If the series of stories about Thunderbolt expresses a pure good, “Batman: The Dark Knight” expresses a pure evil, then this “Hunger” is the expression of a pure despair.The film begins with a depiction of the protagonist swallowing a piece of paper because of hunger, but it is difficult to swallow, and eventually spit it out with a strong cough; behaving sensitively because of hunger, as if passers-by were laughing at him; staring at the sausage hanging in the window; having a conversation with his own shoes, and so on.
But in these sad conditions he still has compassion (or he likes to find in this compassion the dignity he so abnormally lacks) and lies to an old lady sitting on a street corner selling biscuits, saying that she will come to buy all her biscuits tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock, and completes his lie with the words “a small contribution to some children I know”, hoping to convince the old lady, but unfortunately his lie Unfortunately, his lies could not bring hope to the old lady. The old woman’s face was expressionless, as indifferent as she turned her face back to the original angle.
It seemed that two hearts that had no relationship with hope could not spark the hope even if they collided.
Later, accompanied by a friend, he went to look for a job together, but it seemed that no job was to his liking. When he went to dinner with his friend, he couldn’t afford to pay for the meal because he was poor and had to look around the restaurant: an obese old lady who was eating heavily; an old man who was feeding food to his dog; and his friend who was feasting next to him. He finally couldn’t stand all this and left early.
After two failed fireman interviews, he had to sneak back to his rented room because he was afraid of facing the rent lady to force him to pay the rent, and after hastily writing a letter of recommendation for a bookkeeper in a grocery store, he dared not deliver it himself, but entrusted a child to help him deliver it.
All this suggests the miserable situation of this literary young man, but he still saw the hope of love brought by a beautiful and noble maiden.
But this hope seems to be nothing but another ambush of despair, because from the first unreasonable stalking, to the second from the walk to her home, he never knew the real name of the girl, except YIajali a name born in his imagination.
The director seems to have dropped two hints here, one is that the hero is actually living in his own fantasy, and the other is that the hope he sees for so-called love is actually just the product of his wishful thinking.
He was so hungry that he was fighting with his dog for food both in reality and in his dreams, sleeping on the street, woken up by the patrol, went back to his rented room and went back to sleep, and the next day was inspired to write an article, which he intended to sell for 10 francs, which he thought was a very good deal, and even felt that the deal was more like an act of charity to the world, so he excitedly shouted out the window “If you want to thank God, you might as well Thank me!” But then he was thrown out of the street with all his belongings a stained blanket by a landlady.
In the subsequent wandering around met a crippled, unemployed and on the verge of bankruptcy of nail shoemaker, he in the role of his compassion, in the cold winter he had a warm cotton clothes to pawn, in exchange for 1 furlong to the nail shoemaker, and reminded him that he should maintain dignity, our hero seems to be very good at this game of giving and receiving, by giving something to others to get self-psychological He is very good at this game of giving and receiving, by giving something to others to get some kind of satisfaction that he has been lacking.
But happily his essay stood out among the others and needed only a slight change to get 10 francs, but unfortunately fate seemed to be playing tricks on him and tomorrow’s 10 francs still belonged to another tomorrow. He was so hungry that he ate pieces of paper, wood shavings, and raw meat on the bones discarded by the sausage factory in the back alley, but all these things were hard to swallow and were spit out, and after some complaining he broke down and cried like a child.
In fact, he did not have to live so penniless, because fate took you 10, then it will give you back 10 through another aspect: he wanted to go to the grocery store to buy a candle to light the new “rented” room, the grocery clerk mistakenly thought he had paid 10 francs, the candle and change into his hands. . But he hesitates to take the windfall, because he has to choose between survival and his own morality, and finally he chooses the former. The only food that belonged to him in the film, he had to eat a few bites and that was it. He wakes up the next day deeply angry about his greed last night, but he gives the illegal change to the old lady selling baklava to redeem his promise, then rushes into the grocery store and blames his mistake entirely on the clerk’s mistake, and ends his journey of atonement with a series of “shame” condemnations.
Later, when the room is rented out because he cannot afford to pay the rent, he has to spend the night in the landlady’s house. He sees the rudeness of the junior to the senior, but he feels powerless as an outsider who cannot condemn. The next day on the bridge, he met his favorite girl with a gentleman, and he simply imagined their relationship as a couple because of the words of others.
When he returns to his rented room, he is thrown out by the landlady because he has no money, but accidentally receives another ten francs from the girl, which he dumps on the landlady just to save face, and together with the quilt that he recklessly gave to an old man, he has nothing left.
This nothingness seems to be forced by society, but in reality it is more the result of his own sensitivity and endless imagination, as well as his obsession with so called qualities (dignity and compassion). Character determines destiny.
When he despairs of the city, it is the time for him to embark on another journey, he came to the pier, took off his glasses to apply for the crew, and finally waited for the long-awaited success —- captain agreed to his application, this sudden success made him feel happy, came to the bow of the ship to look around, his face full of determination for a new journey, but he was not wearing glasses at this time, accompanied by anxious background music The director implies here that he is actually unable to see how his future is, as he is in a state of wandering throughout the film —- he does not own a house, that is, the film shows only one of his wandering journey, his bad situation in this journey, will it change in the next new journey?
