"Infinite Resurrection" is not a particularly popular film in the movie created by Liu Zhenwei. It is more like a Canghai pearl, compared with Liu Zhenwei's other films, this is his film, all aspects of the balance are relatively in place. Today, I will use my own movie-watching experience to analyze the different charm of this film from the two aspects of "character emotion" and "philosophy behind the film". @David Father & Son says financial quotient.
Released in 2002 and written and directed by Liu Zhenwei, "Infinite Resurrection" has only a score of 6.9 on Douban, but people who like the film praise it.
The story revolves around Ah Ren, played by Zheng Yijian. Aren is a dealer at a private gambling club whose job is to go to the table and win money back when guests are lucky. He never lost. The girlfriend who is pregnant is going to break up with him and tell him that the child is someone else's. In order to save his girlfriend, he decided to give it a go, encouraging his colleague and friend Ah Xing, who grew up with him in the orphanage, to steal $1 million from the company's safe and go to Las Vegas, hoping to make a fortune by his superb gambling skills and luck. At first, there were many killings, but the casino finally sent a "brother" to gamble with him, making him clear the bag.
Ah Xing happened to point out Anna with a huge amount of money from the company in the casino, which turned her into a victory, and Anna became friends with them and traveled with them. In the bar, Aren accidentally gets the "Back Stone" that Anna was going to give ah Xing. Later Anna took them and had a rollover accident on the highway. Three days later, Ah Ren woke up in the hospital to find that Ah Xing and Anna had died after the car accident, and he had no memory of what happened after the car accident.
Because Ah Ren became a suspect in the loss of public funds, he was targeted by the female police officer Tianna played by Cecilia Cheung. In the process of Tianna's pursuit of Aren, another car accident occurs. At this time, the back stone suddenly appeared magical, allowing them to return to 3 days ago. Together, they went to find out the truth about Ah Xing's murder. But the truth and the ending surprised everyone.
The score of this film is low, mainly because the content is more brain-burning, and the complexity of the plot raises the appreciation grade of the film. Observation requires patience to watch this movie 2 or 3 times, to disassemble the truth behind the movie story, and then you suddenly find that this is a deeply hidden classic.
Friends who are familiar with Liu Zhenwei know that he has a special love for the theme of "crossing". Since the 1990s, he has created a number of films related to time travel, such as "Journey to the West", "Time to Love", "Infinite Resurrection" and so on. These works, there are fashions, there are ancient costumes, and even myths. But no matter how different the themes of the stories are, it is not difficult to find that some of the emotional expressions behind the stories have some similarities.
(1) Brotherhood beyond gender
Ah Ren has a good brother Ah Xing who is willing to be born and die for him. They grew up together in the orphanage, and Ah Xing has always treated him as his dearest brother. For him, Ah Xing, who is afraid of dogs, is bitten by the dog and steals the money from the company to make a bet for him; even after Ah Ren loses the company's money, he becomes a male prostitute in order to help Ah Ren get the gambling money again. And because of this incident, Ah Ren learned that Ah Xing was a homosexual.
Coincidentally, this kind of brotherhood that implies "basic feelings" appears from time to time in Liu Zhenwei's other cross-genre films. For example, the blind man in "Journey to the West" is "obsessed with the gang film"; in "Timeless Time to Love", because of the crossing, the male and female thieves became brothers in the Three Kingdoms era, and the male and female protagonists incarnated as Zhuge Liang and Lü Meng to "fall in love".
Through these character relationships, we can feel that brotherhood is a special existence higher than the feelings of men and women for Liu Zhenwei, which makes people feel all kinds of tastes in their hearts.
(2) Fatalistic relationship between men and women
Policewoman Tianna, because of the pursuit of Ah Ren, the two fell into the time tunnel together and returned to 3 days ago. Therefore, he accidentally discovered that his boyfriend was cheating, and the boyfriend cheated on him, which happened to be Ah Ren's ex-girlfriend. The two had a relationship with each other's comfort and had feelings for each other. In the end, Tianna of No. 28 and the blackened No. 25 Aren fell into the black hole of time and died.
And No. 25 Tianna, at the end of the story, sees the half of the fate bead that No. 28 Tianna gave to Ah Ren, suggesting that because of the fulfillment of the legend of the fate bead, the two will develop into lovers in the future.
The love affair between Aren and Tianna can be said to be fate and fate. In movies such as "Journey to the West" and "Time-Out to Love", the fatalism of the emotional relationship between the male and female protagonists is also emphasized. And these fatalistic feelings eventually lead to sacrifice and fulfillment.
In "Infinite Resurrection", at the moment when The 25th Arren takes the gun and aims at the 28th Aren, Tianna is full of smiles but resolutely releases her hand and rolls down the black hole of time and space with the murderer who wants to kill his man;
In "Time to Love", the heroine gives up the opportunity to cross together in order for the male protagonist to successfully cross back to the modern era, and sacrifices herself to chase the soldiers;
In "Journey to the West", in order to save Zixia, the Supreme Treasure is willing to wear a golden hoop and become Sun Wukong.
(3) The game between human nature and animal nature
This film has a very interesting and ingenious arrangement, allowing The 8th Arren and the 25th Aren to face each other and confront each other.
On the 28th, Ah Ren returns to the past to investigate the truth, and finally finds that the murderer of Ah Xing is actually his past self. In order to prevent the tragedy from happening again, The 28th Ah Ren rushed out of the way in front of Ah Xing's body and ate the stick that No. 25 Ah Ren was going to kill Ah Xing.
No. 25 Aren was stunned to see No. 28 A ren who looked exactly like him. Thus, the dialogue and confrontation between the two Aren began. No. 28 Aren said, "I know you must want to know who I am, just because I am your conscience." Everyone will do something wrong, but not everyone will have a chance to correct it. I want you to know what's important and don't live your life with guilt. “
But The No. 25 Ah Ren, who had gone into the fire, could not listen at all, and said a sentence of "who kills whom", and the strength interpretation "I am crazy and even fight myself". This plot vividly interprets the struggle between the "angel" and the "devil" in the heart when people face temptation, and the meaning of "impulse is the devil".
Through the story of time and space, there must be a time and space paradox, which has triggered controversy over the rationality of the logic of the story. The following introduces 3 topics that are more controversial and thought-provoking in this film.
(1) I love you, or do I love the experience with you
Many viewers expressed their regret for the final ending of the film, thinking that The 28th Arren would meet again with the 28th Tianna, and the result was that the fate beads let the 28th Aren and the 25th Tianna to produce a "new fate". Although Tianna on the 28th and 25th were originally the same person, the 25th lacked the experience of sharing the hardships with the 28th Arren.
The person you meet again is no longer the person who made you love inextricably, and now you are not the original you. Just like the male and female protagonists in the finale of this film, one is the male protagonist who has experienced the cause and effect of the matter, and the other is the female protagonist who has not experienced anything. This sense of regret is fully expressed in the film through the theme song "Yesterday's I Fell in Love with Tomorrow's You".
But in my opinion, such lamentations and entanglements are meaningless. Think about it from another angle, is it not, if your lover suffers from Alzheimer's disease, or accidentally loses her memory, she is not worthy of your love again? This reminds me of another movie, First Love 50 Times. I love you, so I am willing to talk to you once a day about a brand new love, happiness is not at hand, happiness needs to be worked for.
(2) Those who attempt to commit crimes go to hell, and those who commit crimes are reborn
For Aren on the 28th, Ah Xing's death is a fact, and it is likely that Ah Ren killed him. However, The 28th Arren travels back to the 25th time and space, preventing the 25th Arren from killing Axing, so that this fact does not happen in the 25th space-time. In the end, No. 28 Aren stayed in the time and space of No. 25, the murder did not happen, Ah Xing did not die, and No. 28 Aren, will not be punished by law.
Although No. 25 Ah Ren moved to kill, he did not succeed in killing anyone, but fell into the black hole of time and disappeared.
Some viewers suggested that it was not that No. 25 Aren was punished for the crime that he only thought of evil, but did not really realize, while No. 28 Aren was the real murderer and went unpunished.
It seems to me that such a logical contradiction is the same as the story of the return of the prodigal son in Luke 15 of the Bible. Many times, people will be entangled in "absolute justice", but dare to admit guilt and repentance, "the prodigal son will not change his gold", it is worth getting a new life.
According to some details of the film, No. 28 Aren did not kill Ah Xing at all, so the above-mentioned assertion that "No. 28 Aren is the real murderer but goes unpunished" is not valid. And the related reasoning, the following will be detailed.
(3) What really happened in the last loop
On the 28th, When Aren returned home from the hospital, Mo Ming received a recording of a phone call warning him not to go to Las Vegas. No. 28 Arren heard the sound of the phone coming from the next door in the bathroom before he crossed, talking about the license plate number and so on, and he felt inexplicable at the time, and it was not until he crossed, after he crossed, called the bar, and realized that it was his own speech at that time.
That is to say, before this, there was indeed a time-traveling Arren, one earlier than the 28th Aren. The entire scene is given to The 28th Arren as the main line, but in fact he is only one of many crossers.
So why didn't The 28th Arren be replaced by the previous round of Arren to gamble money? Why didn't Ah Ren show up in the last round to stop Ah Xing from being killed? This is a very important suspense of this film. Although the story does not give too many clues to let us clearly understand what happened in the last round of crossing, it can still deduce a reasonable possibility through some details.
In my reasoning, after No. 28 Aren woke up in the hospital, he had no memory of what happened after the car accident, and then finally recalled that Ah Xing was killed, it was always a third-person visual display, all pointing to a conclusion: Ah Xing was not killed by No. 28 Aren, but by Ah Ren who crossed back in the last round. What Ah Ren recalled on the 28th was not his own crime, but that he was thrown out of the car after the car accident, and in a half-dizzy and half-awake state, he saw Ah Ren and Ah Xing arguing with Ah Xing.
The charm of the story is that it gives us the opportunity to think outside the box, to think about life issues from a new perspective, and to make us feel some philosophies that are difficult to understand under normal circumstances. Now, combined with the story of "Infinite Resurrection", let's talk about the thoughts and inspirations it brings me about life:
(1) Many bay roads in life cannot be avoided
One of the reasons why time travel stories are popular with the public is that people can overcome fate, and the storyline that is in control of the operation brings people a sense of coolness. Many people will think that their lives are not satisfactory because there is no "regret medicine" in this world. If there is a real opportunity for them to do it again, it will definitely make people's lives wonderful.
However, people's understanding of the cross-over story is a typical "survivor bias". Just like the story of "Infinite Resurrection", what we see is that the protagonist rewrites his life, defeats the "one brother" to make a lot of money, and harvests a happy love. However, in the dark line of the story, it actually shows that what we see is only the protagonist's most successful counterattack. Before that, there were other unsuccessful cycles of crossing.
It's like when we understand the biographies of successful people, always thinking that they can reach the peak of life because they have a good idea and exhaustive plan in life. However, the fact is that behind the success you see, there are countless failures that have created him.
Therefore, to reach the peak of life, what is needed is not to predict the future, but to have the ability to "infinite resurrection". Many bay roads in life, not a single point can be less, the difference is in, whether you have the perseverance to go to the end of your goal step by step.
(2) Accept reality, human nature can not withstand the test
Many people think that this is a film that is a dialogue between the heart. Number 28 Aren, after losing friends, after getting love, he changed, he saw Number 25's self, it turned out to be so paranoid, selfish, evil, he knew what was truly precious. When No. 25 Ah Ren smashed Ah Xing with an iron rod, he rushed up to block the iron rod, saving Ah Xing and saving himself.
However, I think such an understanding is a misreading. Aren't actually changing, nor has he really saved his own soul. The fact that No. 28 Aren would stop No. 25 from killing Ah Xing does not mean that his true conscience has found out, but because he has a check for $2 million in his bag! He righteously and sternly accused No. 25 Arren, just like a person who has eaten enough, accuses a hungry and crazy person of eating ugly, purely "standing and talking without waist pain.".
If Ah Ren can still maintain the justice in his heart when he loses 1 million, then it can be called a real change of heart. However, we can infer from the dark line of the story that Ah Xing was probably killed by Ah Ren who crossed in the previous round. It can be seen that whether or not he crossed is not the key to Ah Ren's change of behavior, but whether he faces the pressure of losing that million.
This kind of "reformed" story is particularly admired because we all want the world to be moral. However, we have to face the reality that human nature cannot stand the test, and morality must be based on reasonable material foundations. As Guan Zhong said: Enough food and clothing to know honor and disgrace.
(3) Cherish the people in front of you, and happiness depends on management
This film has a paragraph about the "beastly love reverse sequence", which is highly praised by many viewers. In the café, Ah Ren comforted Tianna who was betrayed by her boyfriend, and Ah Ren said a very interesting theory: people sometimes have less feelings than animals, people are mated after dating, and then who can guarantee that they will not be separated for a lifetime, and they can divorce when they are married. Animals are different, they will hide first and mate first, giving birth to a group of small animals. Then there is the relationship, which will not divorce for the rest of your life.
Through this strange theory, Liu Zhenwei actually wants to express the emotions that he wants to express, which can be summed up in one sentence: cherish the people in front of you.
If we take another love theory in "Timeless Time to Love" that is similar to the "beast-style love inversion", we can more clearly understand Liu Zhenwei's concept of love.
At the beginning of "Time to Love", the male protagonist threw out an idea: if two people were naked at the beginning of their acquaintance, and all the shortcomings and bad habits were spread in front of each other, then every day in the days to come was the advantages of each other.
Whether love is predestined or not, I don't know; whether it's a fate, it doesn't matter. Happiness or not depends on your attitude towards love, and whether you know how to operate or not. Identifying a person should be like a "beast", with perseverance from beginning to end, both sides are frank and relative, appreciate each other's advantages, and try their best to give each other a better self.
summary:
If you want to truly understand "Infinite Resurrection", you must not only start from the story content of the movie, but also think about the ideological theme and deeper meaning behind the movie. In today's article, I mainly analyze some of the philosophies behind "Infinite Resurrection", and the details of the story are worthy of our in-depth consideration.