"Nie Kou": Three selves in a person's life

Ken 2022-01-07 15:53:12

Freud theory: A person will meet three selves in his life, one is the person he thinks he is (self), the other is the person he actually is (the self), and the other is in the eyes of others Himself (he and me).

The twins, Beverly and Elit, are good at medical technology and the other good at interpersonal communication. In the eyes of ordinary people, they are the same person, a perfect person, and an unsurpassable balance (self and id). They have always viewed themselves this way. Until there appeared a woman with three wombs (the third self: him and me).


The chaos of the ego and the

id : Ellit is very promiscuous, but Beverly is a virgin, because Ellit is his breathing apparatus. Elliott would use language to share sexual experience for Bever, while Beverly only concentrates on clinical research. Whenever he wins an award, he is asked to receive it because he is not good at communication and the two people live in such a perfect balance. Individuals only do what they are good at and do not intervene in the areas where the other party is good. They are so perfect that in the eyes of outsiders, each of them is perfect. Even they themselves can’t tell which is the ego and which is the id.



He (he and me) in the eyes of others:

A woman with three wombs, Claire, came to the clinic. Elliott said to Beverly, you must try this novel species! So Beverly, who was originally not interested in sex, went to try and shared the same woman with Claire. But Claire discovered that she was deceived, and also discovered the huge difference in personality between Elliott and Beverly.

Beverly, who fell in love with Claire, wanted to be a separate individual. He lived with Claire because in the eyes of this woman, he was an independent individual rather than a perfect twin.

Beverly's nightmare: Claire is biting the umbilical cord that connects Beverly and Ellet!




The separation of ego and

id: Beverly who left Elliott saw his own shortcomings: insecure, cowardly, very jealous of his girlfriend's business trip, and his emotional intelligence is very low. He saw his imperfections, as well as the strengths of Elit.

Elliott made love to the twin sisters and asked them to call himself Elliott and Beverly. He wanted to be a "perfect twin" alone.

Elliott, who left Beverly, also saw his own shortcomings: he had no professional skills, would not be able to see a doctor, would not have an operation, he would only speak out, and his IQ was not as high as he thought. His superiority is only an illusion.


The disillusionment of the self and the id: After

separating, Elit and Beverly found that each other was like their own mirror. The other who appeared in the mirror saw their own shortcomings. Your strengths reflected my shortcomings and saw " After "the other", the "self" and the "self" can no longer get along with each other in harmony. So Bever used a self-made scalpel to cut the umbilical cords of the twins that didn't exist, that is to say, he broke Elit's belly.



Beverly, who killed the person in the mirror, seemed to be born anew. He felt that he could exist in the world as a perfect individual (self). After washing, Beverly called Claire, and Claire asked: "Who are you? ( He, I)", but Beverly couldn’t answer. He found that even if he killed his own shortcomings, he could not have the advantages of others. He was still half an imperfect person (the self), and he regretted him. Going back to the room, committed suicide.

The appearance of "other-self" led to the mutual dissolution and destruction of the "self" and "indigenous self". The image of twins actually separates and concretizes the self and the self.


Many of Cronenberg's films are related to sex, but this one is his early work and it is quite special. It does not have a lot of suggestive shots about sex. Instead, it talks about philosophical propositions.


Although David Lynch has not directly used the image of twins, he uses characters of the same image to show the chaos of dreams and reality. The self, the id and the alternate interspersed between him and me, are very similar to "Nie Kou", but "Nie Kou" does not use dreams, but a fragmentation of the real world.

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Extended Reading
  • Alana 2022-04-21 09:02:51

    An eternal spiritual bond, an invisible connection that encompasses and transcends the body, Konenberg leads the viewer to climax and peace in an indescribable experience.

  • Roselyn 2022-04-20 09:02:08

    There are two actors in this world who can portray a fetish, vulnerable and romantic, one is Jeremy Irons and the other is Isabelle Huppert. I really feel that under the foil of Cronenberg and Uncle Tie, the surgical rubber bands of the medical nurses have become the embodiment of sexual tension. Uncle Tie filmed a twin sex scene that I wanted to have. I'm still very vulgar, this film review does not want to write about the interpretation of the film. Because I have sex, I don’t want to talk about philosophy; because only when I want to talk about sex, I don’t want to talk about philosophy, and I will talk about philosophy to make up for the climax of my mental state.

Dead Ringers quotes

  • Elliot Mantle: And tomorrow, we'll take some Percodan... just because it's Saturday.

  • Elliot Mantle: But... I want some ice cream.