志异 Draft by Drama box July 2014 (english) | Page 33

side, Neo inadvertently reflects
and promotes the state values that
have been fully internalised by the
people, values from which – to
be clear – neither the intellectual
‘cosmopolitan’ class are exempt. Is
the solution, then, to look at foreign
culture as an escape from all this?
Is our inferiority complex, after all, a
necessary evil?
One thing is clear: it is not the
art that is the problem – it is us.
The happy endings of Neo’s films
represent what we, as a people,
want to believe – that going
through the army does make you
a better person despite the pain
and torture, that sacrificing yourself
for your family is worth it. These
white lies are worth believing in
because we are afraid of what
would happen if we don’t believe
– the external manif