"Journey to the West" has been on the throne of film history for many years, and the top 250 Douban movies have a rating of 9.2. There are countless "dog-style youths" who have repeatedly watched "Journey to the West" to comfort their loneliness and helplessness.
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I have to say that this movie deeply hits the whole mood change of young people from high school to college to the time of entering society.
In high school, the simplicity was like the supreme treasure of the leader of the mountain thieves in the Five Mountains, who robbed and robbed every day, accidentally hit seven wounded fists, and the rest of the time was the big guys playing and playing, very happy;
The arrival of Chun Thirty Niang changed all this, because she also brought Bai Jingjing. Since then, the supreme treasure is like us who have entered the university campus, and we have begun" "The long night is long, I have no intention of sleeping, I thought it was just me who couldn't sleep, and it turned out that you couldn't sleep with Jingjing Girl!" "In the season, we began to express and chase love, began to tangle and sleepless; later there was a difficult choice between Bai Jingjing and Zixia, more incomprehensible, and the choice became more and more difficult;
Finally, in this entanglement and uneasiness, we are pushed into the torrent of society without understanding, in which we begin our mission as men, earning money to serve our parents, improving social status and maintaining men's dignity, competing to prevent being intentionally hurt and accidentally injured, and so on. We wear gold hoops on our heads, become sophisticated and sleek, become more condescending, and live in anxiety and responsibility every day with little caution. In the middle, for the vast majority of us, there will be no more purple xia fairy around us, and we basically can't see the lake ripples and desert yellow sand of the reeds next to the Wuyue Mountain, and some only have KPIs, deadlines, wages, social security, tuition, loan repayment, gifts, stamps, child scores, hair loss, obesity... This is our long western heavenly prayer path.
"Journey to the West 1 and 2" tells the story so cleverly and sincerely, but unfortunately, when it comes to "Journey to the West 3", it has become a repetitive work that does not know what to do, with the golden jade blessed by the star master in front, how can the repetition not be defeated? Sure enough, the reputation of "Journey to the West 3" collapsed, classified as a bad film, and the Douban score was only 4.0.
The reputation of "Journey to the West 3" collapsed, classified as a bad film, and the Douban score was only 4.0.
From the release of "Journey to the West 1 and 2" in 1993 to the release of "Journey to the West 3" in 2016, after 23 years, the first two have been put on the altar, and the superposition of terms such as "postmodern" and "structuralism" has classified it into serious works, no longer simple laughter and anger.
Why repeat it? Continue to find handsome men and beautiful women to interpret love again, whether it is to love you for ten thousand years, or just to fight for the day, talking about love, or the love of young people, changing soup without changing medicine.
If "Journey to the West" is made into a series of works like "The Godfather", it is actually a continuation of the main vein. "The Godfather" tells the story of a generation of gangster godfather Mike Corleone from succession, development to death, then the main context of "Journey to the West" is the "dog-like youth" entering the university, entering the society, and gradually getting old.
The Godfather tells the story of a generation of gangster godfathers, Mike Corleone, from succession to death
In 1993, the release of "Journey to the West 1 and 2" ended with the "dog-style youth" resolutely turning around and following the Tang monks into the rolling yellow sand of the desert, so what happened after that?
If the demon slaying along the way cannot become the theme of "Journey to the West 3", then what about entering the West Heavenly Spirit Vulture Mountain to meet rulai Buddha? If entering the Spirit Vulture Mountain cannot be developed into a movie, then what about after Sun Wukong became a fighting Buddha?
For Sun Wukong, if becoming a Fighting Buddha is like the same ending as the death of Mike Corleone, is there still a struggle to become a Fighting Buddha in the end?
Another movie that may give us some inspiration is Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", it is told that Li Mubai intends to completely withdraw from the jianghu, and during the retreat cultivation, he once entered a deep silence, and there was only light around him, and time and space did not exist, but he did not have the joy of attaining enlightenment. The story behind the movie slowly unfolds from this story.
The uneasiness and struggle between Li Mubai's Tao and his own way
Attaining the Tao and not attaining the Tao, becoming a Buddha and not becoming a Buddha, is the critical boundary from non-emptiness to emptiness, and between the critical boundaries, even if a person is rational and calm like Li Mubai, is still not easy, then for Sun Wukong, it is the same.
For the "dog-like youth", the college students in the 1990s were also close to 50 years old, which is equivalent to entering the age of Li Mubai's so-called tao and non-attainment. At this time, the "dog-like youth" is also about to start from the pursuit of external love, responsibility, status and money, and more or less begin to chase the Tao and emptiness for the heart.
But this is also a false proposition, because "emptiness" is a false proposition, and unless there is death, how can one truly achieve complete "emptiness"?
Can Sun Wukong really become a Buddha? Maybe not, just as Li Mubai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon eventually died, his master could not attain the Tao, nor could he, because it was impossible; maybe Sun Wukong could, because after all, he was a mythical figure.
"Dog-style youth" can finally get the Tao, this is even more impossible, our hearts are destined to have nowhere to rest, we are in the sea of suffering, the sea of suffering is endless, when we are young, we chase love and chase ideals, and when we are old, we will slowly usher in aging and death in the pursuit of spiritual destination.
Liu Zhenwei made a very clever footnote for the chase of the "dog youth" when he was young, just like the cool fruit tea in the summer; unfortunately, when the "dog youth" aged, Liu Zhenwei brought a cup of fruit tea, or squeezed with spoiled fruit.