Many movies are labeled as healing to be peddled, but in their bones they are actually depressed, and "When the Monster Comes Knocking" is such a movie.
The film tells the story of a single child growing up in pain, opposite the incurable mother, who has nightmares every night until one night a nearby tree turns into a tree and visits, and wants to exchange three stories for a boy's story. The four stories, no matter whose mouth they come from, correspond to the intentions: lies, beliefs, existence, and death.
The Tree Man first tells the story of a prince's revenge. The story is similar to Snow White and her harem, who regain the throne with the help of the people for the prince who loves to elope, and avenges her lover. But all this is the prince's lie, his stepmother did not kill his father, let alone kill his lover, it was he himself who slashed his beloved, incited the people's resentment to remove the queen from the throne, and has since become a generation of ming monarchs in the minds of the people. The tree man did not explicitly point out that it was a lie that his mother could be healed, but only told the boy that no one is always right or wrong, and some lies exist so beautifully, and they must bravely recognize him and bear him.
The second story is equally brutal. In a rushing industrial society, traditional and conservative pharmacists are ostracized by emerging priests, preventing them from cutting down trees and pharmacies, resulting in no one seeing a pharmacist again. One day, the pastor's two daughters suddenly fell ill, modern medicine can not cure, desperate pastor found a pharmacist, begging him, as long as he can save her daughter, let alone cut down the tree, faith can not be. His request was rejected by the pharmacist, whose daughter died the next day, and the pharmacist refused treatment not because of resentment, but because of the pastor's wavering faith.
The story of the third invisible man is actually a projection of the boy being ignored and bullied. His mother was seriously ill, incompatible with his grandmother, and the bullying of his classmates made the boy want to escape, he hoped that his father would take him to the United States, but his father only promised to take him on vacation. Conflicts that reality cannot resolve can only be excreted in the form of fantasies, big men are beaten into the hospital, grandma's house is demolished into ruins... Of course, the first two stories are the same, both are projections of the boy's real dilemma.
When it was the boy's turn to tell his fourth story, he refused to tell it, because it was both his softness and his darkness, and in the face of a predicament that was powerless to resist, he hoped that everything would end sooner. The so-called long-term sick bed in front of no filial piety, in the face of the dilemma of powerlessness to return to heaven and can not stop, how many people hope to be liberated as soon as possible, this is a secret buried in the hearts of many people, let people say how to export.
From the perspective of the script structure, the use of three dark fairy tales of the tree monster to exchange a boy's face of the real story, and then connect the main line of the boy's face of death and growth, can be described as cleverly conceived, but also in line with the child's imagination. Through the fairy tale interpretation, the story brings special effects and magical elements to the film, and the original sad realism theme is immediately cloaked in the cloak of a magical blockbuster. But the problem is also this, the boy's story is limited in size, the world of the tree monster is not fully open, the magic is quite simple, the surreal brushwork dilutes the impact of reality, and finally neither end is relied on.
There are many movies about facing death, "Jade Butterfly in Diving", "Bucket List", "21 Grams", "Seven Pounds"... Each has its own cruel reality, but it is not necessarily necessary to be depressed in the heart, death is sad, farewell can also bring warmth. Even if you want to think of a movie like "Rabbit Hole", there are also performances that make people admire, and in addition to detoxification, you can also take care of us and cherish the present.
Using magical fairy tales to relieve the pain of reality, which seems to be the cleverness of "When the Monster Knocks", is actually where the cleverness is mistaken by the cleverness. This film is not a liberating movie, its fairy tale elements can not take the protagonist to escape from the dilemma of reality, even if the boy says "I hope all this ends soon". It is not up to him to decide whether his mother will leave late or early, in addition to facing the reality of his mother's death at any time, he will not have to bear everything before death silently every day.
One might argue that the fairy tale part is not made up of movies, but is the result of the original novel by Patrick Nyss. I do not deny the subtlety of the original fairy tale detachment, but the sense of substitution between the text world and the image world is very different, the heart that the text can reach is soft, the vision is not necessarily, and vice versa. Only when the film finds its own expression can it stand on the shoulder of the original and look into the distance.
The problem presented in the film at present is that it bluntly portrays a unlikable tree man, forcefully tells a bunch of ambiguous big truths with extremely magical renderings, and then gives a brain to the boy, and finally tells him to accept reality. It is completely superfluous, the reality is meant to be faced, and there is no need to circle in such a fancy way. Instead of surrendering to the limited surreal stunts, the film is better to lighten the magic and emphasize reality, let more realistic elements release its sense of substitution, and lead the audience to a thorough detoxification experience.