Look for memories, and save for tomorrow

Cat-Wings

This is a story that depicts loneliness and darkness and directed by Jan Komasa. Domink is a high school student who is only an son and was brought up in a wealthy family. Although he hides his wonder as to whether he might be a gay, he is an ordinary high school student, keeping in touch with friends on Facebook, laughing at a shocking video with them, and doing well with his life until his senior prom before graduation. His parents, always busy with their jobs, have created a barrier called isolation to keep him away. Dominik still manages himself in everyday life, but jokingly kissing Aleksander at a party unfolds Dominik's secret sense of homosexuality. Meanwhile, the kiss with the two boys is uploaded and hits a public relations on the net instantly. Whilst Domink enjoys the tension from the video and the comments at first, he becomes the laughingstock and his affection towards Aleksander ends up as a sense of betrayal. This causes him to become an outcast. Then, Dominik is invited into the chat room of virtual world called "Suicide Room" by a girl who can't find any hope in the real world. Whilst talking with the girl in the virtual world, he starts withdrawing from the real world, being attracted by her negative and mysterious allurement.

The story is well-conceived, expressing the changes of Dominik's psychological state: ordinary adolescence, close-mindedness, withdrawal, mental confusion, symptom of depression, etc. There is a distance in the worlds between the world where his parents and the psychologist live, and the world where Dominik lives. There is also his psychological condition where the diremption is making everything in his everyday life shut away from the real world, and his mental state that makes him attempt suicide. This makes the audience feel as if it is letting them walk through an endless, dark tunnel that has no exit. The net may make you feel platonic and eternity in a sense. Once you go out, you will see many people out there. Even though people may feel like they are connecting with each other through SNS, they may also feel isolated as if they are a grain of sand in the desert. This film well-depicted such distortion created in the net within the modern society. The ending is negative, leaving every question unanswered to the audience. The theme of the story, a person falls into a virtual world since he/she doesn't fit in anywhere, which may be a possible story. However, this will ring the heavy bell of your heart.

score 9/10

Cat-Wings 16 April 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2598106/