"Joshua", Decoding the "Love" Code

Dannie 2022-01-21 08:01:26

The general framework of the story is for Joshua to rebuild his ideal family and find an ideal guardian for himself to develop as the main line. In fact, the most interesting thing is not what the director wants to express through this, but what the huge amount of information hidden in the film triggers us. Kind of thinking.

Regarding the role of Joshua, although he is only 9 years old, he is a genius. Music, reading, medicine, and psychology have been the objects of his research. His IQ has long surpassed his parents. Judging from the name of Joshua, "Joshua" is the name of God Jesus. In the Bible, it also means "establishing order in chaos." It’s not difficult to see in the film that Joshua believes he is a god, and he loves the person he loves in the right way he thinks, but his love may not be a perverted love, perhaps to some extent. The kind of love he thinks is exactly the same as the love he thinks of his parents. This is a very interesting and game-like part of the play. What kind of love is love?

Mother said she loved Joshua. When Joshua was playing the piano elegantly, grandma and mother did not respect his listening attentively, but they sang their own songs and lost the sound. Mother interrupted his playing. She said that the music would make her sister noisy, and Joshua vomited, because all this made him feel sick. In the case of postpartum depression, the mother still insists on taking care of the child by herself and not letting people help. Such a fragile mother who cannot bear the cry of the child really has the responsibility of being a good mother? Mom finally collapsed in Joshua's plan.

Dad said he loved Joshua, but Dad still asked him to participate in basketball and baseball activities that he didn’t like. But what Joshua was really interested in was books and mummies. Dad also called Joshua by the name of a dwarf star. It was a great insult to him, so his father's favorite dog died, and finally Joshua used a trick to make his father lose custody of him and his sister.

Mom and Dad kept saying that their children should have the right to choose freely, but they chose everything for Joshua. In the school performance, every note that Joshua played was what he wanted (uncle could see this). Why did he say that he wanted it? The deliberately strumming is Joshua's contempt and resistance to all the disrespect of them before.

Grandma said she loved Joshua, but when she was in the museum, she disrespectfully interrupted him to tell stories about Egyptian gods. Grandma couldn't accept those stories that she thought were evil. But for Joshua’s belief in Jesus, grandma does have the right to support it, because Joshua and grandma’s religious beliefs have reached an agreement on this point, and Joshua also successfully used this point to create a quarrel between grandma and mother and her mother collapsed. In the end, grandma also became a dead soul in the part of Joshua's plan.

Joshua said he loved his sister, but Joshua carefully designed a guardian for himself and his sister-is his uncle really the ideal guardian for him or his sister? At this point, we seem to see the shadow of his parents again from Joshua. Is the love he gave to his sister really the love her sister wants? The younger sister who is still a baby like a blank sheet of paper cannot answer for us, but the answer may
be anything. In the uncle's surprised eyes at the end of the film, we might be able to read that his uncle is not the ideal guardian Joshua really wants, giving people a lot of room for imagination.

In life, we always say "I love you", "I am sincerely good for you" to those around us. After all, have we always been loving others in the way we think is right? Or do we always really love ourselves more and pay more attention to ourselves?

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Extended Reading
  • Brandon 2022-03-27 09:01:20

    Stupidity is dead, pure cold violence

  • Nona 2022-03-25 09:01:19

    Indifference is also abuse

Joshua quotes

  • Brad Cairn: [taking the baby] What is that, is that the, is that the baby or the dog?

    Abby Cairn: Or me? Take a deep breath, Brad. That's our life you're smelling.

  • Abby Cairn: [wiping blood from her leg] I used to have a pair of red boots. They were so sexy.