Thoughts:RAMEKIN
CAUTION!!
This article contains the spoiler of the movie(RAMEKIN), so please watch the movie before you read this.
You can read an introductory article below (Japanese only).
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First, I have to talk about "What is RAMEKIN".I think that it is a system to collect blood from human.
The purpose of RAMEKIN is to collect human blood. However, RAMEKIN itself does not reach the goal because it doesn't have a blood-sucking mechanism, so it uses humans.
RAMEKIN does not kill people who enter its territory, but rather uses them as pawns to collect blood from other people. This way, he can collect blood efficiently and in the long term. I think it sounds like Demons.
Furthermore, RAMEKIN is good at controlling human. In this movie, it did some actions below:
・Teleportation
・Being in your way
・Answering questions
・Generating some materials (cupcakes and bills)
・Playing music
・Controlling a human
The most important skill is of course the last one, but RAMEKIN cannot do it immediately and it seems to be conditional on the absence of human resistance. Therefore, RAMEKIN does the following actions and enables itself to controlling a human to collect blood.
(1) Give them the pressure of being watched at all times through instantaneous movement.
(2) Make them realize the power relationship through dialogue.
(3) Gain their trust by giving them food.
(4) Manipulate their words and actions to imply something.
(1) It starts with Emily's constant presence in every room, which makes her anxious. No matter how many times she places RAMEKIN in the water area, it always comes back, and this scene helps it to advance the dialogue by making her lose her patience. Some people have complained about the redundancy of this scene, but I personally think it was an appropriate repetition.
(2) If you've already seen the movie, there's nothing to say about it. The important point is that RAMEKIN has an ego of its own. Although it is not a god or a demon, it turns out that there is no way to escape from the situation, such as by coercing or blocking outside manipulation, and at this point, Emily has few choices to do.
(3) I think it is the most important element. Since ancient times, there have been many depictions in both the East and the West of people being unable to return to their original state after eating. For example, the scene in the beginning of "Spirited Away" where the parents are turned into pigs is a famous example. In the world of mythology, "Yomotsuhegui(Eating food made from hades)" in Japanese mythology and "Persephone's descent to the underworld" in Greek mythology are examples.
In this film, it is thought that he was able to gain almost complete control over Emily by feeding her his homemade cupcakes, which made her unstable in the above step. Later, when Emily gets tired of the cupcakes, he gives her some bills, and the meal he buys with these bills probably has the same effect.
(4) There is nothing special to say either. Emily's actions, words, and deeds when she has RAMEKIN in her ears are RAMEKIN's, and the content of her actions at that time seems to be stored in Emily herself." This can be seen in scenes such as telling herself "I am pure beauty" so that she can write poetry, or stabbing a cushion with a knife to suppress her hesitation to use a knife.
With the above actions, RAMEKIN was in complete control of Emily and finally took action. I don't think it's necessary to talk about what happened as a result, but I felt that this was the end of the story because RAMEKIN was not omnipotent.
There is a limit to RAMEKIN's ability to take control. For example, when Emily tried to kill Mark, whom she adores, she couldn't get him to drop the knife the first time, even though she was holding the RAMEKIN to her ear. Also, Emily was able to temporarily wake up after eating a cupcake that Mark had made. Considering about Yomotsuhegui ―Anyone who eat any foods made from the Hades could not return to this world―, I guess RAMEKIN is not a god, but just a piece of tableware.
In this article, I reviewed this film as the sight of RAMEKIN. I think it is interesting to review it as the sight of Emily.
Totally, I think it was a dense 70-minute film work. Although nothing spectacular happens, I felt that this film is a definite horror and art. There is a sequel in the works, and I look forward to seeing it in the future.
You can read this in Japanese below.