Before watching "Assistant", we must first know that this is a movie about Weinstein.
So we followed the perspective of Weinstein's assistant and plunged into a completely strange and terrifying world. The word "quiet" runs through every corner of Assistant Jane Yiyi, but hidden under this still water, it is the pain of having to remain silent, a slowly numb heart, and a loss of nowhere to find help. So all the accusations turned into silent stares and silent gazes.
The spoiler warning movie tells about the daily life of Jane, an assistant to a well-known film producer. He came to the company before dawn, cleaned the boss’s office, printed the day’s office documents, prepared bottled water and medicine, and then Answer the phone, process the itinerary, receive and place new people...
However, when she put together some of the details she found in the day, a certain sense of incoordination quietly emerged. She realized that something was happening, but her little resistance quickly caused backlash, so she understood that for To keep her job, she must remain silent.
At the end of the day, things were still happening, and she was unable to stop or fight.
This movie is said to integrate the words of multiple Weinstein assistants and integrate all the plots into the assistant’s day work, so this film is still very credible to a certain extent, but it is also because of this. Filled with all kinds of work, we can feel the many and cumbersome things the assistant needs to deal with in a day, and the various challenges she faces make the audience feel "oppressed". This may be the director. The experience you want to bring to us.
To give an example, when the wife of the producer boss called and asked why her bank card was frozen, Jane tried to give the most comforting answer (though not appreciated), and she was immediately treated by the boss. In response to the phone call, she immediately wrote an email apologizing.
There are many such plots in the film. The pressure of work comes at a speed that is visible to the naked eye, but behind the work, what is even more elusive is the boss who has never shown up. The film obviously deliberately erased the role of the boss from the camera, but it used a huge amount of space to describe everything related to the boss, so his medication, the female items left in his office, he made abusive calls, The relationship between him and his wife is gradually clarified from the assistant's perspective, and we are more and more able to feel the almost "intimidating" work pressure that the assistant is subjected to.
Of course, since this film uses Weinstein as the main background, it is naturally impossible to avoid his sexual harassment or some worse plots. The female headbands left on the ground are printed out with all kinds of photos of actresses. Wife to husband The questioning of derailment... these made Jane have some doubts, but it was the new female assistant who really shaken her.
The new female assistant seemed inexperienced, just a pretty face. After sending her to the hotel, she realized that the boss might have also gone to the hotel, so the relationship between the two and the chain of interests gradually emerged.
But what can Jane do?
The climax of the film is Jane's complaints about the boss and the new assistant in front of HR. Jane tells her guess, but HR speaks beautiful mandarin, but obviously does not stand with her, and she is also faintly threatening Jane.
So this kind of "intimidation" reappeared, and the audience found that all Jane's efforts were in vain, because in such a big environment, she couldn't make any meaningful shouts just by relying on her identity.
At the same time that the Weinstein incident broke out, it was the MeToo movement, which is an indictment against the patriarchal society.
In recent Internet public opinion, because of the existence of certain rural feminist rights, the term "feminist rights" has gradually been given a bad meaning, so that when I started watching this film, I often felt that the film showed The attacks on men are too straightforward. For example, the Weinstein inside is obviously a very facial villain, and the HR's attitude towards Jane is really bad and deliberate.
But when Jane said nothing and silently accepted everything, and then my father called and she said everything was fine, I suddenly realized that the film did not deliberately demonize or demean men, it was just very precise. It describes the daily life of a woman who has been suppressed by the patriarchal society for a day. It is almost magical. It polishes a girl with a conscience into a silent victim in the morning and evening work.
Yes, Jane is definitely a victim.
It's not just betraying the flesh or being sexually harassed to be called a victim. Silence under implicit repression is scary enough. Because those invisible rules and regulations are more secretive than physical imprisonment, as if we didn't see Weinstein's face in the whole film, but his tentacles had already spread to every corner of the company. Women whose mouths are shut up by society are actually naked and helpless just like those who have been sexually assaulted.
So the film actually grasped the strength of this "accusation" very well. It did not scream women Long live like "New Charlie Girl", but rather like "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always". Tell a story slowly, because it is so real, so flesh and blood, so it cannot be ignored.
The trailer of "Assistant" is actually a bit misleading. Judging from the trailer, it seems to be a thriller, but the film is quite "de-dramatic". It's just a conversation between Jane and HR, but despite the smooth flow of the plot, we can still empathize with the heroine in the extension of each shot, and appreciate the complex emotions contained in the film at those important plot points. It can be described as "hearing thunder in a silent place."
I still like this movie. It did better than I expected. It did not become a big-character newspaper accusing Weinstein as I thought. The movie shows the invisible oppression and compulsion faced by women in the workplace. Silence.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to make such a movie, and it is even more necessary to be seen by the world. Many people have become accustomed to being silent, accustomed to silence and accepting the unfairness that is happening. If they can't speak up for these people, where can they vent their inner complaints?
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