A simple concept of magic, the transition between the ancient Chinese elements and the science fiction punk doomsday is handled closely.
If you want to pick one out of the many cultural elements with Chinese characteristics to export to the world, the image of the vixen, which is well-known in China, may not be able to bear this responsibility.
The uncertainty in it (it can be transformed into an adult, male or female, please refer to the setting in the Hong Kong movie "Zhong Wuyan"), the strong symbolism of desire (for the controlled person), rooted in natural development The magical attribute (human form begins after a thousand years of practice), is a fable with a strong Chinese color and a very malleable image.
As early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the vixen was only a neutral term, referring only to male sexual fantasies.
It was not until later that powerful women gradually entered and influenced Chinese political history. The male-dominated cultural and historical recorders used the name of vixen to stigmatize these women, such as Da Ji, Wu Zetian, and Chen Yuanyuan, who slaughtered ordinary men in the center of power. Wait. Later, from top to bottom, this cultural image began to generally refer to women who influenced men's careers.
The supernatural image of the vixen has carried a strong sexist color since its birth.
But with such an old-fashioned Chinese vixen image, with a steampunk background and painting style setting, "Happy Hunting" has found a surprise among these slightly outdated elements in both Chinese and Western. Foothold and main line: Magic magic.
"Happy Hunting" is based on a short story of the same name by the Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Yukun.
The English translation of the first volume of "Three-Body" is just a small interest of Liu Yukun's commitment to cultural exchanges between China and the West. With a Chinese background (born in Lanzhou City and immigrating to the United States with his parents at the age of eight), he has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story and Hugo Award for Best Short Story and Hugo Award in 2012 with "Paper in Hand, Love in Heart" (formerly known as The Paper Menagerie). Jia Short Story, is currently the first Chinese writer to win two major science fiction awards. In the following year, he won the Nebula Award for short stories again with Mono no Aware.
Liu Yukun is fully aware of the origins and cultural images of these vixen. In "Happy Hunting", he did not divorce from Chinese culture and combined with the Western concept of Magic (magic) to successfully promote the image of vixen to Western culture. world.
There is no magic theory in China, and similar corresponding concepts have different views in response to the strong praise and criticism of Taoism and Buddhism. Demons have sorcery, and immortals have immortal methods, which carry a strong critical color, and their relationship with natural ecology is even minimal.
In "Happy Hunting", the western magic rhetoric is still used, while the fox spirit uses the Chinese pronunciation of Hulijing instead of using names like Fox Woman. This is a world-wide combination of Chinese and Western traditional cultures. , Neither sticks to Chinese culture, but also absorbs Western concepts just right.
For Western audiences, the Chinese vixen itself is a very curious element, but due to the long-term stigma of this folk image and the unique Chinese history and culture it carries, improper handling will result in dissatisfaction in the Western market. After combining with the familiar concept of magic, the existence of the supernatural image of the vixen became quite reasonable.
For Asian audiences, especially Chinese audiences, magic is an external concept. "Hunting Happiness" has also successfully used this external concept to make a new interpretation of Chinese supernatural legends: the magic of vixen (such as supernatural creatures) is bred in natural aura, technology The more material and new elements of the era, the more they grab and invade the environment, and the less magic that can naturally be produced. The magical animals that take magic as nourishment, such as the vixen, are slowly materialized and secularized.
A simple concept of magic, the transition between the ancient Chinese elements and the science fiction punk doomsday is handled closely.
When the protagonist left the village and settled in Hong Kong, the whole film also completed the natural progression from mythology to the discussion of modern technology, and the main thread of magic is still tightly grasped by the author.
Some people say that the development of science and technology is a process by which human beings condone lazy cancer. I didn’t want to walk. I published bicycles, cars, trains, and airplanes. It was too troublesome to write letters. I invented the telephone. In a very early period, the object of science and technology was still nature.
But I don’t know where to start. The object of science and technology is no longer nature, but the new things that arise from it and the new survival problems that arise from it. High-rise buildings have a demand for elevators and indoor air purifiers. Appeared, the flood construction project damages the ecology of the upstream and downstream.
Slowly, the contact between human beings and nature becomes less and less, and the pleasures brought by nature to the body gradually disappear, and the magic of nature gradually disappears in the "development of science and technology". Mankind slowly builds an environment isolated from nature, and is not aware of the subtle effects of nature on our body and spirit.
Today, we have completely lost our sense of awe of nature.
The magic of life bred by nature is gradually lost due to the rise of modern technology. It satirizes human beings ruthlessly crushing the living environment shared by global creatures for their own development. This insatiable greed is not only a lack of consideration for the long-term future of their own race, but also A ruthless neglect of the existence of other species of the same earth:
Humans have become colonists of other species on the earth.
Coincidentally, the same theme is extremely ironic in another unit set of "Love, Death and Robots", "King Kong Farm". The resistance and sacrifice of the farmers in the front is so tragic, the irony power in the last shot is How strong.
Human greed has existed from ancient times to the present, from the inside to the outside, without exception.
Uncontrolled technological development is the consequence of uncontrolled greed, which is the same as the vulgar man who was half-naked in bed at night, moaning and calling for vixen in the core: Excessive indulgence harms the body if it is near, and endangers others if it is far away ( Other humans, other species, nature).
The vixen has been charged with seduction in history and can be called the poisonous snake of the Garden of Eden, but they are the scapegoats of men’s internal sexual desires. They shirk the consequences and responsibility of this uncontrollable self-control, and humans’ ingenious responsibility for destroying the environment. The same applies to the development of science and technology.
However, "Happy Hunting" does not attribute the responsibility of human development to the environment to the development of science and technology, but directly refers to the greed of human nature. This is why the story sets the background of the British colonial period in Hong Kong (again Time and again, very local historical background in China).
The former empire that never sets in the sun is a typical example of the rapid expansion of human greed. Science and technology does not bear this pot, but also assumes the magical role of returning magic to nature and bringing chaos back to life.
The 16-minute "Happy Hunting" is constantly switching the concept of subject and object in hunting (predatory) behavior.
The ghost hunter (Liang's father) is the subject of hunting, and the vixen is the object; the vixen is the subject, and the confused man is the object; Britain is the subject, Hong Kong is the object; the British aristocracy is the subject, and Yan, Chinese women and Liang are the objects; In the end, the mechanized Yan became the ultimate hunting subject, and all violent and greedy people were the objects, completing the subject and object closed loop of the story about hunting in the form of a new era of magic.
The NETFLIX version of "Happy Hunting" has also been criticized. Infinite Westernization of Chinese elements will damage the orthodox culture and raise a question about the integrity, preservation and inheritance of culture.
One of the cultural viewpoints in "A Brief History of Mankind" is that "pure" culture does not exist. Every cultural system that seems to be inseparable at this stage has undergone a process from scratch.
Italians eat spaghetti made with tomatoes imported from Spain from Mexico, Indians eat Mexican chili, the Chinese cheongsam, which is the majority of the Han, comes from the Manchu culture of the Qing Dynasty, and the American Indians are proud of riding horses. It was also introduced into the Americas from Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The cultural system is always in a state of flux.
"Stick to the authentic culture" itself is a false proposition, because there has never been a "authentic" culture, and all cultures are constantly changing. Invigorating and inheriting a culture is not about sticking to the rules of externalization of each culture. , Rituals or objects, each generation should have its own way to practice the cultural core inherited from the parents. It is important to maintain an open heart, retain those beautiful spiritual cores, discard those inconsistent matters, and develop new ones. , In line with contemporary cultural forms.
The Western stereotypes of the East (in fact, not only the West, we also have quite a lot of traditional stereotypes) not only Liu Yukun needs to deliberately avoid when creating Eastern themes, but also a thing that needs to be compromised, because it is too catering and cannot be conveyed. If you want to abandon Eastern culture, it will make it impossible to understand and spread this culture.
This kind of contradiction and struggle will always exist, and there is no fixed standard to measure right or wrong, only time is needed to make the final decision.
But it is absolutely wrong to stick to the self-styled.
The elements and carrier of "Happy Hunting" are Chinese, and the core is universal, and it is a concern about the future of mankind and the ecology of the earth shared by all mankind regardless of race.
Personal public number: DramaMatters
The original text was first published in [a] APP
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