In 1995, "Journey to the West" was released in Hong Kong, and the box office of 54 million was only enough to recover the cost. And beijing's box office of 400,000 yuan has made "Journey to the West" bear the insult of a bad film.
The main reason is that it is difficult for the audience of that era to accept Zhou Xingchi's fanciful adaptation. As for the content in the film, the audience has not been able to understand it.
From 1999 to 2000, the Internet began to prevail in China, and the post-80s students became the first wave of Internet trends.
It was also from that time that "Journey to the West" once again entered people's sights.
This time, the audience's reaction was diametrically opposed to before, and people not only began to accept Stephen Chow's nonsensical funny, but even began to study the emotions that Stephen Chow wanted to express in this movie.
With people's research, everyone found that in this "Journey to the West", Zhou Xingchi expressed a feeling of "love but can't". As netizens said, "Putting down the golden hoop can't save you, wearing the golden hoop can't love you", this is the love story of Supreme Treasure and Zixia.
Coupled with the ending song "Love of a Lifetime", "Journey to the West" has also changed from a nonsensical funny movie to a love movie in people's minds.
In "Journey to the West", the Zixia Fairy once said a sentence, that is, "Whether Ming Ming understands it or not, I am no longer a god, I only understand one thing, loving someone is so painful." ”
Maybe this is what Zhou Xingchi wants to say through "Journey to the West"! At that time, no one could have imagined that the love story in this movie would become a microcosm of the emotional life in Zhou Xingchi's life.
What Zhou Xingchi could not imagine was that many years later, a movie called "The Origin of the Journey to the West" actually drew a satisfactory end to the love between Zixia and the Supreme Treasure.
"The Origin of the Journey to the West" is written and directed by a director named Dong Wei, who not only gave Zixia and Supreme Treasure a red line after three lifetimes in this film, but also reinterpreted the definition of "Qi Tian Dasheng" from his own perspective.
The story line of "The Origin of the Journey to the West" is very simple, Zixia is a wick, and she wants to find her own lamplighter. By chance, she saw that her lamplighter was Qi Tian Dasheng, so she used the Moonlight Treasure Box to find the Supreme Treasure.
But is the Supreme Treasure the Great Sage of Qi Tian? There is no explanation in the film. But the screenwriter explained all this in one sentence, that is, "Qi Tian Dasheng is just a name, and anyone can be Qi Tian Da Sheng."
Yes, the screenwriter just wants to tell everyone that the Qi Tian Dasheng that Zixia is looking for is not a person, Qi Tian Dasheng is just the name of the person who loves her, and that's all.
In addition to this sentence, there is another sentence in the film, more like it is for people who are as persistent as Zhou Xingchi.
"As circumstances change, attachment is suffering, and letting go is happiness."
Zhou Xingchi is a persistent person, persistent in filming, and persistent in feelings. Therefore, Zhou Xingchi outside the film is unhappy, and there are too many things he can't put down.
In this movie, Supreme Treasure once met a fortune teller, and he asked the fortune teller to help him and Zixia calculate a trick. The fortune teller drew a heart for him and Zixia and said that in the third life they would meet again.
The camera then switches to a nearby stall with a one-month-old idol. This also implies that after the third life, the Supreme Treasure and Zixia will be together.
After seeing this scene, there was a sudden feeling that "The Origin of the Journey to the West" should be the sequel to Zhou Xingchi's version of "Journey to the West". In this way, Zixia and the Supreme Treasure had already experienced two lifetimes of suffering. In the next life, they can be together.
The most classic sentence in "The Origin of the Journey to the West" is "I have always wanted to turn you into the way I like, but I have long been inseparable from the way you are now." ”
Although the funny and production aspects of this movie are not as good as Zhou Xingchi's version of "Journey to the West", and there are not so many big actors and stars, the screenwriter really studied the story of "Journey to the West" very deeply, and also made the most complete adaptation he wanted.
What is even more gratifying is that the plot is reasonable, there are causes and effects, and it also adheres to the depth of Zhou Xingchi, and does not superficialize love.
The same is love and can not be, "The Origin of the Journey to the West" gives the audience hope. The same "Love of a Lifetime" brings people different feelings, and perhaps this is the power of hope.
Finally, I would like to say that the ending song "Praying for The Edge" is really good, and the soundtrack of the whole movie is very brilliant!