"Little Hero Toto" was released in 1991 and is an absurd realism film. The film is directed by the famous director Jacques van Domel, who won the award for best directorial debut at the Shane International Film Festival for this film. The film also won awards such as Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Photography, Best Screenplay, and the Best Co-production Film Award of the French Caesars at the European Film Festival that year.
The film combines absurdity, black humor, and surreal artistic techniques, telling the story of the protagonist Thomas's life of love, hatred and hatred and the ultimate realization of self-salvation. As a child, Thomas believed that he and his neighbor Alfred had exchanged lives because they were wrong in a fire in the hospital where they were born. Therefore, Thomas was full of jealousy towards Alfred. With the passing of his family and lovers, Thomas' hatred of the rich second-generation Alfred grew deeper and deeper. It was not until one day that he realized that he was not a victim. The people around him and Alfred were the real victims. It was from him that these injuries were caused by him, and he came to his senses. In the end, he used Alfred’s Identity died in place of Alfred, completing self-salvation.
The plot of the film is relatively simple, but the narrative technique is extremely creative. The plot of the film uses the three main lines of childhood, youth, and old age of the protagonist to cross and parallel narrate. It also uses interspersed in the play to express the hero's fantasy and is full of imagination.
Today, I will analyze Thomas’ psychological journey from thinking of himself as a victim to finally letting go of his hatred and finally realizing self-salvation. In my opinion, Thomas' transformation can be interpreted in three stages. In the fourth part of this article, based on this film Thomas walked out of the "victim mentality", after being relieved, he calmly embraced the theme of death, and talked about some thoughts on facing real life.
01 In the first stage, the "victim mentality" of "Thomas' life was stolen": under the double stimulation of family constraints and misfortunes, and the superior life of neighbor Alfred, Thomas had a birth with Alfred" Exchanged the illusion of life.
In Thomas’ view, his family is unfortunate: he has a pilot dad who has no flying missions, an ordinary mother who has no job, and his economic conditions are obviously not rich. He also has an older sister and a man who suffers from Down syndrome. Ill brother. Because of the poor family and his stupid brother, Thomas is often bullied.
Alfred, who was born on the same day and the same year as him, is a rich second generation. He lived a pampered life since he was born. He often bullied his neighbor Thomas.
On his birthday, Thomas saw that Alfred received a car toy that the whole person could sit in and drive, but he only received a fist-big car model. With this strong contrast, his long-term unbalanced mentality finally collapsed.
He came to the neighbor’s house and told Alfred that there was a fire in the hospital where they were born. He and Alfred were in the chaos and were taken in the wrong place. It is him who should have a pampered life, not Alfred. Reid. Not surprisingly, he was beaten away by Alfred.
Did the fire in the hospital happen? Have the two people been wrongly held? There is no definite conclusion in the film.
But I think that neither the hospital fire nor the Baocuo incident happened. These are just the chaotic memories of Thomas' "victim mentality" caused by the dissatisfaction of his life and long-term injustice. We all know that the memories of infancy are unreliable and cannot be retained for that long, so Thomas' memories are unreliable. Moreover, the two neighbors live together all year round. If the two families are still in the wrong position, they have not found it for so many years, and it is not logical.
In my opinion, Thomas is so because he felt the gap between the rich and the poor in real life, and this gap between the rich and the poor has caused injustice in his childhood life. He considers himself a victim, and even imagines himself as a victim in a non-existent fire. It was this fire that "helped" Alfred to take a superior life from him.
Alfred's glamorous parents and wealthy family are in sharp contrast with Thomas' mediocre parents and ordinary families. Thomas is envious of Alfred's life. Under the influence of the absurdism of the "victim mentality", Thomas created an illusory memory for himself, making himself a "victim" of a stolen life.
02 The second stage, the "victim mentality" of "Thomas was betrayed by first love": Sister Alice is Thomas's only source of happiness. His unfavorable love with Alice, but because of Alfred's intrusion, Thomas thinks Alice betrayed him.
In the film, Thomas' mother is going to pick up her husband's body after receiving news of her husband's plane crash. After their mother left, Alice and Thomas completely entered their indecent love: they agreed not to go to school, avoided outsiders together, ignored the existence of the Tang brother, and lived a "reclusive" life.
When Thomas felt that he was enjoying the "love" of his sister alone and was immersed in "happiness", Alfred came to his home at the invitation of Alice. Thomas was very angry. He thought that his sister had violated their agreement and betrayed his love for her sister.
Alfred, who stole his life, once again took away his only source of happiness-his sister Alice, "victim" Thomas collapsed again.
Thomas sternly asked Alice if he had betrayed him. Alice told him that she only loves Thomas and not Alfred. Thomas didn't believe that his sister would not love the handsome young man, under his anger. He asked Alice to burn Alfred's supermarket to prove that he had no love for Alfred.
In order to prove her sincerity to her younger brother, the Alice dragged a barrel of gasoline without hesitation and lit Alfred's supermarket, but she was also killed in the flames.
In my opinion, Thomas is obsessed with his sister’s indecent love, and temporarily escaped from the unsatisfactory life in reality. He has integrated his dreams of life, expectations for the future, and yearning for happiness into his elder sister. In my love, through the "reclusive" life with my sister, I got a great sense of happiness. Alfred's intrusion broke Thomas's "dream". This made Thomas once again strengthened his consciousness of being Alfred's "victim". In the end, in Thomas's "emotional blackmail" questioning, the sister became the ultimate victim.
03 The third stage, Thomas' self-salvation: Alfred's frankness and tolerance of Thomas's actions made Thomas come to the realization that he was never a "victim", but a "injury maker".
As an adult, Thomas met a woman who was very similar to his sister Alice, Evelyn. Under his pursuit, the two fell in love without accident.
However, this is still an unethical love, because Evelyn is a married woman. The two eloped in pursuit of their own happiness. Just before the elopement, Evelyn left without saying goodbye, and then Thomas discovered that Evelyn’s husband was the "enemy" Alfred who "stolen" his life and first love, the neighbor who made him hate his life. Second generation.
I believe that Thomas at this time must yell in his heart:
I am Alfred's "victim", this bastard ruined everything about me!
Amidst the ambiguity, Thomas came to old age, and Alfred returned to his hometown at this time and became a man with more money and status than his father. Because of this, there are multiple killer organizations behind the scenes who want to kill Alfred. The elderly Thomas, who hated Alfred his entire life, didn't want Alfred to die at the hands of others. He decided to get ahead of the killer and kill Alfred himself.
In the movie, the aging Thomas carefully planned his assassination, but when he knocked on the door of the same gray-haired and exhausted Alfred with a gun, he just pointed the gun in his pocket. The man he hated for his whole life made a "bang" to announce his end to Alfred.
Alfred recognized Thomas. He kindly invited Thomas to sit at his home and told him frankly that he admired Thomas’ life, his freedom, and his freedom to choose the path of life he wanted to take. .
Thomas was shocked, he never thought that the person he wanted to be, turned out to be so painful. What shocked Thomas even more was that Alfred had always known that it was Thomas who abducted his wife Evelyn and that it was Thomas who broke the happy marriage between Alfred and Evelyn.
I believe that Thomas finally realized at this time that he was never a victim. His sister Alice, his lover Evelyn, and his rich second-generation neighbor Alfred were all victims of his paranoia. At this moment, he finally realized that his life was not destroyed by others. He destroyed his own life and the lives of others.
In the end Thomas chose to say goodbye to the world. When he plucked up the courage and raised the gun to himself, he made another choice. He came to Alfred's house again, locked Alfred in the kitchen, and put on Alfred's clothes. He finally got the status of Alfred as he wished. At the same time, as Alfred, he received the bullet that was originally shot at Alfred. He volunteered to die in place of Alfred. The ultimate self-salvation.
04 Based on Thomas’ psychological journey from being stolen from his life and his lover’s "victim mentality" to his awakening and self-salvation, let’s talk about my thoughts on real life:
Throughout the whole movie "Little Hero Toto", Thomas’s entire life tragedy, his sister, lover, and the tragedy of Alfred, whom he hated all his life, are almost all due to Thomas’ accumulating “victims” The mentality of the
Victim mentality refers to a mode of thinking in which people tend to attribute things to uncontrollable contingency factors such as objective environment and human resources when facing setbacks and failures, which in turn stimulates the development of narcissistic psychology. The victim mentality projects others or the outside world as the perpetrator, which actually puts oneself against the outside world.
There is a clip in the film. When the nurse asked the elderly Thomas to take the medicine, the elderly Thomas cooperated on the surface, but in his mind, he filled the nurse with a whole bottle of medicine; when the nurse noticed that he was smoking and warned him not to smoke. , He pushed the nurse away with boredom, and immediately after the nurse left, he took out his hidden cigarette, lit it and smoked it. This is a typical victim mentality. He confronted himself with the outside world, and he would think that others did it. Everything is meant to "inflict" him.
"Victim mentality", if it happens to ourselves, what will happen? Combining the movie "Little Hero Toto" and my feelings in life, I will talk about the three inspirations that this movie has given me:
① The victim mentality makes us blame others and dare not face our own failures.
In "Kung Fu Football", when Zhou Xingchi was looking for his second brother to join Kung Fu Football, he had a conversation with the second brother. The mentality of the second brother was very much like Thomas in his childhood:
Stephen Chow: But I saw you washing the toilet the day before yesterday, so why did you switch to the dishes again? Brother Second: Why? I also want to ask this question! I also do not understand! Why is my father not Li Jiacheng? Why do I look so handsome, but I have to lose my hair? You two are so ugly, but don't lose your hair? Why did people read books when I was young, but when I was young, my dad forced me to practice some horrible martial arts! Practicing till now, wash the toilet! do the washing up! Zhou Xingchi: Hey~Second brother, calm down! In fact, fate is in your own hands~~~~
In reality, sometimes we are the same as Thomas in the movie and the second brother in "Kung Fu Football". When we face failure, we always feel that it is not that we are incapable, but that our bad birth and bad luck caused us to endure such failures. We are the victims of fate.
If it were me Wang Sicong, would I have no money? If my father was Jack Ma, would I do nothing like I am now?
In fact, this is an escape mentality. We imagine ourselves as a victim of fate, sitting in the corner with self-pity, licking our wounds, and dare not face the reality.
However, only when we look at the positive reality, dare to take responsibility, and become the master of our own destiny, can we solve our problems and pursue a happy life.
② The victim mentality makes us constantly deny ourselves and make ourselves feel inferior.
Haruki Murakami said in "Norway's Forest" through the words of Nagasawa: Don't sympathize with yourself. Sympathizing with oneself is what the most despicable person does.
I think that this kind of sympathy stems from my victim mentality, which directly leads to my own low self-esteem.
Thomas had an inferiority complex as a child. Because he did not have the superior life of Alfred, he still looked timid and inferior when hitting the bullseye with a dagger, which also led to him being chased and beaten by Alfred.
Thomas has a low self-esteem as a teenager. Because of Alfred's appearance, he began to doubt his sister Alice's feelings for him. This was actually a lack of confidence in himself. He thought that his sister would like Alfred, who is tall, handsome and rich, instead of his weak and poor younger brother who still needs protection.
Thomas has an inferiority complex in his old age. When he saw Alfred, who has unlimited wealth, on TV, he only had hatred for him and nothing else.
The victim mentality will cause us to always put ourselves in the position of the weak. Recognizing that we are weak is equivalent to admitting that we are bad. This also gives ourselves reasons and excuses not to continue to work hard, and thus lose the courage to change the current predicament.
All in all, the victim mentality will make us reduce our sense of self-worth and existence, and make us lose the confidence that we can change the status quo.
③ The victim mentality will make us lonely.
Throughout the movie "Little Hero Toto", Thomas has not had a real friend since he was a child, or even an ordinary friend. The only person he talked about since childhood was his Tang brother. Because of his "victim mentality", he was unwilling to believe in others, his colleagues' concern for his departure, nurses' concern for his health, etc., he refused to respond to these concerns in a closed state.
Throughout the movie, the moment Thomas really showed a relaxed and happy state was when he decided to die for Alfred. This shows that his victim mentality has been let go, he can accept the world calmly, and his mood is completely relieved, although he is about to die, he is no longer alone in his heart.
The victim mentality will make us lonely. This conclusion is actually relatively easy to understand. In real life, if we always put ourselves in the position of victims and think that other people will be disadvantageous to ourselves, how can we open our hearts to others and truly realize heart-to-heart communication? Can you get close friends? We can't even open our own hearts to each other, how can the other party understand our minds?
Therefore, the victim mentality will close us up, make our life path narrower and narrower, and make us more and more lonely.
Conclusion:
In the film, Thomas' father often used a candy to make magic for Thomas to see. Every time his father took out the candy, he disappeared again. Thomas never knew what the candy tasted like. The director used this candy to foretell us that the life Thomas wanted was just a dream. However, when Thomas got out of the victim mentality and was completely relieved, he realized his dream of "returning" life with Alfred, and finally he got his wish and tasted the taste of that candy.
The director used this candy to tell us that letting go of the "victim mentality" and embracing reality, those dreams that you can't ask for may be at your fingertips.
Everyone has his own happiness and troubles, but each of us is an independent individual. When you are envious of others being handsome and golden, and born with a golden key, why don't others envy your health and freedom, and you don't have to bear the pressure of family business. Therefore, only by discarding the "victim mentality", taking good control of your life, and being the master of your own destiny, will you be able to pursue the life you want.
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