The film reviews about this film I currently see on the Internet are almost focused on the trauma of war and social life in the Soviet Union. I think this is a film review written by a typical male film critic. Because they overlooked a very important point, this movie is a movie about humanity and women. The theme of this movie is women in war and struggling humanity. The love between women in the film serves the two major themes of the film.
Many people observe this film based on the Soviet perspective, which is actually not accurate. This film should first start from the female perspective, and then observe the people struggling to live after the war from the perspective of humanity and humanity, rather than based on rigidity and The highly centralized Stalin model observes and criticizes the various social conditions. This is not a social movie, this is a movie of human nature. The subject of the film is not the people of the Soviet Union, but the people in trauma.
The film has four major themes: hope (new birth), trauma, female identity, and love.
This is a movie that uses symbolism very well. I want to call it a literary movie, because if this movie is analyzed in the way that everyone is used to analyzing the plot, there are many strange things. The movie uses symbolism. The technique hides the cinematic symbols in the camera, instead of lines, and implicitly expresses the director's intentions through the performance of actors.
Part 1: Hope
The beginning of the film is the minute. From Pashka's appearance to Pashka's death, it is a very important part. Where there is pashka, there is happiness and vitality. When Pashka died, that is, when Masha came back, all the characters in the film were struggling and confused.
The first shot of Pashka is Dylda bathing Pashka. A scoop of water falling from the top of a child's head is a ritual for receiving baptism in Western religious ceremonies. Baptism represents rebirth and hope. The first shot of the film also means that the image of "child" means hope. Therefore, when the words “child” and “baby” appear in the movie, the meaning is not in the child itself, but in the process of the characters in the movie struggling to save themselves after the war. In other words, the reason why Masha hopes to have a child is because of her desire for motherhood, her desire for female status, and her desire for hope. Masha is going to be taller to give her a baby in the hospital. There was a wonderful conversation before. The taller said that we can adopt a child, and some children have sound hands and feet and have normal IQ. Masha said, I want a complete child. The meaning of this sentence is actually not understandable from the surface. What Masha doesn't want is a complete child, she wants a complete self. She has a lot of grievances about the loss of her fertility and female identity. The child represents Hope, and there is another testimony. Stepan’s wife came to see him and said, we thought you were dead, and I didn’t tell the children that you were alive. In the end, Stepan also voluntarily chose euthanasia. Because he was abandoned by "hope."
And taller, she is the only person cured in the film, which is why she is set as a tall person (incompatible person), and one more thing, in the film, orange and red represent depression, and green represents Rebirth and hope . Masha's brown-red hair and red sweater all represent her personal struggling and depressed character. The taller always wore a green sweater except for the red sweater that Masha gave her when he finally left. In addition, no matter whether the tall character is in good or bad mood, happy or sad, as long as Masha is by her side, as long as she does not make up her mind to leave, she will always wear a green sweater, and she will be healed forever. Because the taller hope comes from masha, from her love for masha. In the last scene where Masha confessed to the tall man, she also put on the green dress, which represented that she had accepted the tall man's love, was healed, and found hope.
There are many evidences. For example, the tall guy thought he had green pigeons on his sweater when he was pregnant, and the doctor captain’s office was also green.
Second theme: trauma
Many other film reviews on the Internet are very focused on the word "war". They like to associate the Soviet Union with World War II, so they often say that this movie is about rumors after the war and what people suffered after the war. Strikes and traumas. But in my opinion, it is too narrow to define the theme of the film in terms of war, because hope is another major theme of the film, just as we cannot interpret hope as only children and childbirth, children and childbearing are eternal to human beings. The theme "hope" was a concrete incarnation of that era, and the eternal theme of mankind "trauma" in that era was war. Therefore, the trauma in the film cannot be narrowed by the background information of war. Because what the director wants to discuss is not war, but stories about people looking for hope in depression and trauma. Regarding the setting of the tall man and the masha war trauma, I think the handling in the movie is very clever. Both of them have a characteristic of the aftermath of the war: long-lasting but not physiologically fatal . This is similar to the diseases of our modern people, such as depression, mania, neurosis.... It is painful, but it cannot kill people quickly physically. The patient can only continue in the long suffering. Life. The director gave up the most distinctive feature of war, which is crippling and makes people lack arms and legs. Instead, he started with this kind of suffering that is closer to human beings of all ages. It is also that he does not stick to war but focuses on the eternal humanity. An expression of the theme of pain and hope. In the movie, the tall man suffocated pashka to death because of a deadly illness. It also means that people's own inner trauma has strangled people's own hope. This law is universal.
I will talk about the third theme of female identity and the fourth theme of love together.
Love is what I want to focus on. There is no doubt that this is a very important theme of the film, the love between women and women.
Many, many people ignore the love between masha and the tall man in the movie too much, and the far-fetched relationship between masha and sasha will be said to be love.
The relationship between Masha and Sasha plays two roles in the movie. The love of men for women is used to compare women's love for women. The second role is the sorrow of the little people and the hardship of living. First of all, does masha love sasha? The answer is no love, but she likes him. Why do I say that she doesn't love him, because Masha and Sasha met, because Masha wanted a child (even though she knew she could not get pregnant), so she had a relationship with him. She also didn't expect that the boy would chase her home to give her food, and the reason she accepted this thing was simple, because "he gave you food and your baby", yes, it was for the child. Just like she used to trade sex with the logistics captain on the battlefield in exchange for food to be sent to the tall man and the child (of course it was cut off, otherwise the doctor captain would secretly give the tall man the planned food for the dead soldier), she has become accustomed to herself This kind of relationship with men is not love for her . The tall man vomited in the room during the week when his menstrual period was postponed. Sasha came to deliver food for the second time, and Masha didn't even want him to come in. The taller asked her: why not let him in. Masha was stunned, held back for a long time, and said, I don't know why, but I don't want to. The explanation from cinematic symbols also shows that confined spaces in movies symbolize women. For example, many haunted movies, such as Polanski’s Cold-Blooded Horror, take place in apartments where single women live alone. The room that taller and Masha live in symbolizes the private space of women. Masha doesn't want a man to come in. She doesn't know how her rejection came. (This sentence is very important. It clarifies Masha's attitude towards the tall man before the tall man kisses Masha. She herself doesn't know how she feels about the tall man. She doesn't know that this is love). And why would Masha and Sasha go to see her parents? First, the taller asked her to go, because before going, Masha told the taller that if you don't want me to go, I won't go. But the taller said: Go ahead. Second, it was very difficult to live in that era. Before Massha's blind date, she didn't know that Sasha's family was a high official. The girl only wanted a life with material security. She didn't want to climb Gaozhi. Although Masha longs for a stable life, she is not a greedy woman. At the beginning of the film, the chief asks Masha to take a bicycle home, but Masha says that he is bringing toys to see the child. She has always been a person with material things, just have it, and don't want more. Feelings are more important than material things. So she didn't want to marry Sasha's house, and even confessed everything provocatively at the dinner table. She said humiliatingly to Sasha's mother that your son loves me to fight back this woman's disdain for her humble origin. But she didn't say a word from beginning to end that I love your son, because the relationship between her and Sasha cannot be called love.
Let's look at Sasha's love for masha and taller's love for masha.
Sasha is a sincere and simple but very cowardly boy. Before meeting Masha, he was a virgin, and he naturally had a pure love for the women he met for the first time. He thought he loved masha because of her, but in fact, he loved masha because of sex, so he took masha to see his parents and found that he didn't know anything about the girl he loved at the dinner table. Sasha loves the masha in his own imagination. When she knows the real her, even if he has the courage to cross classes, he does not have the courage to accept the real her, nor does he have the courage to accept her past. Let's see how Sasha expresses his love for masha, using fruit bread, butter, salt and matches. These are all things he can get most easily. In his life, the most indispensable thing is material. Love is a sweet and happy thing for him, because there is no pressure and pain. So when painting green paint, Sasha is the happy person represented by green, and Masha only said lightly, you don’t understand anything. Sasha doesn't understand the trauma of Masha, and Masha's affection for him comes from his innocence and loveliness, like a child who has never been hurt. But their relationship is not destined to be love.
Let's look at the tall guy's love for masha again.
The taller always knew that he loved masha, but Masha didn't know that he loved taller at first. (Many people think that the masha scumbag deceives tall people's feelings. If the masha is really a scumbag, it would be too much for the director to insert such an unthankful heroine and such a vulgar emotional scene with his carefully crafted work...)
First analyze the love of tall people. The tall person and Sasha are the opposite. Sasha looks weak and is actually really weak. The tall one looks cowardly and actually very stiff. She is the only woman in the film who beat two men so hard that Masha couldn't beat her. She and Masha are well-informed comrades in arms. She knows what Masha has done, but she still chose to love Masha because she can understand her and accept her past, because she herself has experienced the hardship of survival. The taller loves masha, she is willing to give birth to her, just like most women, she will give birth to the children she loves. In fact, this kind of love is very sad and painful. If you love someone, you must cut off your flesh to her. Childbirth is like a life-threatening pain for being tall. It is painful to have sex with a man, and it is even more painful to have a child, but she is willing, out of guilt and love. Even if the girl she loves won't be with her anymore, she said, don't worry, I will give you a baby. Sasha's love is sweet, and taller's love is painful. For women, the coming of love is accompanied by the coming of pain. Sasha loves the masha in his heart, taller loves masha, she loves her without conditions.
Masha is probably the most complicated character in the film, the soul of the film, and the master of human struggle and salvation in the film. Masha is a paranoid and painful but brave female veteran. (The identity of a soldier is very important to Massha. The interweaving of male and female qualities we see in this character comes from the identity of a female soldier.) Why is she paranoid? First, in order to avenge her deceased husband, she fought all the way from the Soviet Union to Berlin and finally discharged from the army due to injuries. Then I want the child's indomitable energy, this character is very paranoid. But this person is also very brave. She is a victim of the times, and war is the source of her pain, but she struggles to save herself, and she is unyielding in pursuit of hope. When there is, it is because of her disgraceful past to outsiders, the pain of her infertility, and the pain of her inability to redeem her. Masha is actually very painful on the inside, but on the outside, he is less talkative, depressed, and paranoid. How much she wants a child, how painful she is.
Masha's feelings for the tall man are based on the kiss of the tall man masha that night in the green dress as the dividing line. Before that, Masha didn't know his feelings for tall people. Why do I say that masha loves tall people from the beginning. There are hints in the film. What Masha brought back from the front line: one piece of clothing for tall people, one piece for herself. A small jewelry box for the two, their favorite chocolates and vodka, a bra and a toy for pashka. The corset is a hint of female identity, and the rest is for "us". The director hinted very clearly that the two heroines are very familiar with each other, and the two of them are already "melted into one." Masha and the taller love, love occurs earlier than sex, and Sasha's love for masha, sex occurs earlier than love. The second proof is that Masha is going to be taller to give birth to a child in the hospital. Masha doesn't want an adopted child, but psychologically, she feels that the child born to a taller child is her own child. Even if the adopted child is as unrelated to her as the taller child. This is also evidence of the integration of the two heroines.
Before the tall guy kissed Masha, Masha had a very strong desire to control the tall guy. Their relationship is more like that of an officer and a soldier. Masha couldn't help but listen to what he said. Masha couldn't figure out her feelings about being tall and brought the habits of the army to her daily life. Her inability to express love and concern normally was also a sequelae of the war .
Let's talk about the kiss scene that night in the dress. There is also a reason for Masah's sloppy attitude towards tall people, because she feels that the taller didn't take care of her own children, and the taller owed her what she owed. (She doesn't know about cutting Hu or how her child died.) Masha didn't get angry with the taller or hate her. She only asked the taller to give her another child. How did Masha think his child died before? I guess I think the child starved to death because of malnutrition, or why he kept sending food back. On the night of the green dress, Martha knew two things. The taller loves herself, and the child is suffocated to death. Before the tall guy kissed her, she pushed her away, because she regretted not being able to take pashaka well and resented the tall guy, she had no reason to accept the tall guy's love. But after the onset of the tall rigor, as a person who also has the aftereffects of the war, of course Massha knows what it feels like when the taller's rigor occurs, powerless and desperate and painful. At that moment Massha forgave the tall man, and the repressed love was released. So there was guilt and pain in her kiss to the tall man. (The first deep kiss is guilt, and the bite in the back is pain). The green paint touched Masha's mouth from the tall man's face when the two kissed, and love began to quietly begin like this.
In the next scene where three people were eating, Masha's eyes changed when he saw the tall man, and Masha's attitude towards the tall man became gentle. The tall guy said to Sasha, "We don't need your food for a living," and Masha stood up silently to take away the plates (waste food is not easy for Masha). Masha would tentatively ask the taller "why have you been aiming at him" (the taller didn't feel it because he was stricken, and didn't know that Masha kissed herself), so she didn't hear the overtones of Masha. She simply thought that Masha was condemned to speak for Sasha. He became a fertility tool for nothing, and the resentment towards Sasha can be imagined. So the two quarreled. Masha said: He will give you and your baby food, ( masha's brain combination, taller, baby and himself ).
Taller: That is your baby. ( Tall's brain combination: masha, sasha, baby ), from this point in time, the way for masha to redeem himself has changed from simply wanting a child to wanting to have a home with him. So before going on a blind date, she said to the tall man "If you don't want me to go, I won't go" is actually a kind of pleading and confession "I want you to keep me and let me know that you have the courage to live with me."
The last scene of Massha confessing to a tall man is very important because some of the lines in it are very cryptic.
"Are you leaving?"
"I have no value to use."
"The dress is stained with blood, the tailor will kill us , maybe we can try to wash it off..."
I don’t know if it’s because of Massha’s personal character or because of her joining the army. This character is very strong and has a strong self-esteem (perhaps because of the cruelty of the war that made her experience this way, or it may be because of the disgraceful use in the war. The humiliating way in exchange for food to live, made her value dignity, and gradually became her character after the war.) In these two sentences of masha, there is a word that appears repeatedly, that is, "we". Masha knew that the tall guy was going to leave her, but her so strong personality made her not know how to keep someone in a soft-spoken voice, so she kept repeating the word " we " just to express a meaning, "I hope you don't leave me."
The taller still wanted to talk, and Massha covered her mouth. This gesture of covering her mouth was full of sadness and anger. Many people think that being tall is just an alternative to sasha for masha. Actually not. For Massha, sasha is the backup option for tall people. If the green dress wasn't before that night, it will definitely be afterwards. After all, it was the tall man who asked her to go on a blind date, and on the blind date table, like on the battlefield, Massha showed her tragic and vigorous as a soldier, defended her dignity almost desperately, and removed all her scars. She doesn't care if she can marry Sasha, she wants her dignity as a human being, and she is not ashamed of the so-called woman's morality that she gave up because of her survival. As a soldier, being able to win and go home alive is morality. (So I said this film is a female film.) To add that there are contradictions before and after the film. Masha told the doctor in the hospital that he was an anti-aircraft gunner and that he had been hitting Berlin after her husband died. What you told Sasha's mother was a combat comfort woman, you didn't directly participate in the battle, did you? She did not deny either. Which one is true? I personally think the first one is true. First, when Masha just came back, if you look closely, you will find that she has many military medals on her chest. Second, on the day she fainted, the doctor also said that overwork was common among private soldiers. Third, if she did not participate in the battle, how would the scar on her abdomen shrapnel explain? How to explain the sequelae of the taller? But is she a comfort woman? I think it counts, female soldiers plus comfort women, it's so cruel. But why didn't she make it clear to Sasha's mother that she was a soldier? Because her mother doesn't care whether she is a soldier or not, she only cares whether her son will marry a second-hand woman, so it's useless to explain. Masha is very smart and she doesn't want to bother with her. So I said that she didn't even want to marry into Sasha's family. When encountering such an overbearing and powerful woman, it is the best choice to leave as decently as possible.
So it was not because Sasha chose to leave Masha that she returned to being tall, but Masha gave up the pursuit of a materially stable life, chose a respected and dignified life, and chose a life that can be loved and loved equally. Choosing a life that can be understood, accepted and tolerated, and returned to the tall man. Her choice is active, voluntary, and not forced. It was because she took the initiative to return to the tall man, so at this time, seeing the tall man still wanting to say that he wanted to leave her, everyone can imagine the sadness and anger in Masha's heart, so the two even moved. Hands up. The final confession was very profound. "His eyes are like you and his nose is like me. He will be tall (compared to Pashaka's medium body) and he will heal us. " The reality is that they will not have a baby with "eyes like you and nose like me" , The meaning here is actually what I mentioned before, "the two heroines merge into one." What Masha expresses here is to merge with the tall one, you have me in you, and I have your desire in me. To be simple, it is "I want to be with you". Finally, Masha got a stable life, got love and dignity. In the last scene, she was wearing a green dress. Love gave her hope of survival, and she and Gao were cured.
To sum up, the relationship between masha and a tall man has always been love, but one does not know it, and the other knows it. Masha's awakening is divided into three stages: before the taller is pregnant, after the taller is pregnant (she thought), and the night in the green dress.
Before the tall one became pregnant, Massha's love for the tall one showed a desire to control. She just escaped from the dead, because of her desire for children (hope), her desire to return to her female identity and a normal life, she was not clear at the time, and it was too late to think about it. The feelings for the tall man, and the death of Pashka, Massha first regrets, hates himself, and then resents, hates the tall man, at this time they can't make any progress in love. It's like the doctor captain asked Masha about the sentence she made the tall man wronged and pregnant: don't you care? Masha did not answer, she cares, and feels guilty, but she wants to rescue herself from the pain of the past. She needs a child, a new, energetic start.
After the tall one became pregnant, Massha's attitude towards the tall one began to ease. Part of the reason was that she had been back from the battlefield for a while, and slowly recovered the state of her previous life and became like a normal human. (Compared to her when she just came back to dance, she actually wanted to try to find a man to get pregnant. When she met Sasha on the way, her eyes were fierce like a cheetah.) The second reason is that she thought the taller was pregnant, so for the child Desire eased, and she freed her mind to ask the question. So there is "I'm sorry I shouldn't be so happy" (the attitude becomes gentle, the masha personality is so strong, and the whole film is such a place to apologize softly.) "Why don't you let him in?" "I don't know why, I just don't want to." (Awakening Start)
After the night of the green skirt, the tall man took the initiative and thoroughly made Massha start to think about his feelings for the tall man. Because of the death of Pashka, the self-blame and resentment in his heart had been suppressed since that night. Disappeared, so the rest is mainly emotional drama. The emotional part of the whole film reaches its climax in the last scene. The perfection of love is: I am in you, and you in me. In pain, seeing each other is like seeing hope.
Update some views on 3p play. Before the tall guy was about to have a relationship with the doctor, the tall guy was very scared, so he took Masha's hand and said: Don't go, don't go... Masha's reaction was that the taller's behavior was a bit funny and naive, and she gently pulled her backhand. Masha herself feels that it is not difficult to have sex with a man. She thinks that being tall is just that she has never experienced it, and she is afraid of the normal behavior of a little girl. Until she herself witnessed the whole process of Gao going to bed with the doctor. She realized how much pain she had imposed on someone she cared about, so she kept running nosebleeds afterwards. As a person who is also suffering from heart, Masha feels guilty for tall people afterwards.
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