In the temple of Meng Jiangnu in Shanhaiguan, there is a very famous couplet: "The sea is falling, and the clouds are long and long." The name of the story is Chinatown, but Chinatown is only the final climax of the film. the scene that happened. The deeper meaning behind it should be that the film expresses the thinking of Lao and Zhuang philosophy on the world - people follow the earth, the earth follows the sky, the heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows the nature. This is like the ebb and flow of tides in the sea, changing rapidly but with its own rules.
At the beginning of the film, it foreshadows the absurdity in Los Angeles: During the drought, a drunkard and a minister of the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy were drowned, so the film laughed at itself: "This kind of thing only happens in Los Angeles." In this era of Los Angeles, power struggles are full of darkness. At a time when water resources are extremely scarce, tons of fresh water resources are still dumped into the sea for personal and official selfish desires. When the riverbed has dried up, the evil in human nature continues. And in the final ending, this kind of evil fell into a cycle, just like the so-called: those who work for everyone have frozen to death in the wind and snow. Those who paved the way for freedom have been trapped in thorns. The evil in the world cannot be completely eliminated as long as there are people. The tide ebbs and flows, but the constant is the salty and deep tide.
The appearance of the male protagonist Jack first solved the problem of a family cheating, comforting Carl: "When you are right, you are right. Then this time you are right." Then when the fake Mrs. Murray appeared, He first suggested: "Please go home and forget about these things, Let sleeping dog lie! You'd better not know anything." Jack's life experience was all learned from working as a police officer in Chinatown. Turning one eye over the other can be said to have obvious Chinese cultural roots and unique Chinese wisdom, but at the same time, it is also the root cause of the spectator's psychology of being indifferent and not fighting for it. There is a passage in the film that makes fun of Chinese people's sexuality: "The Chinese do it for a while, then stop, read Confucius' books, come back, and do it for a while." realm. And the tragedy of Jack's character is that he understands this truth, because he has tried his best to protect the things he cherishes, but it is counterproductive. But he is arrogant and has a kind of American heroism in his heart. Introduced as an outsider, his accumulated professional experience and sheer confidence lead him to act recklessly. When he still didn't understand the cause and effect of the whole thing, he hurriedly inserted himself into the chaos of the family. And also, meeting Noah privately, calling the police when you don't know what's really going on, and so on. His determination and perseverance made things more complicated every time, so in the end tragedy happened in Chinatown. He lost his beloved woman again. So he exclaimed: As little as possible, do nothing as much as possible. Doing nothing is better than acting recklessly.
Murray said the place where life arose in the tidal puddles. And Noah said, I am rich, but I want the future. The reason why Noah murdered Murray was because Murray looked at the failures of the past and the down-to-earthness of the present. Noah is just the opposite, for future wealth and self-interest. The name Noah comes from the "Bible · Old Testament", but there is a gap of opposition between the two. In the Bible, Noah is a representative of "goodness", advising people to stop their sins as much as possible. So God chose their family, built Noah's Ark, and sent floods to the world, purifying the world and starting a new cycle. And Noah's Ark is the hope and expectation for the future. But Noah finally cursed his descendants to be slaves in the future because his son covered him naked. From this point of view, Noah Knos has a completely sharp contrast with Noah in character, and he is full of the bloody repression and violence that are full of the Old Testament of the Bible. Noah Knos is in the game world of Los Angeles as if he is the master, who can buy off the police department, rape his 15-year-old daughter, and control his granddaughter and daughter. The future world built by Noah's Ark is sinless and pure. And the future world that Noah Knos wants to build here is a dark world built by money. He didn't care what he lost, he cared that he could grab what he could control and stretch out his disgusting clutches. In his eyes, there is no family, only interests. And Murray's perseverance to his wife is commendable and virtuous.
The imagery and metaphor of fish frequently appear in the film. The film starts with tuna and flying fish. After that, when Noah and Jack eat fish together, Noah carefully watches the fish on Jack's plate with reading glasses, as well as the Sea Fish Club. Fish culturally means reincarnation and sexuality. And when Noah looked at the fish in Jack's plate, he gave a stop-motion shot of the fish's eyes. Noah's boundless desire saw through the eyes of this fish his desire to have a daughter/granddaughter. The ability of fish to reproduce is very strong, which implicitly alludes to the irony of the fish club taking the old man as the owner of their land and the emotion of the reincarnation of life and death.
And in the end, the tide ebbs and flows. The fate in Chinatown is destined to be irreversible. The tide washed onto the beach on the shore, leaving behind a beautiful foam that struggled hard.
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