I even enjoyed the first half of the film: the soothing music, the picturesque scenery of the Korean countryside in late autumn, and, of course, the beautiful pair of sisters with very different personalities, who depend on each other for life. Although the glamorous and insidious stepmother always bullies the weaker sister, though the old and gloomy big house always has strange and strange things going on, and although there seem to be terrible secrets hidden in the closet and under the sink, I am a little nervous I didn't feel nervous, I waited relaxedly for the ending I thought. Until two-thirds of the way through the movie, when Xiuwei cried to her father again because Xiulian was bullied by her stepmother, her father suddenly told Xiuwei, "Xiulian is dead." Seeing this, I suddenly felt a chill. Wrong, the chill that came from the bottom of my heart, this chill became more intense along with Xiulian's helpless hysterical cries, and it went straight to the bone marrow.
In fact, "stepmother" or "vicious stepmother" has always been a popular theme in Chinese and foreign literary and artistic works, such as Snow White and Cinderella in Western fairy tales, such as "Lu Yi Shun Mu" and "Lying on Ice for Carp" in my country's Twenty-Four Filial Piety Stories ”, and this film is also based on Korean folklore – a story of a pair of sisters who are killed by a vicious stepmother and finally get their revenge.
The struggle against the vicious stepmother is cruel, and the outcome is nothing but a life-and-death or a happy life: Snow White and Cinderella defeated the vicious stepmother with the help of the princes and lived happily ever after; Min Ziqian and Wang Xiang lived happily ever after through the great His filial piety has influenced the vicious stepmothers, and has since become a role model for celebrities through the ages. The sisters, Xiuwei and Xiulian, did not have such good luck. They even lost when their stepmother was still a junior. Of course, they also lost their poor biological mother.
Yes, vicious stepmothers are abhorrent, but, I want to say this: behind every "successful" stepmother is a failed father.
The elder sister went crazy, the younger sister and mother died, and the stepmother got the punishment she deserved, but the culprit who caused all these tragedies, the father, did not receive any punishment. He could have avoided all this from happening, but he didn't. He betrayed his lover and didn't protect his daughter. He caused this war between women, but he did not take on the responsibility of quelling the war. He just silently hid to the side and watched indifferently. In the final analysis, this is still a patriarchal film. In this world dominated by men, women cannot defeat men, and they have to kill each other in exchange for space for survival. I can't help but think of that song: Why do women make it difficult for women, we all have the same fragile soul.
The narrative style of "The Rose and Red Lotus" reminds me of "Mulholland Drive", and I prefer the former, the exquisite picture, the beautiful background music, the clear characters, the smooth and exquisite editing (especially The part where the real stepmother appeared to break Xiuwei's illusory world, I personally felt very shocked), just the right little thriller, of course, what touched me the most was the touching and sad sisterhood.
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