"Chinatown" is based on a real urban incident in Los Angeles in the early twentieth century-the rape of Evans Valley. It tells the story of a politician colluding with capital to fool the people to build a dam and make huge profits from it. The film has become a classic in film history because the screenwriter Tang En and the director Polanski have taken a very serious attitude into the two important issues of human society-crime and desire-in the process of constructing the entire story. In this way, a crime-themed movie is sublimated into a classic work of profound reflection on human nature. The story of politicians' manipulation of the people revolves around the construction of a dam. Mulwray, the chief engineer of the Water Resources Bureau who opposed the construction of the dam, was first framed and then murdered. The film’s actor, private detective Gittes, was originally used to slander Mulwray for having an extramarital affair. Gittes, out of his desire for truth and justice, began to investigate the ins and outs of the matter, and colluded a whole set of politicians with capital to fool the citizens of Los Angeles to build a dam. In this way, the political operation mechanism that realizes huge benefits is displayed in front of the audience. In the dam incident, the operating mechanism and hypocrisy of democratic politics were exposed one by one. Democratic politics relies on performance mechanisms and the operation of violent machines. The persuasiveness of politicians depends on the authenticity of their performances and the provocative nature of their lines. The content of the vote made by voters is often at odds with each other on the surface and substance. When the mayor gave a generous statement at the hearing about how important the construction of the dam is to the desert city of Los Angeles, he will not mention the water stored in the dam at the same time. It is actually used to irrigate the canyon town that has been bought by Cross. Land so that it can become a downtown Los Angeles in the not-too-distant future, and Cross will make a huge fortune from it. Not only violent agencies such as the police station, but also administrative agencies such as the Water Conservancy Bureau have become part of the violent machine. Yelburton, who replaced Mulwray as the new chief engineer of the Water Resources Bureau, blatantly endorsed Cross, assisting him in driving away the original landowners in Canyon Town, and concealing the fact that the municipal pipeline was used to release water at night; while Gittes’s former colleague in Chinatown, the detective, did Ignore the truth of the matter completely, directly serve the crime of Cross, and faithfully cover it up. What gives people a great sense of powerlessness is that during the operation of this dam conspiracy, politicians completely manipulated the people, making the latter blindly possibly the biggest accomplices. At the hearing, the ignorant people were completely credulous and blindly obedient to clever politicians. Although Mulwray's reasons for opposing the construction of the dam were so scientific and reasonable, no one was on his side. Gittes to E Velyn said: "It seems that half of the city is trying to cover up this matter."-If the murder is the crime of Cross individuals, then the dam conspiracy is a collective crime of politicians manipulating the people. The vastness of this "collective" makes We even have to be confused. Since crime is an act that endangers society, when the entire society is involved in crime, is the crime itself a crime? The law does not blame the public because the law cannot punish this type of crime. This is the wisest point of a politician. Once the people accept his idea, the legitimacy of this idea itself is beyond doubt. Group psychologist Gustave Le Pen has made incisive explanations on the group IQ is far lower than the individual IQ, and the characteristics of group blindness, group behavior is often not dominated by reason. In the film, the alliance of politicians and capital understands the characteristics of group psychology and successfully operates the dam conspiracy. The unavoidable question is that, on the surface, the people are also victims, but is it understandable that they are selfish, ignorant, blindly following, and irrational? Which terrible dictatorship and massacre in human history will be less closely coordinated with this group psychology? The confusing and confusing case of the irremovability of desire ultimately leads to an unexpected and shocking, but convincing ending. When Evelyn said "She is my sister and my daughter!", all of the subtle dialogue and details of the previous plot were all connected together. What shocked the audience was not only the mastermind who emerged, but also the motivation behind the crime. In Cross, Towne and Polanski put two deep-rooted desires that humans have always had and cannot be avoided: incest obsession and money obsession. All events in the film originated from Cross's unscrupulous and indifferent satisfaction of these two desires. Incest taboos are the starting point of human morality, and Freud believed that there are temptations to have taboos. In clan society even earlier, incest taboos were stipulated as the most important sexual norms. As an inherent existence in human nature, the temptation of incest has never disappeared. Many great writers used this as the theme for their creations, as early as Sophocles’ Oedipus in ancient Greece, and as everyone is familiar with, Nabokov’s Lolita or Cao Yu "Thunderstorm". Like the above-mentioned works, the focus of "Chinatown" is not the morality of incest, but its immense temptation and irreversibility. In other works, usually the subject of incest has received moral condemnation and severe punishment from society and itself; "Chinatown" boldly abolished this convention, thus creating a demonic existence. When Cross's incest obsession was combined with his wealth and control of the entire city's machinery, all the morals and civilizations that mankind had painstakingly established all of a sudden collapsed. In Cross, a certain essence of money fascination is revealed: the size of desire is directly proportional to the number of possessions. The richer the person, the more obsessed with money and the greater the motivation to grab it. Gittes could not understand Cross: "As for what to do? How good can you eat? Is there anything else you can't afford?" He asked such a naive question, because he didn't know that for Cross, money is no longer a use. To buy goods or enjoy tools, money is just money itself, and its attractiveness is enough to make people unable to extricate themselves. Whether it is money obsession or incest obsession, desire will not be eliminated because of a one-time satisfaction. Desire is difficult to fill is the greatest essence of desire. The most genius of the film is that it perfectly entangles the hidden line of the incest relationship between Cross and his daughter Evelyn and the main line of Mulwray's murder investigation. While the audience learns the truth step by step, they gradually discover the surprising consistency behind the two different clues . The incestuous father raped the under-age daughter's free will to choose, and the collusion between politics and capital raped the people's right to know. The essential similarity created a strong tension between the two clues of the story. On the surface, the metaphorical title of "Chinatown" has a loose connection with the content of the story, but a careful analysis of the logic of the whole story reveals that the metaphor of this name is very wonderful. "Chinatown" does not simply describe desire itself, but seriously explores the mechanism that allows some people to do whatever they want. "Chinatown" points to the support mechanism behind crime, which physically represents a place where the law cannot play its due role; psychologically, it represents a universal attitude toward life, which manifests as irrational blind obedience in the group category. , In the individual category, it is manifested as rational cowardice. To some extent, the power of human society is based on the above two groups/individual psychology. The reason why evil can run rampant is not because there are too many evil people in the world, but because kind people will not hesitate to become evil accomplices under certain conditions, whether it is out of blind obedience or cowardice. Therefore, "Chinatown" and what it metaphors is the mechanism behind the establishment of the entire story that is so dark that it is unbelievably dark, good for no good, no evil, no evil. The idealist Mulwray was murdered, Gittes once again experienced the lost love he experienced in Chinatown, Polanski left no hope. This darkness and extremeness made a great movie. Therefore, "Chinatown" and what it metaphors is the mechanism behind the establishment of the entire story that is so dark that it is unbelievably dark, good for no good, no evil, no evil. The idealist Mulwray was murdered, Gittes once again experienced the lost love he experienced in Chinatown, Polanski left no hope. This darkness and extremeness made a great movie. Therefore, "Chinatown" and what it metaphors is the mechanism behind the establishment of the entire story that is so dark that it is unbelievably dark, good for no good, no evil, no evil. The idealist Mulwray was murdered, Gittes once again experienced the lost love he experienced in Chinatown, Polanski left no hope. This darkness and extremeness made a great movie.
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