text | Linghu Boguang
In addition to the release of new films such as " Dune 2", especially this Hollywood blockbuster has a good reputation for quality and has aroused widespread discussion. The heat is starting to drop. However, let’s write about "Zhou Chu Abates Three Evils" today. This movie is indeed quite interesting.
This movie is indeed a magical movie among the current Chinese-language movies.
Because it is a mainland movie, because of censorship, it is difficult to pass the review, let alone the protagonist being a killer, let alone showing a cult and the final massacre. In fact, similar movies have been made in the Mainland, but they are either too literary like " The Mistake by the River " (the artistry and metaphor are stronger than this movie).
Commercial genre films that show gangsters and revenge do face the problem of deletion, such as Cao Baoping's " Crossing the Angry Sea " and Zhang Yimou's " Solid as a Rock ". There are indeed many problems in these two movies, but just looking at the behind-the-scenes footage released by the director, it seems that they have been cut to pieces.
In recent years, Hong Kong and Taiwanese films, whether they are literary films or genre films, have paid more attention to people on the margins of reality. Such as "Under the Day", "Homicide", "Mai Luren " and "Drifting in Turbid Water". The Taiwanese movies " Buddha Plus " and " Blood Guanyin " are also similar.
In the past few years, there have been several commercial films of the same type as "The Curse", "The Ghost and I Became Family", and " Haunting the Soul ". The director of "Chou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" is from Hong Kong, but it is set in Taiwan and incorporates many religious metaphors and realistic genre film pursuits. It is indeed very different. The quality is also good, so it's an amazing movie.
Superfluous policeman, useless "heroine"? "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" is quite interesting.
The Buddhist metaphor of this movie. The three wanted criminals represent the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance. It goes without saying that the gun is a ritual tool for crime and punishment. It has been analyzed in previous articles. Well, there are actually two characters in this movie. I think netizens have been very controversial. The first one is that the role of the policeman seems to be redundant, and the heroine seems to be useless.
As for the police character, Chen Guilin’s gun was taken from the hands of the detective Chen Hui. It is originally a tool for law enforcement (of course it is doubtful whether it is the same gun, I prefer it), but the name of the detective that should be clear in black and white is His name is Chen Hui, which echoes the detective's attitude toward Chen Guilin at the end.
The protagonist’s first gun was a gun for chasing fame and fortune, so he threw it away after use. At that time, he only wanted to be famous and had not yet risen to the level of an executioner. The second gun after that was from Chen What Hui Na took away represented taking over the scepter of execution. Why do you say that?
Because Chen Hui is the conscience of the protagonist, but it is just covered with dust. The first scene of the play is that the protagonist commits a murder and makes a mistake. Chen Hui, who represents conscience, chases him, but does not directly use the execution gun until he is blinded by the protagonist in one eye. One light and one dark, linked to the yin and yang on the ground. The phases form the "Bao Gua", or "Holy Grail", "Holy Gua", which represents permission, agreement, and everything goes smoothly.
Only then did Chen Hui start to shoot, but Mengchen’s conscience could not kill the person who fell into ignorance, so he was destined to miss the protagonist. Instead, he was knocked down by the protagonist and took away the gun that symbolized execution. After this scene, the protagonist obtained the execution scepter. , and also realized the meaning of execution from Chen Hui's behavior of not abusing guns.
But at this time, the protagonist is still trapped in ignorance, so the director arranged for his "mentor" to appear, which is Doctor Black. Through a lie and a monologue about "superstition", the protagonist will be led to find himself before death. on the main line of value.
The three appearances of Chen Hui actually show the change of Chen Guilin's position from completely "evil" to violent "good".
In the beginning, Chen Guilin killed the gang boss and hit him with a gun. He also said "I have a name and a surname" when talking to his younger brother, with the arrogance of being the only one. In this scene, Chen Hui was blinded by him with an incense burner, which was relatively more painful. The close-up shots also exaggerate that Chen Guilin is a pure "harm" at this time.
In the second act, Chen Guilin's motivation to kill the other two wanted criminals was also his own fame and fortune: he wanted to gain fame and wanted the society to recognize him. In this paragraph, he is like Zhou Chu in the allusion. His purpose is not to eliminate harm for the people, but his own selfishness.
So Chen Hui injured his legs and feet in another duel with him, which showed that Chen Guilin was still violent and terrifying. He is still a harm to the police and society. But in this scene, his tenderness and kindness towards Cheng Xiaomei have made him a representative of goodness in this person's mind. This is also the beginning of the blurring of his good and evil positions.
In the third act, the most exciting part of his duel with Lin Luhe is when he heard the singing and turned back after killing Lin Luhe. I think this is an intermediate point in Chen Guilin's transformation: he has achieved his own He had personal interests, but he didn't want to keep this group of believers still causing harm to the world, so he raised his gun to enforce justice for heaven.
In this scene, his gun became the will of God, he obeyed the will of God, and Guan Shengdi decided the life and death of these believers. Although Chen Guilin is still violent in this scene, the police did not appear, nor should they appear, because at this point in the story, it is difficult for Chen Guilin to be defined by the police in terms of evil or harm. He is a vague middleman. Killing is evil but his intentions are good. If the police show up and stop him, the story will fall out of fashion and Chen Guilin's good and evil will be hastily decided.
What is the use of the heroine in "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils"? It's redemption
The heroine and the hero are reincarnated and redeemed each other. Xiaomei and Chen Guilin went to the beach. Xiaomei told the story of her mother. The hero saves the beauty, loves Aberdeen, and is willing to take the blame. At this time, she was also rescued by the hero, fell in love with Chen Guilin, and asked the protagonist, where are we going?
At this time, the camera zoomed out, and two excavators, one large and one small, appeared in the same frame, like matryoshka dolls, symbolizing the reincarnation of Xiaomei's fate.
But the next moment, Chen Guilin said, this car is for you, you are free. At this time, the camera changed its angle, and suddenly there was only one excavator left. The narrative representing the hero saving the beauty was deconstructed, and the cycle of reincarnation was broken.
If you don’t believe it, you can check out that section. The arrangement of the two excavators, the use of lens language and composition are quite clever.
Finally, I feel that the moment when Xiaomei visits Chen Guilin is the real answer to Zhou Chu’s question of eliminating the three evils, because Xiaomei is the only person in the world who will treat him as a good person, as media reports say He is a gangster, the police will not regard him as a good person, and the doctors will not think of him as a good person in the first place.
But Cheng Xiaomei is different. For a woman with Xiaomei's background (his mother wants to be a drug dealer, and his living environment is full of gangs), Chen Guilin is a good person through and through. So this is not love at all.
I think Xiaomei didn’t react at all when she saw Chen Guilin’s gun. I think she might have hoped to be saved by Chen Guilin, but I think it’s unlikely. Judging from Xiaomei’s mentality, that moment was actually a little bit... , I will go with whoever is strong. If you kill Aberdeen, I will be your woman, so it has nothing to do with them. But later Xiaomei saw that Chen Guilin was not here to occupy her, so she fell in love with Chen.
In the last scene, Chen Guilin asked Officer Chen Hui to surrender by name. Chen Hui arrived at the appointment and later visited the prison with Cheng Xiaomei, which showed the dignity Chen Guilin gained before his execution. At this time, he finally woke up from regret and realized his evil. The awakened Chen Guilin has reached the end of killing himself. Chen Hui brought him a razor and the execution meal he ate before his death all represent society's recognition and tolerance for him to kill himself.
He was the only one among the three evils who died prepared, with the remaining dignity, because unlike the first two villains, he had a conscience. He once thought that his life was not long, and he kept trying to live and running for his life. Now he found that he was not sick, but he also looked down upon life and death.He still regretted the path of no return he had embarked on, so he cried while shaving, but he also realized that he must bear the consequences of his evil deeds, so he did not regret it. Instead, he smiled at Chen Hui and Cheng Xiaomei from the bottom of his heart. The ground felt happy and laughed.
Maybe Officer Chen Hui’s line and the heroine’s line are still a little thin, but because of this, Ethan Ruan ’s performance in the role of Chen Guilin is even more brilliant, because this is not the kind of story about two heroes. Zhou Chu changed himself, and Chen Guilin also changed himself.
It is indeed "unfair" to mainland films that "The Three Evils" can pass the review
This movie is a cool movie full of male protagonists wandering the underworld and killing decisively. In the end, these are all superficial and the essence is shown. It is anti-violence, anti-corruption, anti-fraud, anti-cult, and anti-ignorance. There is no film more positive than this one.
Where is the positive energy of this film reflected? How does the film show the male protagonist to eliminate the three evils and eliminate greed, anger and ignorance?
(1) Anti-violence: The male protagonist won the hand-to-hand fight with Ranking Two and prepared to judge Ranking Two. The second person on the list muttered "Hero, spare your life" and asked the hero why he killed him. Earlier on the second list, the second one shaved the male protagonist in a small hair salon, implying that he would help the male protagonist get rid of his anger. The hero's eyebrows were intentionally scratched.
Therefore, the male protagonist points a gun at his eyebrows. If you use violence to hurt me, I will destroy you if I master stronger violence. Combined with the fact that Xiao Mei saw the gun in the mirror in the hair salon but remained silent, the male protagonist turned around and put clothes on Xiao Mei first, giving Xiao Mei freedom and receiving Xiao Mei's heartfelt gratitude and kindness. Violence cannot bring you sincerity, kindness and respect can; addiction to violence will eventually lead to destruction. The male protagonist cuts off his anger.
(2) Anti-corruption: The male protagonist was deceived by Bang Yi and had his hair cut off by Bang Yi. The cause at this time brought about the consequences of eliminating corruption. Bang Yi's people's pursuit of wealth is inhumane. Bang Yi simply looks down on the watch that the male protagonist cherishes and the ring of the chubby mother, but still wants you to throw away the things you cherish. Humanity has been lost. At the end of the trial, the male protagonist realizes that greed and money-grabbing are inhumane, and that corruption and enjoyment will eventually lead to destruction. The male protagonist cuts off greed.
(3) Anti-fraud: Not much to say, be careful when it comes to money.
(4) Anti-cult: Not much to say, the gift of children mentioned in the first list is a foreshadowing. It is not difficult to imagine that the entire group is cheating money and sex.
(5) Anti-ignorance: Let’s first talk about how the male protagonist kills the idiot, and who is the key point. It's Xiaomei. She took the initiative to contact the police officer and wanted to shave the male protagonist's beard and help him eliminate his insanity. When the famous scene comes, no words are needed, only the male protagonist can't help but burst into tears. Xiaomei wiped away her tears, but she couldn't wipe them away. It hurts so much; regrets it so much.
Because of ignorance (dark nature, ignorance), he went astray. He became greedy for fame and indulged in violence. He was unable to live a stable life and could not accompany his beloved grandma. In the end, I found that just a few simple acts of kindness, putting clothes on Xiaomei, and giving her freedom can bring me gratitude and care. At this point, the film reaches its climax. The male protagonist gets rid of greed, anger and ignorance, and recognizes himself and the nature of the underworld. Without distinguishing between right and wrong, those who go astray will eventually lead to destruction; at the same time, mutual respect and goodwill can eliminate ignorance and lead to the right path.
The most regrettable thing is that if it is a mainland movie, if the protagonist is a gangster killer, there will also be cult elements and a massacre at the end, it will definitely be overwhelming from the beginning.
