In the minds of most viewers, pure love and freshness are synonymous with Taiwanese movies. However, the recently released "The Three Evils" has completely broken everyone's past impressions of Taiwanese movies. It uses bloody and tragic action scenes. The plot of "Storm and Fury" hit the nerves of the audience, presented the characters' madness with ferocity, and finally completed a fatalistic tragic song.

As of press time, the box office of "Zhou Chu Abates Three Evils" in mainland China has exceeded 200 million.

Outlaw

It is not difficult to see from the title that "Zhou Chu", that is, Chen Guilin, is the core of the entire story, and the shaping of Chen Guilin's character is the premise for the film to be established. So, what kind of person is Chen Guilin? Let’s start with Zhou Chu in the film’s title.

"Book of Jin: Biography of Zhou Chu" records that "Chu was a young solitary, yet not weak in his crown, and his physical strength was unparalleled." First of all, in terms of physical condition, Zhou Chu had amazing arm strength and extremely strong physical fitness. In terms of daily life, it is even more prevalent in the countryside. There is a folk song that goes like this, "Xiao Zhou Chu, who is physically strong, plays with the sword and bow by day and the gun by night. He punches Li and kicks Zhang, like a tiger attacking a flock of sheep. The villagers are frightened. The people are complaining, but no one dares to argue." The villagers called Zhou Chu the "three evils" along with the "white-fronted beast in Nanshan" and the "dragon under the long bridge".

Ethan Ruan as Chen Guilin

Corresponding to Chen Guilin, the only relative mentioned in the entire film is his grandmother, which can almost make a judgment about the family background of a "young orphan". And the close-quarters fight scene between him and police officer Chen Hui in the opening scene is It shows his ferocity in physical fitness and fighting skills. As for Huixiangli, there is a wanted notice posted at the police station door. Chen Guilin is the third most wanted criminal in Taiwan. At this point, a contrasting relationship has been established between Chen Guilin and Zhou Chu.

Chen Guilin and Chen Hui’s hand-to-hand combat

When Chen Guilin surrendered for the first time, he arrived at the police station and found that he had to wait in line to surrender. This coincided with the people's livelihood news that appeared before, "A cash transport truck collided with a truck, citizens looted money, and the police called for surrender." Chen Guilin was impatient to wait in line and accidentally saw the wanted order ranking. The design of "queuing up to surrender" is absurd, but it truly depicts the "self-centered" mentality of a fanatic. The audience also learns here who the "three evils" in the film's title are.

You have to queue up to surrender

In the allusion, Zhou Chu's motive for getting rid of the three evils is "Chu knew that he was hated by others, so he had the ambition to change." When it came to Chen Guilin, he didn't care about being hated by others. The admiration of Chen Guilin from the gangsters at the funeral was very useful to him. The first time he surrendered was because of a terminal illness and the death of his only relative. "The ambition to change" was replaced by becoming famous. The sentence "I want to do something big and let everyone on the road know who I am" very straightforwardly gave Chen Guilin's motive for murder from beginning to end.

Chen Guilin’s wanted poster

doctor

Different from Hong Kong movies where "everything is overdone and everything is crazy", this film depicts the characters' madness, but it goes beyond madness. Instead, it focuses on portraying the distortion and indifference of people in a crazy world.

In the scene where Aberdeen slams a beer bottle on his younger brother's head, the bottles keep falling one after another. The character's violence appears mechanical and numb due to the constant repetition of actions. This violence has no reason and is difficult to stop.

Yuen Fu Wah as Aberdeen

Lin Luhe didn't care at all about the life or death of the little fat boy, mother and son, and forced the mother to splatter blood on the spot. He was sprayed with blood but showed no signs of movement. He indifferently directed his men to deal with the bodies, and when he faced the gun himself, he did not show any panic. .

If the indifference of these outlaws points to a Taiwan with broken laws, then the indifference of other supporting characters represented by the doctor outlines a distorted society that has lost human warmth in the background.

Doctor characters appear many times in the film. As the initiator of the "Three Pests" campaign, gangster doctor Zhang Guiqing is saving people and treating illnesses on the one hand, but on the other hand, most of the people she rescues are gangsters who do all kinds of evil. For civilians, her rescue actions are almost equivalent to indirect murder. .

Xie Qiongnuan as Zhang Guiqing

The "Venerable" claimed to have been a doctor at Xiaodao Hospital. He described to Chen Guilin the final scene of "Lin Luhe", "I saw my grave, and I also saw your grave."

Other doctors who play supporting roles are portrayed as cold and strange. The doctor in the cult hospital used the same lung CT scan to persuade and cajole every patient. At critical moments, he did not hesitate to accept the "Honored One's" instructions to delay the patient's recovery progress. He has completely lost his attributes as a healer.

His Holiness was a doctor, but he did not know the medicine to treat cancer.

Cult doctors are like this, and doctors in regular hospitals don't have much empathy. Zhang Guiqing discussed the condition of lung cancer with the doctor in the hospital. The doctor's words were full of impatience. The conclusion of "stage four lung cancer" in her mouth was as unnecessary as a cold. When pressed again, the doctor's tone was urgent and even implicitly reproachful, " Your Majesty, you are also a medical student, you should know in your heart..." There is no care in the whole scene, and there is no sympathy at all. The words inside and outside are all urging him to accept his fate and wait for death.

Not only this doctor, but also the doctor who asked Grandma Chen Guilin if she wanted to be rescued when she was critically ill. He also seemed extremely indifferent and followed the procedures mechanically like AI.

With the numbness and indifference of the doctors, do they see through life and death, or do they treat human life as nothing like those fanatics?

fate

If according to the English title of the film "The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon", "pig, snake and pigeon", these three animals that represent the "three poisons" in Buddhism, correspond to the "three evils" mentioned in the film, Then the intention of Representative Chen Guilin is the same as his cherished pink piggy watch, which is more directed towards "ignorance". The opening scene of him devouring a box lunch in front of the mourning hall also confirms the image of the pig. Aberdeen represents "anger", and his terror lies in the fact that he can get angry anytime and anywhere. Lin Luhe represents greed. He defrauds money and sex in the name of religion, cannibalizing other people's money and also controlling other people's thoughts. This design itself has a strong religious color, wrapped in the fatalistic core of cause and effect.

The English name of the movie "Pig, Snake and Pigeon" represents "ignorance, anger and greed" in Buddhism.

The pink piggy watch in the film

According to this line of thinking, Zhang Guiqing's existence has more meanings. She lied to Chen Guilin that she had lung cancer, which was not a conscientious discovery, but just to "acquire moral virtue" for herself. However, she unintentionally inspired Chen Guilin to "eliminate the three evils".

At the end, there are two people inside and outside the prison who have also shaved their heads. Zhang Guiqing's shaved head due to chemotherapy gave this character a hint of the Buddha nature of a bhikshuni. The face is no longer obscured by bangs, and the whole person looks peaceful and magnanimous. Her evil thoughts produced good results, and when she was about to die, she saved Chen Guilin and herself.

Not only that, there are many details in the film that emphasize God's will and fate. Before Chen Guilin surrendered, he divined in front of the statue of Emperor Guan, and he was encouraged to surrender nine times. The film only says "nine times". The hidden detail here is, why did Chen Guilin occupy it nine times in a row? Usually, the result can be known after three divination times, but Chen Guilin did it nine times in a row, which shows that he had a desire to fight against heaven in his divination, but God's will was already determined, and he finally decided to go with heaven on the ninth time.

Chen Guilin also regarded the recurring "bullet jams" during the bloodbath at the cult site as God's will. If God wants the gun to jam, God will let you go. The handling of this plot has a strong sense of fate in the killing. mean. The gun is given a kind of divinity here and becomes a manifestation of the will of the gods. Chen Guilin holding the gun here represents the "mandate of destiny".

The gun in Chen Guilin's hand always jams.

In the "hymn" of the cult, Chen Guilin acted according to destiny and shot and executed the stubborn cultists. Some people still stood there and fought to die after the bullet jammed. The level of superstition is shocking.

The presentation of cults here can be regarded as a cross-section of Taiwan’s cult problem in reality. Xu Haocheng, who claims to be the "Co-leader of the Five Religions" and his Huaxing Spiritual Cultivation Center, is a representative one of the many cult organizations in Taiwan. Lin Luhe's image and ashram in the film also draw lessons from and refer to it. "Hymn" reflects Xu Haocheng's music album released during the epidemic, claiming that his singing can cure the new crown and fight the virus. "Venerable" Lin Luhe's affair with a female believer is also a variant of Xu Haocheng's sexual assault incident. This film uses video art to execute the real cult organization at the hands of Chen Guilin, and even follows the guidance of "God's will" and "fate" in the execution with great compassion.

Chen Yiwen as the Venerable

At the end of the film, Chen Guilin was shot. Beginning with a shooting and ending with a shooting, Chen Guilin's murderous path ended with the sound of gunfire. He executed others with a gun, and was eventually executed by a gun. This is not a fateful reincarnation.