Erica is a single piano teacher from one to middle age. Living with and under her mother's heavy-handed control, Erica didn't even have the freedom to buy a new dress—the mother would scoff at her taste while accusing her of buying clothes with the money from her property:" This dress is so outrageous, you should know what to wear at your age." Under the strict and almost morbid management of her mother, Erica followed her mother's will and played a serious piano teacher and an innocent old maid in her life, while secretly taking the opportunity to release her suppressed lust: she Watching porn at video stores, peeping couples making out in convertibles, and even self-mutilating for pleasure. Until one day, the relationship between Erica and her mother was broken by a man named Walter. Walter fell in love with Erica's talent at first sight, and decided to use his enthusiasm to melt the frosty female teacher. Erica acquiesces in his pursuit and tries to take full control of his relationship with the two. The young man was so enraged by his desire that he even broke into Erika's house and raped her, but then retreated completely, making Erika's love and hope in vain.
The first scene at the beginning of the film is that Erica returns home at night and is stopped by her mother in the living room, questioning the reason for her late return. The picture in the long shot was dark and depressing, Erica struggled, and finally her bag was snatched away by her mother and checked. The opening of the fierce conflict between mother and daughter firstly explained Erica's tangled relationship with her mother, and also revealed her uncontrollable living conditions: the absence of her father, her mother's tyranny, and Erica's anger, compromise and depression. Erica's mother doesn't have a job, and the absence of a father in the family makes her focus all her attention on her daughter. Her control over Erika was almost all-pervasive. Forbid her to wear fancy and fashionable clothes; keep in mind her class schedule and know the time of the last student's get out of class; if there is a late class, she will call the school to tell her daughter to take a taxi home; control the family's financial power, her daughter buys a little more expensive These things will be nagging for a long time, and the monthly income must also be deposited into the account. Erica doesn't even have her own bedroom. She shares her mother's bed every night. With almost no personal space, she acts as a virgin who loves herself and is pure and clean according to her mother's wishes, although she is no longer young.
Erica's mother is the epitome of patriarchy in the film. In the name of love, she keeps her daughter tightly by her side, enslaves her body and spirit, and denies her individual independence. She attended private concerts with Erica, and even during coffee breaks, she followed Erica's every move while talking to the owner of the house. According to American psychiatrist Karel McBride in her book "The Fetters of Maternal Love", Erica's mother was actually a hands-on mother: she made decisions for her daughter, Their needs and desires are unaware, and their natural dreams and interpersonal relationships stagnate. So Erica showed serious sexual repression. She seemed to be unaware of her dreams, and she didn't have any friends. She even sat far away when assessing applicants with her colleagues.
The mother's own spiritual world is very narrow, which also makes her spend all her time on Erica and take care of her daily life in addition to watching TV to kill time every day. She has no sense of existence, and there is only Erica in her life. It can be said that her daughter is all she has, and it is also her only channel to connect with the world. According to Carell, the relationship between the mother and Erica is hypernarcissistic, and when she looks at her daughter, what she sees is not her presence, but herself projected onto her. Erica's excellent piano skills may be her lost dream when she was young. At the same time, she asks Erica to purify herself and follow the rules, just like herself who has not lost her husband and has never had a love life. Erica is proof that she exists in this world, so she must hold her tight.
Erica's relationship with her mother is reminiscent of Yang Yuanyuan, a graduate student at Shanghai Maritime University who committed suicide in 2009. Since Yang Yuanyuan's third year, her mother has moved into the school dormitory to live with her. Even worse than Erica and her mother, the mother and daughter slept in a dormitory bed that was less than one meter wide. Yang Yuanyuan has always longed for independence. Before the college entrance examination, she wanted to apply for Dalian Maritime University, but was rejected by her mother, on the grounds that she could save some travel expenses by studying in a nearby university. When she took the postgraduate entrance examination, she applied for Shanghai Maritime University according to her mother's wishes. In the end, Yang Yuanyuan, who was overwhelmed, tied a towel and a pillow towel to the faucet in the dormitory bathroom, and squatted and hanged himself. Psychologist Wu Zhihong said that Yang Yuanyuan and her mother had a morbid symbiotic relationship - they were entangled with each other, and even though there was hatred and pain between them, they could not be separated from each other anyway.
It was probably the same relationship between Erica and her mother. In the first act, Erica is furious when her mother shreds her new clothes, scratches her hair, and scolds her as an old goddess. After getting out of control, she cried and hugged her mother and apologized. The two immediately reconciled, and Erica's life returned to normal immediately: her mother continued to nag about the expensive dress, blaming her for spending a lot of money. Rika just explained while removing her makeup in the bathroom. Mother can't do without Erica, and Erica can't do without her mother. As an adult who can afford to buy expensive clothes, Erica has the financial ability to live independently and leave this oppressive life. But she still chooses to live with her mother, living a life of selfless, closely guarded life day in and day out. Perhaps behind the persistence is the fear of losing my mother and changing my life, just like losing my father back then.
When Walter, a young and energetic college student, shows up, eager to pursue Erica, she initially resists. Even if he was impressed by Walter's piano performance, he appeared unmoved. Conspiracy and vulgarity are her assessments of Walter's skill, or rather his character. Erica was very strict with Walter in her first piano class, but after class, Erica followed him to the ice hockey rink and surreptitiously watched him play. Seeing that Walter showed concern for her schoolgirl, she put shards of glass into the schoolgirl's coat pocket, causing her to be unable to play the piano for two months. Mature women actually play this kind of crush trick like a middle school student. This also revealed that Erica's psychology was underage at all. I live in bondage with my mother all the year round, and I am afraid that I have not grown up emotionally and mentally.
Walter immediately sensed her jealousy, which also became an opportunity for the relationship between the two to become clear.
After chasing Erica into the bathroom, Walter made no secret of his ardent feelings for her. The teacher-student relationship between the two came to an end immediately, and was replaced by a struggle for 'the right to speak' in the lover relationship.
Erica in the bathroom shows her control over Walter for the first time. She teased Walter and played with his cock, but she wouldn't let him touch her, let him ejaculate, put his cock away, or talk. "Or I'll leave right away," she threatened, despite Walter's pain and his repeated pleas. She just kept a 'safe' distance and looked coldly at the young man who couldn't help it. At this point, Erica has a firm grip on the relationship. She was in control of Walter's lust—he was impulsive for her, but could not be released, his genitals exposed helplessly. In front of Erica, he is like a male character in a pornographic movie, just a viewing object for her to satisfy her own desire for control and visual pleasure.
It's a pity that Erica's control over the relationship between the two didn't last long. Their second fight takes place at Erica's house. Walter followed Erica home. The two went into the cloakroom at home and used the cabinet against the door, keeping Erica's mother out. Erica asks Walter to read a letter she wrote to him, which describes Erica's abusive sexual fantasies. Only then did Walter realize that the woman he liked was actually a masochist. Unable to accept this fact, he refused Erica's request and rushed out the door. Walter's resistance shakes Erica's control. Although the content of the letter is Erica's request to be sexually abused, her toughness to the rules of the game she made made Walter feel that her feelings were being played with and her male dignity was damaged. His irritated refusal also cost Erica the upper hand in the game.
Erica, who was afraid of losing Walter, only put on a coat over her nightgown, and ran to the place where he played ice hockey to find him. In the narrow storage room of the ice hockey hall, Erica completely lost the game. The dominant position in the wrestling, the two could not even equalize. Erica takes the initiative to ask for a relationship with Walter, completely abandoning her own rules of the game, and expressing her willingness to obey his way of playing. Walter gradually softens, but Erica vomits during sex, making Walter feel humiliated and fooled. He once again rejected Erica's courtship and abused her: "You stink, no one wants to approach you at all."
The last time the two met in the name of a romantic relationship took place at Erica's house. At night, Walter knocked hard on the door, and Erica let him in. After locking her mother in the room, Walter beat and raped her on the living room floor. During the process, Erica lay helpless and confused on the carpet, wearing a thin floral nightdress, showing a weak and fragile image - completely different from the cold-colored clothes she wore in front of her, her expression indifferent and self-control. . In this medium shot, we're sideways looking at Erica lying on the ground as Walter abuses her. Although she couldn't see her lower body, the mottled blood on the nightdress was startling. That smear of blood red meant the bloody violence and hurt Erica was enduring at the moment. At this point, Erica, completely reduced to Walter's sexual object, lost all autonomy in the relationship.
The film seems to be about the tragedy of a woman's life. In the parent-child relationship, she is in a completely controlled position; in the intimate relationship, she also fails to gain the right to speak for herself. Neither her life nor her choices are hers.
However, in the play, as an individual who is extremely sexually repressed under the centralized control of her parents, the traces of Erica's struggle can be seen everywhere. Unwilling to be a mother's abstinence and good girl, she goes to a pornographic video store to watch movies, ignoring the undisguised or amazed or malicious eyes of the men in the store; peeping at couples having sex in the parking lot and secretly masturbating; The most violent one was cutting her private parts with a razor blade in the bathroom, even though her mother was still in the living room urging her to come out for dinner impatiently.
The short-lived relationship with Walter was Erica's violent counterattack against parental centralization. She allowed Walter to enter her house, blocked the door, isolated her mother, and was alone with Walter in the room. This kind of 'immoral behavior' was probably something she had never done before. Her desire to express herself against Walter is also a resistance to her mother's disregard for her desires. She even tried to play a controlling role in her relationship with Walter. It is very likely that Walter is just a means by which she is trying to turn over from the oppression and control and regain the sovereignty of her body and desire. The failure of the relationship with Walter also shows that Erica, who has lived under heavy pressure and strict control for many years, no longer has the ability to 'love'. In other words, Erica, an 'individual' who is separated from her mother, is simply unable to establish a 'normal' and mature relationship.
Before meeting Walter, Erica's life was nothing but music and her mother. If it is said that the mother is her mental stressor and source, then music, to some extent, plays the outlet for her stress release. It's hard to tell if Erica really loves music, because every time she plays, she has a serious mechanical expression on her face. But her understanding and control of music is beyond ordinary people. Even Walter praised after listening to her performance: "You have a strong sense of substitution for music." Perhaps it was only because she had such an unpleasant life experience that she could deeply feel the emotions that the musician put into the melody. Music builds Erica's connection with the outside world. Music is what her mother expects from her. It is her job to teach music, and it is music that makes her meet Walter.
At the end of the story, her mother accompanied her to a piano performance. When she entered, she was absent-minded, always looking forward to Walter's appearance. But Walter did not respond to her expectations. His nonchalant performance is a metaphor for his complete withdrawal from their close relationship: he calls her 'teacher' friendly, and says he looks forward to her performance, as if he never entered her life, as if nothing never happened. But it is also clear that he has the final say in the end of this teacher-student love game. Erica understands that this means she will return to her old life, back to her mother's total control and close watch. So, she stabbed herself in the chest with the knife prepared in advance, and blood flowed out. Then this time, she walked out of the concert hall resolutely, living up to the expectations of her mother and student Walter for her and her music.
In the final fixed shot, Erica pushes open the glass door of the synagogue and walks out quickly, then quickly out of the camera, exiting this depressing tragic story. She turned her back on the music she had always been with, but she was also able to withdraw from the control of her mother and Walter.
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