The film revolves around Mr. Phi - a district-level department head who was dismissed from his position and forced to retire early after the merger and staff streamlining. Not wanting his wife and children to worry and be afraid of disappointing the expectations of the family in the countryside, Mr. Phi chose to hide the truth. But "the whole world is united", a series of troubles come at the same time.
That dramatic story not only forms the basis for family conflicts, but also raises a very basic question: How should people face difficulties? Why do some people overcome easily, while many others fall in their own pain?
In fact, most of us are not afraid of a wrong decision, a loss of investment or a job loss. What makes people depressed is often not the event, but the feeling of becoming a "failure". When men in the family are afraid of being underestimated and afraid that they are no longer valuable, they no longer see failure as an event that can be analyzed and corrected; they see it as a judgment for their own people. Meanwhile, failure is just data. It does not reflect anyone's value. A bad result only shows a decision or a system is operating skewed. When people confuse wrong behavior with bad nature, recovery is blocked right at the starting point.
In many moments of the film, Mr. Phi's reaction also reflects the extreme trend that many people often fall into: One failed attempt immediately wants to smash the entire system. People suddenly quit their jobs, cut off relationships, let go of everything as a way to punish themselves. But breaking it does not prove strength, it only shows that people do not understand the nature of failure. A skilled engineer would not break a machine just for a defect. What they do is check each part and find the correct deviation point. Similarly, people need to learn to correct their mistakes, instead of reducing their entire life to Vanity.
The recovery does not come from illegal actions to "recover what has been lost". After a fall, people are often impatient to act, thinking it is a strong way to get up. But in a state of vulnerability, every new decision is at risk of being affected by emotions. Pause, to calm down, to analyze, to share with relatives. The smarter a person is, the more likely he is to self-explain his mistakes, and therefore, the more he needs to know how to stop before making a new decision.
Finally, what the film says most is not the harshness of failure, but the value of the family in the journey through it. Family is not a place for people to show off their achievements, but a place where we are allowed to admit our failures. Only when people learn to open their hearts, share the truth, and accept letting their relatives see their weaknesses, will the cracks in the family have a chance to heal. And it was also at that time that they realized that what they thought they were losing was respect, love, and trust, but in fact, they had never left, just locked themselves in.
"Family left a mark" therefore does not just tell a family story. It is like a gentle but profound reminder that failure does not come to destroy us, but to teach us how to mature. A person is not strong because they are never wrong, but because they know how to stand up without considering themselves a failure. And sometimes, what helps people get up is not extraordinary determination, but a hand holding from the most beloved relatives.
