There have been speculations about what the film is about. The word "melting furnace" has a sense of sight in a steel factory: those molten iron mixed with red and orange, tumbling and bubbling in the huge furnace, surrounded by suppressed dim light, the sound of metal colliding with metal creates a A strangely quiet atmosphere. I always feel that this movie is about the steel workers who sacrificed their youth and blood for the country during the rise of Korea, but in fact this movie is far from what I imagined to be full of real sweat and blood, life and death, Greatness and dedication.
The beginning of the movie is a foggy world, and the art teacher goes to teach in a place called Wujin. The white field of vision makes people temporarily lose their clear judgment on the road ahead. Just when the art teacher accidentally bumped into a small animal passing by, the camera switched to the icy train tracks, and a 10-year-old child bumped into the whistling head-on. passing train. In an instant, in the world of two dimensions, young and helpless beings were ruthlessly crushed. This is the original tone of the movie - the small lives are killed. In the movie, the so-called killing does not come from the threat of life, but from the violent restraint of their equally young minds. After meeting the female human rights defender on the road, the art teacher finally arrived at a school for the deaf where she was about to teach. In the principal's office, what is different from the simple and humble outside school buildings and dormitories is that inside the principal's office there are leather sofas, solid wood furniture and an ornamental cabinet with glowing squid. Here, the art teacher is full of expectations for the upcoming teaching career, and is full of awe for the principal, who is sitting on the sofa and drinking tea. The headmaster and his twin brother, the head of the administration, appearing in this scene have a hilarious appearance, which is a foreshadowing - even if they are admired by the people of this small town, their ugly hearts are displayed in their clown-like hearts on the face. The two brothers have different performances in this office. The principal has a unique leadership style. He is humble, polite, and continues to demonstrate his weak hypocrisy; the administrative director talked about the "development fund", after leaving the principal's office with the art teacher , and even directly asked the teacher for this huge sum of money, and his evil and ugliness were exposed from the very beginning.
The art teacher kept his silence from beginning to end. In the face of the principal, the head of the administrative department and other teachers, he has few words and a feeling of resignation; while in the face of the deaf-mute students who are cautious in dealing with things, he clumsily hopes to express his kindness. Therefore, the art teacher is destined to usher in a hoarse cry to break the silence that belongs to him and this town.
There is no complicated plot in the movie. From the first half hour of the movie, you can understand who will be the victim, who will be the perpetrator, who will be the accomplice, and who will be the guardian.
The overall pacing of the movie is slow, but in less than 20 minutes, there is a scene where the teacher is violent to Min-soo, one of the main victims. In the teacher's office, an adult man about 30 years old used unbridled verbal and physical violence against a boy under 16 years old. The other teachers did their own things as if they had lost both ears. Only the art teacher saw the to ask. At that moment, the art teacher who had just arrived because he was a stranger didn't have a deep understanding of the situation, let alone prevent the violence from continuing. This is the second time the art teacher feels the difference in this school after the weird school atmosphere. Then, after get off work, the art teacher found that the dormitory administrator drowned a girl in the washing machine in the laundry room. The art teacher ushered in his first anger. After the little girl was taken to the hospital, the art teacher contacted the first human rights defenders she met and started their joint operation to save the young life. The film has already given a lot of good drink here, presenting the naked teenage violence in front of the audience. Rather than continuing with heavy revealing, however, the film instead focuses on the melting of the gap between the art teacher and the deaf student. In the art class, the little girl smiled silly, so childish and innocent, it was a ray of sunshine in the foggy weather of Wujin.
Then, the guardian and the perpetrator began their first confrontation. Art teachers, human rights defenders and other human rights workers began to record the little girl's sexual violence against herself, hoping to expose all the dark clouds that have been repressed at this deaf school.
However, at this time, the camera gave a close-up of the art teacher, and mentioned his own unfortunate family: his wife died, his young daughter had asthma, and his elderly mother sold the house to pay for his "school development fund". He was originally an art student full of ambition and backbone, but under the collision of ideals and reality, he can only teach art in this deaf school now. The courage on my body is already heavy, do I still have to fight against my boss with the human rights defenders? How is your own life? The art teacher continued his inherent silence.
Their whistle-blowing actions did not get the attention of the relevant authorities. In Wujin, the Municipal Council and the Education Bureau, which shied the blame, and the police station that did not act, were all blinded by the fog. They could only hold each other's hands tightly to protect them. himself, whether the hand he clenched was dirty or not, whether it was stained with evil blood. Fortunately, the recorded video has attracted the attention of the outside world. Under the pressure of public opinion, the principal, the head of the administrative department and the instructor were detained. The battlefield shifted to the courtroom.
In court, deaf students, art teachers, and all those who stand for justice were attacked by local interest groups. The former judge who is over 50 years old and the defense lawyer for the current defendant has no sympathy for the harsh questioning of the young girl. Witness bribes, witness reversions, legal loopholes and, ultimately, the defection of the plaintiffs' prosecutors have dealt a brutal blow to this confident and hopeful group.
The final ending of the film is divided into two lines: the severely beaten teenager who lost his younger brother, unable to accept that the perpetrator is only mildly punished, finally chooses to use the rage bursting out of his thin body, and chooses to use violence to end the life of the instructor and himself. Fighting on the rails, the rumbling train gave him a chance for liberation and revenge; while the art teachers and human rights defenders chose the mourning hall of the white teenager in front of the courthouse, expressing their disappointment with the law with peaceful demonstrations, and against this young man. Town disappointment. The people who fell to the ground and were injured by the high-pressure water gun were not only the bodies of their struggles, but also the souls with ideals in their hearts.
The perpetrators and their accomplices are all too familiar to our society. In a society where interests are entangled, everyone has weaknesses and everyone wants something. Some of these weaknesses and desires are for a good life in this society, such as police officers who accept bribes, officials who do not act, prosecutors who change their minds, and families of children who accept reconciliation; Controlling the inner beast, completely distorting his personality, and its ability to satisfy the evil desires derived from primitive desires, the principal, the administrator, the instructor, and the defense attorney. Ironically, they are respected as a beautiful existence in this society, they are good people who "help Wujin develop in recent years", and they are Christians who preach love. They use one percent of their good deeds to cover up ninety-nine percent of their sins. Should we forgive them for one percent of their good deeds? Does the law that declares procedural justice still insist on fairness and justice full of loopholes? Is it a violation of human rights to use powerful guns to cut holes in their bodies compared to their bullying of young lives? In other words, do they still have the most basic rights as human beings at this moment?
Regarding the onlookers, I would not call them so-called "spectators", I would rather call them a group of ordinary people with kind hearts but blinded by fog. The fog was so thick that they didn't know whether they stretched out their hands and welcomed another pair of warm hands or a blood-stained machete. They need "moderation", a simple sense of security. And that's sad. On the Cherry Blossom Avenue of Wuhan University, the group of buildings of the Republic of China often ushered in the filming of some TV dramas. Men and women dressed in student costumes of the Republic of China waved flags and shouted in front of the old buildings, but those seemed to be just "memories of the Republic of China". . Can we still wave and cry?
As for the Guardians, they are a group of idealistic communists who are constantly bumping and hurting between the bricks of the cold reality. I have to admit that many idealists have changed themselves in the baptism of time. To change the world, the events are huge and difficult, we can produce sophisticated instruments, but we cannot stop the pace of spiritual corruption. At the age of 20, at the age of 30, at the age of 40, we may all become the adults we hated, the sleek creatures hiding in suits and leather shoes, but don't forget the original rock music, the original smoke and Alcohol, all that represents our persistent and foolish resistance.
May the melting pot train you and me to have unyielding steel hearts.
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