Preface In my limited viewing experience, "A Chinese Ghost Story" is the one I have repeatedly watched the most times so far. I am referring to the first part of the "A Chinese Ghost Story" series shot by Tsui Hark in 1987 (also known as " "Excalibur", but I have always suspected that this name was added by the producer later). Tsui Hark’s film is actually a remake of the film of the same name filmed by Li Hanxiang in the 1970s. However, like many other remakes of Tsui Hark, it has more of Tsui Hark’s own style and thinking, and often surpasses in some respects. Predecessors have created new classics, so my discussion here is mainly around Tsui Hark’s film work. There are three parts in the "A Chinese Ghost Story" series, namely "A Chinese Ghost Story" (also known as "Sword Killing Demon"), "A Chinese Ghost Story" (also known as "A Chinese Ghost Story"), and "A Chinese Ghost Story" (Also known as "The Blood of the Golden Buddha"), these three films are all produced by Tsui Hark Film Studio, produced by Tsui Hark, and directed by Cheng Xiaodong. Even so, in fact, because the film industry in Hong Kong was relatively popular at that time, the production and responsibility system was generally regarded as Tsui Hark’s work in general comments. The same judgment can be made from the style of the film, so I also follow the convention and still regard it as Tsui Hark’s work. Tsui Hark's works. However, among the three, the most influential is the first one. It not only set a high box office, but also won many awards, including the 24th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards for Outstanding Works, and the 16th French Science Fiction Film Festival. Group Special Award, Best Work Award at the Portuguese Science Fiction Film Festival. As far as my personal touch is concerned, the first part is the most profound, so I will mainly discuss some of the themes in the first part here, but part of the second and third parts will also be involved. Although "A Chinese Ghost Story" is Tsui Hark's first ghost film, it is surprisingly consistent with his other works in terms of themes. That is the absurd and chaotic society, the flood of violence, and the insignificance and hopeless persistence of human destiny. Generally speaking, the theme of the creator's first work can actually be regarded as the motif of all his works, but the themes of subsequent works are actually just variations on the basis of this motif. If we look at it this way, we should review his first film work in a short space, which is "Butterfly Change", one of the representative works of Hong Kong's New Wave films. When filming "Butterfly Change", Tsui Hark thought that he "doesn't know what the market is yet", and only felt that "if only shooting in the traditional Chinese martial arts world, the space is small." He hopes to be able to say something in the traditional martial arts world. What's happening now". He wanted to pass" The scholar who didn't know martial arts used his notes to write that the people on the desert island were all leprosy, but they were very beautiful, showing that some things can be solved by normal methods without using force. "
The doomsday image style in "Butterfly Change" is actually consistent with "A Chinese Ghost Story", and the uncertainty of time and the weird and bizarre scenes and costumes have also been further developed in "A Chinese Ghost Story". The "Butterfly Change" and the later "Hell Without Door" with a strong avant-garde consciousness and his third film "The First Type of Danger" are even more known as "the trilogy of chaos."
The so-called chaos can be regarded as an aesthetic feature of Tsui Hark's work in a sense, and it is also an important feature that distinguishes Tsui Hark's work from the works of traditional film directors in the past. The so-called chaos is mainly reflected in the following aspects: the inversion of time, the disorder of space, the irrationality of character behavior, the uncertainty of the relationship between people, and the paradox between people's goals and means. And this characteristic has always been throughout his later works. Therefore, in "New Dragon Inn", we see a time when a traitor is in charge, while the desert far away from the power center of the imperial court still seems to be the focus of struggle. , And all the characters who suddenly appeared in the inn were all unpredictable and difficult to distinguish between enemy and friend, and everything seemed to continue nervously in an ambiguous state. In the third "Song of the Sunset" in the "Heroes" series, Tsui Hark's characteristics are highlighted because of the different image styles from the previous two.
Some commented that: “Wu Yusen is a masculine, slow-motion, passionate man. He follows Zhang Che’s violent style and looks for human dignity in virtual heroes. And Tsui Hark’s style is known for his quick editing and sharp shots. The background of the movie is set in troubled times, and the love between heroes and children in troubled times is a common theme, which is more prominent in his later works." (Yumulin, quoted from Internet data) In "A Chinese Ghost Story", Yan Chixia is precisely because of the human world. Sinister and determined to retreat from the arena and do not ask about world affairs. In the play, he said: "The human world is too complicated and it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong; with ghosts and gods, black and white are clear, but simple." In fact, we can take this as a good thing. Tsui Hark’s self-explanation: Because the stories in the world are too sinister, so I came to make a strange film, black and white, but simple. However, what we saw in the movie is that even so, Tsui Hark finally failed to completely forget the world. In the opening scene of the movie, the chaotic fight of a group of bandits and swordsmen and the chaotic market in Guobei County are also the epitome of the chaotic time.
In addition, there are two details. One is the time and space in the movie. The original location of the novel is Lan Ruo in the northern suburbs of Jinhua. :'There are no two colors in your life.' It is suitable to go to Jinhua and Beiguo to unload Lanruo."). The so-called Lanruo is actually the transliteration of the Sanskrit word aran! Called Lan Ruo. In the work of the same name directed by Li Hanxiang, the location Beiguo Attached Meeting was Guobei County, and Lan Ruo was directly used as the temple name. In this way, the certain sense of space was lost, and Tsui Hark completely inherited this change. Li Hanxiang’s work still has at least a clearer time stamp, which occurred in the late Ming and early Qing, but Xu Ke deliberately dealt with it in chaos. In this way, the definite sense of time is also lost; the second point is about the film. It is said that when Xu Hark asked Xi Zhongwen to act as the art director at the time, Xi Zhongwen said that he did not study ancient costumes and did not know the characteristics of the costumes of the specific era. However, Xu Hark said that he did not seek to restore the historical truth. According to the fashion film Just come to design, so the final result is an abstract beauty of the classical era. Therefore, through the above aspects, Tsui Hark has completed the work of separating the real time background, and "A Chinese Ghost Story" began to be filled with a vague and trance atmosphere, and this story is not so much a story that happened in the real world. Rather, it is a story that happened in the human mind, and Tsui Hark can weave his world of gods and monsters without worrying about too many restrictions.
1. The mythological prototype of the story The prototype of the story was born out of the famous piece "Nie Xiaoqian" in Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio", but Li Hanxiang made a great adaptation, and Xu Hark basically followed Li Hanxiang's script. In ancient China, this was a major type of ghost story. Stories about the same plot can often be seen in strange novel collections such as "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio" or "Yeyuqiu Lantern", "Zibuyu", etc. They are not only the creations of literati, so they represent a certain secret desire in the hearts of this type of literati. They are also folk stories, so they reflect a kind of collective unconscious projection. First of all, in more classic similar stories, there will be the image of the scholar who has been studying hard in the cold window. Because in the Chinese classical cultural traditions, there is a profound opposition between the principles of heaven and human desires, so in a sense, this is for asceticism. A kind of slight ridicule and banter, and as the opposite of the scholar, the image of the female ghost appears. Female ghosts are usually beautiful, because they are basically the product of objectification projected by the scholar's subconscious desire, but as feminine. Images, they are also dangerous at the same time, this kind of danger is mainly reflected in the loss of men’s essence when they have sex with them. This is actually a peculiar symptom in ancient Chinese culture, which can be called "feminism" ".
In "Nie Xiaoqian", we see that at the beginning, there is such a description: "Sex is generous, honest and self-respect." And it claims: "There is no two-color in life." This particularly emphasized statement actually reflects a certain This kind of conscious and subconscious are inconsistent. And when Nie Xiaoqian laughed and said, "I don't sleep on the moon night, I wish to repair the swallows well", we saw Ning Caichen replied awe-inspiringly: "I'm afraid of people's words. I'm a bit of a mistake, shameless and mournful."
Here, it is worthwhile to examine the word "stumble". In Chinese vocabulary, this is a common word used to describe something wrong, and in many cases it is a metaphor for sexual inconsistency. Check point, originally this is just a metaphor, but it is worth noting that in the following description, we see a kind of coincidence, because Nie Xiaoqian himself introduced two ways of hurting people. The other is to save the ghost bones of Rakshasa to intercept people's hearts and livers: the former seems to correspond to the term misstep in a certain sense. This involuntarily makes us doubt the meaning of sex behind the feet, and this has been proven by many sexologists and psychologists.
The master of sexology, Havelock Ellis, said in his landmark book "Studies in the Psychology of Sex." A symbol of transformation... It seems that even in the eyes of a normal couple, the feet are the most attractive part of the body." And the famous Canadian psychotherapist M. Straker said: "It's just me. In terms of practice, the analysis of dreams constantly reveals the mystery of the replacement of the genitals by the feet. In dreams, foot injuries often symbolize genital damage." (See "The Sexual Life of the Foot and Shoe" William A. Rossi Malabar , Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 1976, 1993.) So what we can see here is still a kind of fear of sex. The so-called "stumble" in the context of men refers to when the genitals penetrate into the other's female genitals. The feeling of "lost". In the movie, this detail was modified. In addition, in the novel, Nie Xiaoqian is threatened by the so-called "monster", but it is unclear what kind of monster it is, and in the movie, it is clearly the grandmother of the thousand-year tree demon. This reflects the ancient Chinese tree worship culture. In cultural anthropology it is called plant worship. In fact, this kind of worship is widespread in various cultures, such as Ojibway Indians. They don’t like to cut down trees that are growing because they are very emotionally worried that the trees will feel pain. But Borneo’s The Dyaks and Filipinos dare not cut down several trees because they believe that there are dead souls living in the trees. Now, the worship of trees is prevalent in Central Africa, Southern Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa.
In China, the most obvious manifestation of this primitive worship characteristic is the Basha Miao people in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou. The Basha people believe that every tree has a soul, and the older the tree, the more divine it is. Therefore, the feng shui trees in the villages became the objects of their worship. In addition, according to field archaeological discoveries in recent years, the three small ethnic groups in Heilongjiang (Hezhe, Oroqen, and Ewenki) also have sacred tree worship, and many ethnic minorities such as Dong, Hani, and Yi people have sacred tree worship. It can be said that the worship of trees is almost the most extensive type of primitive worship.
Similarly, the Han nationality also has tree worship. "The tree worship is also closely related to the ancient reproduction worship. For example, the character "sheng" in the oracle bone inscriptions is a figure of a bulging tree, and the character "surname" is a figure of a woman kneeling down in front of a big tree. The combination of tree worship and land worship formed the ancient Chinese "community." "She" was a place where sacrifices were made to the earth in ancient times. Trees must be planted at the place of worship. The "Zhou Ji" says: "Twenty-five houses are the community, and each plant is suitable for its soil." The "community" is to build a tall "platform" on which trees or standing stones are planted. The ancient word "she" is a statue of a standing tree (stone) on the soil, and this wood is the tree of society. On the day of the community sacrifice, people sit around the community tree, hold a sacrifice ceremony, eat and drink, sing and dance, and pray for a good harvest from the goddess of the earth. Here, the she tree is a symbol of the goddess of the earth, so it is worshipped by people, and people ask for a good harvest and the rest of the child from the she tree. "(Jin Zhen’s "Ancient Tree Worship") and planting trees in the cemetery is a widespread custom. In this regard, Jin Zhen wrote in the article: "The Chinese like to plant cypress trees in the cemetery, which originated from a kind of folklore. . According to legend, there was a kind of evil beast in ancient times, named sprites, who liked to steal corpses and liver. This beast is agile, fast, and fascinating, making it hard to guard against, but its nature is fearful of tigers and cypresses. Therefore, in order to avoid this evil beast, the ancients often erected stone tigers and planted cypress trees in the cemetery. "(Cited as above)
Therefore, in the movie, what we saw was the thousand-year-old tree turned into a tree demon and thus controlled Xiaoqian’s soul. This is actually still a variant of tree worship, because in ancient people’s thinking, they often think about themselves. The power that feels mysterious and uncontrollable will be worshipped. In the movie, it is this mysterious power that is out of control. In the movie, Xiaoqian has this passage: "Grandma is a thousand-year tree monster. I was originally born as an official. Home, on the way to death by an adulterer, my father temporarily buried my bones under the old tree. I didn’t expect my father to follow along and was killed by the adulterer! Later, my grandma would control my bones and attract men for her to absorb Yang Qi "Here, it is difficult for us to confirm the exact consideration of her father burying her bones under the old tree, but we can assume that one possibility is for easy identification, but whether it is also based on the hope that the old tree can play the role of blessing the souls of the dead, we It can be conceived like this. But the fact is, the situation later developed in the opposite direction. And between Xiaoqian and grandma, we can see a pair of opposite characteristics: Xiaoqian: young/has lost vitality/feminine grandma: old/still alive/feminine (but towards the masculine This kind of opposing thinking is actually the mythical way of thinking, so we see that there is a set of oppositions here, and the opposition cannot be resolved by itself, so the intervention of the middle term is needed. And Xiaoqian's "absorb Yang Qi" once again confirmed a kind of feminine fear. Through the analysis of the above aspects, we can see that the original text of the novel and the film present a complementary relationship, and through the interpretation of the potential text formed as a complement, we can find a rich prototype of mythology, which remains to be More in-depth discussion.
2. The mirror reflection relationship between paintings and people In "A Chinese Ghost Story", two portraits appeared, one of Yan Chixia, but it was later confirmed that this was a misidentification. In fact, the portrait was the wanted criminal Liu Yidao. Yan Chixia turned out to be a handy judge and a well-known head catcher, and Liu Yidao is a group of opposite characters. The other portrait is of Nie Xiaoqian. In the film, Ning Caichen first saw this painting when he first came to the market in Guobei County. At that time, Ning Caichen had no intention of acquiring this painting. Here we see that a purely fictitious character cannot be recognized and accepted by the subject for the self. But when Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian met in Lanruo Temple, he went back to the Guobei County Market to search for and buy the portrait. The portrait at this time was a fiction with real meaning to him.
Here is a scene where he saw Nie Xiaoqian in a funeral queue on the street in a daze, holding the scroll scroll in his hand. In this scene, we can hardly identify its reality or illusion, but people The relationship with the painting has been further confirmed here. It seems that in a death ceremony, the real character itself has been integrated with the illusory portrait and replaced by the portrait. Since then, Ning Caichen has a deeper pursuit of Nie Xiaoqian. In the sense, it is the pursuit of the portrait, that is, the illusory illusion. The real characters have been replaced by illusory signifiers. In a sense, the truth of the subject's death lies here. And Yan Chixia's vitality also exists because he is not the person in the portrait, so he shows extreme vitality, is he really not Liu Yidao? We might as well think of him as a simultaneous coexistence of two identities, one of which is Liu Yidao and the other is Yan Chixia. His subject is rich, and multiple identities coexist at the same time. In other words, he has not suffered from Liu Yidao. The limitation of one identity has developed another identity. Although we can find the obvious opposition between the two identities of the gangster and the head-catcher, it is this opposition that implies that we are actually owned by the same subject. . What's strange is that when Ning Caichen went to the market to look for a painting, the painting unexpectedly disappeared. Later, when Ning Caichen returned to Lanruo Temple and saw Nie Xiaoqian again, this painting appeared in Nie Xiaoqian's hands again, and there was a dialogue below: [Xiaoqian]: I want to give this painting to you. [Ning Caichen]: This painting? Why are you here? [Xiao Qian]: My father asked someone to paint this painting a year ago. Today, on Yulan Festival, I have time to find the painting at the market. The person in the painting is me. Seeing the painting is like seeing me. [Ning Caichen]: Listening to you say that, it seems that we will never meet again? [Xiao Qian]: Yes! I have been betrothed to the Master of Montenegro, and I will pass in three days! Here, we see Nie Xiaoqian clearly identifying that "the person in the painting is me". The "is" here means that it is not in the descriptive sense, but is in the ontological sense, that is, the same, and Ning Caichen showed a sensitivity. He immediately asked the question "Listening to you, it seems we won't meet again?", and Nie Xiaoqian replied affirmatively, but the question pointed to "Master Black Mountain." However, if the problem is and only lies with the "Master of Black Mountain", below we will see that the "Master of Black Mountain" has been defeated in the end, but Nie Xiaoqian is faced with the choice of reincarnation. Then there was the following scene in the inn: [Ning Caichen]: The sky was full of frost in the Pinghu Lake, [Xiaoqian]: An inch of green silk was sad. [Ning Caichen]: Looking at each other in the shape of the moon, [Xiaoqian]: Envy mandarin ducks but not immortals. [Xiao Qian]: This painting, you have to stay by your side forever, don't lose it! Tomorrow evening, I will rush to a family in Qinghua County to be reincarnated. [Ning Caichen]: Don't worry! We must rush to send you there. [Xiao Qian]: But at dawn, we will be separated forever, my God! Don't light up. There are portraits again here, but every appearance of illusion seems to inevitably accompany the loss of the subject again, and a more complete loss. The previous time was to be betrothed to the "Black Mountain Old Demon", but this time it will become another subject completely. Regarding the "Black Mountain Old Demon", the film does not seem to clearly confirm its identity, which seems to have been a mystery. But maybe we might still guess in some clips. Although in the movie, the old monster of Black Mountain appears in an ambiguous and vague image, we found that there are several points worthy of our attention: 1. It can attract people’s souls; 2. In its vain country, there are many losses. People of life, they appear in the image of human heads attached to it; 3. When Yan Chixia and Ning Caichen jointly defeated it in the end, we found that its original appearance was nothingness, in heavy armor. There is nothing at all. Based on the above points, we can basically judge that the "Old Black Mountain Monster" is actually a field where the body disappears, and its truth is "Nothing". When we recognize this, the "Old Black Mountain Monster" is lost. Its mana. In addition to the movie "A Chinese Ghost Story", in the animated version of "Xiao Qian" directed by Tsui Hark, the image of the old black mountain demon appeared once, and it was a relatively important image, like a star who loves acting, vanity, and narcissism. A monster, and supported by ten thousand monsters, he is the idol of a group of monsters and ghosts, of course Xiaoqian is no exception, Xiaoqian is obsessed with him, supports him, and treats him as a god, but the selfish old monster only loves herself... …Here, we can more clearly identify this point, that is, the "Black Mountain Old Demon" is actually a product of human narcissism to a certain extent, and the so-called narcissism is not essentially independent of external attitudes. Pure self-fascination, but a certain self-fascination in the eyes of others. So narcissism is often associated with vanity. Based on the above points, we can basically judge that the "Old Black Mountain Monster" is actually a field where the body disappears, and its truth is "Nothing". When we recognize this, the "Old Black Mountain Monster" is lost. Its mana. In addition to the movie "A Chinese Ghost Story", in the animated version of "Xiao Qian" directed by Tsui Hark, the image of the old black mountain demon appeared once, and it was a relatively important image, like a star who loves acting, vanity, and narcissism. A monster, and supported by ten thousand monsters, he is the idol of a group of monsters and ghosts, of course Xiaoqian is no exception, Xiaoqian is obsessed with him, supports him, and treats him as a god, but the selfish old monster only loves herself... …Here, we can more clearly identify this point, that is, the "Black Mountain Old Demon" is actually a product of human narcissism to a certain extent, and the so-called narcissism is not essentially independent of external attitudes. Pure self-fascination, but a certain self-fascination in the eyes of others. So narcissism is often associated with vanity.
Of course, at the last critical moment, the "Diamond Sutra" appeared, which is the key to defeating the "Black Mountain Old Demon". Here is clearly the possibility of religious salvation. As an important classic of Mahayana Buddhism, the "Diamond Sutra" in fact mainly discusses the truth of "no aspect", and breaks the illusion of the phenomenal world. Reprimand.
3. The transformation of the savior, the persecutor and the rescued In the movie, the main characters can be divided into three categories: The rescued: Nie Xiaoqian, the rescuer: Yan Chixia, Ning Caichen, the persecutor: the tree demon grandma, the black mountain old demon However, there is still uncertainty about the above classification. Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian are actually rescuers of each other, and at certain moments are also rescued. In the beginning, Nie Xiaoqian appeared alternately as a persecutor and a savior, but finally completed a complete conversion to the rescued. Ning Caichen initially appeared as a rescued, but finally completed the transformation. The complete conversion of the savior. In a sense, this is in line with the context of traditional Chinese culture, and we see that the conversion of Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian's identities is actually consistent with their imagination of their own identities. And after Ning Caichen left Lanruo Temple for the first time, we saw the reason that made him come back. It was because he thought he had discovered that Yan Chixia was a gangster, and realized that Nie Xiaoqian was in danger and had become a gangster. The rescued to be rescued. It is this kind of imagination of Nie Xiaoqian's identity that has produced an incurable and fatal attraction to Ning Caichen, which attracted him to return to the realm of imagination of Lanruo Temple. In addition, the savior has another meaning. In the movie, we see that the tree demon grandma manipulates Nie Xiaoqian behind her, using her hue to attract young men. The pattern here is similar to sexual betrayal, that is, the usual prostitution. System, and Ning Caichen appeared as a savior. His motive was to rescue Nie Xiaoqian from her grandma’s control. We can see similar scenarios in many classic texts, including "Du Shiniang It seems that women’s sexual crimes can cause men’s deepest love. Regarding this point, there are many cases in contemporary China. They are related to the case of corrupt persons who used their power to obtain a large amount of money to buy a mistress. General commentary. To condemn and criticize from the angle of law or ideology such as morality, it often neglects the deep psychological analysis of such incidents. In many incidents, we can see that many of the victims are often engaged in the pornography service industry. Women, of course, are due to the convenience of contact, and the reason why women engaged in the sex service industry is undeniable in terms of sexual skills, but if you consider it more deeply, the savior complex of men has actually played a very important role. Great effect.
4. The salvation form of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism In the ancient Chinese cultural world, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are the three main ideologies. There have been many related research monographs on the relationship between them. Here we only discuss this in the movie "A Chinese Ghost Story". The reflection of the three ideologies.
In the movie, Ning Caichen is the ideological spokesperson of Confucianism. In the movie, his most obvious characteristic is "love." This is a reflection of the ideology of "the benevolent loves others". Yan Chixia's identity is a "Taoist", which clearly shows that he is the spokesperson of Taoism's ideology. In the movie, a very interesting section is that Yan Chixia dances swords while composing songs. Here shows a gesture of laughing and cursing, and the mixing and collage of text symbols that appear in different contexts, on the surface, reflects a kind of post-modernist taste, but from the root, this is still Taoist. The interpretation of thought is different from Ning Caichen’s single formulation of "love". Here, Yan Chixia lists many groups of oppositions. If Confucian love is a kind of consciousness of one's own life form, then Yan Chixia On the other hand, Taoism has carried out a more general observation of the universe of life, showing the status of human beings in the observation. But on the other hand, what we see is that Yan Chixia seems to have become the spokesperson of Buddhist ideology. This is reflected in the "Diamond Sutra" he carries with him and the classic "Prajna Paramita" symbol when he casts spells to meet the enemy. It can be regarded as the most representative symbol of Buddhist ideology.
However, Ning Caichen’s love was repeatedly ridiculed by Yan Chixia. Combined with the background of the times, we can see that in such a chaotic time, Confucianism has become a kind of useless thought, and the possibility of redemption exists more in Buddhism. As Lin Anwu mentioned in the article: “Buddhism is like “medicine”, Taoism is like “air and water”, and Confucianism is like “rice”. In fact, a healthy person has air, water, and rice. In an age of depression and depression, in an age of suffering and suffering, Buddhism must be needed.” (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mind, Morality and Meaning Treatment, Lin Anwu) And this way of resolving suffering is “deeply discovered There is a kind of historical karma that cannot be erased from the internal illness of human beings. In the process of a time flow, there is almost nothing to do. What should I do at this time? For the entire discourse system, you must have a more thorough unraveling. And a more thorough solution is to face the emptiness of the entire life, the emptiness of the entire consciousness. This is the true meaning of dependent-originated emptiness.” (Taoist Philosophy and Meaning Therapy, Lin Anwu)
Conclusion As a classic love narrative, "A Chinese Ghost Story" has the possibility of multiple interpretations. This interpretation is not only a subversion, but also a restoration. For the work's disenchantment, it is worthy of more in-depth exploration.
2006/11/17
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