After watching "Blood Guanyin", I am honestly surprised that there are not many such high-level movies in recent years. I'm not actually a person who has studied Taiwan's history in depth, so I can't discuss too much about the political implications of this movie.
Even a few elements such as family affection, love, and struggle, if analyzed in depth, will be quite wonderful. But there have been many film critics who have carefully analyzed this, and I will not discuss this anymore, but only talk about some different views.
The background comes from the first hall of hell, that is, the main hall of King Qin Guang, and the mirror placed on the side is the mirror of iniquity, so this place is also called the mirror of iniquity, the iniquity, the creator also, it is said that people will die after death
<h1>What is the most profound strategy? </h1>
In fact, although many movies of the same type are reasonable, the plot background is too fantasy and overhead.
This kind of work can already be quite wonderful, such as "Let the Bullets Fly" and "Langya List" belong to this type of work. However, the shortcomings of this kind of work are that the time and space environment it describes often has a gap with the actual experience of the audience.
It's not that this is caused by the age gap set in the movie.
Although this gap can sometimes give the audience more imagination space or exoticism, it is not necessarily a bad thing, but after all, compared with the background close to the audience's life, it always lacks a little sense of reality.
So "Blood Guanyin" will amaze me so much because his operation of power and money is described in great detail, plus its story is set in Taiwan not far away. In addition to making us reflect on the problems of Taiwanese society, this can also, in a sense, reinforce the reality of the operation of power in the plot.
In addition to many references and hints to political and historical cases, "Blood Guanyin" also satirizes the high society that plays with the power of money. At the same time, it also depicts the deep calculation of the city government, the darkness of human nature in front of interests, and the distorted emotions between the protagonists. The colors of the film are saturated and vivid, and the choice of soundtrack echoes the plot.
Yang Yazhe used a film less than two hours long to talk about human nature and politics, tearing apart the surface of social comfort bloodily, and the various greedy desires of human nature, cryptic introverted or dancing with teeth and claws, naked in different forms in the film.
This makes some details may not be very clear in the film, but we can also speculate a reasonable explanation from the understanding of the background of the times when we watch.
This shot is a bit long, I thought the film was stuck... Until that tear
The depiction of power in "Blood Guanyin" is delicate and realistic, but it can be seen from it that the profound strategy cannot be seen in the overhead story.
The most terrifying thing in the film is probably Lady Tang, played by Hye Young-hong, who is "Ming Xiu Guanyin Dao Secret Crossing Shu Luo Xin". Director Yang Yazhe also said about the role of Mrs. Tang in the dialogue: "The fewest scenes but it seems that the most scenes, that is, you will feel that the whole drama is manipulated by her." ”
However, if you carefully use common sense to speculate, you will find that from the beginning of the film, there is an unreasonable meme buried - Lady Tang is the widow of the lone general of the Yunnan Burma army evacuated to Taiwan in the plot setting. Although broadly speaking, it is also in line with the so-called magnates of the authoritarian era, but in fact, the number of Chinese generals and provincial dignitaries who came to Taiwan with the crony system at that time was large, not to mention the widow of a deceased general. Such a weak woman dared to play a dangerous money game between the powerful, which really made people feel her profound strategy.
And look at the opponents who interact with Mrs. Tang, either the wife of the legislative dean, or the speaker and parliamentarian with local strength. Among them, the intricate degree of brain-burning is no less than watching "Blood Guanyin" again.
"The person who pours tea and water has no eyes and no ears."
This is also a bit like Confucius's saying that "no desire is just". This is another way of interpreting it in real power politics. The West is more complicated, so let's not talk about it here. However, in traditional Chinese dynasties, if the prime minister and general are too incorruptible, it will make the lord and monarch have a bad impression, thinking that you are winning people's hearts and minds, and you may have a different idea of the big position.
Therefore, Wang Zhai ran to speculate on the house, and Xiao He ran to speculate on the land, and the historical records record that these actions were all done in order to create their own handles to reassure the rulers. Fan Zeng saw that Liu Bang had great ambitions to compete for the world, and the point of observation was that Liu Bang, who was greedy for money and lustful, suddenly "had nothing to gain from the property and no luck for women" after entering the customs.
But in the plot of "Blood Guanyin", Dean Wang's unbearable greed is the biggest reason for his loss to Mr. Feng. Although there is little ink on Mr. Feng's layout in the movie, the background of the land speculation case deliberately released by the director actually tells us that this is a trap for Mr. Feng to induce Dean Wang to make mistakes.
So the really advanced strategy is not to try to calculate various layouts to hit the opponent, but to let the opponent automatically go to the consequences you want based on your own desires.
Therefore, the most profound role is not the one who makes the most plans to change the situation, but the person who sees the direction of the situation and uses the least as the one who waits for the result to happen naturally. Of course, this does not mean doing nothing, but through each person's own desires, to induce them to stand in the position of the station.
When a person's lust "cannot be hidden", in the eyes of the counselor he is the best object of operation. This is also the aforementioned "no desire is just" in addition to the moral meaning, but also has the right to seek meaning. Therefore, Tang Ning and Lin Pinyi, who dare to love and dare to be fierce in "Blood Guanyin", and even those parliamentarians and speakers who clearly express their desires, must be manipulated tragic roles in the traditional logic of power.
Therefore, the image of the leader promoted in China's traditional power culture is often moody and sad, and it is impossible to understand what he is thinking from the outside. Lady Tang is such a character.
In my own understanding, the tragic characters in "Blood Guanyin", in addition to the actual conditions of their inferiority in power and resources, do not understand this kind of official culture that has been tempered under the historical power struggle, which is also the main reason for their failure.
That's why there was Madame Tang's sentence: "At our age, everything has faded." Everything is looked down upon, but if the heart has not been fierce once, where is the lightness! "It was really shocking.
Because the "looking down" in this kind of population is not really pure heart, but a thousand hammers and hammers under the power scheme. And Tang Zhen, who has deep desires but shows innocence and innocence, is naturally the best successor of the Tang family under the logic of power.
<h1>Those Easter eggs you didn't know</h1> about
In addition to the overall plot excellence, art style, camera position, performance skills, and editing narrative of "Blood Guanyin", the most commendable thing should be the depth of the text tone.
It blends the 1980s and 1990s like a marquee plot, and every scene reminds the audience of the "several bad debts" that have occurred in this land, whether it is the Lin Zhai Blood Case of Human Rights Persecution, the Tang Yingshen Incident (the aborigines were detained for identity cards), or the unsolved liu Bangyou Blood Case under political collusion and revenge, or the number "36280" transferred by President Wang's wife to the Speaker in the play is completely consistent with the number of words borrowed by Lien Chan to Wu Zeyuan to campaign.
From the place names in the film, it more accurately depicts the historical facts of the aboriginal tribes stripping away subjectivity under the multiple colonizations of Japan and China.
Some of the details that are actually specifically pointed out in the timeline are the literary and historical materials centered on Marco: the ID card records that the birth year is Marco in 1975, and the police investigation data is that he is 21 years old, and from the South Loop Railway Station (the radio sound that Tang Zhen repeatedly listens to) that he repeatedly recites with his thighs - Sanhe, Pandan, Jinlun, and Tara.
Among them, Sanhe and Xianglan Stations were abolished in 1997, and Xianglan and Tara were Chinese character place names given during the Japanese rule period, just like Marco's Chinese name Wang Jinshan, which is not the original name.
But "Pandan and Jinshan" mirrors the imagination of Japanese colonial relations.
The village of Pandan comes from the Japanese occupation period, changed its name from the Ami language "Ralawdan" (meaning the place where you want to go out), and after facing the conflict of Hakka immigrants, mixed with the Lalauran tribe (meaning fertile land) of the Paiwan tribe that migrated down the mountain to become a new pandan.
During the Pacific War, Li Xianglan, the head of the Manchurian Film and Painting Association, in addition to the fame of the Shanghai Beach Song and Dance Hall, also became the more widely known Pandan during the Japanese rule because of his appearance in 1942 in the "Bell of Sha Yun" funded by the Governor's Office of Taiwan and filmed by Man Ying, and the "Pandan" in colonial Taiwan was not its original name, and the same was true for "Pandan" in Manchukuo.
Wang Jinshan is obviously a Chinese name, but it happens to be the same as the "drama emperor" Jinshan, who took over manying after Japan's defeat in the war, and Jinshan's deeds in the theater industry's generation of small students and pursuit of the four famous Dans are widely circulated, but in his later years, his emotions were exiled to the people around the leaders of China and North Korea, and he was later persecuted.
Pandan and Jinshan seem to be hidden in the layers of colonization of places and characters, conveying the secret language of customs clearance.
Most people watch movies that are finally driven by the plot set by the director, which limits our functional imagination of film works dealing with political and social issues, and "Blood Guanyin" is certainly not just what we see, it should not be.
Director Yang Yazhe does not do this either.
For example, in the film, the "obscene sea small Qingliu" played by Ying Weimin, many people guess that it is Navy Colonel Yin Qingfeng, in addition to the harmonic sound is very close, it also refers to the unsolved case involving the suicide of the country. There are also more easter eggs with different opinions and disagreements: guess which dean, which speaker, which lady, which hollow, which lend, which white glove... There are too many versions, which is why "Blood Guanyin" innuendos allude to us normal people and don't understand it.
The noble ladies at the party had gentle and virtuous smiles on their faces, and every action and every sentence of the retreat was calculated layer by layer. Expensive banquets and noisy scenes, throughout the film, even the purest friendship and love, are used as a tool for mutual use.
The bodhisattva symbolizes compassion, but in the play it becomes a gift of human communication, and even later becomes a promised relic under the dark curtain of money...
The news on the opening TV reported Tang Zhen, when everyone was still guessing the "ㄐ" sound in her mouth, Yang Xiuqing and her partner walked in, although they could not see, but the ear power was better than ordinary people, and immediately said that it was "save her". Then they walked into another studio, but it looked like hell. Of course, this is also the director's careful arrangement. The people of hell tell this story back and forth, as if the heavens are watching in the darkness, and all your sins in the world are revealed later.
Such an unfathomable script is also presented through the Taiwanese chanting and cautionary fables of the master Yang Xiuqing, as well as the use of the magic realistic method of the news channel video wall.
The figurative innuendo of the "Feng and Wang" party chairmanship disputes in "Blood Guanyin" to ma Wang's political struggle is already less controversial.
Yang Yazhe said that the background of the original development case in the play was to be placed in the New Taipei Town of Tamhai, but later considered that the controversy was too big. In addition, during the filming process, the local government of Kaohsiung generously shared the experience of Wang Yuyun's hollowing out case, and did not care to borrow the southern place name, so the background was changed to Mido Township.
Therefore, it is conceivable that such a realistic power struggle work is actually very rare in the current era of tight political atmosphere.
Xiulan Maya made a cameo performance singer in "Blood Guanyin", performed "Pure Love Youth Dream" originally sung by Pan Yueyun in 1992, or Marco's "But What Nai" (1980 Japanese original song "Dancing All Night"), the only two existing song choices, in addition to outlining the era scene, are also highly relevant guidelines in the plot, and the two capitals point to the theme of pursuing love.
"Pure Love Youth Dream" is like a storyteller, and "But What Is It" is a love song woven by voyeuristic love, surrounding all imaginations in the name of love.
To sum up, those who think that the message of "Blood Guanyin" is too much and meaningless, I think this is only to highlight their lack of intake and attention to history in the first century. What makes the plot seem to be overloaded at first glance is not from the director and screenwriter's attempt to be too grand and the tail to be too big to lose the combing, but in this "loveless" country, people live without knowing it, and there is no way to test the truth and facts.
In addition, the phrase "Princess Life, ㄚ Ring Body" is adapted from an article published by independent female producer Guan Yundi, which is what her mother said to her when she was a child, "Miss Life, Lower Female Body", which is also just like the daily life of Tang Ning and Lady Tang.
Therefore, I think the most brilliant point of "Blood Guanyin" is that the magic means not only make the deeply buried and unknown "insiders" like you and I know the portrayal that makes us re-enter the contemporary society, but it is not because of the high tension of art that we fall into the trap of "outsiders" again.
Therefore, when Yang Yazhe ended at the film festival with the exaltation that "in this society, no one is an outsider", it is appropriate.
<h1>The details are meticulous</h1>
Another thing that amazes me about "Blood Guanyin" is that it not only shoots a deep struggle for power, but also a deep karma.
But I think that the director's arrangement, in addition to increasing the effect of plot suspense, does not let the plot trend so easy to speculate from historical events, and more importantly, it is more important to shoot what is the karma under authoritarian dictatorship.
This actually echoes the phrase "no one is an outsider".
Marco will be the last person in the show not because of his aboriginal or what kind of background, but the consequences of being shaped in an entire fratricidal society. And this society is built by all people together, when the oppressed person does not resist, or is powerless to resist, he can only bully people weaker than him to fill his own deficiencies. In this way, there is no need to wait for death to go to hell, and all people in society will share the karma of living in hell.
Fortunately, the main axis of the film suddenly exploded after the "Lin Family Blood Case", which implied that it was no more obvious, and the dissipation of different political forces, the interaction of each pregnant ghost fetus, the wonderful rivalry of the three generations of mother and daughter and the flashbacks that exposed the truth, even if it was not necessarily possible to fully understand the relationship between the speaker, the peasant association, the president, and so on.
But as long as the audience knows the truth of the most terrible fact in the end.
In fact, the first half of the movie should be deliberately "hidden", only throwing out some messy foreshadowing. "Blood Guanyin" does not use the reasoning drama as a gimmick, but is just a narrative drama film with some showmanship.
"Blood Guanyin" was filmed very well, but the "platform" here is not the kind of stage that some people will only use as a pejorative. The stage of "Blood Guanyin" is poignant and beautiful, it is to show culture, and it is inclusive. The effect of using traditional storytelling as a narration is the icing on the cake, bringing the whole story into a certain official culture but also a magical and realistic exhortation.
The art design in Blood Guanyin is also worth mentioning, from the costumes on the characters to the colorful interior furnishings, "heart" is the best adjective I gave to this movie.
Character costumes also have ulterior motives in the use of color, director Yang Yazhe also specifically pointed out the difference between the three costumes of the Tang family, through the different colors of the same material of the costumes, highlighting the differences in the personality of the characters, in addition to other characters can also see the information conveyed by the material and color of the clothing, with a personal interpretation, mentioned here.
For example, Tangjia blue represents the extreme control of desire, white represents the seemingly outsider but is actually deeply involved in the work of the scheming, pink represents the stupidity of not working in the mind, etc., the film is full of all kinds of big red and purple - chaos but does not mean that there is no tidying.
Color in "Blood Guanyin" is a representation of the class, character, and behavior of the characters. The vividness of the Taiwanese flavor is incompatible with the color of today's society, and perhaps it also satirizes the admiration of the audience who are ordinary people against the open struggle on the screen, and the disdain for the collusion between political and business celebrities.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Tang Ning's expectation on Tang Zhen is "to live like a person".
Judging from the plot, the closest to this wish is Tang Ning himself.
Just like the little white cat raised by Mrs. Tang, it is vividly implied that the phrase "to live like a person" is implied.
In fact, as Russian Marshal Suvorov described the dangers of the battlefield: "If we do not drive them into hell, it is hell's turn to devour us." ”
"Blood Guanyin" is to tell us that in an authoritarian society, all people are both perpetrators and victims.
However, a movie less than two hours old tells far less, welcome to leave a message to add.
References: Interview with Yang Yazhe, director of "Blood Guanyin": "The most terrible thing in the world is not the punishment in front of you, but the loveless future"
Reference: Wikipedia" "Taiwan Hokkien Language Change"