The first shot of the text / Dugu tree movie is a ring. As the camera got closer, the ring gradually rotated, showing the appearance of a golden hoop. It continues to move toward the audience nonstop, as if it were worn on the audience's head. The movie doesn't really begin until the eye passes through it.
When I wrote the above words, the picture that was churning in my mind was the moment when Zhou Xingchi put on the golden hoop in "Journey to the West". In the whole "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", there are ubiquitous Zhou's nonsensical jokes, the soundtracks of "The Love of My Life" and "The Great Sage's Wife", and even the phrase "How long have you loved me?" "10,000 years. "All of them are arousing the audience's memories of "Journey to the West". It's just that the protagonist this time is no longer the stinky monkey who owes a love debt, but Chen Xuanzang, who used a copy of "Three Hundred Nursery Songs" to go to hell to fight monsters.
Frankly speaking, Xing Ye's grasp of the narrative rhythm is quite precise, with dense laughs, bursts and tears interspersed, and successfully grabbed every nerve reflex of the audience. The narrative performance of the film is very crisp and direct: a main line (Chen Xuanzang conquers the demon), and then three stories (the river demon, the pig demon, and the monkey demon) are interwoven by a clue (the master). And Miss Duan, played by Shu Qi, is the "eye" of the whole movie: because of her, Xuanzang completed the "finishing finishing touch" of becoming a Buddha. Looking back at "Journey to the West", in the end, it was also Zixia, who really completed the ascension of the smelly monkey.
When he failed to collect the river demon for the first time, the exorcist Chen Xuanzang asked the master, Master, did you find the wrong person. The master said, no, I am looking for you. Chen Xuanzang said, but I am so useless, I could have saved more people, that little girl was only four or five years old, and I watched her die just like that. The master hugged Xuanzang and said, "You are only a little short."
Chen Xuanzang hit the road again, this time he met the pig demon, and at the same time he met another exorcist, Miss Duan, who he had met before when he was exorcising the demon. The two encounters made Miss Duan fall in love with this "brave man" who "takes children's songs to hell to fight monsters", so she tried every means to cook cooked rice with Chen Xuanzang, but Xuanzang couldn't avoid it. The whole process was full of jokes, and the laughter in the cinema was one after another, almost uninterrupted, which shows Zhou's comedy skills.
After failing to subdue the pig demon, Chen Xuanzang began to doubt himself again. This time, the master directed him to find Sun Wukong at the foot of Wuzhi Mountain. With the help of Sun Wukong and Miss Duan, the pig demon was finally subdued. Miss Duan turned the iron ring, which was handed down from her family, which could be controlled at will, into a ring and put it on Xuanzang's hand, but she left sadly because of Xuanzang's indifferent resistance. Xuanzang was deceived by Sun Wukong and broke the seal. The demon king was able to escape. He pulled Xuanzang's hair and was about to kill him. Miss Duan rushed back to save Xuanzang, but was seriously injured.
As she was dying, Miss Duan said to Xuanzang, who was holding her, that she was finally caught by me. You see you care about me so much, and you dare to say that you don't love me. Xuanzang said, I love you, I have been in love with you since the first time I met you. Miss Duan asked, how long have you loved me? Xuanzang said, 1,000 years... 10,000 years. Miss Duan said with a smile, 10,000 years is too long, let's do it now. Xuanzang took off Miss Duan's wishful iron ring, turned it into a ring, put it on his hand, and cried out on the man's body. In the end, Xuanzang tamed Sun Wukong through the "Three Hundred Nursery Songs" (actually "The Great Sun Tathagata") which Miss Duan had previously destroyed and repaired. He took off the ring, turned it into a golden hoop, and put it on Sun Monkey's head. He took the converted river demon and pig demon and set out on the road to the west.
At first glance, it is like revisiting "Journey to the West". However, the subtleties of the calculation are worth playing carefully.
There was a sincere love in front of them, but they didn't cherish it at first. The end of the supreme treasure was to lose, but the end of Chen Xuanzang was to have it. The ring worn on Chen Xuanzang's hand was the golden hoop worn on the head of the Supreme Treasure, but Xuanzang accepted the love with Miss Duan by putting on the ring, and realized that the love between men and women is also the supreme Dharma of great love. But Bao used a golden hoop to completely break the karmic bond, and sealed the tears of Zixia on the coconut in his heart. To some extent, the poignant and classic love in "Journey to the West" has a new interpretation.
ten thousand years is too long, fight for now. Even for a brief moment, Chen Xuanzang and Miss Duan had each other, but Supreme Treasure and Zixia could only keep missing. Chen Xuanzang said "I love you" just before Miss Duan's death. He had a moment of eternity, and finally helped him realize the "little bit" that he had gone on a business trip ("Only if you have had pain, can you understand the pain of all living beings; if you have had attachments) Only then can he let go of his attachments; if he has been concerned, he can be free from worry."), which gave him the wisdom to pervade the world. And Supreme Treasure saw Zixia's tears on the "coconut" with his own eyes, and understood his paranoia and vainness, but he didn't have time to say "I love you" to his lover in a sincere way, leaving him with regrets that he couldn't do it.
Zixia fled to the mortal world to find true love, and so did Miss Duan. They are all looking for the "favorite person", raising their eyebrows and raising their husbands and children. However, things backfired. They all met the right person at the wrong time and place, so Supreme Treasure thought that he loved Bai Jingjing, and Chen Xuanzang thought that the love between men and women was a clear rule. Both women dare to pursue their own happiness, and they are not afraid to sacrifice their lives for the people they love. Nineteen years ago, in "Journey to the West", Zixia never heard the person say "I love you". You", telling everyone that "people always know how to cherish when they are lost"; in "Journey to the West" nineteen years later, Miss Duan left with Chen Xuanzang's love and pointed out "grasp the moment and cherish the people around you".
The regret of Zhizunbao and Zixia nineteen years ago turned into a kiss on the gate of the city, and finally, nineteen years later, Chen Xuanzang and Miss Duan drew a relatively satisfactory ending.
Great love is silent, great sound is hopeful, everything is unfounded, but reasonable.
"The sea of bitterness turns up love and hate / It is hard to escape fate in this world / The blind date is unapproachable / Or I should believe it is fate" The once ending song "The Love of My Life" appeared countless times in various forms in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Devil" , From the "attachment" of the small self to the "non-attachment" of the big self, who will be the "love of a lifetime"?
In the process of watching the movie, I laughed and cried three times, once when Miss Duan died, once when Chen Xuanzang spoke of his epiphany, and once in the opening scene, the little girl Changsheng and her mother died. when. When Changsheng was taken away, the mother was obviously scared to death, but she jumped into the water without hesitation, and faced the monster with a trembling voice and said, "Give me back my daughter." That scene was really breathless. Why set up such a plot? Perhaps it was Chen Xuanzang who realized his powerlessness and planted the seeds of epiphany in his heart: a person's strength is always weak, but if more people have the wisdom of prajna, discern between good and evil, such a tragedy, Maybe it won't happen. "Journey to the West" is not broken until the end. The purpose of Journey to the West has never been to eliminate demons, but to be loved by the common people.
There are more or less the shadows of Zhou's masterpieces such as "Kung Fu" and "Nine Pin Sesame Officials" in the film. Those familiar soundtracks and nonsensical lines are the best proofs. Like Jackie Chan's "Zodiac", is this also a summary of Stephen Chow's work as an actor as a director? Of course, those parts that are similar to "Journey to the West" will inevitably cause some people's dissatisfaction. For example, Zhou Xing's talents are exhausted, and they are not as good as they used to be... Indeed, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" can arouse the audience's interest in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" to a certain extent. The miss of "Journey to the West", but it is definitely not a remake of "Journey to the West".
Finally, Luo Zhixiang played the empty son, as well as the other two exorcists Tian Stump and Five Elements Boxing. The performance is remarkable and very funny. The Monkey King played by Huang Bo is impressive, and he shows the black-bellied demon king incisively and vividly. Because the 3D version was not arranged for the test screenings, I always felt that I was not addicted to it. In short, without considering too many circumstances, "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is indeed an enjoyable New Year's film.
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