Envy Movie: A Different Man

Let's stop admiring others.

A cool line from Shohei Ohtani. It might be possible to do that for just one day, for sure.
But even if an envious person hears such a famous quote, their envious nature won't disappear.
I am one of them.

I admired Jackie Chan and started karate out of the frustration of losing fights.
I kept at it to escape the inferiority complex of being a coward.
That hasn't disappeared even now. It doesn't go away just by beating someone else.
Because I decided that I was the weak one and that guy was the strong one.
Even now, I feel like he's still making fun of me, even though I don't even remember his face.

The Elephant Man

Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, was a 19th-century Englishman who suffered from a disease that caused his body to deform.
After various events, he ended up working in a freak show, and it is said that he spent his final days peacefully in a hospital.
Before his symptoms worsened, he was a kind and intelligent person.
However, those around him judged him to have low intelligence based on his speech and appearance.
He is the model for the movie "The Elephant Man".
"A Different Man" is the Japanese title; the original title is a play on words. *1
Also, the scene where he is moved by a woman treating him kindly is based on Joseph's experience, and that scene appears in both movies.

In short, the director of both films projected himself onto Joseph to create them.
The Elephant Man overlaps the director's own preferences with Joseph's appearance to tell a story of "I am human too."
On the other hand, A Different Man is a story about whether the director's life would have changed if he didn't have a cleft palate. *2

Placebo Effect

A phenomenon where even a drug with no medicinal effect works due to the power of suggestion.
Edward is overly concerned with whether things are a "placebo." He uses the word even after his face changes. Speaking of his own assumptions, he decided that Ingrid was a wonderful person.

I understand idealizing your first love.
But she was a dangerous woman from the start.
The men she brings home are different every time, she hides that the script is based on a real person,
she ends the play with a cliché suicide, and she flips her attitude.
She even gives off a femme fatale vibe, saying, "I warned you." But Edward decided she was a goddess.

He is prone to strong assumptions.
The grinning man in sunglasses on the train, the nurse who reluctantly changed his bandages,
and even the mime who doesn't move a muscle—he feels like they are all laughing at him. *3

On the other hand, Oswald is moved by the performance when he sees the mime.
He doesn't seem to care about his appearance, he was being hit on by women at the bar, and he can sing in public.
Edward is jealous of him. Because he is a friendly and charming man who is the same as him. But is he really charming?

At the bar, he says, "I made a fortune in investments."
Then you could also think of it this way:
"Oswald has money, so people are sponging off him."
The woman at the bar is talking and laughing with her friends.
Whether you take that as "He's wonderful" or "He's going to treat us again," it depends on your perspective.
I take it as me being laughed at and others being respected.

Adam Pearson, who played Oswald, answered about his role:
"He's not a hero or a villain. He just appeared."
In other words, there is no special meaning to his appearance.
But Edward doesn't think so.
I don't know what he thought of Oswald.
Did he feel like he appeared having picked up the face he threw away?
Did he think he had hijacked his life?
Because there are almost no scenes where Edward's state of mind is spoken.

Natsume Soseki's "Kusamakura" (The Three-Cornered World)

A novel famous for the phrase, "If you work with your intellect, you'll get into trouble..."
"In this world, it is hard to live," because you care about other people.

I don't think everything is an assumption. In reality, there are people who laugh at faces, and there is discrimination. But if Edward had that face from the beginning, I feel like he wouldn't have been able to live like Oswald. Even after becoming handsome, he was a person with weak convictions.
In other words, he assumed that he became unhappy because of his face.
That's why he fears Oswald. Because he is an existence that denies his theory.
He assumed that "he is living an ideal life with the same face."
Even though that might not be the case.

The two people Edward admired were a bit off, getting into cults and cocaine.
The movie based on his life apparently flopped.
The greener grass he longed for was just common weeds.
Facing those two, Edward gives a bitter smile.
"What, they were just guys like this?" ...That's what I decided.
This is also an assumption. I'm just calling my delusions "analysis."

In truth, I don't know what his bitter smile means.
Is it self-mockery for his unchanging self, or is it mockery of the two of them,
or is it a wry smile at the director realizing his own assumptions?
There is no answer. Because I am a different person from Edward.

Summary

Life changes based on your assumptions.

Notes & Memoranda

*1
The Elephant Man was intentionally filmed in black and white, not color.
A Different Man has an analog-like picture with a grainy feel.
It seems to be an effect called film grain. It is also used to create a sense of fiction.
In short, both use filming methods that create an old-fashioned texture.
I feel like the inability to whistle was also in The Elephant Man.

*2
A cleft palate is a lip disorder. The director has had surgery, but the scars remain.

*3
The man in sunglasses might have been laughing at something else, and the nurse might just hate the sight of blood. Of course, there is also the possibility that they were laughing at Edward and were disgusted.

- Is there really no meaning behind the red door and the red typewriter?