The story takes place in the rippling Mediterranean Sea. Nigel and Feina, a couple from the United Kingdom, will take a boat trip to India. They have been married for seven years and have no children. They are very loving. On the boat, they accidentally ran into a disabled man Oscar and his wife Mimi, who was paralyzed. Thus began the past and nightmare that accompanied this journey.
There is no doubt that the Oscars became the destined demons of the Nigels. One of them seduce the gentle and weak husband in an attempt to pull him into the whirlpool of desire, and the other tried to seduce the wife who has a secretive homosexuality, so that she betrayed her marriage with a more thorough and desperate speed. In the vast ocean, there is no possibility of reliance or comfort. Through the isolated sea, the isolated ship, and the isolated journey, the director allowed these two diametrically opposed couples to have a thorough understanding after experiencing mutual approach and departure. Oscar shot and killed his wife Mimi and committed suicide. He pitifully looked at Feina and Mimi who had just fallen asleep on the bed, and said: "Baby, this should all be over, you are too much."
I really appreciate Polanski's grip on the structure of the story. His setting of the environment, the development of the plot, and the conception of the ending all emphasized contingency, as if everything was just a dream, and nothing happened after waking up. The sea, travel, a story, an encounter, one by one inadvertently layout, enticing the Nigels into the mist unknowingly. They are destined to be brainwashed by Oscars. He likes them, not others, largely because they are affectionate, and their love is a bit misleading. They are husband and wife, yes, there is no doubt about it. But their married life has come to a corner where they have to face it, although they have not noticed it themselves.
But maybe Oscar just wanted to find someone with pure happiness to tell about his painful past. A story of torturing and loving each other. Oscar is an American. He lives on a rich inheritance. At the same time, he is also a writer with no ambitions. He came to Paris only because he wanted to appreciate the irresistible charm of this energetic and erotic city, so he encountered Mimi. That simple girl, a dancer, was wearing a pink checkered skirt and snow-white sneakers. Everything about her is so charming, her smile, her innocence. He was intoxicated in his greed for her. He got her hands, perhaps because of love, or perhaps because of eager desire. Her innocence caused his 40-year-old heart to encounter restless reveries, and her admiration for him made him look forward to all the pain and happiness in her body. This is the most concentrated part of the neutral scene in the movie. Oscar and Mimi are enjoying each other's body, and Mimi's sinking finally makes Oscar tired.
The story always needs a turning point. When Oscar throws Mimi on the plane heading to the island by himself, the faint moonlight outside the window finally turns into two completely different colors. "She was sitting on the plane with a withered face, and I was in the waiting room. I imagined that she was looking at the bright moon out of the window, and I was also looking at it, but the feelings were different. To her, it was a poison. For me, it is as sweet as honey." Two years later, Mimi came back. By this time Oscar was already a patient lying in bed because of an accidental traffic accident. A brutal and similar act of revenge thus began.
If you say that when Mimi is in love with Oscar, she is also unable to resist. She was willing to do anything for him, as long as he kept her by his side, even when she tried her best, she couldn't make Oscar want her. She has lost control, her seduction has been replaced by Oscar's disgust, how seductive she was once, how annoying she is now. A woman is the most powerless at this time, and her love means her powerlessness. The Oscar is different. He doesn't believe in love, even if he can think of love as something more attractive than money, until he is paralyzed. Although now Mimi has the initiative, because when she stares at the bitter moon, she can no longer love, but hate. So at this moment Oscar is as weak as Mimi's head in his eyes. But just in this resistanceless weakness, he finally fell in love with Mimi, and he married her.
They both fell in love with each other when they were absolutely weak, and gave up each other when they were strong. Their love is full of torture and destruction of each other, but they never give up loving each other. In Polanski's eyes, the love between people must rely on their own strength, just as he believes that in the face of the ugliness of human nature, love is the least powerful. Therefore, it is the power of human nature that creates the power of love. In the extreme contrast between good and evil, love is like a wire rope hanging in mid-air, where destruction and salvation are equally divided. Only when men and women are evenly matched can they maintain a long-lasting love. If any one of them becomes weak or strong, then love is bound to die.
So Oscar found the Nigels. He used them as guinea pigs. He desperately instilled in Nigel how Mimi was alive and well. And when the mediocre and cowardly Nigel was intoxicated in the story of Night and Night and Oscar, looking forward to Mimi with hope, his wife completely betrayed him, she became Mimi’s lover first, and even blurred. Sexual orientation all the time. On New Year's Eve, Fei Na attended the banquet in full costume and kissed Mimi in public. This time Nigel's blow was too great, he was fooled by almost everyone, Oscar, Mimi, his wife. His cowardice is destined to be unable to bear this story that requires strength, no matter good or evil. He couldn't compete with his wife Feina at all. In the face of love, marriage, and humanity, Nigel is the only person in the movie who has no standpoint. He could not even bear this sudden misfortune.
After two gunshots, everything was over. Nigel and Feina seemed to have experienced a terrible dream. They hugged each other on the deck of dawn. Whether it was Nigel or Feina, I believe they should understand that they cannot afford Oscar and Mimi. Although Polanski is a cunning man, he ultimately did not allow himself to influence the young couple. After seven years of marriage, this is a dangerous time, so a nightmare that is not big or small may teach them a lesson. Nigel's weakness made him and Feina very clear that they are only suitable for normal married life. Business as usual, it can only be so.
It is also worth mentioning that there are not many but suggestive pairs of Indian father and daughter in the movie. He is an unknown widower. His wife died early, and he was with his young daughter. Feina liked them very much. That little girl and his kind father will appear very punctually when Fena or Nigel are particularly helpless, and it is also the time when the Oscar story is usually the most bizarre and unbearable. The father and daughter, who are dependent on each other, seem to tell the panicked couple: Life is ordinary and sad, and having someone in love is an instinctive happiness. The last time they appeared was at the end of the film, on the deck of dawn. They are here to say goodbye to the Nigels who are embracing and crying. They are leaving, because the Nigels may have understood what normal life and love are.
After watching the film and thinking for a long time, I still insist that Polanski is still a simple person, although I can't classify him. He always likes to take everything so extreme, but if he really reaches the extreme, it means that he has to start again. Although the Oscars are dead, the Nigels’ new life has just begun. They may follow the advice of the Indian widower to have a child. So I believe that no matter what Polanski’s point of view is in the movie, he is unwilling to make the audience truly desperate. Watching his movie is like walking in a dark and secret tunnel. No matter how scared or desperate you are, you will watch it in the end. To the light.
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