Wen Zhang Tong. Just looking at the synopsis of "Wading Through the Angry Sea", coupled with the labels of plot, suspense and crime, I believe most people will think that this is a revenge drama: daughter Jin Nana was killed, father Lao Jin "avenged love", and the suspect's mother Jing Lan fought wits and courage in order to protect her son Li Miaomiao and Lao Jin.
Generally speaking, in this kind of crime film, whether or not to be judged by "justice" in the end is often the biggest suspense point and the biggest "cool point". But as long as the audience has watched the film in its entirety, they will find that this is actually an "anti-revenge" story dressed as a "revenge drama". And what is the "love" in Lao Jin's "Revenge for Love" is actually the biggest issue in this film.
The surface story of "Wading through the Sea of Anger" is about the mental health of a teenager, but the deeper level is the "face of love" in the traditional family. This is very similar to the previously released "Dog Thirteen". It's just that "Dog Thirteen" is a family film, and it is cut from the perspective of a daughter;And "Wading Through the Sea of Wrath" is a mature commercial genre film that cuts from the perspective of a father. It is precisely because it is his father's perspective that it also paves the way for the huge reversal of Lao Jin's emotions in the later plays. This is also the difference between this work and the almost realistic "Dog Thirteen".
"Dog Thirteen" uses a large number of family scenes to show the patriarchal problem hidden in the family and the intergenerational communication problem between family members. When most of the audience has already seen through the essence behind the narrative of "It's all for your good", "Wading Through the Sea of Anger" directly uses the "attitude" of a suspense drama to let the audience experience the "heartiness" of revenge in the reversed plot, but when it is really "Wading through the Sea of Anger", what is waiting for Lao Jin is also waiting for the audience, which is actually a huge joke made by life.
Multiple reversals in the plot are the characteristics of genre films, but Lao Jin's emotional epiphany is actually the biggest reversal in this film, and it is also the core issue that this film wants to express. For Lao Jin, he always thought that his daughter was killed by Li Miaomiao, and he wanted to be the one who stabbed the enemy. In the end, he found out that his daughter committed suicide, and the reason for the suicide was related to her lack of love when she was growing up, and it was only at this time that he came to the biggest reversal of this film.
After he crosses the country to chase the murderer, he wades through the sea of anger before he realizes that he is the culprit who caused his daughter's death. And such a result was actually explained as early as the early stage of the film. At the beginning of the film, Lao Jin faced the death of his daughter, and his revenge statement was not out of love, but out of "How dare you touch my old Jin's daughter, my old Jin has been ruined by you in this life." This is also what some people say, the traditional concept of "killing a woman and killing a wife is like moving me". This also echoes the phrase "love, no" when Kim Nana, who just came to Japan to learn Xi language at the end of the film, made up words in Japanese. And the fact that Jin Nana thinks that there is no love between father and daughter is something that Lao Jin didn't realize before he found out the truth.
This is actually the film's biggest deconstruction of the traditional concept of "silent father's love". Before Jin Nana's death, Lao Jin and his daughter depended on each other, and in their families, there was no role of mother. To a certain extent, this is also the creator's concern for the social issue of "widowed parenting", but the film sets a more extreme situation for this: what will the child be like after "widowed parenting" in the absence of the role of mother.
I have to say that the audience who followed Lao Jin's perspective and took revenge all the way felt emotionally felt the impact much greater than the impact brought by the plot reversal. Like "Dog Thirteen", the film seems to be about an emotional problem within a family, but it is actually about a social problem. But the creator only asks questions, but does not give solutions, which is actually the creator's greatest awe of reality.
Interestingly, whether it is "Dog Thirteen" or "Wading through the Sea of Anger" released now, the father's perception of love in it has not even changed. They are always concerned about whether their children have enough money, and they never think about how to care for their children on a spiritual level. For example, in "Dog Thirteen", the father's greatest love for his daughter is to use money to compensate his daughter after a quarrel with her;In "Wading in the Sea of Anger", all Lao Jin thinks about is the tuition fee for Jin Nana's overseas study.
If you think about it, you don't really blame them. Neither father may have known how to care for his children on a spiritual level. If you restore the background of the two fathers, they both grew up in an era of material scarcity, they understand the pain of material scarcity, and it is logical that they believe that giving their children enough material satisfaction is the greatest care for their children.
For children living in a materially abundant society, "money" is no longer the primary concern of this generation, for this generation, being able to communicate and exchange with their parents at the spiritual level is their biggest need. However, the reality is that in most families, parents and children have nothing to talk about when they are separated from material topics, which is worthy of the attention of people in today's society.
Text: Zhang Tong.
Editor-in-charge: Wang Yuanfang.
Editor: Zhang Xueyu and Sun Dai.