Editor's Note: If you "don't want to sleep" or "can't sleep," read on.
There may be a literary film here, and there may be a horror film here. I don't know if you'll fall asleep or if you'll be scared even more out of bed.
Tonight we introduce a love triangle story that touches the soul.
Poster for the 2004 film Phantom of the Opera
The phantom of the opera is a household name, and the biggest achievement of the 2004 film version was to make this addictive work known to many people who did not have the opportunity to see the musical for a while, and even the creator Andrew Lloyd Webber himself was addicted to it, and wrote a sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera 2: Love Never Dies" many years later. In 2010, the Australian version of it was recorded as a film, so that we could enjoy it in the form of a film.
New drivers need to be prompted beforehand. "Phantom of the Opera" belongs to the "Romeo and Juliet" and "Vampire Dracula" and other stories that are not afraid of spoilers, and I am as excited as the first time I watch it every time.
It's a soul-stirring love triangle story: Christine, a young girl who dances at the Paris Opera, has a mysterious ghost "Music Angel" who quietly teaches her to sing, and because of her ugly appearance, the ghost abandoned by her parents has a crush on her and praises her. But Xiao Ke re-encountered his childhood playmate, viscount Raoul. Raoul is the patron of the opera house, and Xiaoke falls in love with him. The highly controlling ghost is bound to do its best to destroy the relationship.
At the same time, this "musical angel" also affects the deep desire of Xiao Ke's soul. Eventually, the ghost who kidnaps Raoul asks Xiaoke to exchange himself for the life of his lover. Xiao Ke gave the ghost a kiss, and the ghost was greatly moved, fulfilling her and Raoul, returning them to freedom, and himself disappeared from then on...
Stills from the 2004 film Phantom of the Opera, Gram and Ghost.
We brain-dead fans like to argue whether Xiao ke's feelings for ghosts are sympathetic and grateful, or love.
Weber had made it clear in interviews that ghosts were dangerous, restless people, so Christine loved him. Depicting ambiguous emotions can easily lead to lasting artistic charm, but we still hope that the ghost's soul mate will respond to his love.
Poster of Phantom of the Opera 2: True Love Doesn't Die
In "Phantom of the Opera 2: True Love Doesn't Die", the melody of the key song "Beneath A Moonless Sky" sung by the ghost and Xiao Ke when they reunite is exactly a film soundtrack in "Phantom of the Opera".
Perhaps Weber has already conceived how to continue writing, and Xiaoke will make it clear that his true love belongs in the tribulations of life. Moreover, only when the girl matures can she understand that the attraction of the soul is consistent with the attraction of the body.
The second clue Weber buried for the sequel is the two key supporting characters, Ms. Gilly, who rescued and raised the teenage ghost from the circus, and her daughter Meg. Meg was once Xiao Ke's girlfriend and a poor girl with a crush on ghosts.
"True Love Doesn't Die" began after the fire of the Paris Opera House, the mother and daughter followed, accompanied, and assisted the ghosts for ten years, and established a fantasy circus kingdom on The Island of Coney.
It was 1905, and the ghost had a pseudonym, Mr. Y, whose Phantasma (phantasma) was like an X-Men's school, hosting all sorts of weirdos, circuses that catered to strange tastes of adults and children, but it was also home to weird people who earned their "value of beauty" here.
The sound and color of "Phantom of the Opera 2: True Love Doesn't Die" is full of the atmosphere of the city.
I can re-watch this show more than a dozen times, Weber and Tim Bolton, Zhou Xingchi, Xu Ke, these small naughty children love similar playthings, they exude a strange, gloomy temperament of the same destination.
He had three loyal servants in charge of the opening and reception, and the dwarf girl was particularly endearing.
Mr. Y will also compose kitsch songs such as "Bathing Beauty", and give Meg, a mediocre performance in his eyes.
Meg is a girl with positive energy, hard work, hard work, pay, desperately trying to attract the attention of the male god, but it is difficult to escape misfortune.
Ms. Gilly is more aloof and scheming. Seeing in the newspaper that Nick was about to drive to Coney Island, Gilly immediately sensed the "danger."
For ten years, the mother and daughter did various front-stage jobs for Mr. Y, helping him escape, bribing officials, and opening up relations. And he just fell into his own painful loneliness and buried his head in creation.
Gilly's admiration and dedication are not selfless, she covets the huge income brought by his creation, afraid that the "ungrateful" little gram will take everything.
Meg forced herself to believe that she could relive her childhood friendship with Xiaoke.
Xiao Ke, who had given up his singing career and was at ease as a housewife, came to Kony Island with his son Gustav and his viscount husband, who was in debt to gambling and drunk. She wants to earn money to support her family, and she makes a comeback to sing for a high honorarium.
And the Viscount husband was stupid and vain, complaining about the trivialities of inviting people not personally greeting, the environment, the weather, etc., so that we doubted whether Mr. Y's self-sacrifice was worth it.
The fallen nobles are unskilled, and it is not impossible to fall to this point after losing their families.
Aristocratic status was the only bit of self-esteem of the viscount.
Xiao Ke's son came to Kony Island like home, and he picked up the sheet music and played the piano without a teacher.
He opens the music box that the mysterious inviter gave him, just like opening Pandora's box.
As soon as the melody came out, Xiao Ke was immediately alert.
Only the Viscount, who was obtuse to music, did not understand that this was the "Don Juan" passage in which the ghost and Xiao Ke sang to the realm of soul unity.
Ghost and Xiao Ke have collaborated on the soul-destroying "Don Juan".
There is also "Hope" hidden in the box.
The Viscount was lured to the bar and the child slept. The fidgeting little ke, sure enough, saw the person who was thinking in his heart push the door and enter, and fainted for a moment.
The duo, from resentment, honesty and agitation to helplessness, tell the truth about ten years ago.
On the eve of the wedding, Xiao Ke tangled to find a ghost, and as a result, the two returned to their original passion and spent a beautiful night together "under the sky without moon". The body knows its own heart better than the brain.
Unfortunately, the inferior ghost took advantage of the fact that Xiao Ke had not yet woken up and left.
Xiao Ke, who had already decided to follow the true love in his heart and follow the ghost, had to marry the Viscount, "can only love, can only live, give with all his heart, and harvest the little he deserves." ”
Inferiority harms others and harms oneself!
Mr. Y, who gave up happiness, still did not learn his lesson, continued to use too much force, and acted by instinct. He was born with no sense of morality, ignoring social laws, human interests and the lives of others, whether it was to lure the Xiaoke family to the island, or deliberately take Gustav's life to blackmail her into singing the song "True Love Does Not Die", it was a reckless blind act.
Roaring Emperor possessed
Gustav's dream was a foreshadowing.
There is probably only the Viscount under the heavens whose heart is weaker than his.
The couple reunites with Gilly's mother and daughter, and Gilly points out that he realizes that the inviter and Mr. Y are his eternal enemies, the Ghost Lord. This fake laughing quartet is quite dramatic.
Over there, Mr. Y, with complex emotions and exaggerated tones, led the child to visit his paradise, and unexpectedly found that the child could not only easily play the beautiful melody that naturally emerged in his head, but also shared the same aesthetic with him, liking the mysterious unknown, strange and grotesque, restless and dangerous, stimulating the senses, and the "beauty of the essence" of the exclusive night. This paradise is like turning a child's most secret fantasy into reality.
No matter how inferior people are, they can also see that this child is his own child, which is why Xiao Ke must marry after he leaves.
He couldn't believe that his rotten bamboo could grow a good bamboo shoot. While he asked Xiao Ke to keep the truth, not to let the child know that he had such an ugly father, let him finally listen to her sing once, and then leave the whole family; at the same time, he broke out into a new life of ecstasy, ready to give his life's wealth to the child.
Xiao Ke's personality has changed from silly white sweetness in the past to bold and mature.
The ghost is still so reckless, impulsive, even belligerent and demented.
Not only did he not realize that Madame Gilly had quietly witnessed what had just happened, but he also ran to the bar to seduce the Viscount, who was drunk until dawn, taking advantage of his gambling weakness and betting on whether Xiao Ke would sing for him, in order to help him pay off the gambling debt to tempt him, and to stimulate him with his son's life.
Before that, the Viscount had read in pieces of their unhappy ten-year marriage: why did a worthless loser husband love him selflessly? He ruined his wife's singing career, so why didn't she leave? He never understood the music in his wife's heart, and he didn't realize that his wife really loved the ugly ghost.
Meg, who had gone into the bar early in the morning to drink black coffee, told the Viscount that she got up early every morning to swim in the sea in order to wash away the dirt of the city and forget the sad things.
This positive energy woman is not unable to see her own misfortune, and the day when she can't hold back will always collapse.
She knew that as long as Xiao Ke sang, the hearts of the lovers would always be united, and she would no longer be able to keep the male god.
When the night of the premiere came, Meg tried her best to perform the vulgar song and dance of sex and not obscenity, and for the last time she delusioned that the male god was paying attention to her in the shadows.
Her mother couldn't help but tell her that this night, Xiao Ke was the protagonist, and it would be someone else's love night. This tragic character finally went crazy.
Xiao Ke is going to play. The Viscount launched a final offensive and asked her to leave Coney Island with him immediately.
Then, the ghost came to ask her to sing and dressed her up in beautiful stage jewelry.
At the time of speech, we feel that Xiao Ke chooses to listen to the ghost, not only to obey the love that comes from instinct, but also to the clear path of self-realization.
She went from timidity and entanglement to singing "True Love Doesn't Die" on stage, like a beautiful blue peacock.
This song interprets the endlessness of love, not only to tell the powerful magic of love to overcome everything, but also beyond the meaning of love, as breaking the boundaries of time, beyond the torrent of life and death, men and women with short lives are only individuals who inhabit love. This is the real positive energy.
This night is the night of fate for five people.
Although Mrs. Gilly is full of resentment, she has no choice but to say cool things.
"I hope she deserves you." She was sane.
But no one noticed that Meg had gone crazy and had taken the child.
After singing a song, Xiao Ke was completely immersed in the joy of music and self-liberation, and kissed the ghost forgetting.
The Viscount, who realized that he would lose his wife, had already written a farewell letter and let her go to true love.
Happy ending?
No way. The crowd realized that the child had been taken away by the lovelorn Meg.
Meg wants to drag the child into the sea to die, the crowd rushes to the rescue, Meg laments that the male god can finally look at her, lamenting that she has obeyed the dirty unspoken rules in order to help him open up the relationship.
This story also tells us that loving someone without responding is painful, but loving someone without a bottom line and humiliation is doomed to destruction, and the other party really needs you to make such a big sacrifice?
The ghost trying to appease her emotions is insane again, which pot does not open which pot, saying that everyone is a hidden diamond that cannot be considered, and only Christine is born beautiful...
So tragedy, tragedy for the whole family!
However, love is beyond life and death, and everyone reconciles in xiaoke's sacrifice, and how will the son of the deceased face such an ending?
He's probably stronger than everyone else. He unmasked his biological father and stroked his ugly face.
"You can only love, you can only live, give with all your heart, and harvest the little you deserve." That's life.
Although this play is not as popular as "Phantom of the Opera", it shows a richer human dimension and is also the rational reflection of Weber, an elderly man, who looks back on his youth.
True love is coming, please hold on, don't back down, otherwise, please look at the ghost...
Love is either a tragedy toward oneself or a tragedy that goes to others. Those who give up love go to the tragedy of all people.