One thing I have always been impressed by: there was a large fire in California, all the celebrities and dignitaries who lived in the Malibu mansion fled, and Mr. Cameron put on a professional fire suit and sprayed his house with fire prevention. Foam, then sit in the yard and watch the fires blowing over the mountains and plains.
"It felt like seeing the end of the world," he said.
The above is quoted from Zhihu.
I heard that Cameron is an enlightened director. When watching "Avatar", I was only amazed by its sophisticated computer synthesis technology and the director's magnificent imagination. Later, I came across a film review that explained "Avatar" from a metaphorical point of view. Each character has its own meaning. He explained "Avatar" as a spiritual film, and the explanations made sense. For example, the male protagonist connects Avatar's body through a machine, symbolizing the soul (true self) and the body. Explains the metaphor of Avatar's tail and the connection of all things, and so on.
So when I look at Alita this time, I think about every image and every character with this kind of vision. What do you want to convey to us.
Movies are meaningless if they don't convey ideas to the audience, right?
At the beginning of the movie, Ed finds a broken robot in a garbage dump and names her Alita. Alita wakes up and asks Ed: "Who am I and where am I?" This is the ultimate question of philosophy. Children may have thought about it when they were young. From Alita's questioning and the various episodes that followed, I think Alita's metaphor is - children.
The whole film is a story of a child's growth and final personality sublimation.
Alita, who walked out of the house, met the male protagonist - Hugo. The first time Hugo saw Alita, he was attracted by Alita's character. Alita, is a spiritual girl, like a newborn baby, full of curiosity about everything. Hugo, who is full of yearning for such a girl, is also a person with a beautiful heart.
Speaking of Hugo, let's start with what I've seen from this character.
Hugo is always making money. He believes that if he earns 1 million, he can go to Salem. The meaning of Salem, I think, can be understood in many ways. Here, I understand Salem as - desire.
Hugo has always pursued his own desires, thinking that as long as he fills his desires, he can be happy.
And Hugo's mentality represents the psychology of most people in human society. People follow this logic: if I get what I want, I can be happy. Then I always get what I want and can be happy forever.
But in fact, we don't want to get something specific, like money, diamonds, high-tech products... we just want to be happy. Happiness is not obtained from outside, but from within.
In today's society, money is regarded as the criterion for success. University teachers are also instilling in their students the idea that you need to study harder in order to make more money in the future.
And the teacher himself is driven by desire.
It is true that satisfying desires does bring satisfaction for a while. But this kind of satisfaction is dependent on external giving. "What others give to you, others can take away." When we gain material things, our hearts are also covered with a layer of worry about losing them. Therefore, the happiness that comes from satisfying desires does not last long.
Alita influenced Hugo, and Hugo began to waver, not knowing whether what he was pursuing was correct. He first realized that it was wrong to rob someone else's property. He put down the knife.
But cause and effect will not forgive anyone. What you take from others will be returned eventually. Hugo's body was killed by Zapan.
Destiny made him lose his body in order to punish Hugo who was obsessed with desire. But even so, Hugo still holds the illusion that desire can redeem himself, eager to redeem his heart by realizing the ultimate desire. He used the body of a robot to walk on the transportation pipeline to Salem, which is a deep irony to mortals, and that ignorant mortals can never let go of their desires. And the result of clinging to desire will be destruction.
On the bridge, Hugo said with tears: "I belong there!" Alita burst into tears, as if Jesus redeemed poor mortals, and the truth of life flowed from her lips: "We don't belong anywhere except each other."
This sentence was also realized by Qilian, who is also obsessed with desire, at the end of her life: "What I want is not above."
Movies tell us time and time again: Desire cannot save people. Like the Buddha's analogy: three dragons that eat people: greed, hatred, and delusion.
Let's go back to Alita. After defeating three bullies with his bare hands, the monologue in his heart in front of the mirror at home is a philosophy of life. She realized: I have unlimited potential.
The potential of each of us is limitless.
Glushka, who escaped, came to Qilian's laboratory for help. We learned that Glushka was a slave to the upper echelons of Salem. That's why there is no bounty for him.
The mastermind behind the scenes, Nova, is here for the first time. Nova threatened Victor, saying, if you still want your job, listen to my arrangements. Victor and Kirin gave in.
I think Nova represents destiny. Most people can't see fate, but a few people like Victor see fate, but think that fate is something we must obey, so they become slaves of fate.
The ancients said: "Destiny is self-determined, and blessings are sought by oneself." The Ksitigarbha Sutra says: "All sentient beings in South Jambudi, all their thoughts are sinful and evil." In fact, everyone is the master of their own destiny. It’s just that we don’t know how to reflect on our own thoughts, our own faults, and how to accumulate virtue and do good deeds. As the "Liaofan Four Instructions" says: "The heart is rough and the eyes are cloudy."
Back to the story, Alita found the Berserker's body from the Mars spacecraft. Ask Ed to put it on for himself. But Ide refused because he didn't want Alita to take such a big risk and responsibility. Alita registered as a bounty hunter. Come to the bounty hunter's lair. Attempt to fight back on their own.
In the old nest, the role of Zhapan officially debuted. Zapan's character design is domineering and has meaning. Except for the face, everything is a modified human body. Symbolizes the importance of the face to Zapan. He considers himself to be the best among bounty hunters, the only one. We see that after being humiliated by Alita, he became angry and started to do something to Alita.
The role of Zapan represents a person who wants face in life. (It's very important to look at the face.) Each of us will need face more or less. In fact, this is a lack of self-confidence performance. The environment in which we grew up led to this phenomenon. The author is such a person. When I was a kid, my mom would make me do things her way and praise them. If it goes against her will, she will be criticized. Under this kind of education, I became a child who catered to my mother. In order to win my mother's approval, I wronged my heart and pretended to be a good child in my mother's eyes. In this way, I rarely affirm myself, and only rely on my mother to affirm myself. In the long run, a wrong value concept has been formed: whether I am good or not, I will not say it, and others will say it. In fact, people's judgment standards vary widely, and giving ourselves to others to judge will only make us feel at a loss. And the so-called people, their standard of judgment is only the standard of mortals. True saints are lonely. As the so-called "high and low"
Face-saving people tend to be less mentally healthy. They will hate people who are not sure about them, people who make them humiliated. Zapan is exactly that. Glushka broke into the bar to look for Alita, and Zapan was the first to say: "She's yours now."
In the end he was beheaded by Alita. He yelled, "My face! My face!"
What I learned from this role is that the person who wants face doesn't end up getting it, but loses face completely and utterly. Face is not only worthless, it is nothing.
Back to the main line, facing Grushka, Alita said: "In the face of evil, I can't stand idly by."
Only those who are brave enough and have justice in their hearts can reach the other side.
After the war, Alita was reborn. Put on the body of a berserker.
During this process, I noticed a detail: Ide went home with Alita's body in his arms, when Kirin appeared. If I were to be the director, I wouldn't think of Qilian, I would just let them go home. But Cameron arranged for Qilian to appear. "It doesn't matter how many times you save her," she said.
Here's another mention of Qilian. Unable to accept her daughter's death, she went to Victor. The metaphor is: Lost the love for the child, and instead hope that desire will bring her liberation.
Ide and Qilian took different paths. Ide understands that people who have been exiled can no longer go up (the pursuit of desire is not free), so he turned his love for his daughter into love for the public and became a doctor. Ed is wise, he understands that only love is the ferryboat of the soul, and can people be redeemed. Jesus, Sakyamuni, Mother Teresa... They all have equal love and compassion for the world.
Qilian was touched by Yi De's behavior, she saw that Yi De always insisted on love and loved Alita. She saw what she had been missing all along. Later she helps Alita protect Hugo. At the end of her life, she told Victor what she had learned, which is what Cameron wanted to tell the audience:
"What I want is not on it."
Back to our protagonist, Alita is very happy after changing her body. The screen changed, she jumped on the roof, and Ide's voice sounded in the background: "The body is not good or bad, the key lies in yourself."
The difference between man and man is not in the body, but in the mind.
Alita participates in the mobile ball, saves Hugo, Hugo is killed, skip it.
Alita killed the Factory and challenged the centurions by herself. The Factory represents the ruling class that makes the rules, and most people just follow the rules. And she dares to break the rules and see more possibilities.
There are more than three solutions to everything.
Alita was attacked by an ambush Grushka, when her memory resurfaced: the woman in the dream was teaching him to fight, telling her: "You are the soul of the survivors. To see more possibilities, Discover things that ordinary people can't see." When the scene changed, she and the soldiers climbed up to Salem through the pipeline. The pipe broke, and the female warrior grabbed Alita and said, "Destroy Salem!" (Destroy Desire)
Alita was completely awake. This is alluding to a person's awakening.
If a person sets his mission in life high enough, no difficulty can prevent him from fulfilling his mission, and no setback can defeat him.
At this time, we saw that the part where Alita was hit healed automatically. He slashed Glushka cleanly. The meaning here is: a person's inner changes will bring about external changes and affect the changes in reality.
In fact, there is nothing outside, our world is created by ourselves.
In the end, Alita stood on the player's seat in the motor ball competition, and pointed the sharp knife in her hand at Salem. The audience was full of enthusiasm and attracted much attention.
The great men of the times are not famous because of their pursuit of fame, but the light of the wisdom of their thoughts makes people crazy.
View more about Alita: Battle Angel reviews
