some points

Pamela 2021-12-22 08:01:32

I like the small details carefully set up in this movie, one link and one link, very delicate, Ang Lee's masterpiece. The music inside should be Xiao Sheng, it's really beautiful. The specific plot is always the second most important thing. It is always the nodes in the connection that determine the quality of the work. I have selected some points that I am impressed with to express my views.

1. The comic "Super Four" on the train, "Richard must use an anti-matter gun to shoot his son who turned into a human flesh atom bomb. The four always encounter this problem because they are different from other heroes. They Just like a family, the closer the relationship, the easier it is to harm each other unconsciously. This is what the Super Four means, and the family is the anti-matter gun. You are born in the family and you die in the family.”

This is At the beginning of the movie, this passage sets the tone and theme of the whole movie. I think Ang Lee is not just talking about "family", it is better to talk about an interpersonal group with deep connections, and family is the most typical organization in this kind of combination, so Ang Lee likes to come in such a small environment. Explore the humanity issues he is interested in. In this densely woven net, people contain each other, give each other, hurt each other, and appear in the face of love. Full of contradictory tension.

2. The eldest son Paul likes an upper-class girl, Libby, "She is rich but spends the winter alone in a big house in New York with the money. At this time, her stepfather takes her mother and her sister to the house. Swiss skiing". This background introduction was taken out by a classmate of Paul leisurely, but it was an indispensable clue to understanding what happened later. Paul met her in a class that explored Dostoevsky and existentialism. For her beauty, the beginning of love is often an external attraction. During class, he stared at her intently, but unexpectedly, this beautifully dressed girl unexpectedly raised objections to the teacher: "Dostoevsky meant that Christians must choose. Because you have to be assertive, and you can’t choose to be good, because being good is too rational, so you have to choose to be evil. This is logically speaking.” Combining this girl’s background, you can also understand this amazing remark. Will come out of her mouth. In love, Paul completely ignored the thorns on her body. After class, he was half talking up and half thinking that he was surprised by meeting the perfect partner (the dual attraction of body and soul). He recommended Libby to Libi’s masterpiece. "idiot". The complex and clear theme of "Idiot" is quite different from what Libby said. The two scenes are like trailers, proclaiming the fundamental difference between Paul and Libby. But Paul, who was covered with a rose veil, could not realize this, and his love ended in harm.

3. The youngest daughter Wendy’s "boyfriend" Mickey (I wonder if they can be regarded as boyfriends, they are underground, and they are just warming up together to spend the painful adolescence, relying on each other to release excess hormones and explore mysterious other Half of the world) is very good at mathematics, especially geometry. In one evening, he and his brother had a very interesting conversation:
Mickey said: "I am not good at mathematics, but good at geometry. For example, "two squares", you will I thought it was two, two, four, but in fact it refers to a square, a space, not a number, but a space. It is a perfect space, but it only exists in your mind. In reality, you can’t draw a perfect square, you can only imagine , Do you understand?"
Mickey's younger brother said cutely: "Well, but I just want to ask homework..."
Ok, I smiled happily when I saw this, Mickey's brother is so cute. But what I think is interesting is the passage that Mickey said, the perfect square only exists in my mind, it reminds me of Libby's saying "it's too rationaly". Both passages come from the mouth of the child, both discussing the distance between ideal and reality, echoing each other. Mickey is a shy boy with a lot of power embedded under his body, just like the most inconspicuous boy we can see in that awkward and vigorous age. The boy hiding in the corner, but the screenwriter and director use this The passage gave him a certain sadness of first knowing this cruel world. In this movie, whether it is adolescent children or college students who have just entered university and started to live freely and love freely, they are all presenting their struggles, their confusions, and some pretend to have seen through the world, and choose to face them. The cruel methods of life, such as Libi, some have "perfect squares" in their minds, while the bodies stumble in reality, such as Mickey. Yes, although Mickey showed his confusion and sadness in this passage, he did not find a way out, there was no answer, he didn't even know that he was in confusion and searching, everything was in the mist.

3. Two derailed families, Mickey's mother and Wendy's father, both teach their children about body and sex. This irony is really interesting.

4. Wendy basically never laughed. At the beginning of the film, she criticized the lies of Watergate on the phone. At the Thanksgiving family gathering, Wendy’s father said: "Wendy, come and pray. Didn’t you like prayer before?" Wendy prayed: “Lord, thank you for creating Thanksgiving and giving it to us. A wealthy life allows white people to slaughter Indians, plunder their land, eat the land like pigs, and ignore the tragic deaths of Asians... "This is Wendy, full of violent and ironic calmness. She used this kind of sex education to calmly face Mickey’s mother's "body is a palace", and calmly face all the fragments of life she has seen. I believe that she is the most dirty face among these children who have seen their parents in the adult world. The child, therefore, the way she chooses is also the most violent and self-harming. She put on a Truman mask to help Mickey masturbate, and then said to his father who scolded them: "Don't show me money."

5. On the night of the ice storm, the adults were having a "wife swap party". The eldest son Paul had a marijuana party at Libby’s house. Wendy and Mickey’s younger brother drank at home and lay naked on the bed to discuss sexual issues. Gee watched the ice storm in the ice and snow.
Mickey's brother kissed Wendy and said, "I love you."
Wendy said, "You are drunk, which is great. "
They hugged each other to sleep, it was very warm.
Mickey’s younger brother is more cruel than Mickey’s. He likes to hold a plastic soldier. He will use the soldier to shoot secretly behind Wendy, shooting sexually, peeking at Wendy’s groin, like exploding all kinds of toys with explosives. The whip threw the tree, and he taught Wendy to hang the soldier with a rope. He and Wendy are essentially the same. They use their cruelty to face the cruelty of life, and they learn to live calmly and cruelly. So when they "love each other", Mickey, who had the "perfect square" in his head, died in the ice storm.

6. Paul didn't smoke marijuana. After being rejected by Libby, he came back from the ice storm unharmed. His heart was hurt, but he still smiled. This kid who likes "Idiot" is the softest and most divine being in this movie.

7. The only death, delicate and fragile Mickey. Why not Paul? Although Li Ang is pessimistic, he still believes in ideals after all, even if it is so meagre.

8. Paul and "Idiot" is simply the most ideal setting in this movie. Paul is the Earl of May Shikin, and Ang Lee pays tribute to Toshi, and also points out a way out for the struggle in the movie.

9. The sun after the ice storm was very bright and very cold. Paul returned with the light, and his tired family shrank in the sun. Full of metaphors, like every sentence and every shot in this movie.

I suddenly discovered that my points are basically about children, because children are full of possibilities, and the cruelty on them is full of light. As for adults, there is only intense fatigue and sadness after being tortured by life. This makes me heavy, "Ice Storm" is heavy enough.

I think Ang Lee is sad and tough, so charming.

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Extended Reading

The Ice Storm quotes

  • Ben Hood: What's all that about? I mean, what the hell happened?

    Janey Carver: A prior engagement overcame me.

    Ben Hood: What?

    Janey Carver: Listen, Benjamin Hood, I have obligations that precede your... From before you showed up. I mean one or two good natured encounters, that doesn't mean that I'm... I'm not just some toy for you. When I remembered some chores I wanted to get done before the party, I just did them, that's all. Because I wanted them to get them done before I saw Jimmy.

    Ben Hood: Jimmy? Jimmy? I'm not sure how to take this. Wh-what do you mean Jimmy? I thought you and your husband had...

    Janey Carver: How you take it isn't that all that interesting to me, Benjamin. I'm sorry.

    Ben Hood: I just can't believe you could be so...

  • Ben Hood: [Janey hands drink to Ben] Thanks. You having one?

    Janey Carver: In a bit.

    Ben Hood: [he leans his head onto Janey] You know, I think Elena might suspect something. Maybe, it's all for the better, you know?

    [he starts unbuttoning his shirt]

    Ben Hood: Yesterday at dinner, she - Well, she didn't say anything. Has she acted funny to you? Have you noticed anything?

    [he takes his shirt off]

    Janey Carver: Have I noticed anything?

    Ben Hood: Mmm.

    Janey Carver: I'm not married to her, Benjamin. You are. I think you've probably a better vantage point from which to observe her.

    Ben Hood: Yeah, but... I've been working a lot lately and - No, that's not it. I... I guess maybe we're just on the verge of... saying something. Saying something to each other. On the verge.