Woody Allen, who is full of old-fashioned British flavors, said, "As a filmmaker, if I can make people laugh, that's great. If I can make them laugh and think, that's very, very good. But if I can make people laugh, that's great. Just make them think, and I'm in trouble", and Four Lions is certainly one of those films that makes people laugh and think at the same time.
The unknown about the Middle East world and the lack of religious belief make it difficult for me to truly empathize with the hearts of the four so-called warriors in the movie, not to mention that they themselves don't know why they do those extreme things, they are against it. What it is, what they hope for, and even what they believe in, they don't know very well. They are just dissatisfied with the world that already exists, and women who are dissatisfied can now talk back. So, they are ready to use their own methods to change the status quo.
In order not to affect everyone's viewing pleasure, let me adapt this story.
Four mainlanders were born in a country with the sun as its flag. However, they are staunch party members. One is a representative of extremism, whose only joy in life is to sit and demonstrate at the Yasukuni Shrine on weekdays; the other is an angry youth born in the 1990s, for whom the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was a movement to protect women's rights; one is simple-minded and does whatever others say. What, as long as I hope to be recognized by others; the last one, who has already started a family, has his own beautiful wife and healthy son, but is the one with the most determined attitude. After an island dispute between their homeland and the country they live in, they decided to use extreme methods to awaken the so-called national spirit. They started planning to blow up a Sichuan restaurant to stimulate the centrists, and some people suggested blowing up 7-11, because there were condoms in it besides AV CDs. They finally chose to become four human bombs on a marathon day. The funny thing is that they only know what to fry, what to fry and why, they don't care.
The great thing about the director is that he expresses all this in an extremely absurd way. You'll be laughing the whole time you watch the movie, but it's not a comedy movie, you know from the beginning it's going to be a tragic ending, you've been sitting on the couch for over an hour just waiting for this How did the four lions die? It's like knowing that a bomb is about to explode under the mahjong table, but all you care about is how to be a luxurious one and catch all three. So what we leave behind after every unbridled happiness is a touch of sadness, and you will have an expectation that their plan is just a farce and cannot be really implemented. The ending, I think you already know.
The most touching scene in the movie is the scene where the family member went to say goodbye to his wife who was at work at the end. When he said "We'll see you above" very firmly, I really felt the most sincere feelings in the world. Nothing more. At the end of the noisy movie, it is difficult for us to simply clean up our mood. The ancient Tower of Babel has always been in our hearts, and it is built higher and higher.
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