Therefore, there are too many familiar themes, the voyeurism in "Matador", the Stockholm complex in "Tie Me, Tie Me", and the violent rape in "Kika", all of them are eaten in "My". In the Skin of Habitat. Almodovar does have the suspicion of exhaustion of talents. Imprisonment, transgender, homosexuality, and incest clouds flashing everywhere are almost all the material he has been reluctant to part with since his debut. Of course, there are some distinctions. For example, in "All About My Mother", transgender is an ethical dilemma caused by "father-mother" to the offspring; -Daughter’s perverted coercion.
Vincent became "Vera" because of the sex reassignment surgery carefully planned by Dr. Robert. However, as a prisoner under house arrest and "raising", Vera's desire for Robert after being raped by others seems to be unprecedentedly strong. In this perverted master-slave relationship, Robert was first of all a "father" to Vera: When Robert looked at Vera, the framed composition was full of oil painting, and Robert "made" Vera. For example, Frankenstein created "Adam". In this sense, Robert is Vera's father. Therefore, when Vera nakedly expresses "her" desire for Robert, the incest meaning is self-evident. Yu (Another incest scene is mainly shown through Robert's brother, this rebellious son tied his mother so that she could watch her rape Vera with her own eyes).
Robert was trying to avenge his daughter who was raped by Vincent, but the truth is that Vincent did not rape at all. On the contrary, the mentally ill daughter regarded her father as a rapist (again, the crime of incest), poor. "Vincent Vera" became Robert's victim: at the beginning, Robert imprisoned and transgendered Vincent for revenge, and in the end, Vera shot Robert's mother and son, which was an escape and revenge.
The focus of the film is the conversion of Vincent to Vera's gender identity. Almodóvar successfully laid out a journey of forced transgender. From painful desire to enjoyment, "Vincent Vera" seems to be more and more accepting of "her" female identity. At the end of the film, Vera returns home and sees the gay girl she admired in the past, showing some kind of irony. The great reunion means that Vera, who has become a woman, has the possibility to associate with this beautiful Lala woman.
Gender identity is one of the basic prerequisites for the functioning of human society. Almodóvar has been trying to arrogate this dividing line in his movies, which undoubtedly has the same purpose as Le Guin's masterpiece "The Left Hand of Darkness". In Le Guen's writings, an androgynous alien society where genders are randomly divided during the "estrus" is portrayed vividly. This alien society is actually a literary expression of Le Guen's in-depth thinking on the relationship between humans. "Vincent Vera" is like the indisputable Winter Star in "The Left Hand of Darkness", interrogating the existing stereotypes of the two sexes in human society.
Le Guen uses Taoism to name his work ("Light is the left hand of darkness"), and this is the perfect state of harmony and unity of Yin and Yang. It is a pity that people cannot get out of their own skin, even if they change their skin or change their sex, their finiteness is still imprisoned under their own skin.
When will there be that left hand through the darkness?
(Published in "Southern People Weekly" No. 3 on January 16, 2012)
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