A true warrior dares to face the bleak life and the dripping blood

Emelie 2022-03-25 09:01:12

Tom is the male lead. There are two lines in the story. He and his mentor Magnate are the first line, and he and Silver are the second line. Both lines revolve around "self-denial"/"camouflage", which leads to the final core of the film, being yourself.
Tom and Magarate

seem to have a common quest - to prove that all supernatural phenomena do not exist. Actually fundamentally different. Tom wants to deny the existence of all superpowers, and then deny the fact that he has superpowers, and then relieve his guilt over the death of his mother's stomach cancer. And Magarate accepts the fact that her son is in a vegetative state by denying the supernatural (because she herself said that if she believed in the supernatural and believed in the after-death world for even a second, she would unplug her son's life-support system and let him go, Stop having him tortured by instruments. If I thought for one second that there was something else, I would shut off all this crap and let my son go). In fact, Magarate wants to keep using the argument that the supernatural doesn't exist to help himself to let his son continue to live as a vegetative person.

Both are self-denying. Tom denies that he is a superhuman, and Magarate denies his desire for supernatural existence. Although Magarate keeps repeating that all supernatural beings don't exist, she also keeps refusing to investigate Silver. Because the last line of defense of Silver's supernatural existence, if Silver is falsified, then there is no afterlife for the son to continue to exist.

Magnate's heart is contradictory, she wants to have the supernatural to let her son leave with peace of mind, and she also wants to force self-hypnosis that the supernatural does not exist to continue to keep her son alive in a vegetative state. So she is also doing contradictory things, revealing superficial deceptions while turning a blind eye to the possibly real Silver.

Tom and Silver
To be or appear to be, this is a question.
The "to be" in this line is Tom, a real superpower; the "appear to be" is Silver, an ordinary person. Both of them are in disguise: Tom pretends to be a normal person, using magic etc. to disguise his superpowers; Silver pretends to be a superhuman.

Finally, through the confession of the male protagonist Tom, the theme of the film is revealed:
You can't deny yourself. You can't live in denial forever!
Be brave to face reality and accept your true self, as Lu Xun said a long time ago:
true The brave warriors dare to face the bleak life, dare to face the dripping blood.

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Extended Reading

Red Lights quotes

  • Sally Owen: How did you know that?

    Tom Buckley: Because I'm psychic.

  • Margaret Matheson: Ever heard of Occam's Razor?

    Policeman: Occam's Razor?

    Margaret Matheson: When I hear the drumming of hooves, I don't think unicorns, I think horses.