From then on, the director set a tone for the whole film through Li Mubai's words: a philosophical expression of classical aesthetic style, a sentimental atmosphere that surrounds the film from beginning to end, all of which determine the film It will end in tragedy.
The movie shows two tragedies: the main line of Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian's relationship, ending with Li Mubai's death. Another main line, Yu Jiaolong's Jianghu dream and her love with Luo Xiaohu, ends with Yu Jiaolong's personal disillusionment and cliff jumping. In addition, as another important character who died in the ending, the blue-eyed fox may be pathetic and pitiful if you dig deeper, but in terms of the anti-card character revealed in the movie, her death can be said to be unreasonable. sympathetic.
The reasons for the two tragedies are not the same. The death of Li Mubai was not only accidental, but it could also be said that it was necessary for the plot. But the emotional tragedy between Yu Li and Li Mubai did not only happen when Li Mubai died, but had already been finalized before. The ultimate reason for the tragedy of the relationship between the two is the shackles of etiquette. As Yu Xiulian said to Yu Jiaolong, "I have thought about what you said about freedom, but I have never tasted it." "Although I am not from an official family like you, the morality and etiquette that a woman should obey all her life is not the same. No less than you."
Therefore, Yu and Li have always maintained a kind of platonic spiritual love, not even in love, they can only say that they love each other. From this point of view, Li Mubai's death was the ultimate relief from this long tragedy.
Of course, after Li Mubai confessed to Yu Xiulian and died at the end of the film, Yu's opinion changed: "Promise me, no matter what decision you make in this life, you must be sincere to yourself." However, at this time, she still did not see the essence of the matter. Jade Jiaolong has never pretended to be her own mind. She has always been willful and reckless, but she also cannot avoid the fate of tragedy. Yu Xiulian believes that learning from her own lessons, as long as you treat your heart sincerely, you will have a chance to achieve happiness in life, but she never thought that tragedy is the essence of the world itself, no matter what path you choose, you cannot escape.
Li Mubai's cognition of "Tao" is obviously one level higher than Yu Xiulian's, just like their martial arts level. Judging from the opening paragraph, Li Mubai has long understood the truth of "life is suffering". Abandoning the Qingming Sword is a symbol. As a chivalrous warrior in the world, Li Mubai intends to retire to pursue the liberation of a hermit. For this reason, he even planned to give up the idea of revenge for killing his master. After realizing the philosophy of "suffering in life", he abandoned his resentment and at the same time planned to abandon "love". The so-called love and hate is nothing more than the embodiment of desire. Life is bound by one's own desires, which is "suffering". If you can't give up "desire" and thus achieve "annihilation", you will never "obtain the Tao", and you will never gain liberation.
"Achieving the Tao" is Li Mubai's highest pursuit in his life, but the world is not as he wishes. When he planned to retire from the arena, the grievances of the past once again implicated him. The so-called grievances, one is naturally the blue-eyed fox's murderous revenge, and the other is the feelings for Yu Xiulian. There is also a more obscure deep meaning. At the subconscious level, Li Mubai may have a good impression of Jade Jiaolong. In the tea pavilion, he told Yu Xiulian, "I can't stop my desire after all."
Therefore, it was not the little poisonous needle that killed Li Mubai, the master of Wudang sect, but his own desire. He is eager for revenge, eager to accept the Jade Jiaolong as his apprentice - not only for the inheritance of Wudang swordsmanship, but also for the purpose of possessing the Jade Jiaolong at the spiritual level - it is his own desire that makes this almost unmatched arena The master has entered a desperate situation. Sadly and hilariously, he himself remained highly conscious throughout the process.
At the end of his life, Li Mubai gave up his lifelong pursuit of "Dao" - or "freedom from disillusionment", and instead expressed his heart to Yu Xiulian. Li Mubai did not get relief, but he got redemption from his own love tragedy.
Yu Xiulian's tragedy was due to her blind obedience to etiquette, while Li Mubai's tragedy was due to her own desires. As the most important character of the whole film, Jade Jiaolong represents a very different connotation. The cliff jump of the Jade Flood Dragon at the end of the film is unnecessary at first glance, so it is also puzzling. But if you think about it, you will find that this is the only logical conclusion. Here, Jade Jiaolong is not herself—a sympathetic and endearing young girl with strong martial arts and willful behavior—but an incarnation of an abstract concept.
The pursuit of absolute freedom.
Yu and Li were not free all their lives, but Yu Jiaolong blindly pursued freedom from the very beginning.
All the actions of Jade Jiaolong have a clear motive, which is "fun". Throughout the film from beginning to end, Yu Jiaolong said the word "fun" many times. She told Yu Xiulian that she envied the chivalrous warriors in the Jianghu, doing whatever she wanted and being free. She told Huai'an martial arts practitioners, "Go wherever it's fun." Yu Jiaolong's identity background is the daughter of an official family, and it is not difficult to imagine the constraints and stereotypes she faces in her life. So the pursuit of freedom becomes a natural thing.
She stole the Qingming Sword just on a whim. The love between her and Luo Xiaohu is only because Luo Xiaohu gave her a brand new life experience - the vast and boundless desert, galloping freely, and loving passionately and indulgently. She once planned to succumb to the etiquette, but ran away from home, and at the moment of running away, she did not have a clear plan for the future.
Yu Jiaolong is completely different from Yu Xiulian. She does what she wants to do regardless, without thinking about the consequences at all. However, one thing happened after another, and Yu Jiaolong found that he did not find the "dream of rivers and lakes" he imagined, but instead caused a series of disasters.
The mistress, the blue-eyed fox, was exposed because she stole the sword and was killed by Li Mubai. The dream of Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian to retire from the arena was shattered. Li Mubai died of poisoning in a cave. Suddenly, the young Jade Jiaolong saw that he had to take the consequences for his actions: take responsibility for the death of the blue-eyed fox, and take responsibility for the death of Li Mubai. The weight of guilt lay on the young woman, and she collapsed.
Jade Jiaolong jumping off the cliff may have the element of redemption, but more of it should be a kind of disillusionment. The "Jianghu Dream" was shattered, and she found that the Jianghu thing was not fun, bloody, dirty and heavy, and it had to be bound by various "rules". The love is shattered, she has long since stopped loving Luo Xiaohu, and her love for Luo Xiaohu is just a manifestation of the passionate and wild emotional indulgence in life in the desert. On the spiritual level, what Yu Jiaolong admired more was probably Li Mubai, who was a being that she could admire more than her. And it was this person who died in the bleak cold night because of her willfulness.
Jade Jiaolong was disillusioned. She understands the price of unrestricted freedom, she understands that there are also "rules" in the rivers and lakes, she experiences the disappearance of love, and she understands the "emptiness" of the essence of life. She no longer has the pursuit of freedom, on the contrary, instead, she bears heavy guilt. So she chose to jump off the cliff. At the end of the whole film, what Jade Flood Dragon falls into is not death, but an endless sea of clouds and void.
However, the most ironic thing is that, to a certain extent, only at this moment did Jade Jiaolong truly gain freedom and liberation. She arrived at "empty". This is a realm that Li Mubai has never reached in his entire life - the so-called "Nirvana" is nothing more than such a thing.
Rewatching this movie, I, like Li Mubai, experienced a deep sense of helplessness and sadness. Life is not free. I think that's what this movie is trying to convey.
"The world is so big, nowhere is far away."
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