This complex human nature, blending with the black and white moral gray area, is exactly what director David MacKenzie wants to bring out in this drama. Joe's despicable character is quite distinct. However, this is a personal inner drama. The character gets rid of the typical dramatic modeling. You don't deny his behavior, but agree with him.
Joe pushed his girlfriend into the sea by mistake, which is one of the wonderful scenes. With his hesitating response, the delay between saving her and not saving it shows that he was tempted to do a dehumanizing thing: pushing the boat along the river, killing two lives, and he is not responsible. His sexual relationship with his female partner can be so selfish and fragile, purely satisfying his own carnal pleasure. In the other scene, the boy on the boat fell into the river, but he went into the water to save people without thinking. The contrast between the two scenes is strong. When selfishness and evil thoughts arise, the usually lovely lover suddenly becomes a devil, and doesn't mind anyone's life or death at all.
But paradoxically, he also said that he wanted to kick that nasty boy into the water. It seemed that the evil thoughts he had thought were different from the real behavior. All kinds of conflicts, good and bad floating, make his mental images become intricate. Even in the scene of his girlfriend falling into the river, Joe's hesitation is also a sign of a gray area, reflecting his inner struggle.
After killing his girlfriend indirectly, no matter how hard he tried to indulge himself in a series of deviant sexual relations, Joe couldn't escape the chase of his conscience. What he did not expect at first was that the incident developed not only with one dead body and two lives, but also involving innocent people being mistakenly regarded as murderers and sentenced to death. In the process, Joe's attitude gradually changed. From the beginning he thought he had ran away, and the matter came to an end, he was not interested in the case (at least on the surface); until he learned that innocent people were arrested, and the relevant news was endless and lingering. Every time he heard someone talk about it, he started to look distressed; until the end he showed great concern about the progress of the case, and even went to the court to hear the trial, and then wrote an anonymous letter to try to help the defendant to clear his grievances. He gradually went from avoiding to facing, seeming to want to save something.
Joe's expression of surprise immediately after hearing the sentencing is truly unforgettable, and it is the two sides of innocence at the same time. Joe thought a simple statement that he could bring fairness, reverse the case, and save lives without having to pay any price or risk.
Joe has also changed in terms of sexual relations. In the past, he started a relationship to escape the last relationship and responsibility. But by the time the third relationship germinated, we had already seen Joe's loss. For Xinhuan, he seemed disgusted and numb; his dead girlfriend never left him: he kept her photos and mirrors. The fourth relationship was also in the context of the case's continued interrogation, and he went to audit every day, and it was just Take it lightly. Desires are joyful, and can't make him feel as comfortable as ever. We watched Joe's search for himself, recognize himself, and face his own journey.
It cannot be ignored and it is very interesting that Joe is a depressed and hidden little figure in the big picture of the entire society. What he has done and thought about, in fact, apart from his female partner, only the audience knows. In the eyes of outsiders, he is either reading or working, reticent. During the interrogation, if a witness had not mentioned him in a sentence, it would be as if he had never existed before, let alone someone suspicious of him.
Joe is obviously not a person who can be upright. He has a hobby that is not accepted by the society. This is the root of his evil, but it is also his most vulnerable place. Seeing that the innocent defendant was ravaged by the so-called fair justice and public opinion, what was terrifying was that he was originally standing in the court and was accused of being himself. This consequence he was unable to bear, and he had no guts to stand up and prove right and wrong. He can't surrender, even if he repents for his crimes will not work, because society's black and white moral standards cannot expose complex personalities, and there is even no room for survival. Confession is just a dead end.
Through the realistic depiction of human nature, the protagonist has gradually developed a process of identification with the audience's emotions. Just like a child makes a mistake, you get into trouble for a candy, you don't want him to have no room for turning over. The undisguised erotic scenes in the film unknowingly played a positive role: Joe's sexual desire for women is as straightforward as a child likes candy. No matter who owns the candy, he can't help but eat it, but He never thought it would kill anyone.
Mackenzie summed up the story sharply: "Young Adam is a morally ambiguous story, and this is what makes it attractive. This story shows varying degrees of innocence in a hypocritical moral atmosphere. This production attracts Because I have the opportunity to explore the gray areas of morality. The society described by Alexander Trocchi (the author of the original novel of "Young Adam") is a group of mobs who are acrid, repressed, hypocritical, lynching others; the media constructs their moral values He is keen to equate sex with sin... Joe has been evading, avoiding himself, and his conscience. He is rebellious, irresponsible, and endangering others, but he is also a sensitive person, equally vulnerable, and often struggles with what he should do Do. He is by no means as innocent as you think, but he shouldn't be convicted either."
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