YOU love to create happiness and making kids laugh fills your joyfulness.
You wholeheartedly love your mother and being with her erases your loneliness.
You have dream. You are keen to pursue it. But the world doesn’t welcome you.
That’s how it feels to be Arthur Fleck, the Joker.
I salute the co-authors, Scott Silver and Todd Philips, for brilliantly penning “Joker”, a film that does not just divulge a social disease, but also portrays a man whose life damaged by the dirtiness of humanity.
To be frank, I was heavily touched with the Joaquin Phoenix’s naturally-played character in the masterpiece, like we knew him in “Her”.
I was somehow emotional about immersing every episode of suffocations that Arthur inhales from the people he believed to be a human to him.
He has his own life ambition, but he can’t deny the fact that he’s mentally unhealthy and badly suffers deficit of self-courage.
Those who haven’t yet to see this film, or never been told about its existence in cinemas, Joker will forever remain as violent and psycho in their eyes.
Yes, apparently, it’s true that, in previous Batman movies, Joker was viciously psycho.
But he has never happened to tell us any secret or old story that could elaborate the pains and sufferings he solely harbours.
Joker is an immersive artwork that pictures a socially-abandoned man who defines his life as “comedy”.
The film portrays the unnoticed reality of life that we, in real life, might feel dispensable.
Humans like us always think that we are perfect and sublime.
Until we don’t realise that we are so credible of judging.
We always judge — our judgements always paint various colours of blames on others’ faces as we arrogantly think that they are undeserved to be humanised.
As far as we breath on this earth, how many times we blindly condemn people’s “misbehaviours”?
As we smile to every wonderful thing happens in our life, do we really care about how a mentally-ill person responds to a rejection?
As we repeatedly detest “crazy people”, have we ever asked ourselves, why do people like Joker exist?
Well, people like Joker is the result of growing society that is selfish and ignorant, like many of us live within.
He is an unfriendly-treated mentally-ill man who had been detrimentally crippled.
He was backstabbed by someone he trusted as a close buddy until he lost his job.
He had been deceived by his mother for many years — the mother he loves isn’t actually his own.
Arthur, when his mother was still alive, had been in a deception she created in veiling his true origin.
Why are we caged in a fabricated reality that only fakes our beliefs?
Joker’s finally-unveiled adopted mother and close-buddy colleague were then killed with his own hands.
He kept killing people after realising the bitter reality of him being easily betrayed, manipulated and disrespected.
After gunning down the “three idiots” on a subway, he started to appear in public as a clown.
Arthur was invited to be featured in his favourite TV show after his clip of doing his first stand-up comedy was teased by the host.
In the live show, he was introduced as “Joker” as he wanted to.
Upon the intro, he randomly french-kissed one of the show’s guests, an old lady in her 70s or 80s.
During the show, Joker was so confident. He told the audiences that what he initially imagined turned real in the show.
Murray Franklin, the host, had been idolised by Arthur, and in his first appearance in his stand-up comedy, he confessed that being a comedian is all that he really wanted to be as he reminisced what his mother told him about making a living once he gets older.
However, his motivation of becoming what he wants got faded after his idol embarrassed him in the earlier show.
Joker thirsted sincerities and appreciations. He suffered cruelties that had been thrown to him.
The painful Joker was actually a victim as a child to an abusive mother who also suffered mental disorder.
His history is full of darkness and that darkens his dreamt life.
Maybe, to people like Arthur, life is much happier when they live in delusion.
His mind created a delusional love affair with his neighbour whom he bumped into in the apartment’s elevator.
The thought of “Arthur is at least lucky to be loved by the lady” was spoiled by the plot twist of finally knowing that Arthur was just in his delusion about having the affair.
I’m unsure about the real complexity of having mental delusion, but if being delusional can make one happy, why not?
Unluckily, no happy endings for Arthur as he remained lonely till he got caught and confined in the hospital.
Joker sadly illustrates the hurtful reality of being discriminated for having “differences”.
After series of frustrations he faced, Arthur no longer sees any meaning of living his ‘comedic life’.
People like Joker or Arthur Fleck, to me, would never wish to be immortal in this mortal world.
“I just hope my death makes more cents than my life.”
* Amerul Azry Abdul Aziz is an independent writer.
** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.
Amerul Azry Abdul Aziz
Wed Oct 23 2019
The thought of -Arthur is at least lucky to be loved by the lady- was spoiled by the plot twist of finally knowing that Arthur was just in his delusion about having the affair. - Photo Instagram/ @jokermovie
Penunjuk perasaan pro-Palestin di Paris kepung universiti
Penunjuk perasaan pro-Palestin mengepung bangunan dan kawasan hadpaan Universiti Sciences Po yang berprestij di Paris pada Jumaat.
Piala Thomas: Zii Jia pamer magis tarik perhatian ramai di Chengdu
Zii Jia merekodkan kemenangan ke atas Lee Cheuk Yiu dalam aksi yang mengambil masa 45 minit menghadirkan saat-saat terbaik dalam saingan pembukaan ini.
Youth All Girls raih gangsa di Amerika Syarikat
Pasukan sorak Malaysia Youth All Girls raih gangsa di The 2024 International Cheer Union World Cheerleading Championships (ICU JWCC) di Florida, Amerika Syarikat pada Khamis.
Perkembangan proses penamaan calon PRK Kuala Kubu Baharu
Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) membuka tirai hari ini dengan bermulanya proses penamaan calon pagi tadi di Dewan Serbaguna Dan Kompleks Sukan Daerah Hulu Selangor.
Firdaus Azil ada perincian untuk dikongsikan jam ini.
Firdaus Azil ada perincian untuk dikongsikan jam ini.
Malaysia-China bincang perkukuhkan kerjasama sektor pendidikan
Malaysia dan China membincangkan inisiatif strategik bagi memperluas serta memperkukuh jalinan kerjasama sektor pendidikan tinggi antara Kuala Lumpur-Beijing sempena sambutan ulang tahun ke-50 hubungan diplomatik Malaysia-China.
Perdana Menteri ke Riyadh sempena mesyuarat khas Forum Ekonomi Sedunia
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim akan mengadakan lawatan kerja ke Riyadh, Arab Saudi sempena mesyuarat khas forum sedunia World Economic Forum (WEF) bermula 27 hingga 29 April ini.
Kerajaan Persekutuan kaji cadangan wujud hospital di Pengerang - Azalina
Hospital tersebut akan memudahkan penduduk mendapatkan rawatan memandangkan Pengerang semakin pesat membangun.
AWANI Ringkas: Reformasi gaji di Malaysia
Ikuti rangkuman berita utama yang menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari di Astro AWANI menerusi AWANI Ringkas.
Piala Thomas: Lee Zii Jia beri mata pertama buat Malaysia!
Kemenangan straight set benarkan Malaysia raih mata pertama dalam aksi peringkat kumpulan saingan Piala Thomas berdepan Hong Kong.
AWANI Pagi: Filem Oppa semai mesej PDRM banteras jenayah scam
Ikuti diskusi bersama Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Komersial (JSJK) Bukit Aman, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf akan berkongsi mesej disemai PDRM dalam membanteras jenayah scam yang berleluasa ketika ini.
Kontroversi tidak halang filem Joker kutip RM979 juta seminggu tayangan
Ia sekaligus menyaksikan filem arahan pengarah, Todd Phillips itu dengan mudah mengatasi jualan tiket filem superhero Venom yang mengutip RM334 juta.