The movie was very subtle, but I found some hidden layers.
1. He visits a temple/shrine. Maybe to pay respects to someone who died?
2. His sister asks him why he doesn't visit their father who is in a nursing home and "not the same person as before". His categoric "no" and his reaction to this subject hints at s very difficult, maybe abusive relationship with his father. He hugs his sister and then cries. Maybe he wants to be close to her, but can't or won't return home.
3. All his little rituals, repetitive and dependable, seam to me like coping mechanisms. He wants to be in charge of every aspect of his life, maybe because he wasn't in control for a long time.
To me he seams like a very sensitive, traumatized person, who tries to heal and be left alone by everyone.
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greenvelvet (171)
8 months ago
I agree about the abusive parent part. He is shown to be smart from the books he reads and is a good worker yet he is doing a cleaning job. Something held him back from formal education or finding a better position.
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RupertPupkin1 (12)
8 days ago
I thought it was a good movie but not great. I agree with angelinamora's points and I want to add a couple of more: I think the job of cleaning toilets was chosen by the filmmakers to serve as a metaphor for him needing, but not being able, to clean his inner self. On the surface everything in his life from his apartment, the toilets, his sojourns in nature were clean but that was intended to mask an inner malaise. The "Feeling Good" song at the end was also ironic because he was really traumatized by his past and unable to truly live - he was not living but merely surviving, and there was no resolution or escape. A very subtle film but perhaps too subtle. I would have liked some more clarity about his background and what lead him to lead such an isolated life.
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TrentnQuarantino (9382)
8 days ago
> I think the job of cleaning toilets was chosen by the filmmakers to serve as a metaphor for him needing, but not being able, to clean his inner self.
This just caught my eye, and though I have not seen the movie I think that description is incorrect. The toilet cleaner is someone who has the lowest job in society who is still in society. No matter how many toilets someone scrubs for someone else at a low with no respect, that is not how to clean one's inner self. It's a metaphor alright, but a metaphor of someone at the very bottom of the ladder who still hangs on. It's a metaphor for what the guy at the very bottom does.
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