The Movie ‘Mate’

We live in an age of empathy and consolation. Everyone says life is unbearably hard. They say nothing works out, no matter what they do. And whenever that mood sets in, the TV, books, YouTube—whatever it may be—chimes in with a word or two. ‘It’s tough, isn’t it. I feel the same way. It’s all okay. Things will work out.’ These are all kind words. But I don’t particularly like this kind of talk. I don’t have much time. It’s not that I lack even the time to hold someone close and cry along with them. It’s just that my life is far too short to sprawl out where I’ve fallen and wallow in self-pity.

As it happens, the protagonists of this movie are exactly the kind of people I don’t care for. They have neither the strength nor the will to take responsibility for even their own selves. They simply drift along wherever life carries them. They don’t even know what they themselves want. And unable to rein in their own emotions, they lurch from one mishap to the next. People like this aren’t granted even the small stroke of luck that might turn their fate around. And that’s only natural. How can you grasp anything when you can’t even reach out your hand?

Even so, I find myself hesitant to scold or reproach the protagonists of this movie. Probably because I, too, am no different from them. I agonize over feelings that shift several times a day and can never get my bearings, and the decisions I finally manage to make always come too late, leaving me full of nothing but regret. And even then, without improving in the slightest, I repeat the same foolishness every time. The ache that lingered throughout the whole movie and my wish that things would work out for the protagonists—weren’t they, after all, a projection of my own self?

In any case, I hope things work out for everyone.

The movie Mate 2019.01.16