The Thief Family: The Boundaries of Stealing, the Ambiguity of Reason and Humanity
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Stealing is a central concept in The Thief, as reinforced by the crime-movie dramatic narrative and undulating soundtrack at the opening . Corresponding to the Japanese title of "Manyin き", whether it is the English translation of "shoplifters" or the Chinese "thief" is straightforward. However, in "The Thief's Family", the meaning of " stealing " is not limited to the thefts committed by "father" Zhi, "mother" Nobuyo, "son" Shota and newly added "sister" Ling in the superficial narrative layer. . Aside from these casualties, many of the behaviors in "The Thief Family" have the nature of " stealing " .
What kind of behavior would we take for granted as "stealing"? From a legal or common sense, such behavior is better explained, that is, obtaining an item without permission when it can be judged that it is owned by someone else. However, the meaning of "stealing" is diffused from this, and it penetrates into more places-for all behaviors defined as " illegal acquisition " , people may use " stealing " to describe. Even if it is interpreted within the Chinese context, it is not difficult to find in the film that it is Hirokazu Koreeda who has indeed done a lot of behaviors that people usually recognize as " illegal acquisition " and " fraudulent " : such as "grandmother" "Hasoe's gambling and soft blackmailing, like Aki's escort job at a custom shop, and Oji and Nobuyo taking all her savings after her death -- even the magic tricks Oji performed to the children.
People seem to have a wider range of what they perceive as "just access" than they used to be -- they don't have a choice. While the capitalist society strictly establishes its rules, it also promotes the attractiveness of commodities to everyone and triggers people's desire to consume. Just as in the film, the family of thieves is not at the point where they cannot survive without stealing. To some extent, they are using stealing to improve their quality of life and keep the quality of life in line with the fantasy of ordinary people under the propaganda of goods. life” is consistent. What they stole was not the last of the rations or the coveralls, but certain brands of shampoo and fishing rods. Stimulating consumption is for the benefit of a small group of people who set the precepts. Under such circumstances, people hold the limited resources allocated, and in order to satisfy their desires and satisfy the created false needs, they begin to test the limits of stealing step by step. This is how the commonality of theft arises. The shoplifting behavior highlighted in "The Thief's Family" is actually a figurative and dramatic representation of the increasingly common " illegal acquisition " in modern society.
However, when people regard these so-called "illegal acquisitions" as "stealing", is it completely unjust for the real "shoplifting"? The justice of acquisition is given by social regulations or laws, so even if the process of acquiring resources by the rich is legitimate (assuming we live in such a wonderful world), must it be just? Are they stealing to take everything from the poor? While the institutions and morals belonging to capitalism designate some acts as "stealing" and exclude others, from a humanistic perspective, is stealing just another form of justice and equality? If it can be just and fair, what about other illicit acquisitions of a " stealing " nature? The boundaries of stealing are increasingly ambiguous in modern society. But obviously, in the process of watching the movie, people will also feel uneasy because the young Sho Tai and Ling participated in the theft, and the truth of the crime and the " family " of Zaiji and Shindai is revealed. In the face of future generations, what kind of values should we pass on to them? Will it lead them down the path of stealing, or will they still be taught the old rules of legal ethics?
What Hirokazu-eda did through "The Thief's Family" was the existence of asking people questions truthfully, showing people the ambiguity and ambiguity of the current answers. Society and institutions are not the answer, nor is human nature the answer - it's not just a question of confronting the "limits of stealing".
Corresponding to the legal process in which biological parents automatically become parents through childbirth, Zhi and Xindai's abduction of children is "stealing"; even this group of family members who have no legal basis are stolen by them. In fact, the two did not live with this group of " stolen families " out of complete selflessness . From the perspective of selfishness, they also needed to resist loneliness in the abyss of crime, and also needed identity cover. But at the same time, in this relationship, emotion can be irresistibly sprouted. There is no way to obtain living space for this kind of emotional relationship without legal rationality, but it is even more just than the nominal, indifferent and cruel kinship with legal legitimacy.
The ambiguity between reason and human feelings is not only reflected in the morality of stealing, but also in Hirokazu-eda's depiction of modern interpersonal relationships. The "rational appeal" that goes deep into everyone's bones and pursues the maximization of interests always seems to contradict human nature and human feelings; but on the other hand, in modern society, people have no way to completely separate human feelings and interests—— The relationship between people is tightly bound with interests.
At the end of the film, we come to understand that Ji and Shinyo were not "connected by heart" as Ji said, nor "connected by money" as Aki said, but were committed crimes - at least one Start is. But we can neither say that there is no affection between them, nor that there is no interest between them. So, apart from the relationship between Zhi and Xindai, is this family gathered together because of interests, or because of human affection? The director shows people this ambiguity and ambiguity in a suspenseful way: in this society and system, we unconsciously build emotions in the interests, and because of the innate guilt of " interests " , Attempting to obscure the motivations of the past with emotion - a kind of self-hypnosis.
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