After thousands of years of human civilization, it seems that it has reached an unprecedented height, and various high-tech products have always made us aware of our location and environment. The accurate global positioning system can accurately report the latitude and longitude of our location, as well as the altitude, more and more accurate weather forecasts, allow us to accurately predict the weather changes within a few days, and more and more intelligent wearable products can let us accurately understand our heartbeat and body temperature. From a macroscopic point of view, through astronomical telescopes humans have captured "ancient beams" 13.7 billion light-years away, and from a microscopic point of view, humans can now obtain microscopic images of a few hundred nanometers through scanning tunneling microscopes.
However, in the history of science, a famous scientist Newton once famously said: "I can calculate the motion and distance of celestial bodies but I cannot calculate the madness of the human heart." One of the greatest scientists in human history was the man who knew best about the world we live in 300 years ago. The scientific principles he discovered still have a profound impact on our lives today, and in the macroscopic world, Newton's theories can interpret almost all physical phenomena. However, such a great scientist, after accurate calculations, entered the financial markets established by early human beings, and he calculated the law of profit based on the data he knew. However, the only thing he could not calculate was the unpredictable human nature of human beings driven by profits, and this "mistake", which finally made Newton lose money, issued the words "celestial movement" and "human madness" sigh.
300 years after Newton, just as his study of classical mechanics still applies in this world, his phrase "incapable of calculating the madness of the human heart" is still the confusion of all mankind today. The difficulty of cognition of "human nature" stems from the dark side of "human nature" hidden by modern civilization. The code of conduct in human life and work, such as the legal and moral system, is to a certain extent the decoration tool of human "human nature", and the gentlemanly and elegant image we show in the complete social system is sometimes just the work of the two "human" decoration masters of "law" and "morality". And our "dark side" is often covered up by all kinds of luxurious decoration materials that do not belong to us.
In 2016, South Korea released a movie called "Busan Trip", which is a typical disaster film, in a high-speed modern train that represents the process of human technological civilization today, director Yan Sang-ho uses a crazy zombie virus to destroy the illusion of modern human civilization. In the tense dramatic conflict on his big screen, we re-examine the value and meaning of human self-existence.
In the story of director Yan Xianghao, the protagonists are ordinary people from all walks of life, all ages and life experiences, and the subtlety of the director of this film is that he freezes the whole perspective of the story as a mortal perspective. This kind of story perspective is very emotional and logical for the equally ordinary audience in front of the screen. For example, at the beginning of the film, the protagonist of the film, Shi Yu (played by Kong Liu), as a fund manager, asked his subordinate Director Jin with a scolding question - "Whose salary do you take"? Lead the audience from the perspective of real life to enter a journey of human nature exploration after the collapse of the music.
The protagonist of the film, Shi Yu, is a successful and confused middle class in real life, on the one hand, he has obtained material wealth and decent social status through hard work. On the one hand, he is gradually estranged from his wife because he is fully committed to the current work, and he is facing the dilemma of divorce, and although he lives with his daughter, he does not get her approval when he performs the "duty" of his father. It was in this situation that Shi Yu unexpectedly stepped on the train that changed his fate with his daughter.
In the model established by the laws of modern society, each individual is a delicate egoist, just as the protagonist of this film, Shi Yu, teaches his daughter Xiu'an on the train, in extraordinary times, there is no need to pay attention to the moral law of caring for others. Shi Yu's reminder to his daughter is not his personal clever hand, but his "successful" life experience accumulation. Through the education of Shi Yu's daughter in an extraordinary period and the comparison obtained by Shi Yu's experience in modern life, the director nakedly tore the modern social civilization on the big screen. And in the torn "wounds" of human nature, we clearly see the dark side of human selfishness.
The film "Busan Trip" is a typical zombie disaster film, the confined space on the train, the crazy spread of the zombie virus, the confrontation between modern human civilization and the ruthless virus and many other classic elements of the zombie film, in this film is shown by the director in an orderly and compact manner. Every turning point in the story plot on the screen is that the director uses the story conflict on the screen to spur and torture the audience in front of the screen again and again about "human nature".
The speed train has been sublimated on the screen by the director into a fast-paced life in modern society, but those crazy, perception only retain audiovisual function, no pain, tireless zombies are not the product of modern civilization? Their appeal to the world is only endless, unfillable desire, they frantically run to their own prey, and these become the only remaining driving force of their lives. When we see this, and then look at the male protagonist who is about to divorce his wife, busy forgetting his daughter's performance show, and busy not knowing to understand his daughter's real hobby, is it that those crazy zombies are so similar to the excellent successful people in modern civilized society.
In a sense, "zombies" have become the ultimate product of the director's illusion of a civilized society on the screen, while the protagonist Shi Yu is more like a "semi-finished product" running on the road of civilization. People see themselves in reality in the scenes on the screen, and our daily rush is in the endless desires of modern society, about money, about face. We on the screen zombies crazy behavior, twisted limbs, terrible expressions, is not associated with the real life of ourselves.
The most conflicting scene in the film occurs when Shi Yu and other protagonists, after 4 carriages and zombies, return to the arms of seemingly sane human companions, but encounter ruthless rejection. At both ends of the carriage, on the one hand, there is a crazy approach from zombies, and on the other hand, the seemingly rational resistance of people who have been baptized by modern civilization. At this moment, the protagonists inside and outside the screen are disheartened and frightened, not only crazy zombies, the fear of extinction, but also the powerlessness of modern civilization. The audience in front of the screen, in a panoramic perspective, saw the big man sacrifice for his pregnant wife and everyone else, saw the protagonist Shi Yu's human awakening for his daughter, and saw the salvation of the baseball players about their love. However, what resists them are the "zombies" who have gone crazy in the evolution of civilized society, and the seemingly mature "half-finished products" of Jin Changwu.
On the screen, the director breaks the structure of modern civilization through the madness of zombies, and fully exposes human nature to the audience in front of the screen through the first story conflict. In the duel of selfishness and fraternity, emotion and utilitarianism, civilization and barbarism, madness and reason, we see more of the darkness of human nature. In the face of the dawn of victory again and again, the director has magnified the dark side of human nature again and again, until the end of the story, when the survivor pregnant woman Shengjing arrived at the end with the girl Xiuan, the director once again pointed the muzzle of the gun at the "human bullseye" of the audience in front of the screen, in the end in the choice of survival and love, what should we choose? Rational judgment seems to be the way to survive on the screen, and the stubbornness of feelings is the driving force for survival.
The train of "desire" moves forward at great speed in the midst of crazy zombies and dark human nature, and the only thing that can tame it is the emotions of blood and heart. In the end, Soo-an's emotional singing voice reluctantly engraved the director's will about human self-obstinacy in the hearts of the audience, and this Korean "zombie film" allows us to see the darkness of human nature and the height of the film.