Unraveling the mysterious world of ``The Enemy.'' Pleasure entangled in sweet chaos.

Symbol of a spider

As mentioned earlier, the image of a spider appears repeatedly in the film The Enemy. There are two main symbols that creators projected onto spiders.

An easy-to-understand clue is a shot of a gigantic spider with legs longer than Toronto's skyscrapers walking leisurely. Many people may have felt a sense of déjà vu when looking at the shape of this spider. This is a homage to French sculptor Louise Bourgeois' series of giant spider statues, ``Maman,'' one of which is also on display at Tokyo's Roppongi Hills. The abdomen of the Maman statue contains several marble eggs. It is clear that the spider symbolizes ``motherhood,'' and the image also overlaps with Helen's swollen stomach.

Another symbol is the image of ``domination, control'' associated with a spider's web. In the film, instead of depicting spider threads and webs directly, they are hinted at by wires for streetcars strung above the streets and cracks in the form of spider webs that spread across the windows of cars involved in accidents.

Based on the above, let's consider the interpretation of ``The Enemy.''

Interpretation 1: Symbolically expressing the inner feelings of a repressed man

What appears on screen is not necessarily what actually happened in the world of the work. The method of expressing the inner conflicts and conflicts of a person under pressure by having a "double" of the same appearance appear and interact with them is repeatedly used in literature and movies (by the way, in the original novel, the teacher's "common sense" is used repeatedly). '' materializes and talks with the person himself). Even if you look at interviews with director Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal, it seems that this is the favorite interpretation in line with the creator's intentions.

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To be more specific, the teacher and the actor represent the two sides of the same person, and the sense of being ``oppressed'' by women - the presence of a mother (Isabella Rossellini) who dictates everything from how to behave to what to eat. He has an irresistible sexual desire for women that he cannot ignore. The story of a man trying to settle his past affair and return to his wife can be interpreted as symbolically expressed using a non-existent double.

Interpretation 2: The world as seen by people with dissociative identity disorder