The whole story is roughly as follows:

On Saturday morning, Jess took her son to go sailing with Greg at 8:30 (the note on the refrigerator said: Greg, the tangle harbor (8:30, she reminded herself to use it), but because her son spilled the paint and delayed the time, Jess drove fast in order not to be late, causing a car accident. The mother and son died on the spot. The time of death was 8:17 minutes, which is when Jess's watch and the ship's wall clock stop forever. When Jess was dying, she remembered that she had an appointment that she had not yet attended, so she asked the God of Death to take her to the port to meet Greg to express his concern. She promised that the God of Death would definitely come back to die, but she broke her promise and never came back, so there was The punishment behind was punished. (The Greek myth of Sisyphus pushing the stone. After being cast into the underworld, Sisyphus asked for three days to return to the world of the sun to bury his body. However, when he returned to the human world, he was attached to it and refused to leave. He broke his promise and was eventually captured by Hermes. )

The two conversations on the boat and in the taxi are the key to understanding the theme of this film:

When a group of people on the boat passed by the corridor and saw the name of the ship Aeolus, they mentioned Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus, was punished by the gods and had to push the stone up the mountain endlessly, and then watch the stone roll down the mountain. Victor was curious about what sin Sisyphus had committed to deserve this torture. Sally replied: "He cheated death. No, he made a PROMISE to death that he didn't keep." Made a promise, but failed to keep it)

Look at the end of the film, Jess takes a taxi to the port, the driver (that is, the God of Death) said: "I'll leave the meter running...you will come back won't you? "(I will keep the odometer on, you will come back, right? Subtext: You can only go to the pier to have a look, and then come back and continue taking the hearse to the underworld, because your fate of death has been It is an unchangeable fact) Jess replied: "Yes, I...I PROMISE." This PROMISE is the key, that is, Jess's promise to the God of Death, which is surprisingly consistent with Sally's explanation on the ship.

So the theme of this story is the futile struggle of a soul who is unwilling to admit that she is dead. She wants to violate the laws of nature to restore her lost life, restore her lost love, and make up for the harm she once caused her son. And all of this destined her to fall into the purgatory created by her own heart, in an endless cycle. About the details

1) The time on the ship is still. The first time I looked at the watch in the restaurant was 8:17. Later in the room with the record player, the wall clock behind Jess was still 8:17. Of course, Jess’s watch was also It stopped at 8:17 (this shows that the mother and son were about to be late on the morning of the car accident). The 11:30 time for others is the time to advance after going to sea normally. It implies that Jess is a stationary ship and is also stationary (dead), while others are mobile (passers-by, who can accumulate traces on the ship) concept.

2) Room No. 237 on the ship is the same as the house number of Jess’s house. It can be seen that the ship is a nightmare created by Jess (when we dream, we subconsciously re-create the scenes in life in our dreams). Coincidentally, in the movie "The Shining", there is also a room No. 237 that must not be approached. It is the starting point of a murder. In "The Shining", Jack saw a young woman and an old woman in Room 237. They were both rotting, the ghost of the same woman who had been murdered in that room. Doesn't this little easter egg also imply that Jess' seemingly youthful body is actually dead? The same reason why the fruit in front of Jess looks rotten when she is alone.

3) The music played by the jump record on the boat is exactly the same as the melody played by the children's band on the roadside when Jess takes her son to drive at the end of the film (you have to listen carefully to hear it). This is also the reason why Jess died. The music that had been left in the subconscious had reappeared in another way on the ship.

4) The pattern on the drum in the ship’s restaurant is exactly the same as the pattern on the drum in the hand of a child who was watching the car accident, and it is also reproduced.

5) The injured and bleeding part of the masked Jess who was shot in the head is consistent with the fatal wound on the head of the body of Jess who was wearing a skirt in the car accident, reappeared.

6) The bad luck caused by Jess hitting and killing seabirds with his car is similar to the bad luck caused by shooting seabirds in "The Ballad of the Old Mariner". There are also decorative paintings of albatross hanging on the walls of Jess's home, and they are often seen in the film. A close-up of a seabird appears for the first time. And albatross is a famous scavenger and likes to eat the waste thrown from the ship.