The Day I Kissed An Older Man
Chapter 2657

Dieter pushed her hard, and Athena fell heavily onto the cold cement ground.

All she wanted was to see the outside world. What was so wrong about that? Should she not have left her hometown in the first place? At least then she would not have been so lost in the unfamiliar city that she did not even know the way home.

Needless to say, she truly regretted her decision.

The latter part of the story mainly focused on Athena replaceing her way back home. For many college students in big cities, it might be hard to understand how someone could get lost in this era. For Athena, a gir who grew up in a backward fishing village, it was indeed difficult.

Dieter sweet-talked her, tricked her out of the fishing village, and abandoned her in the big city.

It was not just that he took Athena away for his own excitement. Perhaps in that fishing village, free from high-tech pollution, he did feel a momentary impulse toward this simple and passionate girl. Perhaps there was a semblance of love between them, but when he found himself in the bustling city, this 'love' turned into a burden.

He did not need someone so clumsy and foolish around him. Athena, who did not understand anything, became his burden.

The movie ended with an open ending. Whether Athena returned to her beloved hometown and reconciled with her best friend was left to individual interpretation.

Melody believed she did not return. After all, if she had, there would not be fresh tear marks on her face.

As the final credits of the movie rolled and the lights came on in the theater, everyone remained silent for a long time. They came expecting something light-hearted, only to be confronted with such a heavy story in the end.

Shaun mentioned that it took him a long time to prepare for this movie, not only in terms of raising investments but also in crafting the story. The entire plot was based on a true story, so everything depicted actually happened in the remote fishing village where the movie was

set.

However, it was regrettable that even in the end, the audience did not know whether the Athena in the story or the real-life Athena returned to their hometown.

In that backward fishing village,

similar incidents happened too

many times. Athena being left in the

big city, unable to replace her way home, could still be considered lucky. In reality, many more girls were tricked into going to hell-like plâces, never to escape.

Initially, the screenplay given to Shaun was supposed to be more serious and cruel. However, from the moment he decided to produce the movie, he aimed to make it more commercial. He also wanted to contribute something to that remote

fishing village.

The original version would have been more suitable for award considerations. In this fast-food era, not many audiences would be willing to spend two hours in a movie theater watching such a film.

The first half of the story attracted everyone's attention with a vague youth romance, but the latter half brutally revealed what could happen to rural girls who ventured into big cities.

Was Athena wrong to aspire to the big city? No, she was not.

Was it wrong for Dieter to engage in a relationship with her? No, he was not wrong either.

However, he was wrong to recklessly take Athena out of the fishing village and cruelly abandon her in the big city, leaving her lost and without a sense of belonging.

Even in the movie, Dieter was usually referred to as 'he' instead of his name to represent the countless men like him.