Ben Affleck, when I first saw him 12 years ago, he didn't impress me deeply. On the one hand, because he is a supporting role, Matt Damon is the protagonist, and the other reason is because he is too tall and I have to underestimate him. The next time he impressed me because of the gossip about escaped marriage... Then he played a brilliant role as a politician, although this time he played a supporting role for Russell Crowe, after all, he left a deep impression. Then, this is The Town.
For those born in the 70s who were poisoned by Hong Kong movies during their adolescence, The Town will evoke many tangled memories: If a criminal with a wicked conscience suddenly discovers that he has a chance to start again?
Why is this kind of memory tangled? Because we ourselves were also undergoing changes at the time, and those Hong Kong movies with sadness told us that Nirvana is impossible, from "Shanghai Beach" to "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Dream", from "Supreme" to "The True Colors of Heroes" "...The tragedy is doomed.
Of course, the theme of destiny and self-determination and the ending of the tragedy are not the patents of Hong Kong movies. "If Tomorrow Comes", "The End of the Wild Flower"... If you have time to search for memories, you will list a long list, but Hong Kong movies are like It was The Town, they appeared at that time and formed part of our growing environment.
The Town, the city, is a besieged city. It defines the identity of everyone living in it. If you leave this city, you will be lost. It is not just a space. It is also an obligation, responsibility, grievance, memory, collective memory and opposition. Future expectations. Why do many people who are far from their hometown, no matter how much they miss that place, never choose to go back there to live? Hometown is a layer of skin that has been shed. It is a souvenir worthy of nostalgia, but it is also a hateful bondage. Accepting it is tantamount to destroying his own personality. Just like a supporting actor, he doesn't care if others call him Jim or Gem. Personal identity is not important. The important thing is that we all grew up here, we all abide by the same rules, and we have the same collective identity.
The end of the film is a "training"-like ending, not as sad as a classic Hong Kong movie, but it is also solemn. Ben's performance is outstanding because he restrained, restrained just right, and made people clearly feel the tension and depression. The supporting actor will probably get an Oscar. Since "The Hurt Locker", his performance this time is a breakthrough. He was so loyal to Ben, but he couldn't change the reality that people would change. When he learned that he was going to fly far away from him and this ghost place, he was almost jealous-"Prisoners always pretend to hate prisons", in fact they can't live without prisons at all! It's like he can't live without this siege. The grievances and anger in the eyes are very real. If he is nominated for an Oscar for a supporting actor, then the clip broadcast at the awards ceremony will be a dialogue between him and Ben.
Ben's change came from a glimpse of Jinghong. When he gave the female clerk time during the bank robbery, he hadn't fallen into it yet. The female clerk just subconsciously recalled his memory of his mother. The painful memory of his mother's sudden disappearance has been haunting him since childhood, so there has always been a lack in his heart, and that lack is left to women. He tried to establish a relationship with his brother's sister, but the girl who also grew up in the siege was an addict, a bitch, and being with her meant accepting the fate stipulated by the siege. But he has been unable to accept it, just as he can't accept the sudden disappearance of his mother. His fascination with female staff was after meeting in the laundry room. The helplessness and fragility of the female staff aroused his compassion. The female staff shed tears because of painful memories, and she was not the only person suffering from painful memories at the time. There was another person in front of her, a small restaurant who had been searching for her lost mother and grandmother in her heart.
When he was a child, his mother told him about the small restaurant opened by his grandmother in a small Florida town. From then on, this small restaurant in Florida is just like the "Zihuatanejo" in the heart of the hero in "The Shawshank's Redemption". It is a dream and a belief. , A hope. Ben's father told him that the things you tried to find but didn't find are not worth pursuing. Just like your mother, she is a bitch at all, because she is lost in your memory, so she starts to be noble.
Should he accept reality and shatter dreams? No. Mother is not only a mother, but also a struggle against the fate of the siege. To find her is to break away from this fate. He chose a different path, shattering his brother's dream, the dream of loyalty, cruelly telling his brother that the people in the besieged city have no future. The father squatting in jail is Ben’s future, and the little girl who doesn’t know who his father is is Ben’s past. Brother is Ben in reality. But besides reality, Ben also has a Florida dream, a siege outside the city. Dream. The female clerk was a person outside the besieged city, so she suddenly broke into Ben's life and filled the gap in his heart.
When Ben finally raised his gun to kill the boss behind the scenes, he was not only avenging his brother and his mother, but also a final break with the past and a duel with fate: because the flower shop owner seemed to him to be in this siege. original sin. At that moment, he found his long-lost mother.
The best translation of The Town is, Siege.
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