Make a hypothesis.
You have a terminal illness, without your family's knowledge.
Would you rather clone a "self" and spend time with your family after death?
At the turn of the old year and the new year, there was a science fiction movie that talked about this not-so-new topic.
Gentle and cold
"Swan Elegy"
Swan Song
Produced by Apple TV+, the film visually continues Apple's consistently simple and clear aesthetic style.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder sufferers look at the big cry of comfort.
Director Benjamin Cleary won the 88th Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film for "Stuttering".
This is his first feature film, self-written and self-directed, and the shot is extraordinary.
With this film starring in this film in one fell swoop, two-time Oscar for Best Supporting Actor ("Moonlight Boy" and "Green Book"), the marvel universe's new "Blade Warrior" Mahershala Ali, pushed the hot candidate for this year's awards season.
Eight-time Oscar-nominated American veteran actor Glenn Cross, Golden Globe Award actress Okafina, also performed superbly in the film.
The story takes place in the near future, technological innovation.
You can appreciate the iterative direction of Apple's future electronic products in advance in the film.
Cars, watches, mobile phones, games...
Looking at these small objects alone, sir of light technology control is already satisfied.
The more important setting is.
Despite the development of biological and medical science and technology in this era, there are still terminal diseases that cannot be cured.
The dilemma that the male protagonist is caught in is not an innocent moan
Die in pain, leaving family members alone to face life;
Or will you take everything yourself, die quietly, and let the other person spend the rest of his life with his family?
The good thing about "Swan Elegy" is that it refuses to provide answers, but instead provides a moving journey of nine-curved ileum for each of us to touch:
What exactly is love?
Is it painful companionship, or quietly leaving?
Is it selflessly honest, or is it selfishly concealed?
And, how far can we give for love?
01
Cameron was an illustrator, had a wife of Chinser and Ming, and a well-behaved son.
Family happiness, everything perfect.
The only problem was that not long ago he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and died shortly.
The first dilemma arises:
Do I want to confess?
Cameron replied almost instantaneously: Of course not.
How will his son grow up happily in the absence of his father when he is eight years old?
Cameron had experienced how that haze overwhelmed childhood, after all, he had never had a father since he was a child.
Looking at his son's innocent eyes, how Did Cameron tell him:
Daddy is going to die, sorry, but you have to be strong.
And the wife.
He had witnessed his wife's twin brother die in a car accident, and his wife was in pain.
It was a wound that time could not suture.
Therefore, he chose to drag and hide.
I was terrified, I hesitated.
At this time, a mysterious medical institution finds him and offers an opportunity:
They can "make" a perfect clone/replicant for Cameron, and after Cameron's death, they can replace him and live with his family.
This clone is so perfect that every pore, every habit, and every memory on the body is no different from the body.
And the clones are compiled with precise DNA and will never suffer from terminal illness again.
When Cameron first saw "him," he was shocked and panicked.
After thinking about it again and again, I refused.
This "person" is too human-like.
For my own selfish purposes, do I have the right to use others for my own ends, so that he and his family will live in lies forever?
This is the second dilemma that Cameron faces.
Back home, Cameron was still wandering.
Repeatedly accumulating courage, countless moments, he was about to blurt out, just a little bit.
More serious concerns emerged.
Seven months later, the couple's second child was about to be born.
How is the wife going to raise the child alone?
Moreover, my wife once said to Cameron herself: Without you, I can't live.
This is not a pretentious gesture of the young man's sea oath mountain alliance, this is the adult gritting his teeth and going through the world's events.
Cameron resolutely returned to the medical institution.
He also lied to his wife, saying that he was going on a business trip for a week.
In the lab, he began transferring all his memories into the clones.
Together with the clones, he retraced countless intimate moments.
The process of sharing secrets is the adventure of delivering souls.
After this step is completed, the clone becomes Cameron completely.
So much so that the clone and the wife video call, the wife can not see anything abnormal.
New problems arise.
Watching the clone and his wife's affectionate eyebrow flirtation, Cameron angrily cut off the call.
The thought of someone "someone else" about to embrace his wife in his arms made him unbearable and went crazy with jealousy.
He must shout out the most vicious "facts" and try to crush the enemy in one fell swoop:
You are not me, you are not me!
Cameron hated and resisted the plan as never before.
Because of love, I want to replace myself with another me;
Also because of love, I have to bitterly endure the love and gaze of another person getting my wife, even if that person is "me."
- The third dilemma.
He didn't want to continue for a moment.
Just, if you run away, can you not come back?
If you leave, will you be able to solve the problem?
02
The core of the triple dilemma stems from the following questions:
Is love selfish or selfless?
Do you love yourself more, or do you love each other more?
Does love make you stronger, or more vulnerable?
One night, Cameron was in excruciating pain and fainted in the bathroom.
His first reaction was not to call for help, but to struggle up and pull the door.
So as not to disturb the wife.
Cameron implemented the entire stand-in plan, but kept one of the parties' wives in the dark.
If the wife knew, she would certainly not agree.
Didn't he transgress his wife's will?
Yes and no.
Once, my wife and brother talked about cloning.
She subconsciously disagrees, believing that clones/replicants will never be identifiable at a glance like real people.
But when I thought about it, I thought that if this technology could "resurrect" a deceased loved one, if it really was "exactly the same".
Her attitude changed immediately – maybe she could give it a try?
If his wife and Cameron were swapped, she would make the same decision.
For the same reason:
"Because I love you."
In the name of love, all ethics and morality can be set aside.
So, the crux of the matter becomes, can it be "exactly the same"?
He initially worried that Jack wasn't "like" enough.
But when he discovers that his wife can't see the difference at all, he realizes that the real problem is not "true or false."
And in:
Can you allow someone to share your wife's love with you?
This is the cruelest, most ruthless part of the whole plan, and you have to choose to be forgotten by your own family.
03
Cameron naturally could not accept this forgetting.
The last stage of life, one night.
The thoughts and uneasiness made him endure the torment of illness and struggle to return home, back to the home where he had been replaced.
He found the home as it was, so complete, and so happy.
Cameron's unexpected return awakens the sleeping clone.
Of course, he understood Cameron's feelings, after all, he was Cameron.
He also said an intriguing word to Cameron:
"Do what you need to do."
"Need", not "want", is a word difference, a subtle difference.
There are at least two meanings.
It first embodies the full self-awareness of the clone at this time, and the subtext is:
Hey man, now this is my house, I'm Cameron, you're not.
Second, it can be seen that the clone does not regard Cameron as an enemy, but only as a guest.
They are not dead to each other, but coexist.
Just like at the beginning, after Cameron yelled at him for "fakes", he was furious and almost fainted, and his first reaction was to worry about him and hug the other party.
Like now, he "lent" the ring to Cameron, returned his identity to him for the time being, and did not forget to tell him to "be careful".
Carefully keep this secret, carefully maintain this little home.
They share memories, personalities, and even the same soul.
No one in the world can understand each other better than they do.
They are both two people and one person.
No matter what the other person does, it comes from the same love that they have.
That being the case, what else is there to let go of?
Cameron's obsession gradually loosened.
He went to the bedside of his son and wife and said a final goodbye to them.
Teach his son to eat edamame, drink apple juice, and touch a cup with his son, wishing him a "long life and a hundred years".
In the last hug with his wife, he expressed his deeply buried guilt.
The most important thing, of course, is to say goodbye to yourself.
He returned the ring to the clone.
This means that he officially handed over the baton of love, he personally renounced Cameron's identity, and he voluntarily faced the coming of death alone.
In the same position, no one was sitting next to him anymore.
He is alone and not alone.
Because, he has the love of his family and will always be with him.
Because, the love of the family, with the existence of another self, grows twice as long.
As in the case of Cameron and his son, there is a second father in the storage room who loves him.
So, is love selfish or selfless?
Sir's understanding is that selfishness and selflessness are never diametrically opposed, but secretly, you have me.
Love is always the superposition of the two, and you can never tell each other apart.
Just as after Cameron's death, he was both forgotten and not forgotten.
Just like new life and death, they always go hand in hand.
After Cameron's death, his second child will be born, and they will name him after his wife's dead brother.
04
Human beings are too small, and a person's death is only a drop in the ocean for heaven and earth.
Like cameron's sick friend Kate (Okafina) after the death of the two shots.
Silent mountains, with a cotton plant.
The disappearance of a person is like the withering of a cotton plant to the mountains.
Remember the title?
"Swan Elegy".
Legend has it that the last time the swan chirped before he died, it was the most mournful and beautiful.
It is generally extended to the artist's last performance, the last work.
Used in this film, it refers to Cameron leaving behind his own clone.
If it were you, how would you sing that elegy of love?
The topic of cloning/copying is nothing new in the science fiction world.
The good thing about "Swan Elegy" is that it does not criticize or jump to conclusions.
And with a compassionate gaze, I saw the dilemma and affection in this unethical approach.
We also see the universality of this choice.
Each of us may face the same dilemma, and if you have the same opportunities, why wouldn't you make the same decision.
Love never distinguishes between right and wrong.
Like, the director is still leaving a gap in the tight story:
Pet dogs can actually recognize clones.
There is no fairy tale that can hide the sky and cross the sea;
No kind of regret can be completely fixed.
But they, or we, will still choose to do so.
Nothing is right or wrong, love is just a choice.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Doraemon