In one breath, I finished watching the recent hit Netflix's new drama "Abandoned Soldiers". It’s really enjoyable to do in one go. After enjoying it, I recalled several popular online dramas from Netflix in the past two years. The genres are different, but they all seem to have some common characteristics: well-made, fast editing, provocative, and the plot development is straight and straight, among which They all have the intention of rebelling against the social environment in which they live, especially the rebellion of women. Such as the previous "Kingdom" and "Naked Director".
So what's so cool about "The Rear Wing Abandoned Soldier"? One is the character design, a beautiful and talented girl, enough to attract people's attention; the other is rebellion, standing out among the male chess players, standing out from the crowd, slaps the face of the patriarchal society; finally, the process is very bloody, all the way through, until the final boss is defeated, It is very similar to the Japanese comics plot, especially the beginning of the plot, which is probably reminiscent of "The Soul of Chess". Xiaoguang met Zuowei in the attic of his grandfather's house and taught him Go, and Harmon met in the basement of the orphanage. The school clerk, Sabei, taught him chess.
So, in addition to cool, what else? Or can it be true? Maybe Shuangju may not need to think deeply, and the pimples can flow through, as long as the surface logic is self-consistent, and the characters' inner transitions do not need to be too concerned. However, what I don't quite accept is the compromise, as if I want to discuss it in depth and try it out. Is this how Netflix does it?
In "Abandoned Soldiers", it can be said that the tendency of women to rebel against the patriarchal society has reached a peak. However, based on the fact that the real prototype is a genius boy in the chess world, in addition to catering to the market demand, can such an adjustment setting stand up to scrutiny?
I try to scrutinize the female awakening presented in the play through the following detailed settings.
Are tranquilizers a tool to suppress femininity?
In the play, the orphanage where Harmon was a child would regularly distribute sedatives to all children. This can be attributed to two reasons: First, the children here are all orphans. The educational purpose of the orphanage is to regulate the behavior and psychology of these children, hoping that these children will be adopted (the underlying expression here is that girls with more standardized and well-behaved behavior are more likely to be recognized by society); the second reason is related to a social background at that time , the main patients of psychoanalysts or psychiatrists at that time were women, and the mainstream opinion from the Freudian school of psychoanalysis tended to think that women's emotional performance was a mental illness caused by insatiable sexual desire, requiring Use sedatives for relief, which is also evident in Harmon's adoptive mother later. The sedative here can be said to be a symbol of the suppression of femininity in the patriarchal society.
Harmon is addicted to sedatives. On the one hand, it is indeed to escape the shadow of childhood, which is shown in the play; on the other hand, there is also a role to concentrate on simulating a chess game on the ceiling. At this point in the plot, I have doubts. Through the sedatives that suppress femininity, Harmon can focus on rational mental events? The only plausible argument at this time is that women's cognition is temporarily subordinated to social cognition until the real female awakening. In other words, in the early stage of the development of feminism, women gained independence by approaching men's thinking, where women have not yet formed a certain introspection about their own characteristics.
Until the end, this matter was finally able to justify itself. Although the hasty process did not seem to be very convincing, Harmon finally got rid of the sedative, no longer escaped, accepted himself, and then was able to simulate the chess game in his mind without relying on the sedative. The plot It also reached the climax before the end.
What does chess mean to Harmon?
Why did Harmon choose chess? We can say that it happened by chance. But what is so special about this activity that attracts talented girls?
In the play, Harmon once told reporters why she likes chess. In her own words, she feels safe in this four-square chessboard, which can be said to be her deep psychological motivation to continue this activity. However, if we go back to the beginning, we find that the janitor Sabei denied the girls learning chess at first, and in addition, in Harmon's memory, having experienced the incident of her mother being abandoned by her father, she has a strong opinion about men. A natural mistrust and desire to win, overcoming a man compensates for her own psychological imbalance. In the final analysis, it was this desire to win that led her to chess, and then she went all the way.
In addition, chess also accompanied Harmon's awakening of financial independence, and tournaments became her way of earning money.
So apart from security, desire to win, and monetary rewards, does Harmon have a love for chess? In my opinion, she doesn't love that much, she just loves what it brings, and is then bound and bound by it.
Has such a "big heroine cool drama" completed the awakening of women?
Let's talk about Harmon's sexual enlightenment first. At the orphanage, Harmon saw some older girls flirting with boys outside the school gate. At this time, her initial sexual awareness was aroused. After being adopted, she saw girls of the same age dress up at school, and saw the intimate scenes of girls of the same age up close. She began to have a certain yearning for femininity. Although she was dressed conservatively by her adoptive mother, the flame in her heart had begun to burn.
Of course, she still rejects the traditional female image, let alone integrates into the girls' party. Finally, building financial independence through chess, she immediately bought more feminine clothing. Afterwards, for Harmon, there was an incident that accelerated the awakening of women. She met the boy she liked in the chess game, and the two completed the process of flirting through a game of chess. This part is really wonderful, chess and this The symbolic events of sexual enlightenment are linked together, and in the process, Harmon ushered in the menarche, and the awakening of female consciousness is confirmed here symbolically.
Until the completion of the first experience of sex, Harmon felt freedom, felt free, unregulated self-consciousness began to awaken. A key point of this process is that chess is absent at this time. It seems that only the life of chess has some kind of conflict with the freedom she yearns for. At the same time, the adoptive mother expressed her support for Harmon in addition to her concern. Harmon's independence naturally represents the longing that most women have buried in their hearts. Since then, she has shuttled through the male chess world with a more high-profile female charm.
However, in the end, this kind of freewheeling was gradually dispelled by the victory and defeat in the chess game. Everyone around Harmon, except his adoptive mother, hoped that Harmon could go further in the chess arena. In order to achieve this goal, Harmon must quit Alcohol, or she must be subject to some kind of regulation.
Of course, drinking too much alcohol may not be a good habit, let alone taking drugs, all of which are opposed by general social rules, but Harmon's change here seems a little hasty. Perhaps it was the death of his adoptive mother, the support of friends around him, or the desire to win or lose at all, which made Harmon return to the setting of a chess player who has no emotions. In the end, he returned to the "super power" to stand at the top of the chess world and was loved by everyone. It seems that all these external changes have directly taken away Harmon's psychological contradictions, and everything before has ended.
The last scene seems to say that in a country that purely loves chess, I just want to play a game of chess purely, not necessarily for men and women. In the context of the Cold War, there is also a kind of rebellion against the solidification of the image of women in capital society. It seems inevitable that the character eventually becomes a simple and crude symbol.
What is the role of the male characters in the play?
The male characters in the play are basically relatively flat, especially Harmon's several emotional lines, which finally give people the feeling of a harem, which is probably the characteristic of the so-called big heroine cool drama. There are many suitors around, the heroine must be calm, and don't try to tie me up with sex or emotions. A particularly ironic point is that the main role of several male characters is to push Harmon to go further on the road of chess, as if once Harmon deviates from the track, there are warm men who stand up to help her get back on track. One by one is deeply affectionate, and even teamwork.
What's even weirder is that it seems that most of the female characters want Rahamon to go into the water, and the males promote his growth.
Maybe the behavior of the male characters we can interpret as a heartfelt love for chess, something that is treated like life. And the one who doesn't like chess the most in the play is Harmon. The hearts of other characters are that a genius like you can't play chess. It's a pity that we have limited talents and are willing to serve as foils. But should genius be kidnapped?
The only person in the play who really cares about supporting Harmon, I think, is the black girl in the orphanage. First of all, she planted the seeds of rebellion for Harmon, and her support for Harmon is also family-like, unconditional. It's the person who really establishes an emotional connection with Harmon in the play.
To sum up, "Abandoned Soldier" is lacking in the display of the psychological changes of the characters, and the theme of the awakening of women is also shallow.
I don’t know if Netflix has tasted the sweetness after the experiments of several cool dramas and will repeat this eclectic route again and again, we will wait and see.
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