Author: Netlix Film Club / Lily Wachowski
Translation: Enlightening
For a long time, fans of "The Matrix" have tried to discuss the film from a transgender perspective. Whether you know it before or only now, the following interviews with the creators of transgender films and the articles of film critics are all Can help you understand the transgender fables in this movie. Welcome to the real desert (movie line).
Director Lily Wachowski reviewed the film in a recent interview and confirmed the long-controversial theory of "The Matrix" as a gender transition fable , "The Matrix is all about conversion ( Transformation), but they all start from a closeted point of view in the cabinet.” The following interview with Lily:
I am very happy that people are talking about this film, analyzing the "Matrix" series of films from the perspective of transgender narrative. I am very pleased to see many transgender people commenting on "The Matrix" saying that this movie saved their lives, because when we talk about "transition", especially in a movie that makes the impossible possible In science fiction movies, I think this is the reason for the great impact on transgender people; I feel very honored to be able to add this possibility to their life journey.
Netlix Film Club: What do you think of fans talking about "The Matrix" as a transgender fable?
I am very happy that people have seen our true intentions in creating this film. When this film was released, the world was not ready for the appearance of transgender people. I think that for any kind of public art, there is a process of "letting go", because once the work is created, it enters into a public dialogue. I enjoy this process very much. As human beings, we are attracted to art together, we can discuss it in a non-linear way, and there will always be new ways and perspectives.
Netlix Film Club: What was the inspiration for the role of Switch?
Our inspiration for creating "The Matrix" all came from the desire for transformation, and this desire came from inside the cabinet. So we have the role of Switch. He is a male in real life, but a female in The Matrix.
Netlix Film Club: Did your (transgender) identity influence the writing and directing of The Matrix at the time?
I still don't know how much my transness influenced our creation at the time, but all the inspiration for the film comes from our passion. Because transgender people really exist in this world, especially for Lana and I, the world we lived in was a world where the word “transgender” did not exist yet, so the world we live in is what we live in. The imaginary world, this is why I am attracted to science fiction and fantasy novels. We are all fans of Dungeons and Dragons. All of this is about conceiving a world, so I think our identity liberates our imagination as directors, because at that time we can imagine what you may not have seen on the screen, even this How can various types of movies exist. One thing we are committed to doing is to integrate Kung Fu movies, comics and western movies. Just like Neid Barty did in "TV Station", he will discuss what the world was like, that kind of Hierarchy and hegemonic structure. Therefore, for our own trans-child sex and queer sex, we try to include them in our creations as much as possible, and try to expand the boundaries of our imagination.
So, how does "The Matrix" serve as a transgender fable? The writer Andrea Long Chu wrote in her book "Women": "Neo has a certain anxiety, the matrix system is gender dualism, and those agents are ubiquitous transphobias." The " Spike " in Neo's thoughts "What is it? For many transgender people, this is very much like they are socially defined as genders that do not match their gender identity. As Neo "woke up," he began to change his identity: from Thomas Anderson, the name given to him by the machine, to Neo, the name of his own choosing.
Film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay wrote about the importance of Neo’s refusal to be called by his old name in her analysis of The Matrix. Interestingly, Agent Smith referred to Neo as "Mr. Anderson", which emphasized his gender identity as "Mr.". Rowan University professor Eleanor Lockhart wrote an article analyzing this in 2016. .
Then there are the classic blue pills and red pills. The matrix system is built to define and control his identity. The pills are not only the entrance of Neo to the real world, but also can be used as transgender people to receive hormone therapy. Great metaphor for . Chu went on to write that many transgender people who lived through the 1990s pointed out that the prescription drugs for estrogen at that time were red pills. You can call it a coincidence, but the word "trans" that you see on the computer screen at the beginning of the "The Matrix" movie is exactly the word "trans".
The most impressive thing is that the transgender theme of "The Matrix" is not only in the plot, we can also see the breakthrough visual presentation provided by the film for the transgender experience. In his book "Sensing Transgender", the scholar Cael Keegan discussed the visual aesthetics of "The Matrix" "to guide the audience to experience the possibility of living beyond their original body."
Let us look back at the classic dodge bullet scene again, which is a technique for dividing time. Or as Keegan said, the time technology of bullets "gives two temporary time experiences at the same time... it achieves the effect that the experience of gender crossing resonates with the ebodiments of multiple times."
Although the Wachowski sisters did not disclose their transgender identity when filming the film, Lily said that she “did not feel that she could be an undercurrent of her own anger during the creation of The Matrix”. This leads to the concept of "egg". In the transgender community, "egg" refers to people who have not yet realized their transgender identity. Emily VanDerWerff wrote: "The Matrix may be The film with the most profound interpretation of'egg'."
Someone hastily classified Lily's recent confirmation of the transgender fables in "The Matrix" as "revisionist." What I want to say is, how can you go to teach a film creator-who is also a transgender person-to guess what they are thinking or not thinking when they are making their own movies? The "The Matrix" series created by the Wachowski sisters makes fans re-examine their films from a transgender perspective, because they are trans women from beginning to end, and "The Matrix" is created by two trans women from beginning to end. movie of. In the last scene of "The Matrix", the camera zoomed in to the words "system crash" in the code. Neo said, "You are afraid of us, you are afraid of change." When the camera moves closer and passes through "M" and "F "In between, it actually creates a space between dual genders, or completes the transcendence of dual genders.
Lily and Lana Wachowski’s "The Matrix" is one of the most influential and enduring movies in film history. With The Matrix, they provide transgender people with a world of light and shadow without boundaries and restrictions, a world where everything is possible.
【Reference Materials】
[1]Andrea Long Chu. What We Can Learn About Gender From The Matrix. 2019.2.7.
[2]Netflix Film Club. Why The Matrix Is a Trans Story According to Lilly Wachowski. 2020.8.4
[3]Eleanor Amaranth Lockhart. On Why The Matrix and Its Meaning Matter to Transgender Politics Today. 2016.4.26.
[4]Cáel Keegan on THE MATRIX. 2019.2.12.
[5]Emily VanDerWerff. How The Matrix universalized a trans experience — and helped me accept my own. 2019.3.30.
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