Kes
When I was a little child, my parents bought these Chinese readers which contained short stories and were supposed to help with my reading comprehension. They were a few and I made several attempt at reading them, little by little, every day. The only story I actually finished was one about a little child who was bullied and whose only pleasure in life was his pet bird. It ended with the other bullying kids killing his pet bird for no apparent reason. I was furious. I spent so many days painfully going through the language challenges of the story, only to discover that the story was immensely cruel and saddening, leaving me extremely upset. I refused to read any more stories, but that was interpreted as reluctance to study Chinese. It wasn’t really Chinese that I hated, it was the content of those (arguably terrible) stories I was supposed to read – every single one of them was either sad or just generally negative about the world. It is one of the darkest memories of my childhood, and I still resent that I had to read that story, and that I was made to feel guilty about refusing to read more.
“Kes” reminded me a lot of it, and I am perfectly aware that my strong emotions for the bird may blurry whatever merit the film has. I do know one thing though – I would never want to show this movie to a child. The social and cultural implications would be completely lost, and the story itself is utterly heartbreaking, especially when you are a child. What does a child get from the movie then? Some people believe that a highly acclaimed movie with a child protagonist must be for children, but actually it’s just adult wanking with complete disregard to what children enjoy. You may disagree with my opinion on education there, but I believe complete hopelessness and despair is not for children.
That is not all I personally disliked about the film. The saddening aspect of the story really only lasts 3 minutes after all. I also disliked both the main character and the world the whole thing was set in. Of course I understand the intellectual appeal to create a young main character who is not perfect. A boy who is mischievous is generally very interesting, especially when considering that movies usually love to romanticize the innocence of children. But did the boy really have to be so damn annoying? Why does he have to steal when he doesn’t really seem to need it? Why does he have to make snarky comments, only to be all like “yes, sir – no, sir” afterwards whenever confronting an adult? It is never shown nor explained why he refuses to show any ambition “the normal way” and talk reasonably with the interviewer, and from the other things he does it doesn’t seem like he understands any of it.
This brings me to my second point. Maybe I am overreacting, and I just don’t understand those working class people. It’s always possible to get out and if you can take up falconry, you can also learn how to become an electrician. The whole film was about how bleak their world is, but “Kes” equally shows us how it practically seems to their own fault. I just couldn’t care less for their problems. Maybe that sort of working class realism is just not for me. It is telling that even in the film, the only person who gets behind the beauty of falconry is some sort of academic – the English teacher.
Between my incredible love for the bird and almost total disinterest for any of the characters in the film, I think “Kes” just went wrong on so many levels. If it had been a beautiful film I may have changed my opinion, but to me it looked just as dirty as its storyline.