The first shot of the film is a clear blue sky with bright sunshine and white clouds; the last shot is a gray earth with messy hair, washboard and detergent. However, the metaphor of the two lenses is not as simple as it seems. Although the sky is beautiful, it is far away and separated by glass; although the earth is messy, it can be stepped firmly on it all the time.
From the sky to the earth, the protagonist finally completed a spiritual transformation.
A few days ago I chatted with a friend and talked about the story of a woman who had a hard life. I sighed that she was unfair and bad luck, but my friend said that this woman can never be without problems herself. When I heard the words, my friend's perspective on "destiny" is not new, but it is often overlooked by us.
Li Shin-ae, the protagonist of "Miyang" is also such a woman. At first glance, she is beautiful, gentle, smart, and kind, but her life has been severely damaged: her husband cheated, family discord, bereavement, bereavement, and abandonment by faith... Destiny seems to be impermanent and unfair.
In the face of such misfortunes, people can't even bear to ask the bottom line: How much of these misfortunes are attributable to uncontrollable fate, and how much is attributable to herself?
If she insisted on coming to Miryang not to "start over"; if she didn't clamor to buy land to satisfy her vanity, her son would not be kidnapped and killed. If she did not force herself to forgive the murderer of her son in order to "exhibit her forgiveness," she would not suddenly feel that God had abandoned and deceived her.
The root cause of her behaviors is her consistent sense of superiority and low self-esteem.
She is more willing to believe that her husband loves her and her son the most. Only in this way, the fact that she was abandoned does not appear to be particularly tragic. Whenever she meets people, she said that she came to Miryang because it is the hometown of her husband and gave herself an escape from reality. She criticized the decoration of the local clothing store to show her better taste from the big city to the “country folks” of Miryang; she bought the land with great fanfare to prove that she was better than others. There is capital to live comfortably and happily; she wants to go to prison to forgive the murderer, that is, she is still struggling to stand on the moral high ground in the end.
Before this series of misfortunes happened, she was dismissive of the earth, just as she would never look down upon Song Kanghao's unsightly uncle next door. She prefers to look up at the sky. She also instinctively rejected the darkness. When her son approached the wreath shop in the shadow, she hurriedly yelled "turn right, turn right" and dragged her son into the sun.
How she hopes that her life is exquisite, perfect, full of sunshine, and enviable. But this extreme desire for superiority is precisely due to a strong inferiority complex. Because true superiority does not need to be shown off.
To discover a person's weakness, it depends on what he shows off.
Personally, I don't like films that deliberately destroy all good things step by step to earn tears, such as Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. But "Miyang" is an exception, because although on the surface, this film portrays the process of the heroine being constantly hit, but in fact it is the process of her self-salvation through continuous suffering and painstaking efforts. From looking up at the sky to looking at the earth, such a huge transformation cannot be completed without experiencing a bit of pain; but to complete this transformation, for the protagonist, it is tantamount to real Nirvana rebirth.
No longer always fight with fate with bows and arrows, admit the misfortune and shame that happened to him, frankly admit that he is not noble enough and cannot forgive, and accept his mediocrity like a piece of mud.
After stripping off all the glitz and vanity, it doesn't matter if you don't see God, what matters is seeing yourself.
Some people say that the end of the film is the beginning of another story. If this is the case, the story must be about two ordinary pieces of soil; it may not be too exciting, but it should be a story that can make people smile.
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