Song Xinying's "Evil Girl" movie analysis|Shao Yuwei, Lin Meixiu: Under the traditional gender role, who is the evil girl?|Pick a film for you

The movie "Wicked Girl" is a Taiwanese suspense thriller written and directed by Song Xinying, the director of the Golden Horse Award for Best Animated Feature Film "On the Road to Happiness", starring Lin Meixiu and Shao Yuwei. Inspired by the 2009 "Kanae Kijima Case" in Japan, a middle-aged woman captured countless men to cheat on marriage and money, known as the legendary case of "marriage activity murder".

The whole plot revolves around the power and fighting spirit of the two female characters, Huang Limei (played by Shao Yuwei) and He Xiulan (played by Lin Meixiu). "Evil Girl" not only guides the audience to reflect on what good and evil is through the twists of the plot, but also brings out the moral constraints of traditional values on women.

Audiences who have watched the trailer usually have general expectations and imaginations about the direction of the plot, and when we enter the theater with these preset ideas, it also verifies the core question buried by director Song Xinying in this film: Under the rules of good and evil, are we all invisibly and become evildoers?

(The following content involves part of the plot, please read it carefully)

Stills from "Wicked Girl".

Under traditional gender roles, who is the evil woman?

I like the contrast between Huang Limei and He Xiulan, one is in the workplace and dominates at home, and the other is gentle and graceful, and knows how to grasp people's hearts with affection. Although this setting is not new, under the deduction of the plot, it has made me reflect on traditional gender roles differently.

Compared with Huang Limei's outstanding performance in the workplace, He Xiulan had to make a living through massage work due to her poor family background and different backgrounds of the times, so she learned how to please people in such an environment and learned to use emotional giving to obtain monetary returns, which in Limei's eyes, is a low-level behavior of selling her body.

But if you return to the family scene, what the traditional thinking expects is not a wife who can take care of the family and accompany her husband faithfully? Xiulan not only can cook and be coquettish, but also knows what kind of companionship men want; on the other hand, Limei has been returning late from work for a long time and is not good at cooking, but it is the skills accumulated in the workplace that allow her to use her skills to protect her family from harm.

(Screening at the same scene: Song Xinying's "Evil Girl" 6 major analysis: Lin Meixiu and Shao Yuwei are scheming, inspired by real serial murders!)

Xiulan and Limei seem to be very different, but they both "meet" society's expectations of female characters at some levels, and they also take care of the people around them in their own ways, but their love does not end well.

Limi, who is accustomed to holding the details in her hands, eventually encounters her fiancé's repentance, her lover's deception, and even drives her father to a dead end.

This kind of plot may make some people feel old-fashioned, but the reflection is: why do we always assume that women like Ritsumi can't have a good relationship, and if the characters are reversed, will we have the same expectations?

Stills from "Wicked Girl".

Such a reflection also appeared in He Xiulan's debut. Lin Meixiu interprets He Xiulan's mysterious charm very well, in the face of Limei's fierce pursuit, intentional or unintentional ridicule, and overwhelming murder accusations, Xiulan calmly defends herself in court or in front of the media, and is not affected by external comments in the slightest.

Even if all kinds of signs point to Xiulan being the "evil girl" who manipulates people's hearts and harms people's lives, but under Xiulan's counterattacks again and again, it is difficult for you to really hate this character, because she chooses to face it in a straight ball duel, and also throws a question to everyone: Is it really wrong for women to give emotional companionship and use "sex" in exchange for returns?

(Screening at the same scene: Japanese drama "Evil Girl" drama review: Imada Mizakura challenges the definition of "good woman", under the patriarchal system, who is a survivor?)

In the process of watching the wrestling between the two female characters in "Wicked Girl", you will feel that the original preset position is slowly loosened, and you can see again what relationships and gender issues are hidden behind the mysteries. It also allows the audience to change from the perspective of "who are the evil women" to the thinking of "what makes them evil women?".

Maybe Xiulan really didn't kill anyone, but was just pursuing a fair relationship that could support and take care of each other, so she chose to leave those who thought she could be tied up with money, which was the public's discrimination against Xiulan's appearance, age, and occupation, making her a wicked girl. And Limi, because of her prejudice against Xiulan, has never been able to see the "evil" in her heart and her teammates around her, and finally embarked on the wrong path and became an evil girl.

Stills from "Wicked Girl".

There is no absolute justice, in fact, we are all evil

"In this world, there is no such thing as justice at all. 」

At the end of the plot, Xiulan was acquitted and successfully cleared her grievances, and Limi also became a more influential female anchor, and personally broadcast the news of Xiulan's release. Colleagues were upset about Limei, thinking that Xiulan's ability to escape death was a failure of social justice, but Limei just replied lightly: "In this world, there is no so-called justice at all. 」

Just like when looking at all controversial events in society, we always want to quickly stand on the side of what we think is "right", and this phenomenon is even more serious in modern times when social media and information dissemination are so advanced. What people care about is often not the truth of the incident, but how to claim the so-called justice in public opinion.

However, everyone sees the world from their own perspective, and if we ignore the intangible framework created by the context of growth, it is easy to judge others with a biased eye.

(Gaying in the same scene: discrimination, prejudice, and learned helplessness created the tragedy of the clown)

Stills from "Wicked Girl".

Just like Limi, because she thinks that she is cheapening herself by transferring money through sex, she has not been able to track the case from a fair perspective, and while asking Xiulan to present evidence, she easily believed the prosecutor's lies. When the public looked at Xiulan's case, what they thought about was not why the deceased thought that Xiulan had no choice to leave, but portrayed her as a cold-blooded femme fatale who sought money and killed her.

Director Song Xinying once said that when she created the movie "Evil Girl", she expected the audience to bring their own experience into the process of watching the movie, to think about "what is good, what is evil?"

Walking out of the cinema, I can't help but think back to the perspective from which I interpreted these major events in the past.

Readers are invited to watch the theater together, maybe we have unintentionally become the evil in the eyes of others at some moments, or maybe it is because of the perspective with a stance that we let others become evil, hoping that after watching the movie, we can more consciously see our own potential "evil" and discover those "good" outside the framework.