Memories constitute us, and I often think so.
The reason why each of us is such a person is because we are carrying that kind of past. Our unique growth history, family background, people and events that we met turn into memories to constitute our values, which influence every choice we make at the moment and decide whether we love or hate someone. Zhang Wuji in the movie "The Legend of the Dragon Slayer" fell in love with Zhao Min only because "she looks like my mother".
Proust is another situation. His body is imprisoned by disease, while his soul is imprisoned by the past. For him, memories are his all, his destiny, and his prison. He seems to be a person without a future tense, and his second half of his life is just to record that dim and short life.
This year’s Oscar-nominated film "Mysterious Eyes" tells the story of two men trapped in a memory cage. The two mirror-like ends set against and contrast with each other, just like twins. One of the protagonists is Morales, a small bank clerk. He originally lived an ordinary life, but misfortune suddenly came: his wife was raped and killed at home, her body was scarred and she died in a terrible state. Investigating the case is another actor, the prosecutor Esposito, who was shaken by the murderer's brutality and determined to bring justice. Two individuals who originally drifted alone in the world like floating wings were suddenly brought together by a hurricane of destiny. A group of people finally caught the murderer, but due to political reasons, the murderer was released and retaliated after being released. Esposito's assistant was killed, he was forced to walk away, his lover shed tears to see off at the train station, but he still couldn't say anything to confess. Twenty-five years later, Esposito has retired. He felt that there was no reason to escape the past, so he decided to write a novel to commemorate the case that affected his life 25 years ago. He began to look for all the parties that year. The movie is made through Esposito's search for the "now" and the recollection of the "past".
Because the story is actually divided into two clues, the pursuit of the murder 25 years ago and the search 25 years later, it is difficult to narrate linearly. Therefore, the editing is based on the principle of similarity, that is, a certain detail and a voice at this moment reminds the past. Similar details, so as to switch to the plot of the "past", and vice versa, for example, through the buzzing sound of water boiling in the pot, the scene from the "past" Morales learns that his wife died tragically and back to the "now" old age Esposito writes at home because there is a pot boiling water in both scenes. The benefits of this editing method are obvious. Like this kind of multi-line narrative, the most difficult thing to deal with is to make the audience accept the logic of the film, because if the plot jumps too fast, many viewers will protest that they can’t understand or can’t keep up, such as crazy. The car has been criticized like this. And according to the artificial similarity, the highly jumpy plot points are connected in series, even if it violates logic, it does not appear abrupt. Moreover, the conversion of different time and space has caused the blank of the narrative, but has created a prose-like atmosphere for the whole movie.
Of course, the choice of this editing method is also a reflection of the theme of the film: people imprisoned in the past.
Every fragment of Esposito's life could not get rid of the entanglement of memories, even the buzzing of boiling water reminded him of Morales' painful face. Every time he spoke and every action seemed to be a piece of rubble thrown into the lake of memories, there would always be aftermaths that would wave back, and then swept him away. The first he went to look for was his lover and boss, Irene. Irene, on the contrary, is "a person who always looks forward" and will never be trapped in the past. So Irene asked him very puzzled: Why write that period of time? Esposito replied: Everything in my life points to that case. Xia Chong couldn't speak ice, Irene obviously couldn't understand, and the first reunion was unhappy, leaving Esposito alone in the cafe. He remembered the scene when Morales was sitting alone on the subway station waiting for the murderer. It had been a year since Morales’ wife was killed. During this year, Morales would wait at the subway station every day, waiting for the murderer to appear. Although his memory of his wife began to blur, he could not remember his wife. Whether lemon or honey was added to the last pot of tea he made, he still insisted on revenge, even though the memory of revenge was long dead. This reminds me of Kafka's mysterious fable "When the Great Wall of China was built." All the Chinese emperors in Kafka's works lived in an extremely huge palace. This palace is so big that it takes a lifetime to go out. The emperor’s instructions have not yet been sent to the palace. The emperor has died. After the change of dynasty, the instructions issued have long been invalidated, but the person who sent the letter did not know it, and was still executing the obsolete one. mission.
"Forgotten Revenge" is a very deep detail and a very precise metaphor. Even if I have forgotten how I suffered, the scars will remain on my body forever. The past is so difficult. People who have a heavy past are painful. Esposito and Morales are both such people. The former once said to the latter: if the murderer was caught, the death penalty might not be possible. The latter said that I do not agree with the death penalty, which is not enough to relieve hatred. “Let the murderer grow old slowly and live a meaningless life.” Morales believes that living a meaningless life can punish the murderer better than the death penalty. Therefore, after the murderer got away with impunity for political reasons, he decided to punish the murderer himself. Morales moved his family to a remote wilderness, then kidnapped the murderer and imprisoned him at home for twenty-five years. He didn't say a word to the murderer during this period. So when Esposito broke into his private prison, the first thing the gray-haired murderer said to Ai was: Please, at least let him (Morales) talk to me.
At this time, the camera shot the faces of the elderly Esposito and Morales separately through the iron cage, and it looked like they were locked in the iron cage. Then Morales said intriguing lines: I think of the life you said...
Great movies are always the perfect combination of technology and spirit. Here, the very symbolic pictures and refined lines constitute the finishing touch metaphor-both of their lives were imprisoned in the murder 25 years ago.
Esposito was forced to go away because of this unrelated murder, leaving all his possessions, including his favorite people. He has lost his life in order to catch the murderer, so he often wonders: What is the meaning of life, and how can a person know that he lives in emptiness? Can the moral correctness of fighting for justice guarantee the meaning of life? So if, like him, he can only watch the murderer get away with it, but "nothing can be changed", will his life be left with meaningless lightness? Is the meaning of his life not guaranteed?
So, Morales, who finally punished the murderer according to his own ideas, got what he wanted. But in order to achieve this goal, he had to move to a remote place, live a life of isolation, did not dare to marry again, and sacrificed all the joys of life for revenge. He was not only the murderer imprisoned, he also sentenced himself to life imprisonment. Is such a life meaningful? Judging from his final lines, he himself was puzzled.
This film raises an extremely metaphysical question: how should one deal with the relationship with the past? The audience can certainly blame Esposito and Morales for being so obsessed with the past that the mud feet are so deep that they can't get out of the past. However, forgetting the past is not easy. As far as Morales is concerned, forgetting the past seems to mean betraying his wife.
Many movies have also explored this issue. For example, a movie I like very much "Old Boy". However, before, I didn't quite understand its theme, until I finished watching "Mysterious Eyes", I finally understood that the two films are telling the same story-the tragedy of people being imprisoned in the past.
The story of the old boy can be simply explained: middle-aged man Wu Daxiu was somehow kidnapped, then imprisoned in a private prison for 15 years, and then somehow released. After he was free, he began to revenge wildly, but he gradually got revenge. It was discovered that he himself was the real sinner, and his opponent was the real avenger, and everything stemmed from a mistake he made when he was a boy. This mistake was forgotten by Wu Daxiu long ago, but the victim remembered that he wanted Wu Daxiu to pay for his life to atone for the crime. The Avengers use conspiracy to make Wu Daxiu fall in love with his daughter, father and daughter incest. The Avengers used his whole life to plan this conspiracy. After he succeeded, he committed suicide. This person has lived in that memory all his life. It seems that his life is for that memory. This person had a line before his death, to the effect: The revenge is over, what does it mean for me to be alive?
Speaking of the story, it seems to be somewhat similar to "Mysterious Eyes". However, the story is not over yet. The end of the old boy is that Wu Daxiu asks a hypnotist to hypnotize herself, so that she forgets the father-daughter relationship with her daughter, and then continues to love and live with her daughter. There is a sentence in his letter to the hypnotist: Even if I am a beast, do I have no right to live?
The last shot of the old boy is Wu Daxiu, who has forgotten the pain of incest, hugs his daughter/lover, showing a wild smile. The author of the old boy completely let go of the past, because he used hypnotism, a modern witchcraft, to erase the memories, block the door to the past, and completely cut off the connection with the past. This is a very Nietzsche ending, ignoring all existing morals, releasing one's life, and living like a beast.
The Nietzsche-esque ending of "Old Boy" reminds us of the often overlooked difference between memories and the past: the past is forever, and memories can be eliminated. By negating the memory, all the moral problems brought by the past are negated.
In "Mysterious Eyes", the film author’s values are obviously much more traditional. At the end, Esposito sealed the case file, and then went to the lover’s office where he had to say the sentence to the lover. 25 Words of the year.
The record in the case file is a painful memory from 25 years ago. Esposito must seal up this past after knowing that the murderer has been punished, justice was done 25 years ago, and all moral issues have been resolved. . His confession is not to look to the future, but to return to the past.
View more about The Secret in Their Eyes reviews
