There are many films that reflect the traditional Chinese society of ethics. If a film about the society touches people, sighs, or feels sympathy, it has considerable weight. And this movie, on the other hand, is truly frightening, suffocating, creepy, and a chill seeps into the bones.
There is no doubt that this film is about a tragedy, and all the characters that appear have no survivors.
Yang Jinshan is tragic. He changed from torturing others to being tortured by others, from oppressing others to being oppressed by others, and from murdering others to being murdered by others. Watching Judou and Tianqing intercourse, he first wanted to kill Tianbai as a means of revenge, but failed; then he wanted to perish with everyone and failed; he was eventually raised like a beast, but he still did not let go of his revenge, but When he wanted to push Tianbai into the pool, he completely changed his mind because of the sound of "Daddy" - he seemed to have won the victory that belonged to the losers. He began to be triumphant, began to use Tianbai's childishness as a weapon for his counterattack, and even found a reason to live. But at this moment, the unworthy son who once kept him alive suddenly brought his life to an abrupt end, just like calling out "Father" unintentionally.
Yang Tianqing is tragic, he has nothing to rely on in this world, not even himself. There seems to be no way out of his life except as a cow and a horse in his adoptive father's dyeing workshop. Judou told him to run, but he didn't dare to run; let him kill, he was always cowardly; his adoptive father died, but he began to complain about Judou. In such a society, Yang Tianqing has no independent personality at all, and he cannot even be regarded as a person at all. He is more like a cow and horse kept in his adoptive father's house. Tianqing didn't dare to run away because he was cowardly with his adoptive father or clan's lewd power. He didn't have the will to run away at all, or he knew that he had no way to escape. His fate was clearly written on the paper from the moment he was adopted, that is, to be a hard-working animal in the dye house. Of course, he also has unabated humanity, but it is completely suppressed. When he picked up the knife and wanted to rush upstairs to rescue Judou, but he was so frightened by Yang Jinshan's life-long scolding that his soul as a human was completely imprisoned in the body of an animal. In the end, he could only call his brother at his son's birthday banquet, he could only be kicked out of the dye house and cooperate in the wild, and he could only be knocked unconscious in the pool by his son, and died in the same place as his adoptive father. He has nowhere to run.
Judou is tragic. Because she was tortured by one man, she turned to another man, hoping that there would be her backing, even if the man was so obscene that he peeped at her bathing through the small hole, and was so cowardly that she would not dare to step on the stairs to indulge her desires even when her adoptive father was away. She would also shove herself into this man like a shove. Judou's fate is more tragic than Yang Tianqing. The latter lives like a beast. She is indeed the successor of the two women who were tortured to death. She is tortured every day. This made Judou more brave and stronger than Yang Tianqing. She always wanted to resist and escape. The knife marks left by Yang Tianqing on the stairs undoubtedly gave her the illusion that this man was an emissary sent by God to save her, so she was so resolute when she dedicated herself. Who would have thought that this man was already a lamb who was submissive under the whip, how could he escape with her. She thought that she had given birth to a son for him, and from then on she had a prosperous life for a family of three, but in the end it was her son who became the source of all tragedies. The fire that others used to persecute her eventually became the only way for her to be redeemed.
The love between Judou and Tianqing is tragic, or there is no love between them at all. Judou wanted Yang Tianqing to take her and her son away, but Yang Tianqing regarded her as an accident that did not belong to him from beginning to end. He could only perfunctorily persuade Ju Dou to escape, and complained in front of his adoptive father's body: "That's my uncle after all", and he could only keep the relationship between the two in a shadowy shadow.
Yang Tianbai is even more tragic. He grew from a victim at birth to a perpetrator step by step. From the hope of Judou and Tianqing to live, he became the evil barrier that Yang Jinshan hated, the weapon that Yang Jinshan fought back against, the murderer of Yang Jinshan's death, the ghost when Judou and Tianqing were in a relationship, and he changed The executioner who was wandering in the village holding a butcher's knife to defend his mother's honor became the murderer of his own father. He is the one who is eaten and the one who eats people.
And the root of all these tragedies is the society, the cannibalistic society that has been hijacked by etiquette. Judou's loyalty and Tianqing's filial piety must be proved to the world by his hard-working performance of blocking the coffin at Yang Jinshan's funeral. "Ancestor's rules, to stop the coffin seventy-seven forty-nine times!" Why is the so-called perverted twist of ritual so far!
Many plots presented in the film are reminiscent of Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman":
If they can eat people, they may not eat me.
......
I opened up the history and checked it. This history has no chronology, and the words "benevolence, righteousness and morality" are written on each crooked leaf. I couldn't sleep horizontally and vertically. After reading it carefully in the middle of the night, I could see the words from the cracks. The two words "eat people" were written all over the book!
I'm human too, and they want to eat me!
......
It's my brother who eats people!
I'm the man-eater's brother!
I was eaten myself, but I am still the brother of the cannibal!
......
The place that has been eating people for 4,000 years, I only realized today that I have been in it for many years; the elder brother is in charge of the housework, and the sister just died, he may not be in harmony with the meal, secretly giving us food.
I may not have accidentally stopped eating a few pieces of my sister's meat, and now it's my turn,...
With a four-thousand-year history of cannibalism, although I didn't know it at first, I now understand that it's hard to see real people!
And finally:
Children who haven't eaten people, or are there?
save the child...
Apart from the plot, the artistic handling of the film is quite intriguing, with many scenes appearing repeatedly before and after, which seems to have become a symbol with a certain meaning, implying the endless cycle of the cannibalistic society. Such as Judou's panting, from the screaming of being tortured, to the joy of having sex with Tianqing, and then to the wailing of illness; such as fire, first Yang Jinshan wanted to use it to perish, and finally became Judou's self Redemption; even in that flight of stairs, first Yang Jinshan, who was paralyzed, climbed down with his hands and feet, and then Judou, who was suffocated by hypoxia, witnessed Tianqing's death in the same posture; the most amazing scene was the scene where the red silk fell from the roller. It appears when Tianqing and Judou cross the line for the first time, and later when Tianqing is knocked into the water by Tianbai. It symbolizes the beginning and end of life, and even has a bit of poetry.
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