The story begins with a car accident, followed by flashbacks, interspersed with several paragraphs of memories. These memories describe the professor's life as if he were trapped in a cage. The underlying sadness still strikes people's hearts inadvertently.
The word "ghost" caused the professor to lose his job and his wife to die because of it. This is indeed a bit of black humor to the Chinese, but it actually touches on the most sensitive issue in American society, that is, the issue of race. Therefore, the professor wears the hat of racial discrimination. Here, two key words appear, one is "race" and the other is "discrimination". These two words run through the entire film and also cover this film. A layer of indescribable gray color.
In fact, the car accident in the snow has proved this. The gray early morning, the lonely forest road, and then the car accident, everything is so pessimistic, this is the real main color of the film.
"Race" has always been an unavoidable and sensitive topic in Western countries. Even in the so-called civilized era, although the status of black people has been improved due to it, this issue still exists in everyone's heart. Thus, we see how the young professor in the film is extremely detached from his black identity (by the way, the protagonist of the film's young age is the star of "Prison Break").
His father was the first person who needed to get rid of the professor. When he wanted to become a boxer, he was strongly opposed by his father, because in his father's opinion, he had to become a top student, and boxing was a sport in the United States at that time. It also happens to be mainly from black people. Frankly speaking, in fact, the father's real hope is to let his son use his high education to cover up the disadvantages caused by his black identity. It can be said that the father is the main reason to induce the professor to get rid of the black identity, so when we see the death of the father and our protagonist. He did not become a boxer according to his own wishes, but he joined the army when he was confused, and then became a highly educated person - a professor just as his father wanted. This process met his father's requirements, but it was just a detour.
If the father is the inner incentive for the protagonist to get rid of his black identity, then love is the direct trigger. For the professor, the identity of black people did not have such a big impact, but when his love ended because of this identity, he really understood that black people were looked down upon, so when he found another girlfriend At the time, he avoided his own family, was ashamed of being black, and started what he called a Jewish white life.
The professor put a shackle on himself and made himself live in a kind of life where he didn't know who he was. Even his wife, he kept hiding his identity. But when the "ghost" incident appeared, it was already a new century, and he could completely get out of that predicament by revealing his identity, but in fact he didn't. At this time, we can no longer simply consider the hatred of the protagonist himself, and more importantly, his inertia as a white man and the treatment he will receive after he shows his identity. This is a potential proposition, that is, the era when black people are truly not discriminated against has not come, and he must continue that lie, for his own dignity, for his false identity, and to escape the reality of society.
It's a shameful act for a man who betrayed his own race, but in fact the professor had to. Because discrimination never ends. So we see the issue of "discrimination".
If a white person becomes a black person, discrimination is sure to exist, but if it is a miserable woman, even a vulgar wrong woman, her discrimination is also deeply rooted. That's how the cleaner, played by Nicole, came out. She's sexy, but she's vulgar, and she's beautiful, but she inadvertently kills her own child.
This is a sad woman. Since she was a child, she has been sexually abused by her family, so she ran away, and then lived as a prostitute. After marriage, she lost a child, then divorced, and was alone. In this case, she and the professor came together, one was suffering from discrimination in her heart, and the other was living in discrimination forever. The love between the two can be said to be built on the same fate.
So, the professor began to get an opportunity to resist discrimination from this woman, and the love became hot, but this love was bitter, because love was built on a kind of resistance, maybe it only became a kind of psychological comfort for the professor, Maybe it is just an attempt, in fact, this is a dislocated love.
The film has always used a comparison method when telling the life of the professor and the cleaner. First, the identity of the two is a difference, and secondly, in the eyes of outsiders, one of the two people's past is concealed, and the other is known to passers-by. Furthermore, the pursuits of the two are actually different. Although the cleaner is not confident, she pursues a kind of equal respect and a very normal life, but the professor is different. What he pursues is precisely a kind of Rebellion is an extraordinary behavior. And there is only one reason why they can come together, and that is sadness.
When the facts are in front of them, the two of them have reached the end of despair. There is only one way to resolve this despair, and that is to die and leave this world, so the film returns to the beginning, the car accident.
In fact, this kind of sad mood in the film pervades almost everyone. The writer avoids the world for some reason. This is an escape. Those cutscenes, the professor's ex-girlfriend, mother, and sister, everyone is sad. Perhaps sadness itself is a weakness of human nature, but is it not a stain?
The film is about the issue of race, but through the two extreme characters, it shows a weakness of human nature, that is, imprisoning something in one's own heart, and then using various ways to escape, or die, or leave.
2006-12-25 in Tongzhou
Han Xi
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