things are born and all things grow and restrain each other. The film shuttles between time and space. One second you are still guessing what the macaques are thinking about in the hot spring, and the next second you face the picturesque snow-covered Mount Fuji; before you can stop before the cremation ceremony by the Ganges River in India, you have already jumped. Wandering around in the temples of Syria; in front of you is a colorful rainbow composed of hundreds of millions of water droplets from a huge waterfall.
"Water" and "Fire"
"Water" and "Fire" are the most primitive components of nature, and they are also mutually reinforcing. Humans have an innate admiration for "water" and "fire". The film presents a large number of shots about "water" and "fire", whether it is a majestic waterfall or a calmly spreading river, all of which are pinned on the hope of life. Water in nature exists in various forms, seemingly weak but also capable of penetrating hard rocks, wiping out the passion for carving at will. The most prominent performance of the film about water is the reflection on the life by the Ganges River. In the recorded footage, the daily life of the people on the shore is inseparable from the nourishment of the Ganges River. The water here is the image of a mother who bathes her body. At the same time nourish the mind. The Ganges also symbolizes death. Many elderly people live by the Ganges and wait peacefully for death to come. Their bodies that grow up in the Ganges water will eventually be taken away by the same river. As the image of life, water, like life, goes round and round again and again and again and again.
As the image corresponding to "water", "fire" is a symbol of power, which warms the heart, ignites hope, and can also burn everything. In the second half of the film, a vast expanse of barren land bursts into flames, followed by a war-torn building with pictures of the dead on the walls, in one of the rooms , the room full of skeletons alludes to the cruelty of war. On the banks of the Ganges, many people choose cremation to complete the ritual of their lives. Fire not only takes away the old body, but also means the beginning of a new life. Many people also lit floating candles. The candles floating on the water symbolize the blessings that people pray for. At the same time, the harmony of water and fire is also one of the themes of the film. From this point of view, the image of "fire" is a symbol of life just like water.
From birth to death, the process of life is like fire and water, going round and round, sometimes heroic and sometimes small, but as life, every drop of water and every beam of fire is full of interpretation and reflection on the eternal theme of life. .
Ancient and modern
films compare ancient and modern societies on multiple levels, trying to depict the complete human activity on Earth. The heavy-duty static lens language expresses ancient times: broken walls, ruined Egyptian pyramids, mottled Cambodian Angkor Wat, all of which seem to be quietly wandering in the ocean of time. In addition to the static historical sense shots, some human beings who still inherit the living habits of ancient ancestors are depicted in parallel, which constitutes another part of the memory of ancient times in the film, that is, human activities still living in a primitive state. The activities of primitive people record the origin of human beings and the most primitive and bottom-level goal of all human beings - reproduction. Through the lost time and space and the still existing primitive human, the wonder of time and space alternates: the past can be found in the present, and the breath of the present is searched from the past time and space.
The performance of modern society is diametrically opposite to that of ancient times. Humans in modern society have lost the most primitive and most dynamic expressions of life. They seem to be walking through the densely packed reinforced concrete like machines, rushing through like ants. Flock aimlessly to an unknown future black hole. Lost the original impulse, the expression becomes numb, and slowly becomes the same individual. The film chooses a normal speed with cheerful music when expressing primitive society, and speeds up the film's projection speed when expressing modern society and uses drums as the main background music. Human life in modern society seems to be fast-forwarded. Generally, it is fleeting in the blink of an eye.
Human activities in human and nature
films are presented through religious acts. At the beginning, it shows a group of people living in a primitive state conducting a large-scale religious ceremony. Everyone is very devoted and their body language is very rich. The devout believers hope to receive blessings and their wishes through this ceremony. It can be realized, as the ritual becomes a rule, the ritual also becomes a belief, a religion. The film depicts human religious activities in great detail, such as Zen-like Japanese temples, gorgeous and magnificent Muslim gatherings, and ritualistic Hindu meditations. One of the causes of religion is to give a hypothetical guess to phenomena that human cognition cannot explain. In the film, it seems that human beings can only obtain blessings and finally happiness through religious means. People living in modern society have become like robots and have lost their individuality. Religion can pull people out of pain, whether it is a small priest staying The tears she shed were still dancing white dresses, revealing the purest emotion brought by religion to people.
The mystery and magnificence of nature has been meticulously and breathtakingly displayed, the infinite energy and changes in the picture, in the blink of an eye, the sun rises and sets, and the stars move. Almost all the astronomical wonders and geographical features are shown in the film. The clouds at an altitude of 30,000 li; the sun, moon and stars above the pyramids of Egypt; the vast white fog on the vast wilderness, etc. In the face of nature's supernatural workmanship, the insignificance of human beings is even more prominent. Nature is infinite, and human beings appear too small and incompetent in front of it. But while human beings are mechanical, clumsy and small, they are also as cute and vigorous as those chicks on the assembly line.
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