In the film, the father, who is a university professor, has been educating his son from a scientific point of view, and he firmly believes that everything in the world can be calculated. Poway was influenced by his father and believed in it. However, Poway's mind was shocked when he saw a dead dog. The death of the dog was against the teachings of the father. Poway learned to use a computer to control the opening and closing of a door or to calculate a complex problem, but not the life or death of a dog. At this moment, Poway suddenly discovered that he had touched a huge and sacred area that he could not control. He began to feel the overwhelming power of life, and all rational calculations were so insignificant in front of life.
Under such a shock, Poway and his father for the first time talked about such a heavy topic of death. For the explanation of death, my father gave a scientifically rigorous answer. However, Poway was not satisfied. He also wanted to know what was left after death. As fate would have it, the answer given by my father turned out to be the way he himself would use to miss Poway in the near future. When it comes to the soul, my father only said that it was just a way of saying goodbye. Understatement, dismissive. He sees too rationally and thoroughly, and to a certain extent, he can see into people's hearts, and he can see that faith is just a way for small human beings to comfort themselves. This method is like a life-saving straw for people drowned in the long river of pain and contradiction. It can make people less suffering from inner torment and gain some kind of stable power that may just be false. It's just that Poway's father is actually skeptical about his own heart. He is not sure whether he believes in anything, and he can't give a clear answer to Poway's question.
Poway's father and aunt grew up in the same Catholic family, but had very different attitudes towards faith. As a young boy, Poway's father noticed early on that many things could be calculated and measured, and then began to believe that everything could be. Out of the shackles of belief, but into another extreme misunderstanding. Such a person who believes in absolute rationality pays attention to finding the laws of objective things, and does not admit his doubts and mistakes. Perhaps there is a certain age reason, Poway's father demonized the role of the early computer, and the excessive trust in the computer can be understood as a betrayal of God to some extent, so he was finally hit by fate. The difference is that Poway's aunt is convinced that God exists. and believe in God. In her view, God is in your heart as long as you believe. When Poway asked her aunt who God was, her aunt hugged Poway and told him that love is God. My aunt said that the most important thing in life is to help others. Life is a gift. It can be seen from this that Chies' definition of faith in the film is not a purely religious form, but the core idea of religious propaganda, love and gifts. It is a beauty beyond rational human nature. The power of religion is its unparalleled fraternity.
The day before Poway was ready to go ice skating, his father used a computer to calculate the thickness of the ice and the pressure it could withstand. For the safety of the child, the father even went to the ice surface at night to check whether the thickness of the ice was sufficient. Yet tragedy inevitably occurred. Everything started from the sudden shattering of the ink bottle, and blue-black ink spread on the paper. Like black blood, it flows slowly but firmly, like the flow of life that can't be stopped even with all of its strength. Such a scene is cold and stoic, full of a silent inner tension. For a moment, a strong unease enveloped my father. When another student's parent said that the ice on the river was broken, although he was stubbornly reluctant to believe that his calculated conclusion was broken by living reality, he couldn't help but change his face. Convinced that Poway had been killed, his father sat on the stairs without the strength to move. Doubt and self-blame filled his heart. Once again, the computer that was automatically turned on flashed green light in the room, and the light fell on Poway's father's sweaty face, creating a terrifying, eerie effect.
At the end of the film, Poway's father arrives alone at the church and, in a fit of rage, knocks down the altar. Candle oil flowed down the Madonna's face like tears. In my opinion, this act is a hint of rebellion and confrontation, which pushes the inner contradictions of the characters to the extreme. At this moment, the inner tension that has always existed in the film finally exploded.
The contradictions and problems in the film relate to the creative background of the film. The background of the creation of "The Ten Commandments" is that in Poland before the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, there was a crisis in the socialist countries. This crisis is manifested in people's confusion. When there is a problem with a system, people will be confused about the future and the existing ones. Everything, began to question the world. Chies longed for an absolute point of reference, which he believed existed. In "Kieslowski on Kieslowski" he mentions God. He said that when he mentioned God, he was thinking of the God of the Old Testament. The God who never forgave others and ruthlessly demanded absolute obedience to the principles he laid down. The God of the Old Testament left us with a lot of freedom and responsibility, and he was watching how we use them and then rewarding or punishing them. No pleading or forgiveness. It is something permanent, definite, absolute rather than relative. This is also the point of reference that Chies has always sought.
In the first commandment, what cannot be ignored is the role of the mysterious man. This role, which is obviously arranged by the director, can be understood as representing the director's perspective and the director's attitude and reflection on the whole incident. He sees everything, bears witness to everything, indifferent and affectionate. At the beginning of the film, the man was sitting by the river, bowing his head in silence, with a look of inquiry or questioning in his eyes, and after contemplation, he shed tears. When the little boy went out, the man looked at him through a bonfire by the river, looked at him from a distance, and hesitated. As if God was watching him. In the course of the development of the film, there are several scenes where the man appears by the river with a bonfire. The night before the child's death, Poway's father met the man in front of the fire while he was out to check the thickness of the ice. The two stared at each other. This is God's last hint and warning to this university professor. It was not until after Poway's accident that his father saw a bonfire that was about to go out through the noisy crowd, and the mysterious man disappeared. The vigorous burning of the bonfire until it is extinguished is a hint to Poway's childhood life, from freshness to death.
There are some absurd scenes in the film, such as "I'm ready." on the computer screen, and the rupture of the ink bottle. These are things that cannot be solved by human beings, a kind of subversion of scientific rationality. What these designed plots imply is not to think that scientific reason can dominate everything, and not to try to shake God with the meager power of human beings. It is generally believed in the West that God created man and God is irreplaceable. Some things are controlled by God, don't try to go beyond God's arrangement. Natural science can solve some problems in the objective world, but it cannot relieve our inner distress, anxiety and loss, and cannot give meaning to our existence. The God who bestows kindness on human beings must be grateful, let alone revered.
Chies' discussion in the film shows his inner contradictions and doubts, but in the end he points the balance of faith to the side of human nature. The development of scientific rationality makes people indifferent and mechanized, but it is not omnipotent. It cannot stop the sigh of life. A rational life does not mean that there is no God. In a lonely world without eternity, no one will refuse love. This is God.
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