"Snow Train": more than a political fable (deep spoiler nuclear early warning)

Donnell 2021-10-20 17:22:47

1.

Although they were born in the same country, we can see that Korean TV dramas and Han Ying can never be counted as one species. Compared with the single theme of Korean dramas, the relaxed and protracted plot, most Korean movies present a non-taboo and relatively compact narrative attitude. During the period, they are mixed with a little violent aesthetics and a cold attitude towards reality, which gives people a kind of "tall." "impression. "Snow Country Train" is like this. Anyone who has watched this movie can realize that this movie is actually a fable under the guise of "sci-fi". It is about the class division of the first car and the last car, and based on this The different treatments brought about by the division of classes, the exploitation and oppression of the leader of the chaser, and the insulting of human life. In a place like China where the people are highly politically sensitive, this kind of "metaphor" cannot even be called a "metaphor". ". After the first movie watching, I used to compare this movie with "V for Vendetta" and "Let the Bullets Fly" in my mind. I feel that the values ​​of this movie are a bit pessimistic, even better than letting bullets. Fei is still pessimistic. However, after watching the movie for the second time, I found that it would be a bit superficial, or one-sided, to interpret this film as a political fable.

2.

At the beginning of the film, when the subtitles of the basic situation of the film are played, a voice-over to introduce the background appears. This voiceover is 1 minute and 6 seconds long and is composed of six news reports. It introduces that after global warming, cw7 was launched into the air by 79 countries during the debate, and it produced results.

After cooling down, the world entered an ice age and all creatures disappeared. This paragraph was only taken with subtitles. In the picture, in a frozen car, a close-up shot of a pendant with the words "save the plant" written on the pendant. Then there is another background introduction—the last survivor is in the train. These two subtitles, plus the picture in the middle, are only 32 seconds in total.

If this is just a background introduction, why does it take nearly two minutes? Moreover, it seems that of the two background introductions, the first paragraph is more important. The last sentence of the voiceover says "the use of cw7 is revolutionary." The word revolution coincides with the main content of the movie.

It can be seen that this title actually contains important information related to the main theme.

3.

The main event stage of the film is on this train with 1001 carriages (comic setting), speeding on circular rails, and known as "perpetual motion machines" that will never stop. Trains pass through fixed locations on fixed dates, such as passing the Ekaterina Bridge during the New Year, passing Alaska on Halloween, passing the Strait of Japan on Thanksgiving, and so on. The people on the train are divided into three, six or nine classes, quite like a horizontal tower of Babel-the upper class lives in the top car, soft sleeper, bar, sauna, hairdressing and other facilities are all available, and the middle car also has planting and animal husbandry. The industry and fishery provide food for the leader of the car, and the people in the tail car, Mason said, they came from the car, and the people of the leader taught their children that they are stupid pigs and eat their own shit.

Imagine the image of "train". It has a spatial one-dimensionality. From the trailing car to the leading car, the carriage in the middle cannot be bypassed anyway. This one-dimensionality makes it easy to think of another concept: time. The process of Curtis leading the chaser to "pass through and fight monsters" precisely reflects the entire history of human development.

4.

At first, we can see that the chaser was constantly oppressed by the leader, and could not resist. They had nothing but to endure the brutal rule of Wilford. During this period, Curtis and his followers collected all the barrels in the carriage and broke through the guards for the first time unarmed, leaving Nangong Minxiu and Yona.

The "Tower of Babel" mentioned above on the train is very interesting here: In the Bible, the Tower of Babel was not built in the end because of language barriers and poor communication between various ethnic groups. So can you imagine: if there are no barriers to communication between various nations, then can human beings reach heaven? In the movie, we can see that after 17 years of running-in, the people behind the car have basically no obstacles in communication. The daughter of a Korean born in the car can talk fluently with others in English. Under the circumstances, mason's speech also omitted translation. After rescuing Nangong Minxiu, even if they don't understand each other, Curtis can communicate with them using a translator.

When the people who built the Tower of Babel crossed communication barriers, is heaven far away from them?

5.

Nangong opened the first door, behind which was the guard quarters. Since this carriage has windows, people are curiously observing the outside world. After that is the protein production workshop, and then the water supply area. Here, the insurgents experienced their first battle. The weapon was an axe. In the face of an army with a powerful technical force "night vision goggles", their magic weapon for defeating the enemy was fire.

Stone axe and fire are important signs that humans have entered civilization. Using tools and being able to make tools is an important basis for the difference between humans and apes. In the Stone Age, the most important thing is that humans began to learn to use and manage fire. It was precisely during this time period that the train passed the Ekaterina Bridge, and the eighteenth year on the train arrived, indicating that from then on, human history has entered a new era. Here, Nangong Minxiu played a role similar to Prometheus, who brought the long-lost matches and cigarettes back to the people. The one who kept the fire was a child named Chen. This child was probably a Chinese, because the whole world knew that the first person to use and preserve the fire was the Peking Man.

After mastering the tools and fire, mankind began to conquer nature, and in the process, mankind also paid a heavy price.

6.

At the beginning of the war, the old man let the survivors clean up, and then, after a night of rest, people set off for the next carriage.

From here, the tone of the movie is clearly brighter. The three carriages are processing workshops for planting, fishery, and aquaculture. (In the original comics, there is an animal farm, but it is not shown in the cost movie.) Here, the concept of "train is a closed system" appears for the first time.

The next carriage is a kindergarten, the teacher is like chicken blood, the children are obviously brainwashed. At first glance, I thought, "Isn't this the three fat? Do Koreans have to lie down to shoot the film Three Fatty?" I watched it a second time, and found that this innuendo is not so much the third fat. It is medieval theological education. "...What did the visionary Mr. Wilford invent to protect the selected person from trouble?", "Perpetual motion machine will never die," "Miracle train", "(New Year blessing eggs are used) Perpetual motion machine heating "Boiled", "Benevolent Wilford", "Only plunder from Wilford, get food and shelter", "Wilford is God". The kindergarten teachers led the students to sing songs, which also had a taste of church carols.

However, the harmony of the kindergarten was fleeting. The waiter who sent the New Year’s egg took out the gun from under the egg. The teacher who gave birth to a new life ended the lives of others at the same time. The revolutionaries, including the old Gillian, were slaughtered and washed bloodily, just as In the history of Christianity, the use of benevolent faces to purge scientists and "witches" is the same. However, Mason, Wilford's representative in the world, died, and the revolutionaries continued to move forward.

The theological education in the Middle Ages may be controversial, but it is certain that mankind began to educate the next generation on a large scale after taming nature. In China, there was a "Xuan Xu", in ancient Greece there was a "school", and in the Middle Ages there was a "monastery school". The important part of their educational purpose is to maintain the existing order and at the same time select the talents needed for the operation of the country.

At the same time, it is worth noting that in this battle, the revolutionaries obtained guns.

7.

The revolutionaries continue to move forward, and the scene before them is a soft sleeper, a dentist, a tailor, a restaurant, and a hair salon. All these are the scenes after the industrial revolution and even the second industrial revolution. During this period, Curtis and the fat man The cross shot broke the window, so that the train was no longer closed. Later, under the counterattack of the fat man, Curtis's companions also paid the price of their lives. Angry Curtis and Nangong and Yona continued to move forward, passing the disorderly "nightclub carriage". This seems to imply the picture of human beings entering the post-modern era: in nightclubs, people get rid of the shackles of order to a certain extent, return to themselves, equal each other, are informal, and communicate freely, thus forming a form of human existence, a kind of "The World Feelings of Carnival". The greatest feature of postmodernism is "deconstruction": it opposes coherent, authoritative, and definite interpretations (including declarations of the Bible and other beliefs). Personal experience, background, wishes and preferences take precedence in knowledge, life, culture and sex. A direct consequence of this is that the criteria for judging value are not very clear or completely vague, so that people’s thinking is no longer constrained by social ideals, meaning of life, the future of the country, traditional ethics, etc., so that people’s thinking can be obtained. Complete liberation also enables people to have a deeper understanding of themselves. Information technology has greatly promoted diversified values ​​and the emancipation of minds (the next carriage behind a nightclub is a computer room). Can mankind a hundred years ago imagine that we now have such diversified ideas and convenient ways of communication? In this era, information and ideas are growing in an explosive manner. People have their own views on the status quo and the future, either optimistic or pessimistic, but few people will put it into practice. What people care most is still what they are most current. status quo.

8.

However, there are still people who put it into practice, such as Nangong Minxiu and Yona.

In the plot, Nangong Minxiu's specialty lies in opening the door between the carriages, while Yona is good at observing what is behind the door. As mentioned above, Nangong Minxiu played the role of Prometheus to some extent, bringing fire to the world. And his "understanding" technical expertise and observing the behavior outside the window from time to time makes his symbolic meaning even more obvious: they symbolize intellectuals. In comparison, Nangong Minxiu prefers natural sciences. What he does is mainly to solve problems (open the door) and observe the outside world (the world outside the car window), while Yona is more inclined to the humanities, where she sits mainly in predicting the future ( Predict what's behind the door) and discover hidden problems (find Timmy under the floor).

In this way, what kronol symbolizes is ready to come out-Kronol symbolizes thought.

This is how kronol is described in the movie-it is only popular in the leader, industrial waste, highly flammable, and the leader of the leader loves fantasies because of this, one day it will knock his mind. Thought is of no use to humans who are still in the ignorant period. They cannot eat or drink. Moreover, thoughtful people will be treated as monsters by ordinary people in some historical periods. However, once thought is combined with knowledge or technology (fire), it will generate tremendous power, breaking through the iron and copper walls. Every time we go through a historical period, humans will harvest new ideas. To this day, in this era of explosion of ideas, it is not impossible to integrate the thoughts of tens of thousands of people and make unimaginable pioneering works by our ancestors.

Just like the background of the story at the beginning, people invented cw7 in the face of climate warming and "successfully" lowered the temperature of the earth.

9.

Curtis entered the head compartment of Wilford. During the conversation, Wilford explained the sorrow of our time: "Noisy and lonely", and at the same time, "Order and balance" was mentioned again. "The train is the world, and we are humans." In this closed system, everyone and even each element has its place. Just like sushi is only available twice a year, Wilford and Gilliam periodically instigate humans to kill each other, and breaking this order will bring about It is fatal chaos. In front of the huge perpetual motion machine, Curtis had no way to go, and in the carriage behind him, there was the hustle and turmoil after the order was broken. When Wilford said he was going to hand the train to Curtis, Curtis wavered. After walking in the carriage and seeing the whole world, he is no longer the revolutionary who simply leads the people for welfare. However, if you succumb to this order, there will still be people living at the bottom of the order who will lose their dignity and freedom in order to survive. In the end, he chose benevolence and commitment, rescued Timmy, and exploded the train.

Here is a detail. After igniting the explosives, Nangong tried to close the door to minimize the loss, but failed. His mistake led to the final car crash and death, only Yona and Timmy survived, got out of the train, and came to the vast world of ice and snow.

There are different opinions about the ending. Optimistic people say that the survivors are little boys and little girls, much like the setting of Adam and Eve, while the polar bears show that there is a relatively complete food chain on the earth, and they are hopeful of survival. And pessimists say: If they want to survive, they have to compete with polar bears for food, can they really live to thrive?

Eighteen years have passed. The people in the carriage really know too little about the outside world. Even if the wind and snow outside the window decrease, even if there are polar bears and seabirds outside, what can it explain? Is it accurate that humans judged "biological extinction" 18 years ago? Does the temperature rise year by year really mean that humans will definitely survive when they get out of the train? Didn’t people from 79 countries put the world under ice and snow because they misjudged the role of CW7? This open ending is thought-provoking. The plot of exploding the train and placing humans in ice and snow fits the background of the opening story: in order to cool the earth, humans buried the world in ice and snow.

Fortunately, Yona and Timmy survived, and the history of mankind is cycled again, just like the circular track of a train.

10.

In the end, what do Wilford, perpetual motion machines, and trains symbolize?

There are two sentences in the movie that are very clear: "The eternal order is determined by the sacred perpetual motion machine, and everything comes from the sacred perpetual motion machine" and Wilford is the "sacred guardian of the perpetual motion machine." From this we can infer that perpetual motion machines are the laws and rules of this world, an absolute existence, and Wilford is the personification image of this absolute existence. Regarding this absolute existence, different religions and cultures have given different interpretations. For example, it is called "Lord" in Western culture and "Dao" in Eastern culture. It is this law of absolute existence that controls everything about this world and human beings, and what it does does not change according to human likes and dislikes. It treats some people preferentially, and that portion praises him for kindness; it treats another portion of people sparingly, and that part angrily denounces its cruelty. However, it is everywhere, and everyone has to crawl under its feet and let it be at its mercy.

Moreover, I have to admit that this kind of law and law, although inhumane, is reasonable. The previous three-quarters of the time used to pave the way for the emotions of the "Great Revolution" was to disintegrate at the end of Wilford’s conversation, so that Curtis and even the viewers felt inner shaking.

Wilford said: "The train is the world, and we are the human beings." This sentence is blunt in the movie. However, through the previous analysis, we can see that this world is not only a spatial world, but also has a time significance. From chaser to leader is the history of human development: from ignorance to civilization, from domesticating nature to breaking away from nature, from constructing order to dissolving order. However, after order is dissolved and real freedom is achieved, where should human beings go? Looking back at history, from the agricultural age to the industrial age to the information age, the goal of every step of human development is to survive better, but the final result is to destroy the entire world. As stated in the opening movie, people have used CW7 "revolutionarily" in order to control global warming brought about by large industries, but they have put the world under ice and snow.

Therefore, the most valuable thing about this film is that it reveals the eternal contradiction between the laws of nature and the free development of human beings. This is exactly the theme of this movie.

View more about Snowpiercer reviews

Extended Reading
  • Orin 2021-10-20 19:01:44

    Do you find the scenes of brainwashing in the children's compartment very familiar?

  • Pete 2022-03-23 09:01:23

    The theme, concept, and even the script are nothing special, but as long as the first ten minutes of flat paving, the wave after wave of director skills by Bong Joon-ho, I am amazed.

Snowpiercer quotes

  • Curtis: What? What did he say?

    Yona: He said you guys are fucked. You stupid tail sectioners. There's a tunnel right after Yekaterina Bridge.

    Curtis: A tunnel?

    Yona: Mm-hm. A fucking long one.

  • Wilford: Curtis, everyone has their preordained position, and everyone is in their place except you.

    Curtis: That's what people in the best place say to the people in the worst place.