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Apr 22, 2024
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hkmovie2024-2
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Life
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I didn't expect to be so emotionally moved by this film, nor have I cried like that for a movie in a long time.
It started on a depressingly heavy note, depicting school bullying, domestic violence, verbal abuse, and suicidal teens - grim realities one might anticipate and dread from a film tackling Asian education pressures, both academic and familial.
The first moment that broke me was when Mr. Cheng took a student to an isolated place where she could scream and release her overwhelming stress. As Cheng demonstrated how to do that by yelling out, my own tears suddenly streamed down. It was like his rawness shattered an internal barrier, allowing all the pent-up tension from the movie's bleak early scenes to pour out. I vividly recalled a similar experience after a past break-up, unable to fully process the pain initially, going about my routines - until one night, my mom's shouts at my sister triggered an eruption of all the emotions I had bottled up. Like a dam bursting, everything I was holding back flooded out uncontrollably.
From that point forward in the film, I cried repeatedly, at times having to muffle myself as I could hear muffled sobs from someone at the back of the theater as well.
While I appreciated the movie for exposing the traumatic toxicity ingrained in traditional Asian, especially Chinese and Hong Kongese, parenting, educational, and societal values, I wished it had gone further to explicitly condemn this as utterly wrong. Yes, it powerfully portrayed the harm caused by relentlessly pressuring all children into narrow definitions of success solely measured by top grades, prestigious careers like law or medicine, and accomplishments like mastering piano. But I longed for an assertive voice to emerge declaring this mentality itself as misguided and destructive - that every child is unique, with their own talents and potentials that shouldn't be stifled. The act of comparing ourselves to others is fruitless, for each of us walks a unique path in life. Attempting to mold ourselves into someone else's image denies our authentic selves. Rather than fixating on how we measure up, we must embrace our individuality and extraordinary personal journeys. Constant comparison breeds toxic jealousy, inadequacy and dissatisfaction. True fulfillment arises from self-acceptance and charting a course true to our innermost beings. When liberated from comparison, we open our lives to the richness of self-actualization.
Yelling, scolding, and physical abuse don't propel children, only wounding them psychologically in ways that linger into adulthood, when the so-called "successful" ones can perhaps afford therapy. But what of those who don't "make it" - how do they cope with and heal from such traumas? We must examine not just the outward behaviors, but the flawed values driving such toxic environments. Only by truly understanding and rejecting the erroneous underlying beliefs can we break this vicious cycle.
One of the most disturbing underlying themes I found portrayed in this gut-punch of a film was the insidious lack of valuing true equality and inherent human worth in certain Asian cultural traditions. At its darkest core, this mentality breeds systemic dehumanization.
Look at how casually the father figure abuses his wife and son throughout the movie. There's no hint of remorse or even self-awareness that his actions are unacceptably cruel. Why? Because on some level, he simply doesn't see them as fully human in the same way he views himself.
In his clearly hierarchical worldview, they occupy lower status roles - wife, child. And with their perceived lesser "rank," he evidently sees no issue with disregarding their basic dignity and autonomy. They are just subordinate beings beneath him, making it permissible to inflict emotional (and physical) harm however he chooses.
You see this sickening arrogance on display from nearly every authority figure depicted - teachers scolding students, parents demeaning their children, husbands degrading wives. There's a continuous lack of acknowledging their fundamental equality as sacred human souls worthy of care and respect.
It's like these systemic power imbalances have utterly warped their ability to appreciate the shared humanity they have with those they view as beneath their lofty stations. There's no true respect there, and without that foundational human regard, how could they possibly treat these "inferiors" with real compassion or love?
This mindset of perpetual human hierarchy, of enshrined inequality, is precisely what poisons so many of the cultural traditions and norms portrayed. It provides the insidious ethical framework to dismiss, belittle and outright abuse those designated as "lesser" in the decreed social orders.
And that is perhaps the saddest, most spiritually bankrupt aspect of the archaic thinking still woven through certain Asian cultural roots. This utter inability - or willful refusal - to recognize our universal, intrinsic human worth and equality as souls sharing this earthly existence.
Until that core ideology of dehumanizing separateness is overhauled, the cycles of multi-generational emotional (and physical) trauma will only perpetuate. We cannot heal from such toxic mentalities until we uproot them fully, replacing them with the liberating values of our fundamental equality, dignity and human solidarity.