"I'm 23 years old. I have 50000 pesetas. And I am all alone in the world. I hope to be a good husband to you and a good father to your kids."
- Ricky's first confession
In order to start a family with his sweetheart, after trying some conventional methods but still unable to fall in love, he decided to kidnap her directly in one step, and then let her fall in love with him. Ricky, a 23-year-old young man, has just been discharged from a mental hospital in Spain. He is an orphan and has nothing (except for his lock-picking skills). After escaping from the mental hospital, he met porn actress Marina in a bar. After that night, he decided that he would become a her husband.
The plot of Spanish director Almodóvar's 1989 film "Tie Me, Tie Me" seems absurd and illegal, but the core of the story is sincere, passionate, and unrestrained, which brings tears to the eyes. An orphan with nothing, in the face of a bleak life, has so much strength and so much hope to pursue the most beautiful and most beautiful things in his heart.
Love is sometimes a kind of self-kidnapping, not using hemp rope, handcuffs, or tape, but the other party's interesting soul, lovely character, the same interest, and excessive sympathy. When you fall in love, you start to involuntarily, get stuck in the same place, long for the response of the other party, and then you can move forward.
The male protagonist Ricky took the most extreme way. He tried to "replace" Marina's free will, making the decision of "kidnapping" first, and then waiting for her to fall in love with him. So we saw a lot of funny and thrilling but inexplicably romantic pictures in the movie, such as this young man and woman walking side by side in handcuffs in a romantic night. His kidnapping was violent and even anti-social on the surface, but it was also warm and tragic.
First of all, Ricky's kidnapping is limited to "tied", it seems that the initiative is in his hands, but it is not the case. He would turn his head when Marina was changing, buy medicine for her toothache when she went out late at night, and even remembered every request she made to buy more "skin-friendly" hemp rope and tape. of hurting a sweetheart. If Marina doesn't fall in love with him in the end, then he can only leave, or even more likely to be caught by the police and imprisoned. The movie shows this very clearly, especially when Marina was rescued by her sister in the end. Ricky thought she didn't fall in love with her in the end, and left alone and did not continue to entangle. This piece of love rhapsody may have been his transit point from the mental hospital to the court prison, which made him lose his freedom after he had nothing, and the isolation from society continued to deepen, so it was also tragic and crazy.
Behind the madness is the resistance and hope of those who have nothing. Ricky was orphaned at the age of 3, entered a juvenile institution at the age of 8, and entered a mental hospital at the age of 16. He had nothing along the way. The movie did not explain what he experienced, but it was already horrific. From the point of view of starting a family, he still has many, many hopes for the world. It's all just because "there is nowhere to go", who once used a mental hospital as his home, finally burned his desire for a normal life for the first time after meeting "her".
Just like after he went out to buy medicine for Marina and was robbed and beaten, when Marina used cotton gauze to heal his wound, his face was covered in blood. He remembered that his parents used to be like this when he was a child. The only memory of my parents. As an orphan, his memory of his parents is only a fleeting moment, but this image may have become his "cosmic explosion center", a source of grief and a driving force to live and love. It was also at this time that Marina, who was taking care of him like a mother, finally broke her defense. She hugged the scarred boy and kissed him to warm him. Then, when they finally "played poker," she began to tie twine to her hands and feet and tape her mouth.
How persistent is Ricky's pursuit of home and love? After Marina escaped, he still returned to his hometown alone, and saw that his parents' small house was now just broken bricks and weeds, and he was thinking by the sea with his Walkman. Even without the company of his sweetheart, and his most ardent hopes were lost, he still wanted to return to the place that once brought him warmth. This was his only place of return, and before, his place of return was a mental hospital.
Fortunately, this is not his last stop. Marina found him by the sea in a car, and the two chose to accompany hand in hand and voluntarily put on the shackles of love.
The "subway line of life" that Ricky drew to Marina has infinite sadness and infinite surprises - stop 1: being an orphan at the age of 3; stop 2: entering a juvenile detention center at the age of 8; 3 stops; he was admitted to a mental hospital at the age of 16, kept running away and went back, because he had nowhere to go; the 4th stop, Lulu bar, this is where he met Marina, from then on, he stopped doing crazy things, and passed the spirit Condition test, successfully discharged, 22 years old; terminal, found Marina, 23 years old.
This life background was revealed by Almodovar (director/screenwriter) when the film was nearing the end after the two had their first experience of being in love with each other. This is the most exciting part of the film. Faced with such a crazy but calm, violent but gentle person, you find it difficult to understand, until you understand his life, you finally understand what makes him so crazy, and what makes him pursue a girl so passionately and sincerely, Snipe this life against the wind.
I hope this is a true story, no matter how gloomy life he once lived, when he is determined to run towards the sun to the end of his life, he will definitely reach a warm place where there are beautiful people waiting for him, yes Belong to ta's lulu bar.
Peseta has bid farewell to Spain forever, but Almodovar's films will always remain in this world, telling the precious heart of a child.
A tearful ending theme song: Resistiré by Duo Dinamico
When I lose all the games
When I sleep in the arms of solitude
When I find there's no other way out
And night won't let me rest
When silence frightens me
When I no longer stand on my feet
When rebel memories
And push me against the wall
I will resist
To keep on living
I will turn into
Steel to toughen my skin
And even if life's wind blows harder
I'll be like the reed that bends but does not break
I will resist
To keep on living
"Horror or love story, it's hard to tell them apart."
The pictures in this article are all from Almodóvar's 1989 film Átame! (Chinese name "Tie Me, Tie Me")
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