To answer this question, I would like to start with the easily overlooked motives behind the nuns' first uphill. Whether it is the previous monks or this group of nuns who are carefully matched to perform their duties, they are going one after another to conquer this snow-capped mountain, but for a simple purpose: mission. Preach the Gospel to people who carry "sin", so that people of all religions and races can be saved.
However, the scene on the mountain is not only not in line with our expectations of the people who need to be rescued, but it is like the nuns have walked into a paradise.
The palace where the nuns lived reminded me of Hilton's description of the Shangri-La Lama Temple in "Lost Horizon": "A colorful pavilion clings to the mountainside. People hate to be pretentious, but inlaid on the cliff with a petal-like delicacy and elegance, it looks rich and elegant.”
The land is vast and rich, and people live on their own (think of the nuns in the monastery of Calcutta. I drink boiled water when I eat, but here I can drink milk) Everything seems to be cheerful and beautiful, and people seem to have nothing to be lacking. As Ayah complained to the nuns at the beginning of the film, "You know nobody here wants a school and I'm sure they don't want a hospital." And the nobles who seek knowledge, in addition to this, the people here do not seem to need the "save" of the nuns.
This pure land on the 8,000-foot-high mountain in the southern Himalayas is indeed in line with the Western imagination of Shangri-La, and it can even be said to be the imagination of the Garden of Eden. Just as the original world was free from sin, just as the Eastern world was free from the deep concept of sin in Christian culture, everything on the mountain was pure and natural. There are no sins to bear, and people's minds are light and free. This is evident in the contrast between the bold and seductive eyes of the Indian girl, the agile dance and the nun who is restrained in every way, whether she is taking the initiative to send herself to Mr. The girl is not ashamed at the sight of the autumn, she is no different from a lively squirrel or a deer who has reached the mating period.
The nuns also experienced this powerful spiritual freedom in this sacred and beautiful natural environment. What's the point of abstinence if the concept of sin is useless? This sudden spiritual liberation made everyone feel at a loss. They began to doubt the mission they originally believed to be here, began to question their choices, recalled the pure and beautiful past, and even thought of love.
Naturally, not only did they fail to bring salvation to the Indians, but they "killed" a baby and broke the state of harmony with the locals. And after this balance was destroyed, the nuns' contradictory and latent psychology was gradually approaching the brink of collapse in the suddenly quiet palace. Ruth's madness lies in the fact that she jumped into this freedom too quickly and embraced her own desires, so desires devoured her like a flood of beasts that opened the gate - originally because the desires were not satisfied, she was jealous and wanted to kill "Rival" Clodagh, but eventually fell into the abyss of sin. She forgot that she was different from an Indian girl. When she took off her robe, she showed the appearance of an urban woman with beautiful makeup and a mature atmosphere, and was never a wild deer or a squirrel.
Another example is Mr. Dean, who neither chooses abstinence nor indulgence, he escapes this freedom by trying to maintain his original secular life. Drinking and having fun, being cynical, and when the camera cuts to his residence, you'll feel like you're instantly back in the modern world. Of course, a layman cannot be mad.
In this Garden of Eden, the nuns are faced with a choice: to be a cheerful wild deer like an Indian maiden, or to be a mindless rock like a meditating master who strips away sensual desires? Just like Mr. Dean, he simply returned to the mundane life. Or forget about freedom and continue to bear the weight-bearing cross, restraining desire and not letting yourself fall off a cliff?
In the end, they chose to leave. Just as the previous monks failed to conquer this mountaintop, they left this 'prosperous land'. When Clodagh and Mr. Dean said goodbye and looked back at the top of the mountain, clouds slowly covered the palace, a metaphor for the Garden of Eden hiding from them.
The movie does not give a definite answer, but just like Narcissus saw his own reflection in the water, the movie Black Narcissus makes us re-examine "self" and "other" in a pair-like relationship like reflection: two ages The nuns with similar appearances, one fell into the abyss because of sin, the other restrained his heart and left in peace; while a group of Westerners are at a loss in the Eastern world and how to make up for the rift between the salvation sought by the West and the ease sought by the East , I think this is the place where this film is more worthy of our thinking.
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