De uskyldige A child development fable that is not suitable for children
This is a unique thriller, calm and restrained with a hint of gloom. It may really be a side of the land to feed a side of the people, the atmosphere shaped by this film is also like the cold wind coming in late autumn, the whole basically did not appear too scary or gory scenes, but let the audience themselves to “think carefully”, seriously thinking about it, the generation will be a little creepy. Scare index for the literary youth, keen social issues of the audience is about 4.5 stars, for horror film fans is 3 stars (not much surprise), for the plasma film cult film fans should be about 1.5 stars.
Although not very scary, but if you look at it as a fable about the exploration of children’s development, the film can be said to be quite good in the plot and character building. Because the plot is generally very simple to understand, so here I want to focus on the characterization of four children: Benjamin, Elsa, Anna, Ida.
Benjamin and Elsa I think these two should be said together, because they have a lot of similarities, but at the same time there are many opposing points. They are like two people inside and outside the mirror, a mirror image of each other after. First of all, Benjamin and Elsa are both marginalized in the community life, before the arrival of the protagonist’s family basically no children to play with them both. Secondly, they are both family environment is also very close, single-parent families of immigrant descent. I think the creators of such a careful set-up is not a coincidence, is for the audience to point out that these two are contradictory community, one gives the attribute of evil, one gives the attribute of good. And how to be added to such attributes is exactly the point that this film wants to emphasize: that is, how people’s personalities grow up.
Benjamin and Elsa also have “special powers”, and Benjamin’s in the beginning also slightly with some offensive attributes, such as hitting things in the air, Elsa is proficient in mind reading. These skills at the beginning seem to be harmless, and as the film develops gradually evolved into a positive and an evil situation. The transformation begins with some subtle, easily overlooked by adults in the details of life and environmental factors. Despite the family resemblance, Benjamin’s mother is clearly not as patient with him as Elsa’s mother is with Elsa, and perhaps scolds him. At the same time, he was also subjected to bad boy bullying, from the beginning of contact with Ida implied that although he did not fight back, but will also use the “slingshot” skills to fight back weakly. And with the arrival of the two sisters Ida, Benjamin and with a little “little evil” Ida played together, Aisha and Anna became partners.
Benjamin and Ida play together, the courage and mischief began to escalate. We all love to brag about ourselves in front of others when we are young, showing ourselves to gain a sense of identity and satisfaction. Benjamin is no exception, long lonely child just got a friend can not wait to show their special powers, followed by the iconic incident of killing a cat. This event is the small climax of the first part of the film, but also an important watershed. In terms of criminal psychology, many serial killers start by mutilating small animals, which laid the groundwork. Sure enough, after Benjamin a frenzy, kill soccer bullies, their own mother and Elsa, on the road to crime. But in the final analysis, he started out as a bad guy?
Aisha has a vitiligo defect on her face, and is not liked by children in the community as well as Benjamin, and likewise her mother seems to have a lot of problems, such as a scene where her mother is sobbing secretly behind a cupboard door. But the difference is that Aisha’s mother is more patient with Aisha, no matter what, she whispers softly, and is considered a good mother. Aisha chooses Anna, who is mentally challenged, as her playmate, and uses her mind-reading skills to connect with her, finding her inner world pure and beautiful. Personality-wise, Elsa is a precocious and friendly child, able to distinguish between right and wrong, and getting along with Anna further enhances her kind attributes. But as mentioned earlier, she and Benjamin are a community of contradictions, mirroring life, and even in a sense they can be treated as one person, when a person’s heart is occupied by “evil”, his body “good” will also disappear. So Elsa’s death, and death at the hands of Benjamin in the development of the story is inevitably doomed. That is, Benjamin himself abandoned his own goodness.
Anna Anna is a teenage girl, due to childhood illness resulting in the loss of language skills and mental retardation. She is also the film in addition to Benjamin and Elsa, another person with “special powers”. I personally think this is a great characterization. If you want to insert a character into a children’s coming-of-age film, how do you set up a character who is both a “child” and a different kind of intimidator? The creators of this film offer a good idea: Anna, a “child” with intelligence stuck at about three or four years old, but with a 13 or 14-year-old physical girl. Intelligence allows her to mix in children without conflict, physical strength and symbol of her intimidating power, that is, above Benjamin’s superpowers. In this film, she is a positive force representing the pure and beautiful, not affected by the impurities of the world of true beauty.
Of course, if you look at it from a realistic point of view, this character is also set up to call on people not to ignore this group, they also have an inner world, although perhaps only Aisha’s superpowers to hear, but at least as loved ones (sister Ida) and other must try to care about understanding her.
Although Anna is the most powerful “big boss”, but in this children’s development film, she is more towards the role of a tool. The film still focuses on the topic of child development, so Ida’s journey is the most critical.
Ida Ida’s initial appearance made me a bit “hunting” as a bad child by accident, a bit of fear haha. Of course, her growth later is also bright this is a child development film based on, that is, back to the proposition: how a person’s good or bad is formed.
The first part of the film Ida to his sister’s shoes stuffed with broken glass, and Benjamin as from the beginning with a bit of mischief evil attributes. Immediately after is a lakeside scene, Ida and Benjamin’s first meeting, in the mirror-like shallow lake beach across the shore to look at each other, when the camera blurred Benjamin’s figure. Benjamin found the new kid who moved in, took the initiative to approach and successfully made friends. But after the meow abuse incident, Ida slowly makes a choice step by step on the path of good and evil, and eventually rejects the evil symbolized by Benjamin.
The cat abuse incident is a watershed in the development of the film, but also the beginning of Ida’s growth. Why Ida tied her sister a foot of blood, pinching the arm so that a variety of bad things do not change their faces, but the small animals moved a compassionate heart? The reason is that she felt the cat’s misery at that moment. As a “non-feeling” sister, unable to vocalize or reflect the pain, and the cat’s low gasp, stand up and fall and the sound of a broken skull, she was really experienced. Empathy is the basis of sympathy, when Aisha conveyed Anna’s heart and restore some language, Anna in the eyes of Ida became a complete “person”, and a pure smile.
So when Ida’s sensibility is awakened, Benjamin’s escalating mischief (broken-legged boy, vengeful gangster, killing Elsa) makes her more and more uncomfortable, eventually leading to a break. After Benjamin kills Elsa, who symbolizes her own goodness, Ida finally stands with Anna in a showdown by the lake where they first met. She clasped her sister’s hand and firmly said goodbye to evil. The sister transformed into a warrior and defeated the evil in the duel, like a fairy tale with a grand ending. The feeling I got was that the adults had made a movie for adults in the form of a children’s fable.
Finally, I would like to mention that there are several groups of shots quite interesting, the duel when the children watching the battle on the balcony, reminding us that this is something that happens in the world of children, the whole film adults are basically at the key to the development of the plot is in the absence of the state. So it does not matter whether there are superpowers, these adults do not see, and there are many adults can not see the place and things, perhaps the key to the children become good and bad.
