South Korean director Park Chan-wook's first hollywood work, "Stoke", tells the story of the girl India's 18th birthday, her father died unexpectedly due to a car accident; on the day of the funeral, the enigmatic uncle Charlie unexpectedly appeared, bringing desire, death and orgasm to the life of India's mother and daughter...
Before watching Stoke, I didn't know what to expect; in the first half of the film, I thought Stoke was a chronicle of a girl's upbringing.
External changes: India's new shoe gifts that she must receive every year on her birthday are lined up in a uniform and conservative style (innocence); at the end of the film, India receives her 18-year-old gift, flat shoes are replaced by charming high heels, and when she puts on new shoes and walks in the closed house, the sound of indignation becomes a symbol of India's age and maturity.
Inner change: India and Uncle Charlie play the piano together, the smell and touch of her uncle make her excited, the girl's desire and curiosity for the male body continue to heat up; and then through violence and death, let India taste GC for the first time; Eve, who has tasted the forbidden fruit, can never return to the garden of innocent Eden.
In the second half of "Stoke", the film pattern is no longer limited to India's growth diary, but like a revenge poem of women's rampage!
Originally, "Stoker" was regarded as the female version of "Born To Kill Maniac", the girl has evil blood in her blood, and her bloodthirsty nature has always been in her body, but it lacks the fuse to ignite; if you interpret this work with "natural evil", will you misread the director's intention?
I found stoke closer to Joe Wright's Hannah about how young girls get rid of all the violence (national/blood/male/mother) that is inflicted on them, and like "The End of the Road", they run wild all the way and only want to get rid of the shackles.
Looking back at the male characters in "Stoke", although there are many differences in age, appearance, and class, the behavior patterns are very similar.
Just like several male classmates rely on their body shape advantages, humiliate her appearance in front of Indya, and bully her.
Just as India shows love to a boy who seems to be "decent" in order to quench her desire for Uncle Charlie, when the two are preparing to have sex in the woods, India temporarily changes her mind and shouts to stop, and the boy presses India to the ground and says, "You start all this, you have to finish things", and then use violence to get what you need.
Just like India's uncle Charlie, on the surface it seems to act calmly and atmospherically, but in fact he is a little boy who solves the problem violently after courtship is not successful.
Charlie kills many women in the film, not only because he feels threatened (the secret is revealed), but also because of the oppressive rule of "you disobedience".
When Charlie wrapped his belt around India's mother's neck, he shouted excitedly, "India, come and see, India, come and see!" (Like a child discovering something new), he shouted for half a day without seeing Indya, and Charlie's tone changed from excitement to command, and he said, "India, you will come to me now!".
Every man regards himself as the master, robbing what he can't get, and destroying it if he can't grab it.
Women in society, can only be the weak?
"Stoker" makes an interesting arrangement, director Park Chan-wook in the film constantly cross-editing Indya and her mother have done the same thing, both like two sides of the same body, but also like mother and daughter concentric, but in such a similar superficial behavior, they are mutually exclusive.
In the first half of the film, I thought that India's hostility to her mother, or her mother's hostility to India, stemmed from their possessiveness towards their father (as if they were lovers); in the second half of the film, I found that the reason why India hated her mother, or that her mother could not get close to India, was the high gap in their thinking.
India's mother once said to her, "Who the hell are you?" It is obvious that the mother does not understand her daughter's mind at all; and India's silence in the face of her mother shows that she has no intention of communicating (or giving up on changing her mother), India does not want to be a person like a mother, a woman who can only cry and cry in the face of death, can only use her body to seduce men, only wants to be locked up in the mansion but has no ability to survive on her own, mother, even did not help her comb her hair!
India can't communicate with her mother/society, mainly because: "She never wanted to be a well-behaved girl."
Therefore, every man in the film who apologized to her, coerced her, and ordered her was killed one by one!
At the end of the film, India stands on the edge of the road and coldly watches the policeman who has just been inserted into her head with a large cut slowly dying; this scene echoes the look in India's eyes when she first met Uncle Charlie, in order to avoid her uncle's eyes.
India deliberately took a long detour from outside the house back to the house, sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the back room, she heard the voice of her uncle coming from the top of the stairs, and Uncle Charlie, who was standing on a high place, said to India, "You were caught by me, do you know why?" Because you stand below me."
India heard the words, showed a look of displeasure on her face, climbed the stairs, and deliberately stood one more ladder than her uncle, pointing out that the little niece did not want to live under people (men) and did not let her eyebrows be raised.
Looking back at the changes in indya and the positions of the police (women above men and below), it is not like saying that women must "learn and familiarize themselves with the rules of the game" in order to break through the world in a male-dominated society.
In this way, "Stoke" is not only the history of girls' growth, but also the history of women's growth, this film not only tells the girl to get rid of the shackles of the patriarchal shadow, but also further reverses the weak image that women can only rely on the flesh and can only rely on men to survive (India's escape at the end of the film, the mother is still trapped in the mansion).
At this point, I deeply feel that the release time of "Stoke" is too early, otherwise it is absolutely suitable for the mystery scene or opening film of the fantasy film festival, after all, in addition to subverting the formula of the strong man and the weak woman in Hollywood movies, the ending also allows India to successfully run away and get the real "freedom" (the one who stands in my way dies!). At the end of "The End of the Road", the two heroines were forced to jump off the cliff by a group of policemen (men) Ah!
You say the plot is not fantastical? Super fantasy!
Park Chan-wook's first Hollywood film, with fascinating results.
Unfortunately, "Stoke" is unlikely to become a popular film, the pace of the film is too soothing, and the plot is not strong enough for most of the audience.
However, I would like to recommend this work to everyone, the story is interesting (so many people died in the play, but it did not cause the police to pursue, it is inevitably a bit bizarre), the image is beautiful, the music is weird, the art is super strong; I especially like the various sound effects in the film that deliberately amplify insect climbing or eggshell fragmentation, pointing out in The high sensitivity of India's senses (hunter-like personality), but also a metaphor for the purity of young souls that have not yet been defiled by the adult world! (Because the senses are still pure, things will be clear!) )
Finally, I have to praise Mia Huaxikovoska, who plays India, for playing the girl's lust and growth into three points, and the ZW scene in the bathroom is layered and amazing, and I look forward to the future development of Mia Huaxikovoska!