At the beginning of March, when the film market is the coldest every year, the movie "Eliminate the Three Evils Everywhere" in the name of the historical allusion "Eliminate the Three Evils Everywhere" unexpectedly ignited the theater chain here, and the box office of this crime action movie without much investment has exceeded 600 million yuan, becoming the "No. 1" topic in the March film schedule. Not only that, this movie, which was released in Taiwan last year, recently "returned to Taiwan" and topped the list of views on various streaming platforms. All kinds of narrative details that echo traditional culture and folk tales make this Taiwanese film resonate with mainland audiences, and also provide a different perspective for cross-strait cultural exchanges.
What is the story of the movie "Removing the Three Evils Around the World"?
The movie "Eliminate the Three Evils Around the Week". Photo provided by the filmmaker (source: Chinanews.com)
The original text comes from "The Book of Jin: The Biography of Zhou Chu" and "The World Speaks New Language": The ancient boy Zhou Chu was originally a burly and strong young man, but he misbehaved and ran rampant in the countryside, and was hated by the locals. Later, Zhou Chu realized his mistake and decided to change himself, he single-handedly killed the tigers and evil Jiao that endangered the township, and finally achieved self-redemption and eliminated the local three evils.
In the modern version of the movie story that references traditional allusions, Chen Guilin, an underworld killer and wanted criminal played by Ruan Jingtian, vowed to "do a big job and let everyone on the road know who I am after learning that he is terminally ill and his life is dying." Finding himself in third place on the wanted list, he is determined to find out the whereabouts of the top two wanted criminals and get rid of them to "keep his name". In the journey of eliminating evil, a series of experiences made Chen Guilin, who was initially blindly famous to prove his worth, finally see "evil" from another angle, feel the subtle complexity of human nature, and realize the crime and punishment that life will face in the end, so as to face death at the end of the film and complete the complete narrative of "eliminating the three evils".
Emphasis on allegorical Presenting the traditional narrative characteristics of Chinese folk tales
Movie posters. (Source: Chinanews.com)
The film's clever use of allusions, the narrative characteristics of the Chinese folk tale tradition and the humanistic spirit behind it presented in the whole narrative add a lot to this unborn work. Emphasizing allegorical is a major feature of traditional Chinese folk tales, which has even been highlighted and extended in the movie "Removing the Three Evils Around the World". The film extends to greed, hatred and ignorance under the Buddhist concept of "eliminating the three evils everywhere", and these three poisons correspond to three different animals: the pigeon symbolizes greed, Lin Lu with a pigeon tattoo on his back and the greedy and cunning and good at camouflage; the snake symbolizes anger, and the Aberdeen with the arm pattern snake is insidious and vicious; the pig symbolizes the idiot, and Chen Guilin, who wears a pink piggy watch, is the representative of the idiot, who is strong and competitive, fierce, but thus falls into the dilemma of life without distinguishing between good and evil.
As the core of the whole story, the successful shaping of Chen Guilin corresponding to "Zhou" can be said to determine the success or failure of the film, in the folk tale, the charm of Zhouzhi lies in the coexistence of good and evil and frankness in his body, from the perspective of character setting, Chen Guilin is almost completely contrasted, to grandma, to Xiaomei, to the mother and son involved in the cult, all show the unconscious "sexual goodness" of this character, and at the same time, the admiration of violence, the blurring of self-consciousness and the simple and crude "evil" in him. But because of his "goodness" and frank nature, Chen Guilin finally "woke up" in the "journey to eliminate evil", truly saw "evil", and saw the complexity of human nature, which finally made this journey a "journey of atonement".
The film uses traditional allusions to tell Taiwanese stories
The "Venerable" Lin Luhe in "Removing the Three Evils Around the World". (Source: Chinanews.com)
In the film, the "Venerable" Lin Luhe talks about compassion and mercy, but secretly he is crazy about wealth and greedy for beauty. Some critics believe that the prototype of "Venerable" may be the Taiwanese cult leader Xu Haocheng, who calls himself the "co-leader of the five religions", opened a Huaxing spiritual monastery to collect money and deceive sex, and also released a music album during the new crown epidemic, claiming that his singing can fight the virus.
A commentary article in Taiwan's "Shang Shang Pao" compared the "three evils" and pointed out three evil policies of the Taiwan authorities: First, the "anti-infiltration law," in which many people on the island went to the mainland for tourism and family visits, and after returning to Taiwan, they were interviewed and investigated; second, Taiwan's Communications and Communications Commission, which was originally a supervisory organ, has been reduced to a "factory in the east" of the DPP to "eradicate dissidents"; and third, the "Digital Development Department" was originally established for the purpose of building communications infrastructure and communications security, but as a result, fraud cases on the island have continued to rise. The article said that it is necessary to cut off the tumor, eradicate the evil disease, and break the problem in a big way.
A movie has far-reaching implications, and this is perhaps the most important role of the movie - to warn reality.
Nine "Holy Grails": The details of traditional culture are brilliantly portrayed
Chen Guilin asked Emperor Guan Sheng if he wanted to turn himself in. (Source: Chinanews.com)
In addition to the story itself from traditional Chinese literature, many details related to traditional culture in the film also add thickness to its appreciation.
For example, Chen Guilin's hesitation to turn himself in is the key plot - how to do this decision? The answer is to "throw a cup" in front of Emperor Guan Sheng. Emperor Guan Sheng, also known as the "Martial Saint" Guan Yu, is not only strong in martial arts, but also a symbol of loyalty and righteousness, and is especially revered in southern Fujian. Closely related to the belief of Emperor Guan is the "cup throwing", a unique divination ritual in southern Fujian.
In the film, Chen Guilin threw out the "Holy Grail" of "agreement" nine times in a row, Chen Guilin, who originally hoped to escape by the will of God, was sweating profusely and trembling all over his body in the "throwing cup" again and again, he believed that this was the will of God, and then decided to surrender, adding a sense of fate to the film and the tragic color of the characters flowing in the interweaving of good and evil.
The plot of the film shows that the folk culture on both sides of the strait is in harmony
The movie "Eliminate the Three Evils Around the Week". Photo provided by the filmmaker (source: Chinanews.com)
In the film, whether it is the allusion of "eliminating the three evils everywhere" or the legend of "Guan Gong's manifestation", they are all familiar cultural elements to the people on both sides of the strait.
An article recently published by Hong Kong's "Asia Weekly" pointed out that Taiwan's actors and story backgrounds, Hong Kong's screenwriters and directors, and mainland online film reviews and narratives have made the film "Eliminate the Three Evils Everywhere" refreshing. In the past few decades, the development of soft power in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, intersecting and influencing each other, has long been integrated.
For the audience, whether it is the classic allusion "Removing the Three Evils in Zhou" from "The New Language of the World" and "The Book of Jin: The Biography of Zhou", or the lifestyle of the protagonist in the film throwing a basket to Guan Gong and asking hexagrams, it is a familiar scene of folk culture on both sides of the strait. Some Hong Kong media analysts pointed out that the storyline of the film returns to the cordial empathy of the people and shows the lingering cultural umbilical cord between the two sides of the strait.
The film brings new inspiration to cross-strait cultural cooperation
Movie posters. (Source: Chinanews.com)
Taiwanese film critics and fans believe that the film's subject selection, narrative method and behind-the-scenes team provide Taiwanese filmmakers with new thinking.
"Removing the Three Evils Around the World" is directed by Hong Kong director Huang Jingfu and starring Taiwanese actor Ruan Jingtian. Taiwan's "United Daily News" issued an article pointing out that the film "Taiwan and Hong Kong join forces" to create a realistic story of Taiwanese society with Hong Kong film techniques, which is also one of the reasons why the film is popular in the mainland market, and its popularity may open a new chapter for Chinese film cooperation. In addition, "Removing the Three Evils Around the Corner" is different from the "small and fresh" style Taiwanese films that were popular in mainland theaters in the past, so it is no wonder that both sides of the strait call it a "dark horse", providing filmmakers with new thinking.
A column in Taiwan's "Wind Media" believes that under the current situation of cross-strait relations, the fact that "Eliminating the Three Evils Around the Week" has become so popular has made people rediscover that the two sides of the strait have more connections that transcend political barriers. Taiwan's "United Daily News" article said that in recent years, the mainland factor of Taiwanese society has been deliberately reduced or even scandalized, and the film has allowed the audience to cross the barrier and be satisfied.
(Data synthesis: Chinanews.com, China News Service's WeChat public account, China News, etc.)