1. The Opposite is a story about voyeurism. There are many stories about this theme, especially in the movie, I easily think of many movies of this theme. Most of the films contain a bit of pornography more or less. The reason is very simple. Since it is voyeurism, it is of course peeping at the most secret part of other people's lives, so naturally this kind of thing is indispensable. Therefore, such themes are also easy to fall into stereotypes. But "The Opposite" doesn't, and neither does Kislowski's "Short Love Story," even though the two stories are so different.
As a female writer, Tie Ning's "gender conversion" in "The Opposite" is very successful - the "I" in the novel is male, and to some extent is a villain who "plays with women". "I" first got into bed with "Yanma" Xiao He upstairs after graduating from high school. While studying at university in Beijing, "I" failed to "start" with a girl from the mountainous area, Yin Jinfeng, but was dumped by others. Later, she had sex with a girl who was called "cousin" and had sex with a certain rich daughter. . During this period, "I" also made a one-night "dew couple" with a strange girl I met on the trip. After graduating from college, he returned to his hometown of Beimen, and relived the old dream with Xiao He, but he never expected to be "entangled" by others. In order to avoid Xiao He, "I" ran to a certain unit in Nanmen City and became a warehouse manager. Here I finally met my opposite - a woman in her thirties who lived opposite the warehouse. Mature woman, thus began the voyeur of "me", the evil journey of "me".
In order to peep the "opposite", "I" almost gave up all normal life. Originally, "I" had already "hooked up" with Lin Lin, the kindergarten aunt in this yard. This word is very indecent, but I can't think of any other words. "I" was almost just dealing with it. The same is true for Xiao He who came to find "me". This "I" seems to have never really loved anyone—except maybe Yin Jinfeng—but my "opposite" almost made me fall in love, and the "I" devoted myself to her like never before, even in the middle of the night ( For example, the lights in the opposite room) can make "I" immediately get tense and start observing the situation in the room.
What attracts "me" so much? her beauty? her identity? Her ulterior secret? The relationship between the two different men who came in and out of this room and her? The flesh and blood story between them? Maybe both. All of these are strongly stimulating "I", making "I" determined to carry on this kind of peeping, and even take it as a major undertaking.
The main theme of "opposite" life is two men, "I" has judged that neither of them is her husband, one of them is tall, "I" saw that they should be in love, but for some unknown reason They can't be together in public; another stocky, fifty-something, when this odious person "molests" the "opposite" of "me" in front of "me", I'm sure all readers will follow "I" feel sick and angry all together. "Anger starts from the heart, and evil grows on the side of courage", so I decided to use an earth-shattering act to vent "my" nameless anger, after making adequate preparations and dormant for several nights, " I've finally had my chance. One night, when the "opposite" was naked in front of my eyes, when the squat, hideous-looking man "pulled her over":
a wicked pleasure spread all over me at once, like the opening of the The bell has rang and I must come out decisively. Shorty old man, don't fucking blame me for being inhumane! As I thought, I sprinted out of bed, snapped the light switch, and turned on the tape recorder. Suddenly, the dazzling light went straight to the opposite side, followed by "The red sun shines on the frontier, the green mountains and green waters cover the glow..." resounded through the night sky. I saw that I pushed open a long-unopened window and stepped onto the windowsill, holding the binoculars in my hand, and looking towards the opposite side with pretended ease. I saw the man's heavy back freeze and freeze in front of me, and I saw my opposite staring at me numbly, this is the numbness after being extremely frightened. I also saw the corners of her mouth twitching slightly, as if she was complaining weakly: You are so young, why are you so cruel?
Ah, it is because I am so young that I am so cruel.
2. Later, "I" learned from the newspaper that the "opposite" died that night. She was a member of the Standing Committee of the Nanmen Political Consultative Conference and a famous swimming coach. As for the cause of her death, in the words of "I", it is "I dare to say that there is no one in the world who knows the opposite side better than me, and there is no second person who knows the true cause of death of the opposite side".
I use the word "villain", maybe a little harsh, because this person is actually not that hateful, but the shortcomings of men are more concentrated in this person. Why do girls (at least a certain part) like "me" and even want to follow "me" with all their might? Applying the saying "men are not bad women don't love" can save a lot of explanation, but we know that no girl really likes men of low quality. The so-called "bad" can be interpreted as a kind of "intellectual sincerity" in men. For example, this "I" - "I" almost never hides her unreasonable thoughts about the girls she likes, and thinks she knows the delicate thoughts unique to those girls, so she plays them between the metacarpal bones. For example, after going to bed with Xiao He, "I" still suspected that the note that said "Xiao He, I want to have sex with you" was written by Xiao He himself; with "cousin", accepting his cousin's generous gift Instead, he did not hesitate to give these to Yin Jinfeng, who was born in poverty, hoping that such a gift would be exchanged for the other party's dedication in return. Such an approach can be described as brazen and too naked, right? After having a one-night stand with a strange girl, "I" neither recollected it as a fond memory, nor felt any guilt about it - maybe there was, and was quickly dismissed because I felt that I was being calculated by someone else all possible liability.
To some extent, this "I" has the qualities of a philosopher because of his "intellectual sincerity". It is this sincerity that pushes him to the peeping at the "opposite" woman, which is both tempting and extremely despicable in the eyes of ordinary people.
When the novelist portrays this "I", he is so veiled and sophisticated that it is difficult for us to even perceive the existence of the narrator. Emotionally speaking, I don't find this person disgusting, and maybe many of his thoughts and actions are just right for me.
The question that remains is, why did "I" do this? Where did my nameless fire come from? Is what "I" did just pure "evil"? Is there a deeper motivation? Is it possible to change one so that "me" can't do this?
(three)
I saw this kind of "intellectual sincerity" in Domac in "Short Love Stories" - just like "I" in "The Opposite", it was difficult for him to suppress his still somewhat ignorant lust. The difference is that Domac is still very young, the kind of big boy who can still see a bit of youth on his face. In him, I don't see the indifference and smoothness that are unique to adults.
It's also a voyeur-driven story. Domac lives at a friend's house of the same age, and from his friend he knows that there is a beautiful woman living across from him - a mature beautiful woman, almost the same as the woman in "The Opposite". They set up binoculars on the windowsill and spy on every move of the woman across from them. Later, when friends went abroad, peeping became a habit of Domac, a part of his life, every day.
Domac was less than twenty years old, the age when he was full of curiosity and fantasies about women's bodies. Domac once discussed the woman's body with a friend and concluded that she had a "round ass". The woman was in her thirties, with a clear face, curly hair, and the smell of a mature woman. Domac likes to see a woman after a bath. Her curly hair is slightly jerked by the woman, and the beautiful curves are looming in the yukata that she wears casually. This scene often makes Domac feel dizzy.
Often men spend the night with women and they make out here and there in the room. Such a picture seemed too stimulating for young Domac, and the subconscious guilt was also increasing.
Once, he saw a woman fall out with her handsome young boyfriend. The boyfriend drove away, and the woman went back to her room alone, lying on the table sobbing. Domac knew that women loved this young man deeply. He was so young, tall and handsome. Domac likes him too. Through the telescope, Domac sensed the woman's sadness and wanted to reach out to comfort her.
Domac wants to step into a woman's life, which is exactly what I want. He dialed the woman's phone but didn't speak, which annoyed the woman. Once, someone who looked like a photographer took a picture of a woman, and it was not clear who they were seducing who. Anyway, the two bodies were quickly twisted together. Domac called the gas repairman and said there was a gas leak in the woman's room. Soon, maintenance workers arrived, and the two warming bodies were forced to separate. The woman got into an argument with the maintenance crew, but they insisted on a routine maintenance of the plumbing. They didn't leave until they confirmed that everything was fine, the photographer was already dressed, and everything became uninteresting and boring. Domac, who was behind the telescope, had a smile on his face, mixed with inexplicable pleasure and pain.
In order to get close to the woman, Domac went to the post office to find an errand, and forged a remittance slip to let the woman come to the post office to withdraw money, so that their life trajectories that had no possible relationship appeared at the intersection. This is not enough, Domac found another job as a milkman, and he could take the opportunity of milkman to go to the woman's door every morning. In order to see the woman and even say a few words, Domac put away the empty bottle in front of the woman's room, and knocked on the door, asking the sleepy woman in her pajamas to ask for a milk bottle.
When the woman received the fake money order for the second time and got into an argument with the post office staff and left angrily, Domac rushed out of the post office to admit to her that the faker was him, and then confessed everything, including the gas repairman. Later, when the photographer reappeared in Domac's field of view, he was told everything. Domac was called downstairs and was punched down by the photographer.
The next day, while Domac was delivering milk, the woman suddenly appeared at the door. She seemed to be waiting for him on purpose, she wanted to see her results - Domac's swollen eyes. Domac said, I love you. The woman accepted his date invitation, which made the child excited, all the gloom in his heart dissipated in an instant, the world suddenly became incomparably beautiful, the blue sky swirled overhead, and it seemed that even the angels were happy for him.
In the coffee house, Domac's first date, everything is so new, he is excited but a little overwhelmed. The woman pointed to a flirting man and woman next to her and told Domac that this is how love between men and women should be.
She may have seen Domac's confusion, and she may have to teach this child how to fall in love in her own way. She took him to the room, a place so familiar yet unfamiliar to Domac. After the bath, she shook her wet hair and appeared in front of Domac. She tells Domac what love is, and Domac doesn't know if it's right or wrong, he's lost all judgment, like a docile sheep. His hands were guided by the woman, reaching deep into her thighs. Domac felt suffocated and powerless, and suddenly his body throbbed, and there was desperation in his rapid gasps. The woman said, now you know, this is love. She probably couldn't understand what this moment meant to a teenager. Domac pushed the woman away and stumbled out of the room.
Back in his room, Domac cut the artery.
The woman was a little disappointed. When she saw the ambulance downstairs, she seemed to understand something.
I later learned that the movie had two different endings. In the TV series, the woman went to the post office to find Domac, and Domac said calmly, I won't peek at you again. In the movie version, Domac is lethargic at home after being discharged from the hospital. The friend's mother refuses the woman's visit, and the woman proposes to take a look in the room. The telescope was still there, and the woman looked into her room through the telescope, she seemed to see herself sobbing on the table, and Domac appeared beside her, reaching out to soothe her shoulder.
4.
Sometimes I think, "I" in "The Opposite", will it be Domac who has become "mature" after experiencing setbacks?
Domac stubbornly believes that he neither wants to sleep with a woman nor kiss her, he just loves her. All he wanted was to be able to reach out and soothe a woman's shoulder when she was crying, that's all. Women say that there is only one kind of love, and that is the love of the body.
Domac didn't believe it, but such belief was shattered by his own body.
The "I" in Tie Ning's pen seems to have never had such an illusion. Although the word "love" is also mentioned in the novel, it is clear that no real love story ever happened to "me". Tie Ning is from Hebei, and she has a deep connection with Beijing. This "I" has a very obvious taste of Beijing oil (premature sophistication), as well as the arrogance unique to northern men. But behind this arrogance is often the fragility and emptiness in his heart, which can be seen from the stimulation he received when he failed to pursue Yin Jinfeng, who was more energetic than him.
Of course, "I" has a high spirit, so whether it's the lively Yanma Xiao He or the little bird Yiren Lin Lin, although "I" has been moved by some thoughts, "I" clearly knows that they are not The love I am looking for.
What about my "opposite"? How could this beautiful and mysterious woman make me put Xiao He and Lin Lin aside and almost took all my attention?
"I" love the "opposite"? Maybe no one can deny it. Why don't novelists try to let "I" into a woman's life, like Kislowski did, to tell her, "I love you."
Because, the "I" in Tie Ning's pen has an almost certain judgment - this woman does not belong to me, she is outside the world of "I", and "I" can't even touch her edge. Whether she is the lover of a high-ranking official, or the "mistress" of a rich man, she is absolutely mysterious to me. There is a line in "Dong Xie Xi Du" that has been used by many people, "What you can't get is always the best", and it is appropriate to put it here. This woman is the best for the current "me", not only because of her beauty, but also because of her "unavailability".
What Tie Ning is discussing here is the hidden desires of people - this beautiful woman, this peeped person who has never really stepped into the foreground, represents the projection of people's endless desires. It is impossible for people to eliminate this desire by themselves, so "I" will stubbornly carry out the voyeur to the end. I really like some sentences in the novel, such as "I waited for the man to appear like I was waiting for disaster", "I" know that there will be a man here, although "I" may not want to see him (them).
This is nothing less than a kind of masochism. In this kind of voyeurism, "I" indulge my unsatisfied desires, "painful and happy". When "I" knew that there were two men going in and out, and neither of them was her husband, one of them turned out to be an old, short, fat old man, "My" desire suffered the most cruel setback. So, the thrilling scene appeared - "I" pushed the "opposite" together with the old man whom "I" hated (jealous?) into the abyss of destruction, thus destroying the "opposite" in an extremely cruel way. I" the inexhaustible lust and the pain that engenders it.
I've already said that as a reader, I don't hate this "me". I had an urge to persuade him to come into the life of this mysterious woman, like Domac in "Short Love Stories." However, what if he too was frustrated like Domac? Will Domac, who has been frustrated, still have the same love fantasy as before?
Among Tie Ning's novels, "The Opposite" is quite special, because its tone is almost gray from beginning to end, probably because she wants to completely magnify the emptiness of this "me", and then let it destroy itself. And Kislowski was always warm. "Love Short Story" is a story about redemption. Domac's love fantasy is shattered, but the woman who is the object of voyeurism regains her faith in love. Although the ending was sad, it left a trace of warmth and hope in the end.
View more about A Short Film About Love reviews
