Blessed month for movie lovers
Thematically, Ang Lee has infused his movie with such nuance and subtlety that one can believe whatever version, or combination thereof, one chooses. He was not proselytizing for religion, but nudging movie-viewers to have faith in the good common to us all. Even if you saw only a Disney version of the story and were totally oblivious to the evils in the world, that says something good about yourself as well. The debate, not the conclusion, is the fruit of the narrative design.
I believe that Feng Xiaogang's Back to 1942 tells the same story - thematically speaking - as Life of Pi. They are two sides of the same coin. Both touch on cannibalism, faith, good versus evil, and use an outsider as a narrator. What Lee hints, Feng elaborates on. Likewise, Pi's adventure on the surreally beautiful ocean is boiled down in the last scene of 1942 when the starving protagonist limps toward his hometown to die and stumbles upon an orphan girl at the roadside, whose survival is embodied in the cryptic voiceover of what turns out to be her grandson.
The Last Supper, Lu Chuan's latest feature, resembles Feng's 1942 in the sense that both present history with a new twist. While Feng digs out a forgotten chapter in China's not-too-distant past, Lu retells the oft-repeated tale of 2,000 years ago, when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu attempt to outsmart each other to topple and succeed the despotic First Emperor Qin.
Lu completely eschews the melodrama and brings out the dark psyche of the main character. Liu Bang in this version is Shakespearean in portrayal - grand one moment and humble the next, and full of caprice and paranoia. The second half of the film is about a ruler who has no opponent except his own sick mind. The way he persecutes his loyal ministers who helped him obtain the throne is a chilling reminder of the corrupting power of the throne, as exhibited nonstop down the corridor of history.
If you wonder where evil comes from, the three movies actually point to the same direction: the mind that is out of control of human decency, either by chance or by design.
Contact the writer at raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn.
