It is more desperate, cruel and essential than "Four Hundred Blows". Life was the wooden shoes on her feet—heavy, hard, wet, cold, muddy. The wooden shoes were a burden, fetters, and shame she could not shake off. The only tenderness she received came from two mothers: one who gave her money for short-lived happiness, and one who died on her sickbed. Men beat her with their hands, grabbed her, plundered her, humiliated her with their genitals, stabbed her, and women looked at her harshly and mocked her. Between school and home, Anton Wan's shelter is the street and the friendship of his comrades; while Mushaette's short-lived shelter is the rape and "love" of a tavern and an alcoholic—a trap. Sludge is the erosion from outside, alcohol is the erosion of the soul from within. Alcoholism, like a plague of impurity and depravity, spread to Mushait. When she learned that her dead mother went to heaven, she discovered the new world; from watching the rabbit hunt, she saw the truth of life. The girl tried to commit suicide, holding her new dress, which was clean and dry but torn by her. With her skirt hanging on the shore, she rolled into the water, eager to wash away the filth and shame at the moment of rebirth. This film continues the proposition of "Donkey" - how to face the ugliness and suffering in life. The conclusion of The Donkey: Obedience can bring peace, but human beings cannot achieve absolute obedience, and resistance will fail. The conclusion of "Muchette" is that both obedience and resistance are in vain; people must struggle to death in the snares of suffering and ugliness. God imposed filth and evil on man, created an ugly world, but demanded the world with a clean standard. Thus, the girl was corrupted by the evil of others, struggling between the silt and the demand for cleanliness, and died.
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