Babel, I don't know how to ask.

The word "Babel" is taken from Chapter 11 of the Bible. It tells the story that after the flood, the people left on Noah's ark were arrogant and wanted to build a tower of Babel to see God. So God was very angry and confused their language, which led to the inability to unify thoughts, cultural differences, differences, guesses and other issues. As a result, the tower became a bubble. The word "Babel" means "chaos" in Hebrew.

If the word "Babel" can directly point to the core of the film, then the word "butterfly effect" can explain the structural problems of the film more or less. The "butterfly effect" was put forward by meteorologist Lorenz in 1963, which is probably a guide to a butterfly flapping its wings occasionally in the tropical rain forest of the Amazon basin in America, which may trigger a tornado in Texas in two weeks. The reason is that the movement of butterfly wings leads to the change of the surrounding air system, producing weak airflow, which in turn will cause the corresponding change of the surrounding air or other systems, causing a chain reaction, which will eventually lead to great changes in other systems.

It seems unnecessary to say the structure of the film. Director Alexsandro is a master of playing with structure. Love is a Bitch and 2 1 Minute were written by him, and there have been many movies with this narrative structure recently, from Pulp Fiction to car crash. So when commenting, the author still follows the order. Although this lacks the director's original intention of "chaos", it is indeed clearer and the terrible butterfly effect can be seen.

The film started in the desert of Morocco, but in fact, the wings of butterflies occasionally flutter in Japan, and it was the father of the deaf-mute girl who gave the gun to Hassan, a Moroccan. In fact, it is hard to say whether the girl's mother killed herself with a gun or her father gave the gun first, but it doesn't matter, just use a rifle and the story will happen.

After Hassan turned the gun upside down, two children accidentally shot and killed an American tourist while playing. Because the incident happened in Morocco, an Arab country, the situation became full of political significance, and even the whole world was caught in a terrorist attack. Everyone's attention has already surpassed the simple matter of Japanese father sending a gun.

In order to get rid of this embarrassment, Moroccan police quickly solved the case and two children were arrested, but American tourists have been taken to the hospital. But American tourists in a foreign land don't know that their two children also have problems. A Mexican nanny took her two children to Mexico for a wedding, but on the way back, she was suspected, so the two children spent time in the desert for no reason.

At the same time, deaf girls in Japan desperately want to attract others' attention. When her youth sprouted, it almost caused bitter fruit, and her father finally came to the bottom. Of course, the so-called terrorist attack was broken.

The whole story seems so absurd, and its internal connection is not so close. Neither the nanny problem nor the gun delivery put the events in these three places into the story. Then, what we see can be said to be three independent stories, which happened on the American border, Morocco and Japan respectively.

The misunderstanding when the nanny took the employer's children back to Mexico caused serious consequences. Although the two children are safe, it is a real disaster for this woman who has lived in the United States for 16 years, and she must be deported. The immigration policy of the United States is extremely fragile for such foreigners, and the misunderstanding is also because Americans are hostile to Mexicans and mistakenly think that they are so-and-so suspects. It is almost impossible for a Mexican to truly integrate into American society. It's a great irony that he has lived 16 years and is not even qualified to work.

The story of Tokyo happened to a deaf-mute girl. First of all, the establishment of this disabled identity shows the girl's desire for the outside world, but in fact, she can't reach her desire at all, so she takes sexual transfer as a way to integrate herself into society, exposing herself, taking ecstasy and soaking in discos. These are the means by which she tried to integrate into society and become a member of society, but in fact, she didn't succeed. As a result, she fell into despair. Telling the police about her mother's jumping off a building is actually a sign of her hopeless life and an extreme possibility for her to escape from society. In her fantasy, her father was asleep at the moment when her mother jumped off the building, which actually showed that she could not be taken care of by her father at home. Therefore, we can see that what this adolescent girl craves most is the care from her father. When the girl took off her clothes and stood in front of the police, she tried to find a kind of care similar to her father.

The highlight of the film took place in Morocco, where two teenagers shot and killed American tourists because of the game, so this incident was immediately sensitively defined as a terrorist attack. As a result, everyone was nervous. Moroccan police are busy solving crimes, tourists are busy saving themselves, and troubled teenagers are busy running away. Peter's tourists are isolated, with no language, inconvenient transportation and communication barriers, which he must face and endure, while his wife is in do or die. But as a couple with problems, this life-and-death test eliminated their barriers. Maybe only in where will you go can people really sit down and communicate, even lovers. However, these two teenagers are in a bad state. From the film's point of view, two teenagers live in the mountains, helpless. Shooting is actually one of the ways they go out, and it is also a manifestation of their ability. But unfortunately, they shot at the wrong place, and their boring and closed life hurt them. In the face of international terrorism, they can only choose to escape. Their brother was finally killed and their two children became tragedies. The biggest irony is the speech of the American government. When the facts were presented to the audience, we saw that the American government was bent on terrorist attacks. This characterization is a natural thinking of Americans, especially in the country of Aberra. On the one hand, this shows the boredom of American political means, on the other hand, it also shows Americans' strong sense of crisis. They seem to think that they are the object of global unity.

Three stories are told in three places. In fact, the smallest story is the deaf-mute girl in Japan, which shows a kind of communication difficulty between people, not only with the outside world, but also between the girl and her father in the family. Although the girl at the end of the film is naked in her father's arms, can this really represent that kind of heart-to-heart communication? The director's intention is good, but the high-rise lights in Tokyo have ruthlessly lost this intention. It is also the communication between people. Isn't it a tragedy that American passengers must pass the test of life and death to continue their love?

If there is a sadness in the communication between people, then the communication between countries is a terrible hostility. Although the United States and Mexico border each other, all the policies are not worthy of the name, and all the conceptual doubts are reflected in this nanny's story. The real hostility is naturally the confrontation between the United States and Arab countries. The first reaction of the American government caused by the shooting incident is a symbol of hostility, which has existed for a long time and has been talked about by all the media. But it was an accident, so that sensitive hostility turned into great irony.

Due to the inability to communicate and misunderstand, human society has produced problems of one kind or another. These problems, whether confined to individuals, or extended to certain ethnic groups, or between countries, are very terrible and may turn into hostility. When Peter shakes hands with Arabs on the plane in the film, the director is still a little kind, but what if Peter's wife dies? Maybe the tornado will blow harder.

This film shows not only the problems of the United States itself, but also a people-oriented communication relationship. Although it satirizes the immigration and subjective national opinions of the American government, it is obviously extremely ambitious and powerful in this year's Oscar competition. It is also reasonable to be the biggest award-winning film this year.

Tongzhou February 2007-13

Han Xi