Take Mexico as an example. During the World Cup, I accidentally saw a post saying that the slogan of the 32-strong bus, in which the Mexican national team called itself "Aztec" in the slogan, I couldn't help but start to wonder what they think of Spain. Although they have spoken Spanish and believed in God, Mexicans still feel that they are directly inherited from the Aztecs in blood or culture. So what is Spain to them? Terrible invader? Brother brothers? Or is it just a hurried passer-by in the long river of civilization as the Xiongnu Khitan was to China? If Fang Zhi, Japan and South Korea treat China, it seems that China does not have the hatred of subjugating the country and species. If it is better than full, I don’t know if there are people in the country who like to pull old accounts of history. In short, it seems difficult to find an analogy from this cultural circle, but this is why this question becomes more interesting.
In this regard, "The Book of Life" cannot be said to show us any thoughts, but at least it reveals some attitudes, some attitudes towards the past and the future, cultural inheritance, separation and integration.
The story begins with the sigh of the old administrator, followed by the children's disrespect to tradition when visiting the museum, and the true god incarnates the museum administrator to tell the children the ancient legends, and finally the child gains his own cultural identity and returns. The special bridge section for children's educational films that deceive children is old-fashioned even in domestic films. However, the old-fashioned book illustrates the classics. The mode of old people telling stories to children itself symbolizes the inheritance of a kind of culture. The children visiting the museum come from modern times. The main body of the story takes place in the colonial era. The two ancient gods come from the era of Indian culture. The whole story spans three representative periods of Mexican civilization. History passes through time and space and is tangled together through the endless tradition of Day of the Dead. This is the inheritance.
For a cultural and educational film like this, it is impossible not to check the information after watching it. Probably a lot of people's complaints will focus on the "old-fashioned" story, but if the story of a film is too simple, it probably means that it has other connotations beyond the story that it wants to show to you-otherwise, why should there be " "Feature film" such a classification?
After watching the film, I checked the information on the wiki and found some interesting content. The evil god Xibalba in the story comes from Mayan mythology. In the traditional literature "Popol Wu", this is not the name of a certain god, but the general name of the underworld. His opponent is called La Muerte (Death Sacred God) in the story, but it adopts the image of La Catrina. In the Spanish version of the wiki, this character is simply written as La Catrina. Originally, the two have a certain similarity in image. They are both costumed female skeletons. Compared with the fashionable La Catrina that was designed in the early 20th century, La Muerte has an older tradition of faith and a more religious meaning. strong. However, La Catrina itself is also considered to be closely related to the worship of La Muerte. It has become a symbol of Mexico's Day of the Dead in just one hundred years after being created, and it remains the same today. The screenwriter of "The Book of Life" directly referred to the image of La Catrina as La Muerte, and presumably thought that La Catrina was the representative of La Muerte's worship in the secular world.
The Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten under the jurisdiction of these two gods did not seem to have a corresponding source, and since Xibalba itself is an underworld, and culturally different from La Muerte, there seems to be no reason for another. The grounds of an underworld. If this is the screenwriter's independent setting, then the intention of such a setting is very interesting. As an emerging idol, La Muerte rules the Land of the Remembered, and it is still a popular idol on the Day of the Dead. Xibalba, a representative of the ancient gods, only exists in the literature and is forgotten in the Land of the Forgotten "suffers", the meaning of which is quite interesting. However, the last two gods have been in good harmony for a hundred years. The ages are changing and the image people worship is also changing. The essence of death worship is still in the same line from ancient times to the present. Modernity and tradition are not born or contradictory.
And what is behind the death worship on Day of the Dead? It is a family concept and a concept of life and death. When they heard that the robbers were going to ransack the town of Saint Angel, Malolo and his family yelled, "Everyone is dead! No one will remember us! We will fall to the Land of the Forgotten!" Here I can’t help but smile. This is exactly the same idea as the phrase “If the ghost of Ao’s family is the ghost of Ao’s family” in "Zuo Zhuan," it seems that the East and the West have quite a consensus in this regard. The death of the body is not a real death. To be forgotten means to disappear forever. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, so many people are pursuing the immortality of history. It may be a little nihilistic for individuals, but it must be so for civilization. So, why do you want to sweep the grave? Why sacrifice? Just not to forget our ancestors, the man and nature that first created our civilization and tradition.
PS 1: By the way, why bullfight? In order for people not to forget the dangers of nature and the strength of human beings-on this point, I have no common language with animal protectionists.
PS 2: The names of the three gods in the film are Quiche, Spanish, and English. It seems that Mexico’s cultural melting pot is not only facing colonial culture from Spain, but also American modern culture 2333
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