The Limehouse area of London in the 1880s, a dark, dirty, fog-filled area where pickpockets, hooligans and criminals lived, was where a series of horrific murders took place, and the victims died horribly. The killer was known as Golem for his brutality: a monster of Jewish legend. For a time, the citizens of London were in danger, and rumors about the murderer spread like wildfire. On the other hand, musical actress Lizzie was arrested on charges of poisoning her husband. The whole case is full of mysteries. Detectives assigned to investigate Golem's identity gradually discover that the two cases are inextricably linked.…
At first glance, The Limehouse Golem is another Jack the Ripper genre film, but beneath the surface of the suspenseful atmosphere lies an undercurrent of feminism. Liz comes from the darkest underbelly of society, and began her stage career under the influence of comedian Dan Leno. With the intervention of the detective, Liz's past with her husband is gradually revealed: Liz's husband is a frustrated playwright, and when he first met Liz, he felt sympathy for her situation, and then he couldn't help but care. she. The emotion is top-to-bottom, a rather old tradition of damsel in distress. However, what Liz is waiting for is not salvation, but the opportunity to succeed. She pinned her hopes on her husband's play "Tragic Intersection", thinking that she could win glory for herself by playing the heroine. However, "Tragic Intersection" failed completely on the day of its premiere. After that, her husband forced her to discontinue her acting career. All kinds of oppression made Liz live in misery.
The detective gradually developed sympathy for Liz, and at the same time believed that he had an obligation to clear up her grievances, but this sympathy was false. Both the detective and Liz's husband are named John, which seems to be alluding to what the two male characters have in common: trying to play the savior. The film uses the police detective's point of view to achieve narrative trickery, and from beginning to end, all reasoning is unfolded to rescue Liz, but Liz is not the victim they imagined. She has always had a fair degree of mastery over her desires. In "Tragic Intersection", she plays the man who oppresses the heroine, while Dan Lino plays the oppressed woman. The gender confrontation is not only a theater fashion, but also implies the complex relationship between manipulation and manipulation. When a police detective When he first imagined a prisoner as a male, he was destined to be ridiculed by this natural myth.
This is a story that must be told from the end, because only in the end can the true appearance of the character be presented in front of the audience. Shocking truth is not the end of events, but the real beginning of character building. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the characters in the film are not entirely fictitious. Of the four suspects in the Golem case, Karl Marx and George Gissing are both well-known real people. Dan Leno was also a real comedian of the late 19th century. The half-truth character setting blurs the line between reality and fiction, and echoes the suspect's ambiguous situation. The murderer's image, which is repeatedly integrated with the suspect, extends the meaning of "murderer" and derives more levels. possible.
Why Golem? The humanoid creature of Jewish legend, made of clay or stone, had to be brought to life by people, and it came to life when people affixed "emet" ("true" in Hebrew) to its forehead, and When "emet" is changed to "met" (death), it loses its life. Golem doesn't have a will of his own, and therefore has nothing to do with evil or good. In the play, the murderer left a text at the murder scene: "He who observes spills no less blood than he who inflicts the blow." Criminals such as Hand Jack have always had an undisguised curiosity, and "The Limehouse Killer" in turn accuses / teases this curiosity-Golem's crime is not just the murderer's hand, and everyone who contributes to it. participate.
The public's attention to the murder keeps the murderer committing it again and again, just as the lifeless Golem is brought to life by the will of man. Golem controls the masses, and the masses control Golem. But this comes back to the question of how to achieve fame and glory - how far does one have to be in order to be immortal? "Some people's names are in stone, some people's in ice," Liz told Danlino. She wants her acting career to be a true masterpiece, not a gags destined to be forgotten. "If you want your name to be engraved in stone, you can pick up the chisel yourself," Danlino told her. Liz did pick up the chisel—or knife—but she could carve into the stone with a knife. ? The detective who knew all the truth chose to cover up the truth, which undoubtedly became the biggest ridicule for Liz.
In the end, Dan Lino adapted Liz's story into a new play. On the day of the premiere, the actress who played Liz was actually hanged on the stage because of the failure of the stage equipment. There was an uproar in the audience below, and Dan Lino immediately rushed to the front of the stage to replace the actress - as if a metaphor that couldn't be more obvious, if Liz died, someone had to live in her place - no matter whether the Liz who survived was or not It is the imagination of others reproduced. In the end (imaginary) Liz stood on stage and was cheered by the audience, but why was the cheer coming? Is it the image of a victim that others have constantly created for her, or is it a crime she has committed for herself? She did bring herself back to life on stage, but what a hollow image. Although seeing this scene is still a little happy for her, this kind of happiness is nothing.
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