All along, we have been discussing Xingye's "Kung Fu", "Journey to the West", "Shaolin Football"... But we hardly hear anyone discussing his "Journey to the West to Descend the Devil", but "Journey to the West to Descend the Devil" is Chow Sing Chi's most profound, most complex and most artistic film. His value is undervalued.
A "Journey to the West" is a romance film dressed up as a comedy.
If we look at "Journey to the West" from the perspective of a comedy, we are all wrong, we still stay on the surface, and we do not see its true connotation. Why is the background music of "Journey to the West" still used the lifelong love of "Journey to the West"? Why can the 300 nursery rhymes finally become the True Scriptures of the Great Day? Why is this heroine Miss Duan.
In fact, 2013's "Journey to the West" is inextricably linked to 1995's "Journey to the West", and can even be said to be a continuation, a continuation of the plot, and a continuation of feelings. It is still the frustration and regret of Star Ye's love. It can be said to be an autobiography of his personal emotional experience.
Second, "Journey to the West" is an inspirational film cloaked in comedy.
"Journey to the West" is actually Mr. Wu Cheng'en's personal cultivation diary, the Three Realms of Kyushu, the gods, and demons actually do not exist, just imagined worlds. For so many years, only Zhou Xingchi really understood Wu Cheng'en.
Through his own cultivation, Chen Xuanzang finally became a sutra reader. On the road of cultivation, he first received Sha Wujing, then Pig Wuneng, and finally Sun Wukong. All three of them, like Zhou Xingchi, had a painful past.
Although the third "Journey to the West" is the cloak of comedy, it has its own profound connotation and thoughts.
Sha Wujing was mistaken and killed by the villagers because of saving the child, and threw himself into the water, so that the soul of the wronged soul did not disperse into a half-human, half-fish monster to eat people and take revenge on the villagers. Ino is killed by his wife and her lover, and he has deep feelings for his wife. Love gives birth to hate, so it turns into a pig demon to harm people. And Sun Wukong. It is the talent that is not revealed. Only then will they rebel and be indignant. It's like some angry youth who don't meet with talent.
As it is said in the movie: a knife kill is not the real truth of exorcism, to get rid of the demonic nature, to retain the good deeds, is the real exorcist. If we blindly use the law and the death penalty to deter evil, it will not reduce the existence of evil, but only prevent evil behavior. The key to eliminating evil is to root goodness, to root morality and faith in people's hearts, to create a society full of love and fairness and justice, so that evil has no soil to grow, and naturally no one will do evil.
The profundity of Zhou Xingchi's thinking is probably able to catch up with Lu Xun, the two of them are just different in age, one uses articles, the other uses movies. But the purpose may be there, that is: to change this ugly world as much as possible.
Star Ye has hardly made movies in recent years, which shows that he is desperate for this world, and his white hair is a testament to his pain. I really hope that in his lifetime, he can make a few more good movies.