This movie sets me deep in thought for a couple of days... and I'm still deep in thought. This show talks about many themes. I had discussions with Jun Wei and Matthew after the movie. The next day during lunch in school I was still discussing with Matte on the various themes. And after much thought, we found out a lot of latent themes that are rich in meaning.
Masks...
I was wondering how come the characters in the show wore masks. Ancient chinese soldiers and emperors and empresses don't wear masks do they? And when "Ziyi Zhang" was playing polo with the emperor, they wore masks too... Hmm... It actually shows that by putting on the masks, they deny their true self and bring out fully the roles they are supposed to play. Even whe the soldiers were invading the theatre the performers were still wearing their masks and performing right until they get slashed.
Then one of the most striking conversation on masks... the crown prince was telling the empress (ziyi zhang) that the ability to bring out expressions on a lifeless mask was a master piece. But what strikes me even deeper, was when the empress said that it is the ability to make your face a mask (hiding your true feelings and intentions) that is really a master piece. That, I truly agree. It really is an art to deny your emotions and put away your desires to achieve something rational.
Poison....
The most cheesy lines I ever heard:
Crown prince: Is there anything else on earth can be more poisonous than this (refering to the bottle of poison)?
Alchemist: Yes...(pauses...) REN2 XIN1. (a man's heart)
-_-''''
But after thinking about it.... its true. It only takes a dark, poisonous heart for a person to have the intentions of mudering someone. Furthermore, it is the heart that has the ability to feel absolute bitterness and hurt when you play withh its feelings. Likewise in the show, love is portrayed as being strucked by poison. All the characters who were infatuated with someone died of poison, but they died happy, in the arms of whom they love. Its like a drug man... die feeling high...
Colours......
White represents the good, as opposed to black which is evil. The good characters like Zhou Xu and the crown prince were dressed in white, while the empress and the emperor and his soldiers were dressed in black. Red represents passion... and when people get so caught up in passion they get consumed by the fire of it... when one is able to emerge of the fire of passion unharmed, then truly the person will own everything.. this is roughly what the empress said at the end of the show, after all her loved ones has been poisoned to death. But will it really lead you to sucess? In the end you might just end up with the oedipus complex...
Then I was thinking... it really reflects our lives today. How we put masks on, never really revealing our true feelings in most places (say you are bored at a lecture but you at least pretend you are interested and pretend to write something...) there is a time and place to behave in a certain manner. We poison peoples' hearts as well... some of us go around making others life miserable by betraying their feelings and trust, poisoning them with their words.
Overall, I think this show is on MANIPULATION and EMOTIONS. Its how, either your emotions manipulate you (like Zhou Xun who riskes her life by soughting after the one she loves) or how you can manipulate your emotions and other's emotions to suit your situation. Like "Ziyi Zhang". Which one are you?
I can say that I am quite a bit of the empress. I manipulate my emotions to suit my situation. But on the otherhand, I'm soft as to let others manipulate me.
Truly deep show...... I looove it.
