After 20 years, watch the Chinese Odyssey again.

Recently, Stephen Chow's A Chinese Odyssey was released again, which aroused many people's nostalgia. Few movies create such a cultural phenomenon as a Chinese Odyssey. From the late 1990 s to the beginning of the new century, it became a classic, but it was not a classic in the usual sense. It is divorced from the mainstream expression, it is difficult to get orthodox recognition, and it also excludes some people.

Young people like to make a Chinese odyssey, first of all, because it is an excellent comedy, which reverses everything that can be reversed and ridicules everything that can be mocked; Secondly, because it tells a love tragedy, this kind of love happens between free individuals who are not bound by class, family and the camp of good and evil, excluding social factors, so it is more pure and its tragedy is more pure.

Some researchers interpret A Chinese Odyssey like this: it deconstructs everything except love.

Is that so?

Right? Many "liars" will use rhetorical questions in A Chinese Odyssey.

That's not true. This interpretation only sees the first two layers of the film: the first layer is nonsense comedy, and the second layer is love tragedy. Beyond these two layers, the film also expresses a deeper meaning, that is, the transcendence of love, more precisely, the transcendence of the meaning of human life on earth.

Few people point out the meaning expressed in the film, not only because the story and the relationship between characters are too complicated, but also because each layer of content it expresses acts as a "protective color" for deeper content, which needs careful analysis to strip out more meanings.

Everyone who watches a Chinese Odyssey for the first time starts with laughter, and emotions will be taken away one by one, laughing from beginning to end, ignoring the tragedy of love stories. After reading too much and having a certain "immunity" to the paragraph, the tragedy of the story will be highlighted. Therefore, for some people, a Chinese Odyssey is always just a noisy comedy.

Third, its spiritual orientation transcends the height of general literary works and explores the ultimate meaning of life with the spirit of Buddhism. It tells a story of love and hate, but it transcends love and hate in thought; It discusses the fundamental philosophical proposition of the meaning of life, but denies the value of life. This layer needs to be "immune" to its tragic side in order to be seen.

Can people know themselves?

The hero "Supreme Treasure" in A Chinese Odyssey is the incarnation of the Monkey King's reincarnation. The reason why God arranged this is to give the Monkey King a chance to experience all kinds of human tastes in this life, so as to fully understand them. At this point, "Sister Guanyin" made a clear explanation. Therefore, the film is ostensibly about a love story, but in fact it explores the ultimate meaning of life through the understanding of love.

What is the meaning of life? Or, is life meaningful? This is a fundamental philosophical question, and the answer to this question is related to whether the foundation of world life is solid or not. Grasping the meaning of life depends on people's cognitive ability, first of all, their ability to know themselves. So can people know themselves? Many philosophers are skeptical about this problem. Because we have doubts about people's rational ability, we need to build the meaning of life with the help of transcendental power. For Buddhism, this power certainly comes from Buddhism.

In my opinion, the deep theme of A Chinese Odyssey is to explore whether people can know themselves from the perspective of Buddhism and give a negative answer. Therefore, according to the story logic of the film, the meaning of life becomes loose, or the meaning of life becomes beyond life to find a more solid shore. This is why the Monkey King voluntarily put on the golden hoop and "wholeheartedly converted to my Buddha".

The film explains this truth through the love entanglement between Supreme Treasure and two women-one is Bai Jingjing and the other is Xia Zi. Supreme Bao is a mountain thief in Wuyue Mountain. When he met him, he fell in love with him at first sight. This love at first sight is actually suspicious. The film is foreshadowed by a favorite: "Master, is your taste too bad?"

But in any case, Supreme Bao launched the pursuit of Bai Jingjing. The road of love between them was not smooth sailing, and it was not until the moment of "emotional explosion" at the top of the cliff that two-way love was established. Because of the suspicious life experience, and because we have experienced too many twists and turns together, Supreme Treasure's love for Bai Jingjing has more become a manifestation of responsibility, that is, love that exists at the rational level. After committing suicide because of misunderstanding and anger, Supreme Bao tried his best to save it. As a result, "Moonlight Box is broken, and it chirps back to 500 years ago".

Then, the Supreme Treasure met Xia Zi. Xia Zi fell in love with the Supreme Treasure because he pulled out the purple sword, but few people noticed that the Supreme Treasure's love for Xia Zi happened earlier. Shortly after the meeting, Xia Zi proposed to tie their hands together to comfort the Supreme Treasure and winked at the Supreme Treasure with a smile. It was this smile that hit the heart of the Supreme Treasure in the blink of an eye. He turned around with his eyes wide open and his expression dull.

In the analysis of human nature, A Chinese Odyssey constructs the opposition between heart and heart, that is, the opposition between the rational side of heart and the irrational and perceptual side of heart, and assumes that heart is the most authentic self of human beings. Until then, Xia Zi and Bai Jingjing respectively entered the body of the Supreme Treasure, directly torturing his heart that looks like a coconut and never lies. In the binary opposition relationship between reason and inner feelings, whether people can know themselves is switched to whether reason can know the heart; Whether people know themselves is manifested in whether they are unified or divided.

Supreme Bao calls himself a "rational man". He believes in reason and acts according to it. His attitude towards love shows that he always believes in his love for Bai Jingjing and tries to go back to find her. Everything he did was for Bai Jingjing, including deceiving Xia Zi's feelings. He also wanted to get the Moonlight Box back with Xia Zi's help. And all along, his heart and reason are consistent. When Xia Zi directly asked the Supreme Treasure, "Is he and his wife very loving?" He still loves Bai Jingjing. This point is not directly explained in the film, but it can be judged according to the plot.

But once the seeds of love are planted in the heart, the love for Xia Zi grows spontaneously, which is beyond the control of reason, just as the brain cannot control the beating of the heart. Supreme treasure's mind is not aware of this. He still tried hard to find Bai Jingjing and kept verbally expressing his love for Bai Jingjing.

However, when the heart changes to a certain extent, the split with reason appears. When Bai Jingjing asked the Supreme Treasure's heart, "Does he love me the most?" , the heart gives a negative answer.

The Supreme Treasure may not know his inner change, or he may realize it, but it's just a momentary thought, and he doesn't care. When Bodhi told him that he had called Xia Zi's name 784 times in his lethargy, the expression of Supreme Treasure was dumbfounded. His heart has become like this, and he doesn't even know it! But he listened to his own reason and offered to marry Bai Jingjing. However, on another night, after he called Xia Zi's name 785 times, he had to face the division of reason and heart seriously and fell into a daze.

It was at this time that he and Bodhi had that famous debate: Do you need a reason to love someone? Don't you need it? Need it? ..... This is the last struggle of the Supreme Treasure. He can't face the fact that he can't know himself.

On their wedding day, Bai Jingjing left, and everything he did for Bai Jingjing was in vain. But the sovereign treasure accepted it calmly, without any waves. Bai Jingjing's departure was not so much a blow as a relief, and the tension between reason and mind was eliminated. But he had to face a more cruel reality. If the result is not important, the meaning lies in the process. However, if he doesn't love Bai Jingjing at all, what is the significance of this process? Life is not a joke?

Supreme treasure has become a frustrated ball. With the disappearance of reason and inner tension, the structural relationship between them also collapses, that is, the composition of life collapses. He gave up his efforts to know himself, and he had to admit that the unknown life had become something unworthy of lust. He finally understood the truth that Tang Priest kept talking to him: there is no sorrow and joy in life and no pain in death.

Finally, in the face of Jianfeng, the sovereign treasure who is afraid of death and can kneel down to save his life at any time frankly opened his chest. He asked Spider-Elf to show him his heart quickly.

Only when he dies can he recognize himself. In other words, only by denying life can we know life.

The starting point of the other shore

There is some truth in saying that movies don't deconstruct love. When the Supreme Treasure died, he still remembered what Xia Zi had left in his heart. Before wearing the golden hoop, the Monkey King regretted missing Xia Zi's love; He also felt very painful for Xia Zi's death. The film does not deny the beauty of love, but deconstructs life and earthly life. So, where does love belong? This is a radical move.

People talk about the deconstruction of A Chinese Odyssey, but ignore its construction. Why can't the Supreme Treasure recognize himself? Because he has been looking at the world with the naked eye. Supreme Bao told Guanyin after his death that at the moment of his death, he began to look at the world with his heart, and everything could be seen so clearly. The film constructs the vision of "mind", which is the vision of Buddhism.

Buddhism believes that man is the product of karma, and the essence of man is emptiness. An empty life is certainly unknown. Buddhism also believes that life is bitter, and the root of suffering is human lust. Love can be beautiful, but it is doomed to be short-lived. After happiness, it is still endless suffering. Xia Zi said to the Monkey King, "I only understand one thing. It is painful to love someone. "

Supreme treasure realized the agnosticism of life, that is, realized the essence of human emptiness, transcended life and gained the vision of Buddhism. He denied life and chose death, but death is only the end of earthly life, not the ultimate end. On the contrary, the denial of earthly life is a new starting point, leading to the starting point of getting rid of the suffering of reincarnation and representing the ultimate meaning.

Buddha is on the other side.

At the end of the film, the Monkey King brings the Sunset Warrior and his lover together, and makes up for a little regret through his love with Xia Zi in another life. Then, he followed the Tang Priest for a long time until he disappeared into the desert. He doesn't stay in love, but he must go beyond it. He can only surpass love. He wants to go to the other side to get the truth and transform the ups and downs of all beings in vain. This is his destiny.

Goodbye, dear! Goodbye, all the desires in the world!

The Monkey King's rickety back is a huge question mark, forcing the audience to face the absurdity of floating life and think about the ultimate meaning of life. Endless desolation and deep despair are quietly born in the questioning of the meaning of earthly life.

The article is natural.

According to the law of drama, the death of Xia Zi and the Monkey King's war against cattle are the climax of the film. Judging from the plot, it is true. But in the last 10 minute after the climax, the film further sublimated the theme.

After killing the cow, the Monkey King traveled through time and space with the box of moonlight and left the danger. After waking up from the shock, the Monkey King found himself back in the familiar water curtain cave. How did he get here? Pig Pig said, "Have you forgotten all about it? There was a big sandstorm last night. You brought us here. " Then everything changed. The Tang Priest, like a fly, became concise, while Pig Bajie and Friar Sand, who kept pinching each other, became respectful and loving.

What's going on here? I wanted to kill Master because I hated him. I was punished by the Buddha because I wanted to kill him. I was reincarnated and experienced love and hate, and it was difficult to travel through time and space for 500 years ... Did all this happen? Is everything a dream?

This forces the audience to examine themselves: Is my life real? Or in a lucid dream?

This is very similar to the plot design at the end of Sophie's World. If you don't finish reading the end, you don't finish reading Sophie's world, you don't understand the last 10 minute, which means you don't fully understand a Chinese Odyssey.

I have to say, A Chinese Odyssey has a complicated plot, full characters, clever narrative, exquisite production, which is breathtaking and can stand the test of time. So, how is such a work created?

In the spring of 200 1, Stephen Chow was invited to Peking University Centennial Lecture Hall, and I also went to the scene. Facing the enthusiastic Peking University students, Master Xing expressed his surprise. It turns out that everyone loves to travel westward so much, and various theoretical explanations are even more difficult to understand. In his view, A Chinese Odyssey is just one of his box office failures. Liu Zhenwei, the screenwriter and director of the film, also expressed similar views. Both Zhou and Liu later made films with similar themes, but in any aspect, they were not as good as A Chinese Odyssey. It's hard to believe that such a work with such a disparity in level was written by the same author.

For me, this is the most puzzling place. How did A Chinese Odyssey come into being? Is that the creator's dream, or is my explanation just a dream?

I can only turn to Lu you's famous sentence: the article is natural, and the wonderful hand is occasionally obtained.