understood and cared about Idia, which would inevitably make Idia feel ripples in his heart.
After the four-finger flick climaxes, Idia surreptitiously finds her mother and Charlie kissing.
Charlie's move made her very angry. She found Vip, the boy who pursued him, and ran with him into the silent woods to kiss him, but she did not want Vip to speak.
Idia couldn't accept Uncle Charlie's "betrayal", and betrayed herself because of her mother.
She asked Vip to act as Charlie's replacement, but she didn't really accept Vip, so Vip couldn't make a sound.
Idia had fallen in love with Charlie without her knowledge.
After returning from the woods, Idia put on the same silk pajamas as her mother Eve, and came to her mother's room to comb her hair, showing that Idia thought she was no longer a girl, but could choose what she liked like her mother. man woman.
The pajamas on her body imply that Idia has envisioned her mother as her "rival in love" in her heart.
When Charlie took out the 18th birthday present prepared for Idia, a pair of burgundy high heels, and put them on for him, we can see from the expression that Idia enjoyed the process very much.
If the first appearance of the spider indicates the beginning of Idia's transformation from a girl to a woman, then the second spider crawling into Idia's skirt shows that Idia has completed her transformation and has become a real woman, and Uncle Charlie is the object of her sexual fantasies.
Spider as a symbol of "hunter"
The Stokes are very smart. Idia's father is an excellent architect, Idia is the top student in the school, and my uncle Charlie is no exception. I have never seen myself from the drawings he wrote to Idia. But vivid and realistic tourist attractions can be seen.
Before the death of Idia's father, the father-daughter duo often went out hunting and brought home the prey for taxidermy collection.
His father cultivated Idia's calmness and decisiveness in dealing with things, coupled with his intelligent mind, before the arrival of Uncle Charlie, Idia already had two conditions to become an excellent "hunter".
After Charlie arrived, he first captured the heart of Idia's mother Eve, and then made Idia fall in love with him. It can be said that Charlie himself is already a very good "hunter".
In the second half of the film, we learned that the reason why he was close to Idia was that he regarded Idia as his only relative. He believed that Idia had the same blood as himself, the blood of murderous blood.
The death of his father, as well as the deaths of the missing housekeeper and Aunt Jin were all done by Uncle Charlie. He didn't want these people to take down his fake mask in front of Idia, so he killed him.
But Charlie did not shy away from his killing. He asked Idia to put the ice cream in the refrigerator in the basement just to let Idia see the housekeeper's body and to let Idia face up to her murderous nature.
In the narrative of the film, we gradually see that Idia and Charlie have many similarities.
At the beginning of the film, Idia opens and closes her legs and arms on her mother's bed exactly like Charlie's childhood when he buried his little brother alive, and neither of them likes others touching their bodies.
After finding the housekeeper's body in the refrigerator, instead of panicking, Idia stared at the corpse for a long time, which shows that she is not afraid of killing itself, so Idia can become a cruel and cruel "hunter" like Charlie, but her The killing instinct was suppressed by his father through hunting. This is what Idia recalled to his father when he combed his mother's hair in the film:
"Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop yourself from doing something worse."
The "worse thing" is the killing of people.
When Idia faces the teasing of her school boys and defends herself with pencils by herself, as well as her ruthless violence against Vip, you can see the changes she has undergone since Charlie's arrival.
As she brushed her mother's hair, she said her father didn't like to hunt but "did it for me".
After Vip's death, Idia has discovered and faced up to the bloodthirsty in her heart.
When the police came to the house to investigate the information about the missing boy Vip, Idya could deal with it easily, just like the spider's shiny cobweb could deceive the enemy's eyeliner. She has become a qualified "hunter" under the guidance of Charlie.
As the monologue at the beginning of the film says:
"It's not up to us to decide what we become. Only by being aware of that can you be free."
The whole film is the process of Idia's consciousness and face up to her killing nature.
She was wearing her mother's top, her father's sunglasses, and the shoes her uncle gave her. She inherited her mother's charm, her father's cautious calmness, and her uncle's murderousness.
The appearance of spiders first hints at the process of Idia's transformation into a woman. "Sex" has always been a problem that girls cannot avoid and must face up to in the process of growing up. The spider-like hunting master has obtained the "freedom" mentioned in the film. These two different symbols are the core of the film's expression.
The emergence of the spider as a symbol of the film not only lays the foundation for the audience to understand the meaning of the film, but more importantly, gives the film a deep meaning, which is memorable.
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