Years ago, a woman gave birth to two children in a hospital, one of whom was convicted of stillbirth. When the doctors tried their best to remove another baby, the dead baby suddenly opened his eyes, and he had two pupils...
"Double pupil" is a term in Taoism, referring to a person with a high level of Taoism, who can see what ordinary people can't see, who can see ghosts and gods at night, such a dramatic condition that essentially describes super-inductive induction, rather than pretending to be a ghost, can be developed into a work with both "supernatural, special effects and thriller" and other commercial film characteristics.
At the beginning of the movie "Double Pupils", the mother struggles on the operating table, and from her swollen belly, a dead baby and another twin are caesareaned, and the dead baby is the model that has become commonplace on the poster: amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, and fetal hair stuck to the forehead...
These special effects are very realistic.
"It's important to have the genre of the film face the audience directly, rather than putting a row of stars on it as usual." Chen Guofu said. This also shows his unique thinking.
There are similar bridges in the Korean thriller "The Tale of the Exorcist", but the portrayal of the cause and effect of "The Exorcism" is more convincing than that of "Double Pupil", in fact, the baby with the "Double Pupil" itself should also have a story, and the mother who is difficult to give birth may also have some kind of wonderful involvement with the past and present lives of the Yellow Fire Earth.
The clues that can be played at this point and the causes between the "double pupil" sisters have not been explored in depth, and the model of the dead baby has only been reduced to a tool for interpreting why it is a "double pupil", which I think is a pity.
Of course, the overall layout of "Double Pupil" is still unsatisfactory.
The plot of "Double Pupil" is based on a religious serial murder case that occurred in Taiwan, and the suspenseful and bizarre process of solving the case brings out the difference between the East and the West in looking at reality and the unknown world.
Using the traditional Taoist beliefs of Taiwanese society, superstitious belief in the process of Taoism becoming immortal, Huang Huotu believes in Taoism becoming immortal, and FBI agent Kevin believes in science to handle cases, and the two balance each other in the concept of faith.
In Taoist thought, there are five kinds of hell in the main chapter - cold ice hell, fire pit hell, intestinal hell, heart piercing prison, and tongue pulling hell. After passing through these five prisons, you can become an immortal.
Through the words of the Taoist expert played by Lang Xiong in the film, the sense of suspense is deepened.
After "Double Pupil", Chen Guofu gained the opportunity to cooperate with Columbia Pictures, and achieved excellent results at the box office, in addition to establishing his position in the film market, of course, he also got substantial benefits.
20 years ago, such a subject matter would not have aroused much interest from the audience, but now I think it must be very shocking.
In the past 20 years, new films with originality in Taiwanese art have been launched around the world, cultivating conceptual and technical film talents for this land. However, due to the long-term lack of market support, the related photography and editing industries cannot accumulate and gradually wither away, and even most of the post-production projects of Taiwanese films now have to be completed in Thailand.
"Double Pupil" also gives some Taiwanese film directors the opportunity to learn Hollywood up close, and also proves that Taiwan has the strength to make commercial films that are popular in the market.
The experience and impact of "Double Pupil" is not just a movie.
It can be said that the success of "Double Pupil" is not only funded, but also has a fine division of labor system and quality support.
19 years later, looking back at "Double Pupil", its biggest contribution is actually not in the box office numbers.
Although it told all investors in Taiwan that Taiwanese directors have a way to make movies that audiences like and sell well, from the conclusion of history, the downturn in Taiwanese films has not changed in the years after "Double Pupil".
The greatest significance and value of "Double Pupil" is actually to bring out a group of young filmmakers who were only in their 30s at the time.
For example, director Wei Desheng, he was earlier the project of "Double Pupil", and part of the assistant director's work, director Chen Guofu originally hoped that he would be the director, but the American businessmen did not believe him, but Chen Guofu still took him to the crew. For example, in the second photography team of Han Yunzhong and others, although they are only responsible for the shooting of secondary roles and street scenes, Chen Guofu will still ask them to go to the shooting site to assist and learn something.
I don't dare to say that Wei Dao was deeply influenced by Chen Guofu, but at least, his "skill" increased greatly after "Double Pupil".
One of the most important concepts that "Double Pupil" brings to Taiwanese directors is vision.
Through this film, they see the possibilities of the film. 6 years later, 8 years later... This vision began to ferment slowly.
For example, in 2005, Chen Zhengdao's "House Change" also inherited this spiritual wind, the content is about the heroine after entering the rich, only to find that the man's family in order to maintain the prosperity of the family business, but to raise "little ghosts" as a means, and even at the expense of murdering their own heirs, just to maintain the family wealth.
The film uses the intertwining of power and yin spirits in the world to illustrate the dark side of the traditional Chinese concept of emphasizing "sacrificing the ego".
But the main success of "Double Pupil" lies in the script itself, which is a film with folk beliefs, which tells a series of strange and bizarre murders, behind which the half-alive and half-dead sect leaders instigate the cult to do in order to cultivate into immortals.
Prior to this, taiwan had not seen this type of commercial film for many years.
Although Taiwan's art films have international fame, if they want to go further, they must have a variety of films.
One of the keys to "saving" Taiwanese cinema is in supernatural films.
Taiwan's supernatural films, from the dazzling achievements of "Double Pupil" and "House Change", to the preparation of "Ghost Sound", "Returning the Soul", and "Strange Silk" directed by "Double Pupil" screenwriter Su Zhaobin, have gradually become a trend.
Paradoxically, throughout the 90s, in Taiwanese films, the theme was barely related to "supernatural", in fact, only Wang Xiaodi's animation film "Magic Auntie".
Years of lack of experience in shooting genre films have made this whirlwind of spirits very hard.
The key to a psychic film is the story, which can give new meaning to the existing genre. Because oriental ghost films belong to different cultural systems from Europe and the United States, they can often shoot unique flavors.
Overall, Western ghosts value form, preferring monsters or demons in people's concepts, such as vampires or Frankensteins, while Western horror films are often confrontations between the protagonist and demons.
In Eastern culture, ghosts usually appear in the form of souls, their whereabouts are mysterious, most of them are transformed after the death of mortals, and the ghosts of the East are often another face of "human nature" and are involved with people living in the world.
Therefore, Eastern ghost films do not emphasize individual heroes as much as in the West, but instead focus on the similarity of the line between people and ghosts, as well as the importance of traditional folk beliefs such as "retribution of good and evil, reincarnation, and reincarnation" and human values.
Hong Kong films have been cultivating in this regard for many years, and although mainland films have attracted international attention in recent years, it is a pity that there is a lack of supernatural films due to the prohibition of "strange forces and chaotic gods".
Taiwanese ghost films have just started, and how to continue to deepen the spiritual traditions in the culture of the common people in the future, give these rich "ghost assets" a modern style, and show the ghost characteristics of Taiwanese ghost films in overseas markets will be the biggest challenge for this group of filmmakers.
Taiwan is still far from Hollywood, but some people are being pioneers...
Of course, this is a digression.
In fact, the plot of dead babies is actually a film worth introducing, which is an old Japanese horror film "The Trap of the Dead". Interested in children's shoes can take a look.
Throughout the film, the only regret I feel is that when the daughter of the yellow fire was introduced into the hospital's medical record herbarium by the wonderful blue light, this part was not inked again, and the pen was added in vain.
The plot that the audience is hinted at should be that the dead baby soaked in the fumarin still has incredible psychic powers, and witnesses the whole thing from an omniscient point of view, just as the big boss Xie Yali said at the end of the film, "Everything has been arranged." ”
This sentence presents the fatalistic view of Chinese numerology, and everything seen is predestined, and no one can change it.
Japanese director Masayuki Ochiai's "Hypnosis" also deals with a life proposition similar to "Double Pupil", and people's personalities can be transformed through hypnosis.
Similarly, the mental power of the subconscious mind, once changed by hypnotic cues, changes as the belief shifts, and the circumstances of life change in a different direction from the original trajectory.
Fate can really be changed, and if Shayari's supernatural abilities can be used in good places, then fate can be reversed or show completely different possibilities. The weakness of the old detective in "Hypnosis" being manipulated by the enemy is the debt he owed to his friends when he was a child, but on the other hand, the love and reluctance for his wife became his fatal blow, so he shot himself to solve himself.
The male protagonist is given a double hypnotic hint, love confuses him, and finally can not escape control.
On the other hand, how does he treat himself in the face of love and fear? It is the focus of the screenwriter and director in "Double Pupil".
When the camera cuts to the office of the Huanghuotu Foreign Affairs Group, director Chen Guofu devotes himself to portraying this male protagonist, let's see what he is facing.
Hollywood's narrative style must have a policeman who is unwilling to face the shadow of the past, this part is through his suppressed expression, the communication barrier that is incompatible with his colleagues, autism (often locked in his office, not going home, not tidying up the room, a person playing chess) This game of chess, is the chess of life, but also the attitude of the yellow fire to himself.
His life was deadlocked and he could not find a way to live.
The helplessness of reporting bribery in the police community and fighting for credit alone, being excluded by the system, and presenting his inner entangled knots through the dark corner of the police station, the character played by Dai Liren is a compromise and conforming attitude to the system.
Huang Huotu does not pay attention to his family, not unwilling to face the responsibility of the family, but he cannot face himself, a role that has lost his position and dignity in the cracks, the silence of his daughter, the powerlessness of marriage, in fact, it is the reality of the life of many middle-aged men in the current society, and the pressure of no way out has become a miniature version of the police officer's suicide case.
The personal situation of the whole film is based on the yellow fire earth as the main axis, and the words "Shaoyang Taiyin" on the stone tablet become the a priori condition for predicting that the yellow fire soil is chosen.
Taiwanese directors rarely touch this kind of subject, in the past it was hindered by insufficient funds, this time the reasoning drama dealing with serial killings, taking Taipei as the scene of the crime, the familiar Dunhua North Road Trust Building, Taipei Municipal Criminal University, Xinyi Road, Tamsui Church, Academia Sinica and roadside stalls snack bars, the roaring convoy of gods while driving, electronic floats... It really makes the audience feel intimate.
Taipei, where technology and superstition coexist, echo the cityscape shown by Lai Shengchuan in "Flying Man Ada", after 10 years, all this does not seem to have changed, but the owner of the high-tech company in Hsinchu Park actually sold the company and sought advice.
And the reassembly of a true immortal temple from the mainland and dismantled intact and then reassembled on the top floor of a high-tech building is what makes people wonder and breathtaking, reminiscent of the "Song Qili Fever" incident in Taiwan many years ago.
Similar themes, "Black Gold" directed by McDonald also touched the theme of religious chaebols and political celebrities, coincidentally, this film is also led by Leung Ka Fai, he really plays what it is like, and the acting skills are exquisite.
In serial homicides whose motives are unknown, the victims are the business owner who dumped mercury sludge into the river (guilty of greed and injustice), the mistress who had an unethical relationship with the legislator (committed the crime of adultery), the priest who conspired with the arms dealer (guilty of treachery), and the fourth victim (guilty of filial piety) who wanted to know where the parental legacies of suicide were.
These familiar scenes and social realities constitute the external background of "Double Pupil".
Similar to the setting of "Seven Deadly Sins", "Double Pupil" is a direct replacement of the seven deadly sins in the Catholic classics for the five purgatories that Taoists believe that Cheng Xian must go through, and the original FBI agent will not be involved in the murder and become a victim, one said to be drunk, making up for the lack of yellow fire that should have slept on the sofa, but later confirmed because he said something he should not have said in the media.
"Demons and ghosts are not terrible, people are more difficult to deal with than strange and chaotic gods" This point tells the current situation in Taiwan, which the screenwriter and director want to tell the audience, but because of the prohibition of "not believing in ghosts and gods", they have become the ghosts of tongue-pulling prison.
The character of the murderer in The Seven Deadly Sins is profiled to a considerable extent to reinforce his perverted motives for attempting to preach by killing.
However, in contrast, the psychic girl Xie Yali, in addition to ChengXian, does not have any side writing about her inner world, lack of persuasion, flat characters, inorganic, the setting is a bit similar to the "New Century Evangelion" in Ayabori Zero, but can also be seen as a symbol of the new era of video games to see killing as a stimulus.
Killing people doesn't need any reason, as long as I like it, what does it matter to become immortals, you are just ignorant masses, only I believe in the truth!
The design of the end of "Double Pupil" is better than that of "Seven Deadly Sins", the English name of "Double Vision" in addition to the literal meaning of "Double Pupil", there is also the implication of double illusion, the two films also take advantage of the psychological weakness of the protagonist, making it the last killer and victim, but the four words that are criticized by the audience open the double ending implied by the film, and people who have watched "Double Pupil" twice should have new feelings.
The inscription "Shaoyang Taiyin" is not included in the purgatory that the victim must go through, and The ideal of Shaya taking him to become an immortal means entering another realm together, in the consciousness of man, that is heaven, so as the FBI agent mentioned in the briefing:
In a case where the criminal's profile theory has failed completely, all the boys who were killed seem to have experienced some kind of wonderland before they died, causing them to die in excitement and pleasure. This section also has the effect of a pre-ambush pen.
The most classic famous scene, is the continuous picture of the massacre of police officers in the True Immortal Temple, slow motion and music cooperation, blood is inevitable, reminiscent of the film's art director Ye Jintian also in the "Temptation of Monks" film directed by Luo Zhuoyao, designed the martial generals encountered ambush and desperately killed the picture, which is also shocking, and "Black Gold" also appeared in a scene of ambushing and killing the police in Shilin Night Market, but at that time the police were wearing plainclothes, although the tense situation was touching, but it was less than the unforgettable blood-stained memory of "Double Pupil".
In addition, there is a saying that major crimes must have factors generated by their environment, which is related to the transformation, rapid development and change of society.
For example, Britain's Jack the Ripper has become an indicator of Britain's transition from a modern society, while The first bank robbery committed by Li Shike and Chen Jinxing's Bai Xiaoyan's rape and murder of bai Xiaoyan's captors have become a symptom of Taiwan's social transformation.
The emergence of such a film in Taiwan that portrays the current state of society with a criminal profile is also an unprecedented breakthrough, and perhaps the introduction of foreign investment is one of the factors for success.
However, after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", director Chen Guofu has presented the excellent performance of commercial films in the creativity of directing, the integration of behind-the-scenes producers and technicians, and the follow-up is also worth looking forward to.
This cooperation model must be a fairly good example of Taiwan's local film or theme localization, but due to the orientation of commercial films, some characters seem to be able to play in depth, and some plots such as why high-tech bosses are superstitious like this? Doesn't it even matter if you let people control? There seems to be a deeper problem of Taiwan's inner spiritual dimension that deserves to be explored.
If the audience's idea only stays in the single-line narrative of the supernatural invasion of the crime scene of continuous murder, it can also look at the horrific and frightening picture, and it does not matter if the psychology of being frightened is satisfied.
It's just that we ignore the post-existing situation in the film: Chengxian is a realm.
Taiwan society has long been in a kind of anxiety and uneasiness of value confusion, which has created an environment in which faith can be based on survival, relying on ghosts and gods, fortune telling, and watching the yin all reflect the necessity of superstition in people's hearts.
Because love gives birth to sorrow, because love gives birth to fear, and if you are separated from the lover, there is no worry and no fear.
Questioning the inevitability of everything arranged, and the variable factor that fate can be changed through human power, there is a fundamental confrontation between the fallen police officer Huang Huotu and the psychic girl Xie Yali If the dream is very real, which dream should I wake up from, the inexplicable double or multiple open-ended endings also imply the cyclical reincarnation concept of "Zhuang Zhou Mengdi", compared to the religious and moral views of who should go to hell, the yellow fire earth finally carries out a detachment in some post-setting situation with love.
So "Double Pupil" secretly asked the audience another question - which dream should I wake up from?
In general, more than half of the drama of "Double Pupil" is quite strong, with the mixed genre of horror film and detective film, and can shoot a kind of drama flavor, which has always pulled the audience's emotions and made everyone want to know the final truth.
In terms of atmosphere creation, it can be said that it was very successful.
The biggest problem is that the final confrontation drags on too long, and there is no happy ending in the end, which inevitably makes the audience who had expected to solve the puzzle of the ending become frustrated.
But no matter what, I always feel that the laurel of "Best Horror Film in Chinese" is still its own.