What if time travel really took off? "Ring Messenger" gives us a possibility, a possibility that is different from the widely circulated parallel universe theory. And the purpose of this film is not to tell us a better future life by showing time travel. In my opinion, revealing the influence of the environment on human nature is officially the theme of this film.
The male protagonist Joe played by Jon Joseph is a ring messenger. The mission of the ring messenger is to kill the people who are sent back because it is inconvenient to be killed in the future for the employer who lives in the future. The most cruel thing in this industry is to avoid causing harm to the future. With too much influence, one day the person the ring messenger will kill will be himself thirty years later. Joe successfully sealed the ring, went to Shanghai, met a beautiful woman and started a happy life. In a flash, 30 years later, Jon Joseph became old Joe Bruce Willis. On the day when he was about to be sealed, he was knocked unconscious and wanted to kill himself and escaped. He wanted to kill the young boss to end all this. This is the story of "Envoy of the Ring".
If you want to entangle the theory of time and space travel, this story can be said to be full of loopholes. The film about time and space travel has created its own theory, but no one can tell us this theory in detail in the film. And there are inconsistencies, in short, as long as the plot needs it, it will happen. At this point, this film and "Hot Issues Related to Time Travel" and even "Back to the Future" are strictly in accordance with the current public perception of time and space. Compared with sci-fi movies that are consistent with the cognition of travel, the gap is still relatively large. Compared with films such as "Inception", which created a theory and explained it without flaws in the film, this film, which has many contradictions, is also a little worse. Therefore, this film cannot be strictly regarded as a sci-fi movie, but more of a fantasy.
The story in the film is set in Kansas, USA in 2044, and the city in the film has many similarities with the setting of the future city in "Blade Runner". The gangs in the slums covered by high-rise buildings are ring-shaped The base of the messengers, in a few daytime scenes, it is like a decaying industrial base in the United States. Most of the story takes place at night. The girls in the nightclub, the stronghold of the gangster, and the protagonist's apartment are all The color is mainly dark. If it is not a motorcycle that can fly off the ground with a small aircraft in the air, we can think of it as now. Another big city, Shanghai, China is showing the real future, not just tall and dreamy buildings, but also the light in the city, even in nightclubs and the United States are completely two extremes. We can understand this as the producer believes that China will surpass the United States to become a world hegemon in the future, while the declining United States has become a slum full of refugees and beggars. The fact I know is that the producer of this film successfully attracted Chinese investment despite lack of funds. In fact, it can be seen from the advertisements implanted by X Dong and X Zida... From
an ethical point of view, Ring Messenger Unlike outright bad guys, their method of killing is very simple, and the people they kill have no influence on the world at this moment. There is no one missing in this world. Their income must be turned over to gangster organizations. Control, and more importantly, everyone has to seal the ring. This is the rule of thumb in this industry and the price they pay for it. Being in the gang, their bodies and minds are eroded, the Chinese version deleted the scenes of Joe taking drugs, and the scenes where they hang around in nightclubs every day can show the evil power of the underworld. What can better reflect the environmental erosion of humanity is the young future boss "Raincaller". He was just an ordinary little boy in his childhood, with a strong TK power (this is also an ability created in the film), but it really made him become a The road to the devil is the aunt who raised him and grew up killed by his own tk power, and the powerless, full of resentment and loneliness who watched his mother be killed by others, and eventually became the biggest BOSS. Good can be spread widely, and evil can beget even greater evil. The orphan Joe was adopted by the boss of the gang and could only become a ring messenger in the end, and the child whose relatives left without support would eventually become a "rain caller" who would kill without blinking an eye. The environment affects and changes people's lives.
This movie is not a movie that is oppressed by fatalism. Even the final ending tells us that our destiny is ultimately up to us. How many possibilities are in front of us are ultimately up to our own decisions. A positive message from this predominantly noir film.
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