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Text|The Grace of the Gods

Li Bihua is recognized as a talented woman in Hong Kong.

In the early 1990s, her novel "Green Snake" was picked up by Tsui Hark and made into a movie of the same name.

When I watched this movie when I was a kid, I just thought the Blue and White Snakes were so beautiful and the martial arts stunts were so cool. It was a good movie.

I rewatched the Cantonese version of "Green Snake" a few months ago and realized that I had watched the abridged version. The few seconds that were deleted are the essence of the entire film.

So I followed the lead and read the original work of "Green Snake" by Li Bihua. Comparing the novel and the movie, I found several interesting points.

First, in the novel, Green Snake is the main protagonist. In the movie, the first protagonist becomes Fa Hai.

Second, at the end of the novel, the two green and white snakes travel through time and space and come to modern society. In the end, the white snake abandoned the green snake and left, leaving the green snake to reflect on the past alone. At the end of the movie, the white snake dies and the green snake jumps into the sea and disappears.

Third, there are differences in the themes of the novel and the movie. The novel talks about the complexity and changeability of human nature and the emptiness of love, with the word "love" highlighted throughout. The movie is about the impact of persistence on people, and the highlight of the whole movie is "getting rid of ego".

In the movie, except for Xu Xian, every character has extremely powerful obsessions.

And these obsessions eventually backfired on them.

01Bai Suzhen: I only want to be a "human being", but I can't be a "human being"

The human body is rare.

White Snake has practiced for thousands of years just to be an ordinary woman and live an ordinary life.

This is her obsession.

She paid a huge price to become human.

For example, he was exposed to the sun every day to warm his blood; he used needle and thread to sew up his forked tongue; he insisted on walking upright, etc.

And these alone are not enough, she also has to give true love.

She fell in love with Xu Xian at the first sight. The reason was "half because of the person and half because of sex."

Xu Xian is a real person.

He has no magic power and is weak and incompetent. But in White Snake's eyes, these have all become advantages, and even become the interest between husband and wife.

After getting together with Xu Xian, Bai Snake demands himself according to "human" standards everywhere.

She firmly believes that marriage must last forever. Therefore, no matter how Xu Xian failed her later, she was still unwilling to give up this relationship.

For example, in the novel, Fa Hai and Xu Xian conspired to force White Snake to drink realgar wine. White Snake knew all this, but still drank the wine like a gambler.

For another example, after Xu Xian took the initiative to go to Jinshan Temple, White Snake protected him in every possible way, thinking that he was just being used by Fahai and that it was not his fault.

After the water overflowed the Jinshan Mountain, the White Snake begged Fa Hai to release Xu Xian. The reason is, "I want my children to have a father."

At this time, the white snake has transformed from a snake into a human. She not only has human emotions and desires, but also has a sense of responsibility as a human being.

She loves Xu Xian deeply, but she is still unwilling to admit Xu Xian's ruthlessness, let alone admit that she has misjudged the person.

On the occasion of life and death, she suddenly woke up.

She said to Green Snake: "Xiao Qing, I came to this world in vain and accomplished nothing. Mistaking me for half my life was a case of infatuation. You should never make the same mistake again. Remember!"

Then, she crawled on the ground, revealed her true form, and was willing to be suppressed by Leifeng Pagoda.

White Snake was confused by Xu Xian's appearance and was obsessed with being a real person.

She thought she had understood "people". In fact, what she understood was only superficial.

Even though she later saw Xu Xian's hypocrisy and cunning, she was still selectively blind and defended Xu Xian everywhere.

In fact, this is not difficult to understand.

Because once she denies "people" (that is, affirms the dark side of human nature), it is tantamount to denying her thousands of years of practice. In that case, wouldn't she become a joke?

Therefore, she must defend Xu Xian and "people" without principle.

In fact, what she really protects is not Xu Xian or "people", but the results of her thousands of years of practice.

02 Green Snake: The more you are afraid of losing, the more you will lose.

The Green Snake is an ancient and eccentric person, with a nature like burning fire, and is determined to be free and easy.

Only when facing the White Snake would she lower her proud head.

Because White Snake once saved her life, she "almost flattered" White Snake from then on. She felt, "If White Snake doesn't want her, her life will wither."

The green snake is most afraid of losing the white snake. This is her obsession.

In the movie, she woke up from her dreams several times and shouted in horror, "Sister, don't leave me."

Compared with the passion of the white snake, the green snake retains the sobriety of cold-blooded animals. She saw through the nature of humanity from the beginning.

She said: "Human beings are becoming worse and worse every day, and more cunning and cunning from generation to generation. There is no true love anymore – but I will always have it."

The implication is to remind White Snake: Listen to my advice and don't fall in love with humans, otherwise you will become unfortunate.

However, Bai Snake was fascinated by his beauty, and as soon as he saw Xu Xian, he recognized him. Green Snake encouraged her to come forward and confess her love. But she said that she couldn't be so contemptuous.

Green Snake didn't understand very much. How could he belittle himself when he stepped forward to confess his love?

She thought to herself: "You are a mature snake, not a superficial and boring person. How could you be contaminated by people's bad habits and make all simple and beautiful things complicated? Why don't you tell him directly if you like him?"

Seeing the white snake falling deeply in love, the green snake thought: "A woman with an empty soul is so terrible! She is completely focused on a man. She will be poor and fall into the underworld."

She solemnly warned herself: "I don't want to live such a life!"

Later, she seduced Xu Xian, which was a provocation to White Snake and also to protect her.

She thought that once Xu Xian was unfaithful to Bai Snake, she would tell Bai Snake immediately so that she could wake up earlier – people are unreliable!

However, the white snake did not appreciate it and became suspicious of the green snake.

For a Xu Xian, the two sisters were at war with each other.

At this time, White Snake told Green Snake that she was pregnant and could not return to the mountain to practice.

After hearing this, Green Snake stayed where he was, crying like rain.

Seeing that White Snake had accepted his fate, Green Snake swore to Yue that he would never love Xu Xian. She also forced Xu Xian to swear a poisonous oath that he would never let down White Snake.

After White Snake was imprisoned in Leifeng Pagoda, Green Snake stabbed Xu Xian with his sword, killing him.

The persistence of the green snake is limited to the white snake.

She can see through people other than White Snake. She doesn't care about the human world at all, she even thinks it is vulgar.

She sees love very clearly.

She feels that every woman should plan for herself. In the game of love, it is difficult to have a real winner, and there is a high probability that both sides will lose.

03Xu Xian: Real “people” are inherently hypocritical and fickle

Nietzsche said: "Man is a complex, fickle, cunning, lying animal."

According to this standard, Xu Xian is a real person.

In the movie, he is a pedantic teacher who does not allow his students to fall in love and even beats them up.

However, the real Xu Xian is cunning, lustful and fickle.

In the novel, he knew the true identities of the two green and white snakes very early on. But he didn't expose it. As he himself said: "Human beings are best at protecting themselves."

After getting together with White Snake, he had another change of heart and wanted to elope with Green Snake.

When Fa Hai forcibly shaved his head, he struggled wildly. He said that he didn't want to become a monk, he just liked to indulge in women, and those monks were jealous of him.

The irony is that for such a person, White Snake believes that he is an "honest person" and is willing to go through the mountains of swords and the sea of ​​fire for him.

Compared with the ideal "person" in White Snake's mind, Xu Xian is a real "person", and he has all the weaknesses of humans.

04 Fa Hai: Obsession is the biggest demon

Fahai is not an eminent monk. He was very upset inside.

At the beginning of the film, an old monk transformed into a spider spirit is running in the forest.

Fahai pretended that he was also a good goblin and used despicable methods to force the spider spirit into his trap.

The Spider Spirit, who had only two hundred years of experience, was easily surrendered by Fahai. The spider spirit has never done evil, and he begged Fahai to spare his life.

Fahai was unmoved after hearing this and neatly placed it under the pavilion.

At this time, Fahai had not yet enlightened. He regards suppressing demons as his life's mission, and even suppresses demons for the sake of suppressing demons.

However, Fa Hai, who looks serious on the surface, is possessed by a demon in his heart.

There are two demons, one is lust, and the other is the obsession to suppress demons.

It is hinted at the beginning of the movie that Fa Hai is not pure in his heart. Those ugly monsters were the manifestation of his inner lust.

The climax of the movie occurs when the green snake seduces Fahai.

Fahai sat cross-legged in the river with his eyes closed. Green Snake slowly took off his shirt and approached Fahai slowly.

Fahai realized that Green Snake was trying to seduce him, so he said: "Buddha's practice cannot be accomplished without demons. You can try me, I'm not afraid!"

However, he probably didn't expect how powerful Green Snake's charm skills were.

The green snake keeps tempting Fahai. Fa Hai was in a state of confusion, his heartbeat was getting faster and faster, and he was about to lose control.

Finally, he tried his best to push the green snake away and shouted, "Monster! Come and destroy my practice!"

During the fight between the two, Green Snake took advantage of Fahai's unpreparedness and reached out to grab the opponent's lower body (this scene is the climax of the entire movie, but it was deleted in the popular version).

Then, Green Snake smiled meaningfully.

Seeing that the green snake's trick succeeded, Fahai was ashamed and angry.

He broke the rules.

With a small action, Green Snake proved the hypocrisy of Fahai's practice.

At the end of the movie, the green snake jumped into the sea, and Fahai held the baby in his arms and looked at the floating corpse in the sea, feeling very sad.

The end of the novel is not like this.

After Fahai suppressed the white snake, he remained silent for a long time, and finally chose to let the green snake go and let her carry the baby away.

At this time, Fa Hai finally got rid of his attachments and achieved great enlightenment.

When he subdued the spider spirit, he had not yet realized enlightenment. At that time, he was obsessed with suppressing demons and had no human feelings at all.

However, this rigid method of suppressing demons is not what Buddhism advocates.

Without compassion, no matter how many monsters are suppressed, one cannot become a Buddha.

After the water overflowed the Jinshan Mountain, Fa Hai truly developed compassion after witnessing all kinds of tragedies in the world.

For the first time, he knew that in the Saha world, all living beings have feelings.

So, he first let go of the green snake, then opened the pavilion and released the spider spirit.

At this time, Fa Hai truly realized the Tao.

05 Li Bihua and Tsui Hark: two expressions, different paths to the same destination

The themes of the novel and the movie "Green Snake" are slightly different. I think it may be due to the difference in gender of the creator.

Li Bihua is a woman and is better at observing from a female perspective. In the end, she chose to write about "love".

Therefore, we can see modern women's reflections on love from her words.

For example, these two inner monologues of Green Snake——

"Every man hopes to have two women in his life: White Snake and Green Snake. The same ones, alternate ones, embellish his desolate destiny. – But when he gets the White Snake, she gradually becomes the pale remnant next to the red door. Gray; the green snake is the green, crisp, spicy young leaves on the top of the tree. When he got the green snake, she was the stuffy green mountain herb in the cupboard; while the white snake, when it raised its head, could see the sky. Thousands of new snowflakes are flying in the air."

"Every woman also hopes to have two men in her life: Xu Xian and Fahai. Yes, Fahai is a golden statue of a god who tries every means to win his love. In this life, he waits for him to make false remarks and look up to him. It's so high; Xu Xian is a beautiful young man who holds hands and draws his eyebrows carefully, telling you the most beautiful words to soothe your soul. – But just because he got it, none of his words are accurate, and none of his movements are strong. What if? Fa Hai is willing to accept him, but he also thinks he is strong, lazy, doesn't understand gentleness, and is wasting his efforts."

These two paragraphs are very much in Zhang Ailing’s legacy, which shows Li Bihua’s personal appreciation and deep love for Zhang Ailing.

Tsui Hark is a male and is better at observing from a male perspective. He anchors the focus of the film on "career".

Therefore, Fahai became the first protagonist in the movie, and his "career" was the "great cause of suppressing demons."

After his enlightenment, Fahai explained in his own words the famous sentence in the Diamond Sutra: "All appearances are false."

He said: "The so-called colors are all illusions – just like pure pearls, which are originally colorless. When red light shines on them, all the remaining pearls are red; when green light shines on them, all the pearls are green; when red and green light shine together, all pearls are red and green. .Because the body of the pearl is essentially empty, even though hundreds of thousands of billions of colors are added together, it remains the same. However, the color is empty."

I had a feeling when I watched the movie this time. There is actually only one character in the movie, and that is Fa Hai. Others are just illusions in his mind.

Everyone has his own obsession, just like in the movie, every character has his own obsession.

White Snake’s obsession is to transform from a snake into a real human being;

The Green Snake’s obsession is never to be abandoned by the White Snake;

Fahai's obsession is to kill demons and achieve righteousness.

In fact, Li Bihua, the author of the novel, also has a strong obsession.

The endings of the novels "Farewell My Concubine", "Pan Jinlian's Past and Present Life" and "Green Snake" all deliberately freeze time and space in that extremely special decade.

Those ten years were a mirror of human nature, filled with darkness and terror that cannot be described in words.

Compared with it, the demons and ghosts in "Green Snake" are not worth mentioning.

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Author introduction: The Grace of the Gods, writer, multi-platform contracted author. This article is an original article and will not be investigated for plagiarism or laundering.