Some time ago, the Chinese translation of "Pig" was "Super Speed Pig Killing" (temporary), which was wildly reprinted by my friends and neighbors. Seeing this name can't help but think of the action films of the "Speed Pursuit" series. After watching this film with curiosity and curiosity, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it turned out to be a literary film.
Warning: This article contains minor spoilers, please read as appropriate
Author: Zi Yuyang
"Pig" begins with Robb's (Nicolas Cage) quiet and comfortable life. In this hermit-like life, the only person who accompanies him is the truffle pig who "helps" him find black truffles. Walking freely by the stream, enjoying the food he cooked, and looking for black truffles with his beloved pig, it can be seen that Robb is living freely in his own world . The only way he has contact with the outside world is that every Thursday, Amir, the food supplier, will drive his beloved sports car to the forest to exchange daily necessities for the black truffles found by Robb and Pig.
A peaceful and comfortable day was interrupted one night by a group of uninvited guests. A group of outlaws broke into Robb's cabin, wounded him and stole his truffle pig. Thus, Robb's absurd road to find pigs began.
As the film progresses step by step, Robb's mystery is gradually revealed. Robb, who has been away for a long time, was a famous local chef. The mastermind behind the pig robbery was Amir's father, a well-known local food supplier. However, a dinner Robb cooks for Amir's father succeeds in awakening his wife's thoughts and moving him. In the end, Amir's father told Robb that the pig had died due to the negligence of his men. Knowing the result, Robb's hope was shattered , and he sat on the ground and wept bitterly.
Perhaps, just from the basic introduction to the film's plot, Cage seems to have played a more absurd and bad film. However, on top of such a simple plot, the film "Pig" never stops emphasizing and throwing a question to the audience: in this absurd life, what is the meaning of human existence?
In a world suddenly deprived of fantasy and light, one feels like an outsider. This exile is irreparable, as the nostalgia for the lost homeland and the hope for the kingdom of heaven are stripped away. This separation of people from their lives, the separation of actors from their backgrounds, is precisely the sense of absurdity. - Camus (Myth of Sisyphus)
Therefore, the separation of man and life is a sense of the absurd. In this film, the sense of absurdity is everywhere. Robb, who returned to the city after 15 years of seclusion, saw the city full of traffic and high-rise buildings, and he immediately felt a sense of absurdity. When Amir discovered that the restaurant and plaza he was familiar with had hidden an old underground boxing ring, he also felt a sense of absurdity. The disappearance of the persimmon tree and the recurring car music show a sense of absurdity. Every time these absurdities appear, it means an awakening after the characters in the film actively or inactively break the barriers of their own world.
And these awakenings are just the beginning, the first steps in life. In our life, there are actually many moments of awakening, but most of the awakenings flashed like meteors, and only remained in that moment, which was fleeting. Therefore, it is more important to stay awake and insist on recognizing the absurd and finding the meaning of your life.
In the film, only Robb insists on doing so. He faced up to and resisted the absurdity he recognized, so he escaped from the world and went into the woods. He refused everyone's temptation to buy him a new pig and money, stuck to himself and resisted all the time. He gave up certain hopes and goals, and his seclusion seemed to have allowed him to build a world of his own, one that was neither more barren nor less valuable.
Perhaps the only thing that shakes him in the whole film is that hope of finding a pig. So he said at the end of the film: If I hadn't gone to her, in my mind, she would still be alive.
It is worth noting that in the film "Pig", Robb was the only one who persisted in resisting after awakening. This stark contrast to the others thus underlines the absurdity in the others. For example, Amir's mother gave up resistance and chose suicide after awakening. His father gave up his freedom to pursue career success and neglected his family. Chef Finney gave up his dream of owning a bar and made some illusory dishes. Amir is more like he lacks the perception of life and only regards quality as the gain of life, so he shows that he is very concerned about his sports car and clothing. And it is in this strong contrast that the film explores and considers the meaning of each character's existence.
Finding meaning in meaninglessness is the life that truly belongs to you. This is exactly what Robb has always done, like Sisyphus pushing a rock up the hill, defying and defying the gods.
Whether in his reclusive life or the journey of hunting pigs, he seems to be doing absurd and incomprehensible things, but he has always insisted and resisted, searching for the meaning of his own life in the world. And in the process, he also enriched his heart.
Maybe everyone is still confused with Robb why he chose to live like this. I think maybe a clue can be found in his conversation with Chef Finney: "It's all illusory stuff (Finney's dishes), it's not real, the reviews are not real, the diners are not real. Because None of this is real. Diners don't care about you because they don't even know you because you don't let them see. Every day you wake up, there's less and less of you and you live for them , and they can't even see you, because you didn't let them see." Although the film does not reveal the real reason positively, we imagine how absurd Robb will find himself when he first awakens. Bar!
The film "Pig", while showing a different kind of Sisyphus, also seems to be trying to make the audience realize the absurdity in life, let go of the so-called illusoryness and seek the meaning of their own life.
View more about Pig reviews
