How should I live - film review of "The Aftermath"
Weimou
(1) The content disclosed by the title
Regarding this movie, we know from the name of the movie "Aftermath" that this is a movie about the content of funeral care. This is a success and a failure of the film. what? It is said that the title of the film failed because when fans saw the title, some of them had already shied away and made a detour. People seem to be less interested in the content of "dealing with the funeral"; said the title of the film was successful because the film's The name is "The Aftermath", which is very in line with the style of the whole movie "deceiving" the audience's feelings. It is named "The Aftermath", but the story told is not a story about dealing with the aftermath of a person's death! Gao, tune the tiger away from the mountain, hide the sky and cross the sea, and cross the Chencang secretly, brilliant!
(2) Introduction to the content of the film
In order to facilitate our discussion and analysis, let’s summarize the content of the movie first!
After the heroine Anna died in a car accident, the body was sent to the morgue. During this period, she found that she had not died. In response, the calm and kind mortuary Elliot told her that she had died, but death was a process, and it took a period of time for brain cells to gradually die, and she was now in the state of a ghost. , and only he has the ability to communicate with the dead, so she can still communicate with him until after Friday's funeral he will bury her. During this period, Anna's boyfriend Paul always believed that Anna was not dead. Paul and Elliott have their own opinions on whether Anna is dead. After Anna's funeral, Paul died in a car accident with his car, and his body was taken to Elliott's morgue.
(3) Role Analysis
Next, let's analyze the characters in the film to see what kind of character they are, what they have done, what changes have occurred, and how they grow up with the development of the plot in the film.
1. Eliot
He has always been a calm and composed mortuary character, who will comfort people and treat every dead person who is sent to the morgue calmly. He is also kind and sincere, and is respected by people. Beneath this appearance, there is a demon holding a butcher's knife, leaving no trace or any handle when doing things. He thinks that the world has too much garbage, cancer, walking dead, taking up air, taking up all kinds of resources, and he must bury them. These flawed people include people who are timid and cowardly, do not work hard, are willing to fall, waste time, give up on themselves, and so on.
2. Anna
Anna, a teacher, died in a car accident. From the image of a weak woman, she became a fighter against death, and finally calmly accepted the lie that she had died, and even took the initiative to cooperate with Elliot to inject her with sedatives. When she was only one door away from her boyfriend Paul, she chose to remain silent. Finally at the funeral, she came to a sudden realization and knew the truth clearly, but it was too late.
3. Paul
A corporate lawyer, great job. He loves his girlfriend Anna, although sometimes quarrels. When little Jack questioned whether he loved Anna, he couldn't help but slap Jack to the ground. After the death of his girlfriend, he has been brooding about this matter, and is skeptical, constantly fighting with Eliot, the undertaker in charge of the matter. In the end, he died in the morgue under Elliot's stab.
4. Little Boy Jack
Jack is Anna's student, kind-hearted, introverted, and shy. He took good care of a timid chick. Elliott discovered that Jack had a "talent" in the industry. Through infection, enlightenment, and guidance, Jack became Elliott's successor. In the film, Jack Jr. joins Elliott's grave-digging work as a clear sign. Jack initially revealed to Paul that Anna was not dead. Later, when Paul asked about it again, Jack denied it, stating that he had turned into Elliott's man at this time.
(4) Dispute over whether Anna is dead
After watching the film, some viewers did not understand it very well, and they have been entangled in the question of "Is Anna dead?" I personally think the answer is quite obvious: Anna was not dead until the funeral, she was buried alive.
Don't open your mouth and make subjective guesses! What about the evidence? Don't worry, guest, let's take a look at the various evidences that have been provided to us in the film.
Because there are many scenes in the film that are both fantasy and real, it is a bit difficult for the audience to distinguish. Some shots are indeed hallucinations. For this reason, the director arranged a lot of evidence to explain to us that Anna is not dead. This is the obvious tendency of the film's point of view, and it is also the conclusion of most fans after watching the film. Below, we look at some objective evidence.
A. Elliott was shopping in the supermarket when he suddenly found that he did not have the key to the morgue with him. He rushed back very nervously, and he didn't even have time to get change from the supermarket. Like, why is he so nervous? If Anna was already dead, was Eliot afraid that a corpse would run away?
B. When Anna looked at the mirror, her exhaled breath left mist on the mirror surface. Elliott's face sank and he secretly wiped it off. Dead people don't breathe, where does the mirror water vapor come from?
C. If Anna's ability to move is just her own fantasy, then when she runs up to the second floor, little boy Jack can't see her from the second floor window from the street.
D. Drugs. Elliot injected Anna with drugs, and his explanation to Anna was to make the muscles of the corpse not stiff. In the police station, a policeman admitted that there is indeed a sedative called potassium hydrobromide, which can cause paralysis, weaken the heartbeat, and cause suspended animation. Later, when Elliot injected Anna before the funeral, the director was afraid that we could not see clearly, and even gave a close-up shot of a medicine bottle with Hydronium Bromide written on it. That's exactly the potassium hydrobromide sedative the police mentioned.
E. What about body temperature? Why didn't Anna judge whether she was dead from her body temperature? The temperature in the United States is in Fahrenheit, and the conversion formula to Celsius is ℉=9/5℃+32. Elliott set the room temperature in the mortuary at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which I calculated, about 4.4 degrees Celsius, which is icy cold. It's not surprising that Anna felt her muscles were cold and stiff.
F. Paul suddenly came to the funeral home to see Anna, and Elliott refused to let him in on the grounds that he was in violation of the rules, because Elliott was not ready at this time and did not give Anna a sedative in advance. And before Anna's mother came to see Anna suddenly, Elliot allowed her to enter, indicating that he was prepared at that time. So it's not illegal.
When G. Elliott cleaned his scissors, needles and other tools, there was a slender lance, maybe a friend in the medical industry could explain it to us, but I have never seen a lance in a medical instrument. It is more appropriate to say that this is a weapon.
H. The police came to see the corpse, and Elliott was suddenly nervous. After hearing that the police came to see the body of his brother, Elliott was relieved and immediately welcomed him. The policeman said in the morgue that this place was abnormal, and Elliott was nervous again, wondering what was wrong. When he knew that the policeman was talking about his brother's smile, Elliott was relieved again.
I. Before the funeral, Anna looked in the mirror for the last time, this time she found water vapor and knew about the scam! At this point, the film has killed all kinds of speculation and suspicion. The most clear one tells the audience the truth: Anna is indeed not dead. The unwary audience can watch the movie again.
There is one place that deserves our suspicion and attention. At the beginning of the film, at the funeral of the old man Mr. Hatton, Eliot helped put a white rose on his chest. Mrs. Hatton asked Eliot how he knew that the deceased loved white roses. Eliot said, "I feel ". Here, I have a little doubt that Elliott may have had a conversation with the "dead", so I put a question mark on the cause of the old man's death. It's the same as when her mother asked Elliott at Anna's funeral how exactly she knew that Anna liked violets best.
(5) Wonderful interpretation of the film
The film spends a lot of space to show the dialogue between Elliot and Anna in the room, which is the most expensive pen and ink in the film. This trick is very clever, simple and practical, and is often used in magic. This indoctrination is similar to hypnosis. Magicians generally use verbal communication to interact with the audience, and have invisibly delayed time in the communication. The audience's attention is drawn by the magician to what he is telling. Generally speaking, after a few seconds, the audience has forgotten the subtle movements the magician made before speaking, which makes the magic easier to succeed. Because the audience is immersed in what the magician said, it may be a story, it may be the display of an item, or it can be the "inner feelings" expressed by the magician, etc., the audience is "infused" by him with his thoughts," After pouring" a lot, the audience gradually recognized everything he said. However, everything the magician says is a hoax. I have also tried many times to perform magic tricks in front of my friends. I often use this technique. Basically, no one realizes that I am deliberately delaying the time. Most of my performances are successful. The more humorous the words, the more focused and serious the expressions, the easier it is for the audience to fall into it.
At first, Anna refused to admit that she was dead, and she resisted from the heart, and fought and fought with the mortuary Elliot for N rounds. With Elliott's long indoctrination, Anna gradually accepted the "fact" that she had died.
Eliot has been "patiently" explaining to Anna the process of never believing and accepting the truth after death. Like a kind father, he endured the "dead"'s questioning, anger, complaining, mourning and other emotions. Maintaining a peaceful attitude, with an expression that is already commonplace and nosy, but hiding behind the deception of murder and silence. Such a calm and kind character, wearing a neat suit and tie, when the director revealed his true colors, he instantly turned into a vicious murderous demon. A hard knife.
The interpretation of the role of Anna, she should belong to Elliott's "no effort" type of flawed people. Although I am a teacher, I live a day-to-day, monotonous, boring life every day, and I don't dare to love someone I like. The small town in the film's story is so small that when Anna came to attend Mr. Hatton's funeral, Elliott came into sight. Her every move was carefully observed by Elliott. Of course, Elliott had already passed the "trial" and thought that Anna was "flawed" before trying to complete his clearing work.
(6) The theme of the film
In the film, the director has passed the words of Elliott's character, and said the theme of the film. A flawed life is actually dead, just a walking dead. It is also expressed through the role of Anna: I regret living mediocrely. If there is another chance to live, I want to love bravely.
It's a tragic story, in which Liam Neeson's mortuary Elliot, according to his own theory, acts as a cleaner of society's debris, a human flesh harvester, rooting out people he doesn't think need to live anymore. He elevates himself to the height of God, he judges himself according to the standards of conduct he sets, and at the same time plays the role of executioner himself, and establishes what he considers a just and clean society.
At the end of the film, the little boy Jack buried his timid chick alive, showing that he had accepted Elliott's idea, and he would be the "heir" of the mortuary Elliot, "carrying forward" his career. .
Let's put morals and laws aside, let's try to comment on the role of Elliot, the undertaker. He eradicated the "cancer of society", he could not tolerate flaws in others, just like a small black spot on the edge of a porcelain bowl, it must be broken. There was a cruel sense of justice in him. This is also a question that the film throws to us. If you don’t agree with my point of view, then you can also think so. The film arranges for Elliott to appear and show the butcher’s knife, which is a wake-up call for us: we cannot live rotten, and our life should go in which direction?
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