"Liberty Square" director Ruben Ostrund creatively used a trick when balancing fantasy and reality: as the film's protagonist as a modern museum curator to rationalize the director's massive involvement in the film "Private Goods": a bunch of (seemingly) inexplicable installation art, a series of unabashed "metaphors", a few seemingly random but actually dramatic narrative lines, and a true and a false (? ) two orangutans. With such audacity to deal with the realistic subject of "middle-class introspection", Ostrund has undoubtedly made a wonderful dance on the tip of the knife. Even just looking at the most incomprehensible pet orangutan in the film (the "real" orangutan, not the one played by the artist), he is convincing in a wondrous gesture: on the one hand, engaging in art-related (US) It doesn't seem like a big deal for a person to raise an orangutan. On the other hand, this orangutan can be regarded as an externalization and metaphor of the male protagonist's "different feeling" to the female reporter. Compared to this, the pig in "Okja", no matter how cool the stunts are, can't relate to the daily life of the Korean/American people, and that's why Park Chan-wook can only tell the story of "Okja" Reasons placed in a dubious "world", either now or in the future. The director's "two-line parallel" and "nonsense seriousness" style allows him to rush to the screen and throw out situations, plots, predicaments, and even "experiments" to test and observe himself. The reaction of the characters, and it is shown to the audience in a didactic way, which evokes thinking, and can wrap these imaginary images with reality, so that they will not be reduced to Hollywood-style false and closed constructions. Rather than telling the story of a modern museum, "Liberty Square" should simply treat the film itself as a modern art. Although it uses film as the carrier of expression, its expression itself subtly breaks out of film and film screens. limits, resonates strongly with the audience.
As a director who has designed modern installation art himself, Ostrund's approach is sufficiently radical and modern, however, the content criticized or revealed by the film is slightly conservative. As a typical middle-class image, the protagonist of the film did not reflect on his own character flaws (and the flaws of the entire group at the same time), nor did he receive any substantial punishment for his actions. The child he wronged was not found, the "aphasia" between different groups still exists, and there is no solution for everyone. As if a bit of fur was cut with a sharp blade, this sense of contradiction has become the reason why many people criticize the film for being too conservative and lacking deep reflection. However, this kind of treatment just shows the precision of the director's criticism of reality and the frankness of his expression. To me, the most profound theme revealed by the film is not limited to the fact that the social group is divided, but it is precisely in the face of this situation, the powerlessness and contradiction. As we can see in the film, modern art has a powerful expressive power, and it can discuss Foucault, love and life, but it is powerless in the so-called "bottom people". In the same way, the so-called "political correctness" and the existing social rules are both the result of path dependence. Human beings have a heart to protect human beings, but they have come to today's embarrassing, indifferent, and helpless situation. In fact, no one wants to see the status quo. Therefore, the reality that Ostrund grasps is not the reality of criticism, but the reality of hesitation and helplessness about the powerlessness of criticism.
In fact, criticizing the Western-style middle class is intuitive and inexpensive for audiences in Eastern cultural contexts, which is why Ken Loach ("I Am Black") and Mungie ("Graduate Exam") ) is easier to accept than Ostrund. However, I think we should understand the Ostrenders because they are engaging in a difficult act of introspection, and their reliance on "political correctness" is probably as deep as our reliance on our party. Moreover, the left-wing movement of the Europeans ended when Godard was still in high spirits, and we are a nation that knows how to make a revolution.
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