Inscription: The most terrible thing in the world is not the immediate punishment, but the loveless future.
Directed by director Yang Yazhe and premiered in Taiwan on November 24, 2017, "Blood Guanyin" is based on the "Liu Bangyou Blood Case" that occurred in Taiwan in the 1990s as a realistic prototype, centered on the three mothers and daughters of the Tang family, telling the story of the Tang family, headed by Lady Tang, through careful layout to travel between politics and business, in order to profit. After the film was released, the film won the 54th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards in 2017 and the 37th Hong Kong Golden Horse Awards in 2018.
As a political thriller, in order to increase the suspense of the film, the director adopted the reverse sequence method to shoot the film, on this basis, a large number of images were added for metaphor and explanation, so as to increase the sense of fatalism and tragedy that the film wanted to express.
1. Selection of imagery throughout the film
Although a large number of images are used in the film for metaphor, only the selection of the two images of Guanyin and jade jewelry is always throughout the film, and these two images are to some extent the figurative embodiment of the power and money that people fight for in the whole film, and they are also the substantive manifestation of human inner desires.
The image of the Guanyin statue first appeared in the Tang family, and was given to Lady Tang by the youngest "daughter" of the Tang family, and then given to Lady Tang by the hand of Lady Tang, and then given to the lady of the dean of the two kings who were in the limelight at that time, and the Guanyin statue entered the development of the whole story with the Tang family as the intermediary. On the one hand, the initial transit of the Guanyin statue reveals the dominant position of Madame Wang in the opening of this "power" game, paving the way for the later reversal of the status of the two sides, on the other hand, the "present world" of the Guanyin statue also symbolizes the emergence of Madame Tang's own desires. After Lin Sang's mouth learned that the Guanyin statue was selected by him to Lady Tang and given to Lady Wang, which also revealed another role of the Guanyin statue as a clue image in the film: the Guanyin statue is an important symbol of the connection between several forces through the power of Lady Tang. And "Guanyin broke his hand to ward off disasters", the occurrence of this plot also tightened the heartstrings of the audience, creating a strong suspense atmosphere for the occurrence of all subsequent stories.
Later, with the development of the story, the Guanyin statue was given to the lower-level official of the Construction Bureau in the name of buying and selling antiques through Tang Ning's hand, "Obscene Sea Xiao Qingliu", and after the death of "Xiao Qingliu", the Guanyin statue once again moved to the police station through Tang Ning's relationship, and the death of its short-lived holder "Obscene Sea Xiao Qingliu" and the loss of Captain Liao made the symbolic meaning of the image of Guanyin statue change, and the Guanyin statue at this time not only showed the huge desire in Lady Tang's heart, but also became the embodiment of the secret desire in everyone's heart.
At the end of the film, the Guanyin statue returns to its original holder, the Tang family, at this time, Tang Ning has died, and the bow of Mrs. Wang's wife makes Mrs. Tang the real winner of this political contest. The final change of ownership of the Guanyin statue also symbolizes the true ownership of a large amount of power and money in this last struggle. After devouring a large number of people, Lady Tang became the real body of "Blood Guanyin", and as an important image that runs through the film, the Guanyin statue completely completed its approach to the theme of the film and became a veritable "Blood Guanyin". ”
Guanyin Bodhisattva in Buddhism is originally a Buddha who saves people from difficulties and liberates people, and here the "Guanyin Statue" has become the source of people's misfortune, the director chose the image of "Guanyin Statue" as the embodiment of rights and desires, itself is full of irony, even the holiest symbol in Buddhism, after entering the world, it is still difficult to escape the end of being infected by human desires, Guanyin blood-stained, it is the director who borrows the image of Guanyin to look at human beings into endless struggles of desire.
Like the Guanyin statue, the jade jewelry in the film, as an important image in the film, has also undergone many changes of hands, the first appearance of jade jewelry is as a bribe for Lady Tang to win lin sang and Lady Lin, a set of jewelry is scattered in the hands of various people, etc., and Lady Lin is her main hostess, showing the key position of the Lin family at the beginning of the development of the "Midas" plan. Later, on the eve of the Massacre of the Lin Family, Lady Lin hurriedly forwarded it to the County Governor's Wife, indicating that the Lin family had completely lost power in the Midas plan, and the Lin family, as a victim, was completely annihilated in Lady Tang's overall plan.
Jewelry as a film image, the change of its ownership, but also from the side shows the "Mida" plan, the change in the identity of the people, with the county mayor's wife in the film of this character gradually faded, jade jewelry appeared again at the end of the film, Mrs. Wang Dean gave the jade bracelet she carried to Mrs. Tang, the final transfer of the jade bracelet also represents the final change of power position, Mrs. Tang became the final owner of jade jewelry, but also the real winner of the whole "power game".
At the end of the film, Mrs. Tang, who has been tortured by illness, still wears a jade bracelet symbolizing power and money on her wrist, and the bracelet at this time is no longer the trophy that won the power struggle in that year, but has become the "golden shackles" that trapped her, which casts a layer of fatalistic absurdity on the film, and also makes the film full of alienated colors after Zhang Ailing's people are corroded by money and desire at the end.
In addition, when he grew up, Tang Zhen wore a bracelet similar to that of Lady Tang's hand on his wrist, showing the transfer of power within the Tang family from the side, and the Buddha statue representing power and desire at the beginning was taken out by Tang Zhen's hand, forming a perfect closed loop of power transfer, and also foreshadowing the final end of Tang Zhen.
2. The use of other imagery
In addition to the two images that run through the film, the film is also filled with a large number of other images, and the appearance of these images secretly foreshadows the plot development of the film and further improves the hidden foreshadowing in the film.
"Sugar" is also an image that appears in the film many times, "sugar" first appeared at the scene of the Lin family's massacre, "sugar" is pronounced the same as "tang", which at the beginning implies that the real black hand hidden behind this massacre is the Tang family. The second time "Sugar" appeared in the scene where the family of "Obscene Sea Xiao Qingliu" went to ask Mrs. Tang, the candy held by the child in his hand was broken on the ground, suggesting that the death of "Obscene Sea Xiao Qingliu" and Mrs. Tang were inseparable, and the two appearances of "Sugar" were the directors secretly informing the audience of the true direction of the movie plot, paving the way for the final truth to be revealed.
"Oil painting" is often used as a background in the movie, in the Tang Ning painting of the Tang family three people in the same frame, the human face has been greatly distorted, revealing the twisted family affection and relationship between people inside the Tang family, and the film appears twice in the change of light and shadow, Mrs. Tang's projection just happens to cover Tang Ning's face in the oil painting, but also indicates that the film Tang Ning's final death, it is Tang Ning's hand.
"Apple" also appears in the movie as a death image, which is reminiscent of the use of "orange" as an image in the movie "The Godfather" to imply the death of various people and so on. The image of the apple appears in front of the death of Lin Feiyi in the film and in front of the hospital bed of Mrs. Tang afterwards, and the apple is the "fruit of desire" in the Bible, with the color of man's original sin. In the movie, Before Tang Zhen indirectly killed Lin Pinpie, he picked up the apple on the ground, which represented the release of Tang Zhen's own human desires, and under the guidance of desire, he personally committed crimes. And "fruit" is homophonous with the "cause and effect" in the film's singing commentary, and the reason why the apple finally appears under Mrs. Tang's hospital bed also shows that Mrs. Tang's plight of "seeking death" now is the "fruit of sin" that she planted in that year, which involves the "reincarnation of cause and effect" of the Buddhist family, which casts a mysterious fate over the film.
In addition to the above images, there are also many images such as "oil paint", "bullet", "fish head", "red rope" and so on in the film, and "oil paint" appears twice as an image, which promotes the ice-breaking of the mother-daughter relationship between Tang Ning and Tang Zhen, and also shows Tang Zhen as a child, the deep vision of emotions in her heart, and her desire for maternal love. The "bullet" as an image represents a threat, once appearing in Tang Ning threatening Marco with a bullet casing, and the other time when the parliamentarian special assistant stuffed the fish's mouth with bullets to intimidate Mrs. Tang. The image of "fish head" represents the close relationship between Lady Tang and ah Ying Ma's family, which is the foreshadowing of Mrs. Tang's use of "human head" to buy land after the film.
The image of "red rope" is tang zhen personally tied to marco's ankle, on the one hand, it implies that Tang Zhen's love for Marco is not just a simple vision, which also adds twisted possession and bondage, on the other hand, the red rope also implies that Marco has never been free from beginning to end, and his love with Lin Pinnacle is an almost perverted possession, and finally the marriage with Lin Pinnacle is derived from the coercive manipulation of others, by using him to calm the people's anger. The train that has always appeared in Marco's fantasy represents his desire for freedom and escape, and this "bondage" lays the groundwork for Marco to vent his resentment and hatred for high society by raping Tang Zhen at the end of the film.
epilogue:
The choice of imagery in "Blood Guanyin" is undoubtedly very excellent, although there are many images in the film, but it is not complicated under the clever performance of director Xu, and the imagery is perfectly combined with the film plot and the film atmosphere, which has played a role in promoting the plot development of the film, better creating the suspense atmosphere of the film, deepening the meaning of the whole film to a certain extent, and giving the audience the space to taste the film again.