Early in the film, Pierre has it all—youth, beauty, wealth, and a perfect fiancée. In a garden drenched in golden light, his mother, Marie, whispers her blind devotion: “You are so beautiful today.” He smiles, turning it into a game: “What if I were ugly?”

Right then, his world feels flawless. Yet, beneath the playful surface, a quiet anxiety bleeds through. It is a cruel, innocent question born from absolute safety: Is this happiness real? If the beauty fades, will the love remain?

In POLA X, this question cuts far deeper than skin. It probes the dark spaces of existence. Here, “ugliness” unravels in three distinct layers, spanning from the physical loss of a pretty face and the internal rot of the ego’s hidden cruelties, to the ultimate existential shadow stained by social taboos that the polite world refuses to see.

Borrowing from Melville’s original subtitle, The Ambiguities, the film watches pure ideals collapse into beautiful destruction. It asks a relentless question: Is love just a beautiful illusion we invent, or can it survive the truth?

In this light, his question becomes a naked confession: “Can you love me when the mask is off? When you see my deepest dark?” This perspective moves past aesthetics into the raw marrow of human existence. It offers a stunning, natural reading of the film—a reminder that to love someone completely is to look directly into their shadow.

With his iconic square face and black-rimmed glasses, he was the absolute savior who exploded onto late-night radio, single-handedly rescuing the fading Kamigata Rakugo world with his modern wit and non-stop nonsense gags—all while sending Showa-era Japan into fits of laughter with his legendary catchphrases like “How about that!” and “Wait for three minutes!” in that famous curry commercial; then, for over thirty years on NHK, he played the beloved counselor, warmly declaring, “Square Nikaku will smooth things out roundly😊!” to settle tricky legal troubles, which actually made folks temporarily forget just how terrifyingly brilliant he was at traditional, classical storytelling because he was simply too friendly on TV; but the moment he stepped onto the comic stage, he instantly transformed into the ultimate King of Laughter, rocking the house and shining like the immortal sun over the entire Kansai comedy scene through the Showa and Heisei eras!

Look into this Klein bottle.
What do you see?
Beyond matter, beyond data,
where the inside swallows the outside—
what remains to be seen?

Look into this Schrödinger’s box.
What do you see?
Beyond those scattered, drifting apart with different words,
and those silent, bleeding into one—
what remains to be seen?