First of all, it is undeniable that the whole film runs through the Christian values. The scriptures mentioned at the beginning talk about "doubt" and "trust." First look at the complex persona.
1. Japanese
Japanese, speaking Japanese, have their own weird rituals at home, and like to collect photos of the dead to hang on the wall. The villagers suspected that a woman had been raped, and the woman went crazy due to mental shock and got a strange skin disease. She killed the whole family and hanged herself. Note, however, that everything is just suspicion, or rumors in the village, and there is no conclusive evidence that this is what he did. However, the whole village naturally thinks that it is related to him. He was kept away from and warned by the whole village. It is a ghost aside, but at the end of the movie it becomes a demon. But when Zhongjiu's group chased him down until he fell off the cliff, he cried with pain, indicating that at this time, he was still a man of flesh and blood.
2. Ichiko (Tao Ren)
has the same habit as the Japanese, that is, taking pictures of the dead and collecting them in a small box. He often uses the term "bait". Moreover, this person is very wealthy. At first, Zhongjiu's mother asked him to cast spells and spent money. Later, the second time he casts spells on his daughter, she also spent money. He convinced Nakahisa that the Japanese are ghosts, and urged Nakahisa, who is a policeman, to kill the Japanese. During the whole process of exorcising ghosts, Zhongjiu was caught off guard by constantly changing his goals. When the Japanese died, he fortune-telling, he looked out the window and said with a smile, "He swallowed the bait." Who is he here? It may be a Japanese, or it may be Nakajiu, so here does not rule out that he is a liar for money. After he met the unknown woman, he packed his luggage and fled. Finally, he took pictures of the encounter of Zhongjiu's family as usual.
3. An unnamed woman in white
The existence of this person is ambiguous, is it God? Is it a human? Is it a ghost? Personally, she is an image of the police Zhongjiu's mentality, that is to say, the woman is a projection of the police Zhongjiu himself. Because throughout the film, the changes in this woman’s emotional line are connected with Zhong Jiuyou. At first, her appearance was throwing stones, then she corrected Zhong Jiu at the crime scene, and gradually convinced Zhong Jiu’s suspicions. To chase the Japanese, the Japanese fell off the cliff, and the woman chased him until his death, everything was just as Zhongjiu wanted. And when she appeared, she wore the clothes of the deceased, indicating that Zhongjiu had always cared about the deceased. After the Japanese died, the child recovered a bit. At this time, Zhongjiu did not answer the phone and tried to blow out a lit candle, indicating that Zhongjiu was not convinced and did not want to approach Yiguang. At this time, Yiguang also saw the woman vomiting blood and vomiting fluid. , Inaccessible.
The theme of the movie is "doubt" and "trust", and there is another thing in between is "choice". When a person feels a crisis and loses himself, he loses this "choice" and turns to rely on the judgment of others. The essence of evil is a lie, and when a person begins to doubt, he has completely given his choice to this lie. At this time, the devil will control everything.
The policeman Nakajiu felt a crisis because his daughter possessed a ghost. He lost his own judgment and relied on the judgment of others to decide his own choice. He did not find clear evidence from beginning to end, but what Ichiko and others said convinced him. The Japanese are ghosts, so he is determined to kill the Japanese. But when Ikko again said that the Japanese were the bait and the woman was the ghost, Nakajiu could not make a decision in the end, and did not wait for three cock cries and ran into the house. If the woman is Nakajiu's own ideology, then he couldn't even believe it in the end. The woman said: Your crime is distrust and suspicion. The trust mentioned here is actually making a choice by yourself. To doubt is to lose judgment to rely on others.
The woman said that a trap has been set up at Zhongjiu’s house. We can see in the movie that a rope was tied to the door to enclose the entire house and the courtyard. If the woman is Zhongjiu himself, then the house and the courtyard mean In Zhongjiu's heart, he locked and sealed his whole heart, but he already knew that the ghost was coming, and let the ghost enter it Zhongjiu himself was expelled to the outside of the yard, which means that there is no self in his inner world, self has been banished, and in the end, he does not believe in himself.
Look at the Catholic sacrifices, and finally take a sickle to cut down the "resurrected" Japanese. The Japanese said: You already think I am a devil, and I say nothing is useless. The priest said: If you say you are not, I will leave. At this time, he had already entrusted his choice to others. When he went to the cave with a sickle in his hand, he had already shown that he was convinced that the Japanese were demons, but why didn't he even ask questions in front of him? Because of the fear in his heart, he also lost his judgment, and even gave the choice to the devil. In the end, he saw the image of the devil.
Then the people in the village are hooked and attached to ghosts, get skin diseases, go crazy and kill people, and zombies appear in the forest. Who is doing all this? Japanese? woman? Still a light? First, let’s look at the first demonic woman who was raped in the village. Her injury was real, but was it the Japanese? Also, is the Japanese that the hunter saw after he passed out in the village eating raw poultry meat is Japanese? Unsure, because the Japanese had tears when they fell under the cliff, indicating that they were still individuals at the time. Who on earth was the woman killed? One thing is certain. When the woman was killed, some people in the village dreamed of the demonic image of the Japanese, all of which happened when the villagers were suspicious of the Japanese, based on those suspicions. When Zhongjiu went to the Japanese and asked the way, the Japanese were just saying: Who am I? You don't believe me when I say it. That means that people have already portrayed the devil in their hearts, and gave their inner choices to fear, gave them to the devil, and used countless unverifiable lies to forge a certainty. Just like the last Catholic sacrifice, in fact, everyone in the film has this in their hearts, so they see people around them possessing ghosts, just like their choices, as they suspected what was about to happen, and feared what was about to happen.
According to personal understanding, possessing ghosts, killing people, and zombies are all done by demons, but demons, in fact, none of the above three are. It is a cunning existence, more of a spiritual thing, and it must be drilled when it is free, and this emptiness is a lie (A matter without evidence), it first makes people suspicious, to believe in lies, to make people choose this fear on their own initiative, this fear will slowly grow so that people can see it, until people are swallowed by it. Everything is because of one reason, that is, distrust. In the end, the black priest saw the demon deity. I think the director wanted to express that it was because of his inner choice of the devil that he saw the image of the real demon. Just like after his daughter killed the whole family in the end, Zhong Jiu looked at his daughter, who was also a ghost, and was forced to accept all these realities. In fact, everything was brought about by his own choice.
Believing in a lie (suspicion) itself is already making a choice. In contrast, trust is actually difficult, because believing goes against what you see. The choice between the two is in the hands of people, don't throw him away easily, and don't give your choice to others.
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