Chen Kaige's "The Legend of the Demon Cat" that I can't understand

After watching Yang Yuhuan in Chen Kaige's "Legend of the Demon Cat", I deeply felt that the Yang Yuhuan I had seen before was all in vain. She is beautiful, but she can never bear the reputation of Yang Guifei in the prosperous age. , this time, I realized that "beauty is in the bones, not the skin".

I don’t know if you understand this movie, but I didn’t understand it at first.

I watched this movie on my mobile phone when there were a lot of doubts on the Internet. I had to interrupt the video halfway through because something happened, but I was thinking about it so much that I stayed up late at night to watch it despite being sick. After reading it, I finally wanted to go to bed, but my mind was restless. I always feel that this movie is not simple, there are many things that are difficult to figure out, but they are worth thinking about.

I remember the Chinese language test when I was a child. The reading question asked: Who is the protagonist of this short article?

The teacher said that the error rate of this question is more than 50%.

Now I ask, who is the protagonist in "The Legend of the Demon Cat"?

Bai Juyi? Kukai? White dragon? (Cat demon?) Danlong...

Who will you answer?

My answer is: Yang Yuhuan.

I wonder if anyone has the same answer as me. I would like to express my personal opinions on some aspects of this movie.

1. The Supreme Secret - Difficulties in watching movies.

If someone who understands Buddhism watches this movie, it will be much simpler. But we don’t understand most of it. After all, Buddhism is too profound, so this movie that keeps talking about the Supreme Secret doesn’t seem easy to us.

I checked a lot of information on the Internet, but I couldn't find an explanation for the "Supreme Secret". The most direct thing is that even "Baidu Encyclopedia" does not have this entry.

According to the search of Buddhist Tantra, the "Supreme Yoga" in Buddhist Tantra is the most appropriate. “It believes that only if we better control our own mentality, that is, control of our will, can we finally reach the supreme state; what is the supreme state is that there is no desire and no pursuit, until the heart is like still water, the consciousness is released, and finally we reach the point where life is what it is. Death, death is life, good is evil, evil is good, good is bad, bad is the highest state of good" (from Baidu Encyclopedia - Supreme Yoga entry).

The Supreme Secret originally talks about the highest level in the film, which is consistent with this. It can also be derived from the above: since "life is death, death is life", then life is still life, death is still death, there is no life, no death, no death, no life, because we have reached the state of release, so what about life and death? ?

So in the end, facing Bailong's body preserved by Danlong, Bailong said: "I have not been in that body for a long time." This moment shows Bailong's resentment.

Kukai said: "Yang Yuhuan has not been in that body for a long time."

Bai Long finally let go and turned into a crane and left. He was still the "white crane boy" in his memory.

2. Keywords.

There are two keywords in the whole movie: Supreme Secret; Yang Yuhuan; Song of Everlasting Sorrow.

At the end of the film, Yang Yuhuan "left", Bailong no longer obsessed with it, "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" was completed, and Kukai gained the supreme secret.

Let me ask: What is the relationship between Yang Yuhuan and the Supreme Secret? How did Kukai acquire the Supreme Secret? Why does Bai Juyi have always been dissatisfied with "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" without changing a single word?

Judging from the above analysis of the "Supreme Secret", all subsequent mysteries seem to be clear. But before that, I want to talk about it first: Song of Everlasting Sorrow.

Those who are familiar with "Song of Everlasting Regret" will naturally have the first opportunity to watch the movie. "Looking back, a smile will be alluring, the pink and white in the sixth palace are colorless", "The spring night is short and the sun is rising, from now on the king will not go to court early", these The famous poem is from "Song of Everlasting Sorrow". When you read these sentences, do you simply think they are praising Yang Yuhuan? Or are you praising the love between Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan?

This is a controversial tragic poem describing love. It begins with the following sentence: The Emperor of Han was obsessed with beauty and his country. The tone has been set.

Personally, I think this poem is somewhat ironic from a political perspective. Xuanzong loved beauties but not the country. Isn't this a "faint emperor and misdirected government"?

Therefore, while Bai Juyi likes and appreciates Yang Yuhuan, a "beauty" with a beautiful face in the prosperous age, at the same time, he feels that "beauties are a disaster". His heart is tangled and helpless. So I am dissatisfied with this poem. He suffers from not understanding the truth of history, so he can only rely on his feelings.

It wasn’t until he and Kukai investigated the case and decrypted the past events that Bai Juyi discovered that Tang Xuanzong’s love for Yang Yuhuan was not pure love, nor was it an excessive and unscrupulous love. It’s just a “King’s love.” In the prosperous age, you are the garland that decorates the prosperous age. The more beautifully you wear it, the more it shows the glory of my prosperous age. But if my prosperous age is damaged because of you, then I can only abandon you. After all, only the prosperous age has you. If the prosperous age does not exist, I will have you. Besides, what's the point of you?

From this, Bai Juyi saw Yang Yuhuan's impatience and sadness as the alluring beauty "Yang Guifei".

At this moment, Bai Juyi may suddenly feel that it would be better if Tang Xuanzong was like the emperor who loved beauty but not the country in his previous work "Song of Everlasting Regret". After all, he loved the woman he also loved, Yang Yuhuan, but Now he discovered that it was not true. Tang Xuanzong's love for Yang Guifei was not as vigorous as the legend at all. It was just the vigorous way of his love that was passed down and misled future generations. Naturally, many of Bai Juyi's previous judgments were also wrong.

Therefore, there is a scene in the film where Bai Juyi loses control of his emotions.

As the story progresses to the end of the film, Bai Juyi and Kukai learn the "Supreme Secret". Bai Juyi suddenly becomes enlightened and laughs to let go. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which he had been dissatisfied with, now remains unchanged. Kukai asks him why. , he said: "Love is true."

In "Supreme Yoga", life is death, death is life; good is bad, bad is good; true is false, false is true... That's it, at least Bai Juyi's heart and emotions are all. It's true.

3. Concubine Yang.

This word needs to be mentioned separately, because Yang Guifei under the lens of Chen Kaige is really so charming. I believe that this kind of Concubine Yang can afford the "disaster of beauty", and this "disaster" is convincing.

She is not only beautiful, she has a soul.

"Accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger." This sentence should be familiar to everyone. Can beauty alone attract the heart of Xuanzong, who created the prosperous Kaiyuan era, to such an extent? After all, Yang Yuhuan was his daughter-in-law, so she was snatched away by him.

In "The Legend of Zhen Huan", when Zhen Huan was still just Zhen Huan, because she pursued the emperor's pure love, she finally found out that she was deceived and was heartbroken; when she became Niu Hulu and Zhen Huan, she realized that, When staying by the emperor's side, "love" is not the only thing. What is love? Does it not contain any impurities? It's better for everyone to be safe. So in the end, she became the empress dowager.

The same is true for Yang Yuhuan. She deeply understands that the emperor's love for her is not without impurities, and she cannot expect a love that is purely based on love. But she was willing to discover love, believe in love, and embrace love among thousands of impurities, so in the end, she also embraced death. At the critical moment, she fulfilled the emperor's dignity and his love for her, without breaking the greatness of Xuanzong's "self-thought love". How can you not love such a "silly (smart) woman"?

So the "eye" of the whole film should be here.

Just imagine, Yang Yuhuan wants to ask: Your Majesty, you love me so much, please save me!

Once these words come out, how do you want the emperor to answer? Awkward or not?

To save you, the Tang Dynasty will die, and the emperor himself will die too. But I love you again!

If I don’t save you, everyone knows that I love you so much that I make you die. What does my love mean? How will others judge me?

This question was too difficult for the emperor. The emperor did not dare to tell the truth, and Yang Yuhuan did not dare to ask the truth. The truth was meaningless.

So in the play, Li Bai repeatedly said: Clouds want clothes and flowers want face. This poem is beautiful, but it is indeed not written for you, Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan praised him: You are the real great one in the Tang Dynasty.

At least, Li Bai told the truth. Look, Li Bai did what no one dared to do.

What kind of woman is Yang Yuhuan?

After watching the movie, I realized that Yang Yuhuan is really such a woman, and she is the one who truly understands the Supreme Secret. True or false, false is true, evil is good, good is evil, good is bad, bad is good, it all depends on the heart.

4. The case is solved and the knot in my heart is resolved.

In the end, Yang Yuhuan's case was solved, and everyone's knot was resolved. An old story, true or false, this is it.

This movie by Chen Kaige is one that I haven’t come across in a long time that I like so much. What I like about it is that watching it makes people unconsciously think about the things behind it.

5. Supplement - The Cat in the Legend of the Cat Demon

This cat should be well-founded. There is a story about Xuanzong playing chess with a prince and seeing that he was defeated. At the end of the day, Yang Yuhuan, who was watching from the sidelines, released the cat in his arms. The cat jumped into the chessboard and disrupted the chess game, thus messing up the outcome. I don’t know if the story is true or not, but this cat is considered spiritual.

The story of this cat is purely personal conjecture. It is just for fun. I don’t know where the inspiration of the author or director Chen Kaige came from.