If the title has left you bewildered, brace yourself, as a major reveal is coming. However, I'll give you a heads-up before diving into spoiler territory. If you've wondered what's going on with the title, you might be onto something – this is a sci-fi film. Entrusting Emilia Clarke to lead in "Last Christmas" was a perfect choice. If you admire her performances, this movie, rich with Christmas spirit and delightful surprises, should not be missed. She even charms as an immigrant.
Some movies are best-experienced solo, with a pack of tissues. "Last Christmas" fits into this category. It's a film that induces both laughter and tears. Kate, portrayed by Emilia Clarke, lives a life akin to a worn-out record. After a severe illness, she spirals into a pattern of self-destructive repetition, drowning in alcohol and casual affairs. The film humorously narrates her absurd life, dragging a suitcase around, caring little for her roommates' feelings, and focusing only on "living it up." Yet, to outsiders, her life is a chaotic mess, devoid of any semblance of "living."
She works at a Christmas store under a Chinese lady (played by Michelle Yeoh). However, she's consistently distracted and gazes out the window while working. She has a sister who's a lawyer, but their conversations barely go beyond a few words. She is yearning to sing, but securing a performance job eludes her. She has a home with loving parents, yet she avoids returning quickly. Off work, she wanders the streets like a ghost. But her natural home lies just outside a tunnel.
Kate, a twenty-six-year-old woman, can no longer control herself after a severe illness. Her body feels alien, her desires unfamiliar, her life strange. She exists but merely drifts through days. Until she encounters Tom, an eccentric boy who always "looks up." Their repeated chance encounters lead Tom to show her a side of the city she'd never seen before. We follow her, discovering the beauty of this seemingly cold, snowy world. Unseen faces and untold stories hide in the city's corners. Perhaps because Kate is used to looking down, absorbed in herself, she never realized Christmas could be so enchanting, far from clichés. While thinking only of herself, Kate paradoxically loses herself, forgetting others.
If we dig into the original meaning of Christmas, it's when God, in the form of flesh, was given to humanity. The Almighty God incarnated into a human, marking a significant historical point. God wasn't anymore above, issuing decrees from on high, but walked alongside humanity, facing hardships on thorny paths. The flesh represented the ability to share in human suffering, to coexist with "others." This suffering arises from limitations and incapacity, signifying a new beginning.
Kate starts regaining confidence in life, whether in singing, family, the previously avoided homeless center, or dealing with a condescending boss with a new attitude. She rediscovers her girlish self and finds a beautiful relationship with a middle-aged gentleman. She even manages to confide in Tom about the long-lingering illness that once troubled her, a sudden illness that led to her being pushed into an operating theater.
She confesses to Tom about this life-changing moment because quirky Tom changed her life. He was different from other men who had only physical closeness with her. She felt her heart beat for Tom, constantly thinking of him, searching for him. But Tom often vanished a peculiar boy who didn't even own a phone. She sought him where he'd been.
Finally, she found him. Yet, Tom couldn't reciprocate her feelings. He told Kate, "You can't rely on me like this..." Kate got angry, thinking she'd met another jerk, feeling her heart was played with again.
As it turns out, only Kate could see this peculiar boy from the beginning. On the day she fell ill, the boy was involved in a car accident and was admitted to the hospital. His heart was transplanted into her, explaining why Kate went to places the boy had visited and did what the boy had done. Because they were already joined – they'd lost the capacity for passion but were closer than lovers who shared different bodies. This concept arose from medical rumors, a science fiction hypothesis: "What if the heart, like the brain, carries its memories?"
This signifies a decentralized brain center. In our bodies, many "me" exist that we don't consider as "I." When life seems to end, organ transplants carry on our concluded lives. "I" continues to function within others' bodies and hence continues to exist. It's not supernatural or magical but a manifestation of the concept of "organ memory." Christ's promised "eternal life" isn't in the hereafter but in others' bodies. By giving our lives, we extend strangers' lives. If that isn't the ultimate form of love, then what is?
Tom gave himself to Kate – not just his heart and life but also his worldview, habits, experiences, and thoughts... Tom didn't entirely disappear from the world; he still exists inside Kate.
"Last Christmas" seamlessly interweaves contemporary organ transplantation with anti-immigrant anxiety issues. In the past, we defined cyborgs as a combination of organic and inorganic matter, as if there were a barrier between them. However, when organic matter could be 3D printed as a material, such as in 2019, Tel Aviv University announced the successful creation of the world's first 3D-printed heart using human cells. Although it was only a two-centimeter mini heart, it broke the barrier between organic and inorganic, natural and non-natural, allowing the integrated other to function harmoniously with the original "body. Similarly, in the immigration issue, Russians (or others) fleeing to Britain is also a form of organ transplantation. Along with it come different worldviews, habits, experiences, thoughts... Since it's organ transplantation, there must be an agreement between both parties. Otherwise, both will die together. However, once successful, something new is created – not "me" or "you" but a brand-new "us."
Kate continuously denies her original name, Katerina, because the term originates from the Russian "Yekaterina," signifying her non-British background. Her joking with her mother about the Russian intelligence agency KGB coming after them is a form of dark humor. Her mother has never recovered from the shadows of persecution by the Soviet Union; it causes her anxiety because her friends "were all killed." Britain's anti-immigrant anxiety further fuels her worry. Thus, she's not a neurotic woman creating problems out of nothing. She tells Kate, "They will select a group of people, blaming them for all the country's issues. I know they will do that... just like they did in the past..."
Since it's merging "you" and "me," the incoming other can't stay stagnant, refusing communication. Kate's mother eventually, like Kate, finds a new lease on life. She accepts singing less sorrowfully, and the whole family gains a new life – a typical happy ending that responds to contemporary issues.
After reading this, I believe you'll have a deeper understanding of Kate's final words: "How lucky are we that we're alive." That's the Christmas spirit – signifying "love and sharing." This means human imperfection can find fulfillment through devotion to others, just as others' dedication completes their mark, and the weakness of others' existence ends ours.
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