Another translation of this film is "redemption", which more aptly reflects the content of this film. A rogue who makes a living from robbery on the street finds himself in a baby and completes the story of redemption. The same theme, if it is a Hong Kong film or a Hollywood film, I would say it is old-fashioned, but the South African background makes the film have a strong sense of reality and practical significance, and because of this, this film won the best Oscar this year. Best Foreign Language Film Award.
The 6 days Tsotsi spent with the baby was a process of gradually finding himself and his dignity. In the beginning, he deliberately kept his name incognito, because the little teacher said that he did not know dignity and became angry; the dialogue with the disabled beggar, "If a dog has its spine broken, why does it still live?" He seems to be asking himself to survive Meaning; in naming the baby, he retrieved his own name "David"; after returning the baby, he finally completed the redemption of himself. The end of the film gives people some hope, I may be too pessimistic, I think it is more complete to use death to complete redemption. Christianity says that human beings are born with sin, while Confucianism says that human beings are inherently good. The male protagonist's nature is kind, so he can't bear to leave the baby, but the ending is a Christian confession. This is a film that can resonate in both the East and the West.
South Africa reminds me of gold, diamonds, AIDS, racial discrimination, high crime rates, a place full of gold but full of poor people. The film uses the contrast between slums and high-rise buildings to tell us the reality of the disparity between the rich and the poor. Poverty makes those children who grew up in concrete pipes gradually lose their dignity, dehumanize them, and become one tsotsi after another. Today, with the rapid economic development, the scenes in the film are so familiar. Look at the increasing number of bag snatchers around us, as well as those children begging all over the street, they are our tsotsi. Maybe you think they are lazy, but the land they depend on is forcibly expropriated, their hard work for a year is deducted by the contractor for various reasons, and those sweatshops, their wages can’t even buy a piece of their work in the assembly line products produced on. The poor make the poor, and the rich make the rich. It is the rich who really need redemption.
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