At the end of March 2014, a pair of elderly people in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, were killed and their property was stolen, and the perpetrators turned out to be their 17-year-old grandson. It was later confirmed that the teenager's behavior was instigated by his mother.
The juvenile was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, while his mother was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison.
The feature film "Mother", directed by Ritsuji Omori, is based on this true event. The film was released on Netflix on November 3, and Masami Nagasawa played Akiko, a mother who was willing to fall and break the can.
The audience is not afraid to see the cruelty in the story, and is afraid that the chilling plot is "adapted from real events". In recent years, there has been no shortage of such realist works in Japanese films, focusing on news events.
How to adapt? Where to start? Where will we end up? Dig out some truths about life and use some artistic imagination?
There is a lot of material to play in the "Kawaguchi Elderly Couple Killing Incident", why did the woman as a mother make her 17-year-old son suffer? Is the son an extremely weak puppet or a devil with an antisocial personality? What kind of experience does mother and child have that lead a family to such utter destruction?
"Mother" adopts a conventional linear narrative, peeking into the chaotic private life of his mother Qiuzi from the perspective of his son Zhou Ping, presenting the inhuman treatment and mental pressure he suffered from the growth process of early childhood to adolescence.
"I gave birth to him, and I can raise my child in any way, is there anything wrong with that?" This is Akiko's line throughout the film.
The film feels suffocating from the beginning, Akiko meets Zhou Ping, who has not gone to school, crouches down and licks Zhou Ping's bloody knee with the tip of her tongue, and excitedly tells him, "I am also skipping work", followed by the picture of her riding on the car and Zhou Ping running behind.
An extraordinary, manipulated mother-child relationship is clearly revealed in the camera.
Zhou Ping had no right to choose independently, and was even exploited to act. Every thought he had stemmed from Akiko's wishes.
He wants to go out late at night to buy instant noodles, in order not to disturb Akiko's date; as a bargaining chip for extorting living expenses, Zhou Ping lies that the man who has a good feeling for Akiko "bullied" him; he listens to his mother's instigation and threats, stealing money...
It's a bit of a shadow of Kore-eda's "Nobody Knows" and "Thief Family", but "Mother" goes to an extreme, without the slightest light and temperature excavated from the darkness. Qiu Zi was completely cold and physically violent to Zhou Ping, and the few times she had a good look were because Zhou Ping had done things - cheated money.
The film amplifies every time Zhou Ping comes to the door to ask for money, whether it is with a strange man, or with relatives such as aunt and grandmother, who are turned away and will only be slapped when they return to Qiuzi.
As for the concept of "home", Zhou Ping was very confused. Several of Akiko's relationships unfolded quickly and ended in a hurry, and "Daddy" came and went, and even later had a younger sister, and there was no positive description. They moved repeatedly and lived on the streets several times.
This is the story in Zhou Ping's perspective, resigned to the suffering in front of him, and taking qiuzi's desires. Aside from this interdependent mother-child relationship, any experience is a brushstroke.
Hiroshi Yoshino's poem "Life" writes, "The essence of life is missing, and it is complete because of the existence of others", which Kore-eda once applied to the film Air Doll.
Of course, Akiko's life is missing, and these deficiencies she has invested in Zhou Ping. It can even be said that Zhou Ping is a part of her, the hands she bows her head and begs for pity, and the knife that she takes revenge on her life.
Without money, my sister will die, we can't live, and if we don't have money, we will kill my grandparents. This is Akiko's ultimatum to Zhou Ping.
Why is it missing? In fact, it is reflected in the film that for the first time, Akiko is not just a rogue, but also says a few complaints about the family's bias towards the younger daughter. Of course, this is not the main reason for her paranoid depravity, nor is it the focus of the film, but only a small proposition.
In the 2006 drama song and dance film "The Life of the Abandoned Pine Nuts", the heroine Matsuko was not welcomed by her parents, and the parents at home gave their love to their sister who was paralyzed, which became the beginning of her life to chase "love". This is not a simple problem of the "original family", but their own identity, status, etc., are controlled in the hands of the "helmsman" in the family and society, and the roles of "mother" and "daughter" often become passive in the face of fate.
In the past, there have been many classic mother images in Japanese movies, they are beautiful and gentle, empathetic, and can be considerate of their husbands and take care of their children. In recent years, in film and television dramas, the image of a wayward, degenerate and irresponsible mother has increased. For example, in last year's Japanese drama "Home on the Slope", the mother, who was mentally tortured, drowned her own daughter in the bathtub.
According to a 2014 survey by Japan's NHK News, poverty is spreading among young women around the age of 20, who have long been at the bottom of society and "can't see the future"; more than 80% of single mothers in their 20s are in extreme poverty. Even if they get up early and work in the dark, they still can't maintain the most basic standard of living. Even professional women who enter the workplace are low-value workers.
This is related to Japan's family dependence model, where women's social survival has long been hampered by family labor and children's lives.
The "Kawaguchi elderly couple killing incident" occurred in 2014. Therefore, in the film, even if Akiko has been subjected to the domestic violence of her boyfriend who has gone and returned, she still hopes that the other party will stay in her heart, and the mental dilemma and survival dilemma are two mountains that are heavier on her body. In addition, the shaping of this "bad mother" image is the catharsis and expression of women's social desires in the film, using distorted emotions to fight against the rationality that suppresses freedom.
The film does not attack and belittle the image of Akiko, a derelict mother from the perspective of God, but uses Zhou Ping's individual perspective to tear apart Akiko's desperate heart and helpless situation, until the mother and son fall into the abyss of reality together.
However, the film is not strong enough in character shaping, which is difficult to resonate with the audience, and also discounts the shock and thinking that this social event should have triggered.
Zhou Ping is a child who has lost his soul, he has not had any desire for sunlight since childhood, and in the face of Akiko's hysteria, he will only bend his body to bear it, and when Akiko has a relationship with someone else, he obediently hides in the toilet to sleep. Zhou Ping's compromises, struggles, and depression cannot be perceived by the audience, so Akiko from his perspective can only become a mentally disturbed tyrant mother, rather than an anxious, lonely, and sympathetic tragic figure.
After Zhou Ping entered the prison, "I can eat and read books on time when I stay here", I can't hear the desire for ordinary life that I should have. The last sentence, "Is it a bad thing to love my mom too?", is neither warm nor morbid enough.
At the end of "Nobody Knows", even if the youngest sister starves to death, but life will continue, the rest of the children still have to support each other and try to live in the sun. It is Kore-eda who creates a trace of repressed warmth in this "missing" life. In contrast, the film "Mother" has no beauty with an afterglow.
【Text/Shen Redemption】