“Never Let Me Go”: The cruel lives of “fabricated” people that tear your heart out

Intentional “lack of explanation”

As I mentioned earlier, what stands out about this work is its ``elimination of explanation.'' In the movie, words with deep meanings are thrown around, such as "caregiver," "provider," "gallery," "coming to the end," and "maybe," but these are not clearly explained. . Furthermore, the entire work takes the form of ``Cathy's flashbacks,'' and there is a good chance that it will be left behind from the very first scene. A new "tutorial character" named Lucy (Sally Hawkins) appears, but due to an incident she leaves the show early.

This kind of structure may seem unkind, but being kind and easy to understand is because we are aware of the existence of others, so it is a kind of artificial act. . The characters in this work can only talk about what they know, and there are many things they don't know. Their "normal" is completely different from our "normal." What do you mean by "talking" when you have never been taught how to interact with others? It's easy to misunderstand, but this story is about Kathy looking back on her life so far, and is not a "Arrival" or "letter" directed at us. It's self-contained from the beginning.

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This awareness is also thoroughly taken into account in the camera work, with frequent use of ``peeking'' shots that give a glimpse into their lives. A certain sense of distance is always maintained, from the voices coming from the shadows and cracks in the door, from downstairs, or through the walls, and it doesn't give us the feeling that we and they are ``sharing'' the same time. There aren't many close-ups of the characters' faces, which is common in melodramas, and instead they look at the characters with a detached gaze, with tears streaming down their faces.

They are secretly created without our knowledge, and after they grow up, their bodies are cut into pieces, and they die quietly. No, they don't even know the word "die." What they use is the administrative word "terminated." That's what it was born for. The friends by your side are not ``others,'' but ``likes'' who are all following the same path. So there's no need for explanation. The only alien element in this work is the audience.

The sadness of not knowing how to defy fate