The film has an international life background. Anton is a surgeon who lives in Denmark as a Swede, but works in a refugee camp in Africa thousands of miles away. He shuttles between the desolate and dry desert and the picturesque Danish coastal city, repeatedly causing the audience to fall into time and space. On his operating table, there were pregnant women who had their stomachs cut open from time to time. It was only because a local man called a "big guy" bet with others to see if the young pregnant woman was pregnant with a boy or a girl. People I dare not say anything about it. As a doctor, Anton’s work is limited to sewing the open belly of these women again.
This is an unnecessary evil with a bad plot but no foundation: the perpetrator doesn't seem to know what he is doing, and he has not considered the result of doing this in the slightest, causing serious harm to others. He is like a blind person, completely lacking some ability and some organs to imagine the suffering of others and experience the suffering of others. He "comes alone" in this world, doing whatever he wants on a whim. The way he expresses his inviolability is to invade others and enjoy it. No one should stop him at that moment, otherwise he would be "ignorant of current affairs."
This evil exists both in Africa and in Denmark. It not only exists among adults, but also frequently occurs among children. Anton has two sons. The eldest son Elias is 12 years old and is often bullied at school. The valve core of his bicycle is often unplugged, and people will be stopped for no reason when walking on the road. Mentioning his name in the class is even full of laughter. People laughed at him for the following reasons: his identity, his looks, and his teeth. His friend Christian helped him out of anger, and the two were in trouble of being investigated by the police.
This bullying among school children is reminiscent of the German film "The Wave" (2008). Among them, the boy nicknamed "Soft-footed Shrimp" was bullied by his classmates so that he could not raise his head. Later, he found his home in a totalitarian experiment. In the 1980s, there was a Soviet film "The Ugly Eight Monsters" (also translated "The Scarecrow", 1986), which also showed the sinisterness among children to the fullest. He (she) is not as pure and flawless as people think. The vices that adults try to conceal are exposed to children.
An Dong’s youngest son is about two or three years old. It was a common occurrence to have disputes with children playing together in the children’s playground. But the sturdy parent of the child came over and couldn't help but slap Anton's face several times: "Don't touch my child." After that, he didn't leave contentedly, and then spread his anger on his little guy. superior. There is too much hostility buried in his irritable body, and he can't wait to use the whole world as his punching bag.
This is what I call the "trivial evil". It is a kind of evil that has no foundation and no need, in a trivial way, it spreads and erodes every corner of life.
He cannot treat life as a whole, he does not know that his own life is connected with the lives of others, and he does not know that the current situation is inseparable from the future situation. To hurt others is to hurt yourself, and to hurt the present is to hurt the future. In a certain situation, as the fable said, the frog crossed the river with a scorpion in the flood, and the scorpion thought that it could not sting the frog, so it would not survive by itself. But in the middle of the turbulent torrent, the scorpion still stung the frog and both sank into the water. Before dying, the frog asked, "Why sting me?" Scorpion replied, "Because I can't control it."
At the bottom of such an aggressive behavior, there are seeds of nihilism crouching. This person himself has never been treated properly, and there is no experience of life being respected and cherished. Therefore, he does not know that he respects others, and he does not feel that the lives of others are as important as his own, and cannot be erased. When he feels that he is worthless, he also feels that others are worthless. He was ignored for too long, and his grievances grew unconsciously, until he grew into a sharp thorn. Only when it hurts others can he feel his own existence, his own "power", and his own "value". The relationship between him and the people around him is built in this state of constant attacks and a certain kind of "war". He is used to living in a state of airtightness, with neither perception nor perspective, and no time to consider the consequences of his actions.
The "big man" in Africa is actually the same. His behavior is frivolous and nonchalant, which reminds me of what the Hungarian writer Kertes said, "It is not only the cruelty of the atrocities, but also the indiscretion of the atrocities." The Czech poet Kruber has a poem about Aki. Mead's poem also tells a certain truth. The great mathematician died by the hand of an invading soldier who broke in by mistake. The poet described the soldier as follows: "He lightly stroked/killed the circle, the tangent/and the cross-cut point/even infinity" (" Killing the Corporal of Archimedes").
The stupid parent has not finished his stupidity. Anton, who did not fight back at the time, took his three children (plus Christian) to the garage where he worked afterwards. The mechanic was even going to show off his aura, yelling "You Swedes go back to hell", and then He slapped Anton's mouth, the voice was clear and loud, and everyone heard it. At this time, Anton's attitude became the core of the entire film. Perhaps because of this, this film is called "unconventional in every aspect". In fact, it only needs to be "unconventional" in one important aspect: it constitutes a correction of popular practices in this world.
Anton explained to his son: "He is an idiot. If I go to beat him, I will be a big idiot. I will go to jail, and you will have no father. He won." The son asked, "Are you afraid of him?" Said "This is not the problem". Oh, a person should do something because of the thing itself, not for other reasons, especially not for others to see. Sometimes, different aspects of things are mixed up in such ambiguities. In fact, too many things cannot simply be attributed to the question of fear and unafraidness. In addition to this "fear" issue, there are other different considerations. The reason for a person's behavior is, in a sense, more valued than his behavior itself.
Facing this ignorant fellow, Anton said word by word: "I brought the children here, just to tell them-I am not afraid of you." "You are such a big idiot, when I bring the children here. , But you didn't apologize, but continued to fight." "This can't hurt me, I'm fine." The last words really angered the rude guy, and Anton's actions made him feel that he was completely defeated. He raised his voice and shouted: "I can't hurt you? That's exactly what I want to do." Faced with the indignation of the boys, Anton enlightened: "He is lost. He is an idiot, not worth our time. "It's really a worthless idea to let an idiot occupy or even give up his life for it. Perhaps, a person must not only choose his friends, but also his enemies.
Of course, this may be worth discussing, and at the same time, it is necessary to set strict limits on the subject-what kind of evil people should take, which is more appropriate. At least this film provides a reference. You can't fall into the trap of "trivial evil", and you can't bet or exchange your life with this kind of evil that has no foundation and no reason. For young Christian, he still needs to go through a period of experience to understand-because he couldn't swallow this breath, he used the gunpowder stored at home to blow up the repairman's car, and almost caught the two of his friend Elias and himself. Life. Anton made him understand that "life and death are only separated by a veil." "I'm an idiot too," Christian said at the end of the film.
In comparison, the Japanese film "Confession" (2010), which was also nominated for an Oscar, has a completely different approach. Two teenagers killed the female teacher's young daughter Aimei, and their cruel practices revealed the same ignorance.
Among them, A (as the victim called him) is a bit similar to Christian in the upper part of the film, because the loss of maternal love is somewhat psychologically imbalanced. Unlike Christian's mother who died of illness, A's mother who thought she was stronger abandoned him. He therefore wanted to do something earth-shattering for his mother to see. There are some trivial factors in the middle. In the end, it was B who put the innocent girl to death. This teenager was afraid of things and was overspoiled at home. Therefore, he had a strong sense of failure and needed to prove that he was not a "broken product." When student A was cross-examined by the teacher, he turned around and gave a bright smile, and said "just kidding", as if he didn't know what he was doing. Classmate B's mother kept sighing for her son while listening to the whole process, completely ignoring the victimized little girl.
The teacher himself also thinks, "A has the intent to kill, but did not kill; B does not have the intent to kill, but kills the beauty." The two teenagers committed unforgivable crimes in a state of almost ignorance. Obviously, the absence of life education from school and family plays an important role in it. The female teachers in the film resent that the law cannot specifically punish these young offenders. They actually cause irreparable consequences just like adults. She formulated a complete and step-by-step revenge plan for herself and implemented it. She claimed to have allowed the two students to drink milk containing HIV, thereby torturing them mentally and allowing them to accept the bitter fruit. Student B is crazy and can't go to school. Trapped A went further and further on the road of "careerist", and eventually killed the mother he wanted to see with homemade explosives.
This film tells a perverted story. You can say that the behavior of female teachers who lost their beloved women is understandable. However, the biggest shortcoming of the film is that it lacks a perspective of values and lacks an evaluation of the behavior of female teachers. Like teenagers, this woman can only find the meaning of her life through the revenge behavior of hurting others. Only by torturing others madly can she gain a little balance. Her actions have no way out in spirit, only to fall into In the "evil-evil" cycle. Especially if we compare the two films to see the shortcomings of "Confession", we can also appreciate the profound humanistic spirit in "Better World", a concern for values and a kind of self-reflection. Position, not just to create a spectacle of human nature like "Confession".
(Author of Caijing Magazine Issue 08, 2011: Cui Weiping)
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