New Age Artists

Chapter 676 Make a friend
Dong Qing was in a state of confusion, but it did not affect the interview.

She is experienced and suggested: "Why don't we change the environment and talk while walking?"

Dong Qing felt that he had seen through Shen Santong's ambition, and he needed to calm down from his emotional agitation.

And then we have to talk about the plot and special effects work of "The Return of the Great Sage", so it makes sense to change the environment.

Shen Santong said: "Okay."

After chatting all the way, they came to the screening room. Dong Qing looked at it and asked, "Do you often watch movies here?"

Shen Santong said: "Yes, I will watch every movie produced by the Locomotive label before it is released."

"No wonder the quality of the movies produced by Locomotive is so good, it turns out you are in charge of the review." Dong Qing said.

Shen Santong felt a little strange and glanced at Dong Qing calmly.

It felt familiar, but not quite right.

It must be an illusion.

Dong Qing should be with a wealthy businessman now.

Speaking of which, the love lives of several leading actresses of CCTV are very exciting.

Dong Qing closed the distance between the two and asked, "There are many details in The Return of the Great Sage. For each period of the Great Demon King, there is a coherent logic and the story remains consistent. Is there any special consideration?"

“Yes,” Shen said. “We created a whole thread that fits the characteristics of conspiracy theories, using a tone of suspicion and suggestion, and citing inside information or secret records to enhance credibility.”

“For example, citing the fictional “Secrets of Heaven” or the testimony of anonymous gods as the basis for stigmatization, while keeping the story attractive in the conspiracy theory and avoiding being too straightforward or blunt.”

Dong Qing said: "You have high standards for yourselves. This story, if taken alone, can be made into a movie."

Shen Santong said: "We did this to highlight Jiang Liuer's transformation, and also to increase the Monkey King's tragic grandeur, serving the story itself."

The official explanation avoids over-interpretation.

The Monkey King in “The Return of the Great Sage” certainly has a specific meaning.

This result was not caused by Shen Santong's metaphor or mapping.

Rather, some people generalize and make many characters ideological.

To use the theoretical expression of later generations, the Dalit foremen destroyed all Chinese heroes in order to cut off the original civilization and Sanskritize them in order to achieve caste elevation and gain recognition from the Japanese barbarians.

These people have a line.

Whether historical or mythological, ancient or modern, all are deconstructed.

Things are dialectical. It is precisely because of their rampantness that the opposites form a line, and the characteristics of the heroes are also condensed and pure.

The Monkey King, Qin Shi Huang, Zhu Yuanzhang, etc.

They overlap in some way.

After chatting for a while, the scene changed.

Arrived at a studio downstairs.

Dong Qing looked at the model of the Great Sage on the computer screen and asked, "Why is there a setting for the Great Sage's demonic form?"

"By chance, Director Tian Xiaopeng originally made a version of the Monkey King with a horse face. I thought it was ugly at first, but later I thought it could be used." Shen Santong said: "The Monkey King model released in the theater is more powerful than Director Tian's original version."

Dong Qing's knowledge is good: "The author of Journey to the West is proficient in spiritual practice and familiar with Buddhist and Taoist allusions. Journey to the West itself is not just an adventure story, but also a story about self-cultivation."

"Like the Three Stars Cave of the Slanting Moon, it represents the heart, and the Lingtai Fangcun Mountain represents the mind. The position of Bi Ma Wen is also interesting. On the surface, it is responsible for managing horses, but the restless mind is often mentioned in the following chapters."

“The setting of the Demonic Saint Heart also means not to judge a person by his appearance, which adds a layer of connotation to the movie.”

Shen Santong nodded in approval.

Dong Qing mentioned the background setting of Journey to the West five hundred years later.

Shen Santong said: "We referred to the attitudes of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism towards Sun Wukong, and based on this, we made a modern interpretation."

The attitudes of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are very interesting.

Taoist, Master Sun Wukong, seeing that his nature is still alive and well, he passed on some real things. From now on, you are you, I am me, or we will have nothing to do with each other.

Confucianism, which is the heavenly court, does not respect kings and saints, but must first subdue and discipline them.

When you see that the cost of dealing with them is too high, you can first recruit them into the system, give them a sinecure, and use the power of the system to assimilate them.

If one still "does not know how to make progress", then he will not talk about the kingly way, nor follow the teachings of the saints, and will directly hand over to his partner Buddhism. He can also be regarded as a later Confucian.

What about Buddhism?
The most insidious way is to directly use the tight hoop.

The attitude of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism towards Sun Wukong is also the same as their attitude towards ordinary people.

Tao gives people a seed of self-transformation, a seed for finding clues, and tracing the connection between "I" and the whole world, but it does not take the initiative. It only depends on God's will, and if the work is done, it is called natural.

Confucianism aims to bring the world under the rule of the king. If there are dissenters, the sage is definitely not wrong, and the people who interpret the sage's meaning are also not wrong.

In this way, various contradictions can be suppressed in the early stages. However, as contradictions accumulate, corruption and degeneration occur, and the power cannot keep up, it often leads to landslides and dynasties.

Buddhism involves mantras and chanting sutras.

The problem simply does not exist.

If you think there is a problem, then it is because your mind is lacking. Then put on a tight ring and keep chanting. As you chant, you will get the "positive result", then you will accept it and the problem will no longer exist.

Dong Qing asked: "So the movie has different attitudes towards Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism?"

Shen Santong said: "Taoism is passive and negative, but it can be fought for. Confucianism is overbearing and although it likes to meddle in other people's affairs, it is generally well-behaved and acceptable. Buddhism and Taoism are what I hate the most."

"Because it's just bragging, without considering the reality. For example, if our dragons are powerful, the Peng bird will eat dragons."

"Left foot on right foot, totally air-to-air."

"Of course, I'm talking about Buddhism and Taoism in Journey to the West. In reality, we should respect different beliefs."

Shen Santong also has high emotional intelligence.

Some say that the original version of "Journey to the West" promotes Buddhism and suppresses Taoism, while others say that it secretly belittles Buddhism and Taoism.

Shen Santong thought it might be both.

"Journey to the West" was written in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when the social structure was very mature and the root problem was discovered.

But the weak nature of intellectuals is still the idea of ​​being a distant savior.

At the same time, he was proud of being a Confucian scholar and secretly looked down on Buddhism.

However, Shen Santong believes that interweaving Buddhist elements with the myths of Chinese civilization is itself a form of elevation.

He understands so well.

The end point of Western narrative is India, and the end point of idealism is also India.

Buddhism’s ability to brag is strong enough, but India itself has been swept away by Hinduism, which is even more boastful, and other religions that are more capable of killing.

Confucianism moved from rationalism to psychology and then to idealism, and later Confucianism became increasingly obsolete.

Whether it is subjective or objective idealism, it cannot be defeated by the idealistic end point.

How to do?
In fact, it is very simple. You can confer a title for military merit by cutting off your ears, and all problems will be solved.

But Confucianism fundamentally does not like to confer titles based on military merit, because this system of classes is fluid.

This also leads to the fact that Buddhism can kill people in large numbers.

Shen Santong's approach was to smash it to pieces with one blow.

Use dialectical materialism, historical materialism and the perspective of modern China to interpret ancient and new mythological stories.

The final product is so ancient because it is rooted in China's rich history and culture, and so new because its core was born in New China.

In the second part, Shen Santong plans to kill the Buddha.

Completely destroy the totem of idealism and complete the destruction of idealism by materialism.

But I’m afraid it won’t pass the review, maybe the Buddha needs to change his name.

Dong Qing didn't go into this topic, which is indeed very sensitive: "The Monkey King's final transformation is very shocking."

Shen Santong said: "Yes, we spent half a year on the Monkey King's transformation shots, and the Monkey King's immersion in the sea of ​​​​mind was even more difficult, and we changed several teams."

Dong Qing asked: "Is it because the requirements cannot be met?"

Shen Santong said: "It's mainly too difficult, especially the spark that spreads across the prairie, which requires three-dimensional presentation. There is no other way to go, so we have to open up a way ourselves and create the tools to achieve it."

Dong Qing said: "Every step forward you take is exploring the limits of animated films. Is that hard?"

"It is definitely hard work," Shen Santong said, "but the return of the Great Sage, the burning copper and stone melting armor, that moment when the flames shot up into the sky, the golden clouds penetrated the sky, a touch of red washed away the demons, and the golden hoop cleared the universe, it was still worth it to see it."

Dong Qing asked: "What kind of Great Sage do you think he is?"

Shen Santong wanted to talk about China's superheroes, but he felt that this would be an overstatement for the United States.

Hollywood is just very popular at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it is advanced in core.

Western superheroes are always fictional and are a kind of false totem.

The Monkey King is also fictional, but it has a historical context, and the Chinese people's spirit of resistance is real.

Therefore, Shen Sandong said: "The Monkey King in my mind is a totem, a symbol of free will and resistance to heaven and earth."

“The true spirit of the Great Saint shines brighter in the eternal struggle against distorted narratives.”

"And in my opinion, we need the spirit of the Great Sage and the heroic spirit of fighting against heaven and earth even more now."

Dong Qing felt a shudder.

There is no doubt that Shen Santong is a strong man.

He is not a powerful figure, but the influence of Shen Santong's movies is more dazzling than those superstars. He uses movies to fully exert his will. He is a giant active in the cultural field with extremely strong spiritual power.

Even with Dong Qing's rich experience, he felt as if his mind was covered by Shen Santong, just like ice and snow facing the sun.

Dong Qing did not forget his work and brought up an important topic: "In The Return of the Great Sage, is there a comparison at the end?"

On this point, CCTV hopes that, like the reflection of the "big devil" Monkey King, Shen Santong's official response will serve the plot of the movie rather than a comparison of systems.

Shen Santong did not go into the comparison of systems, but he did not downplay it either. He said bluntly: "Actually, this is a very simple truth. Is it more chaotic in the east or in the west during the journey to obtain the scriptures?"

When asked to choose between the two, Dong Qing said helplessly, "Of course the west."

Shen Santong asked again: "The East retrieved the scriptures from the West, and the Monkey King became the Buddha of the West. In essence, did he retrieve the scriptures, or did he become the Buddha of the West?"

Dong Qing said: "Of course it's the latter."

Shen Santong said: "The east is not chaotic, but the west is full of demons and monsters. We are in the same world, can the east always be kept from being chaotic? How much does it cost to keep it?"

"The devil has been born, and humanity has been lost, just like a dam bursting. If we don't make plans early, we may be trapped on an island in the future because the whole world has been demonized. So we need to save it from the root."

"The Monkey King is born to resist everything, yet he is born naturally. His mission is to solve the source of the disaster with the original intention of the Eastern Dao."

That’s all for Shen Santong.

The interview ends.

Dong Qing asked curiously, "I saw you had something else to say just now?"

Shen Santong thought for a moment and said, "Just as the West knocked on the door of the East more than a hundred years ago, the East began to learn from the West."

“The West cannot solve the fundamental problems of the world now. The East has learned from the West, but in the end, the West’s problems, or the problems of mankind, must also be solved by the East.”

Dong Qing opened his mouth, not quite agreeing.

But it is difficult to refute it because Shen Santong has already formed a theory.

Shen Santong does have a theory.

In his view, the claim that capitalism was in its infancy was fundamentally wrong.

This is to see the Western way as the only way.

In fact, every time a dynasty changes in China, there is a great depression or crisis of capitalism that cannot be resolved.

Due to the corruption and degeneration of organizational capabilities at the end of the dynasty, the population reached the upper limit of living space, and natural disasters and man-made disasters destroyed the production order, so it collapsed.

The capital of ancient China was land capital. After the unification, successive dynasties have been trying to solve the problem of land annexation and prevent the disorderly expansion of land capital.

Therefore, among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, the last one to come is merchants, whose purpose is to curb the disorderly expansion of capital.

Great unification can be seen as a unified large market.

The West did not reach this threshold until after the First Industrial Revolution.

That is what is considered to be the first economic crisis in the modern sense, the British economic crisis of 1825, after the first industrial revolution.

The rise of the Second Industrial Revolution is closely related to the first global economic crisis in 1857.

This cyclical economic crisis, which originated in the United States and then swept across Europe and the United States, broke the old pattern, accelerated capital restructuring, market expansion and technological iteration, and paved the way for the Second Industrial Revolution.

This is also reflected in China. The establishment of each unified dynasty will promote the progress of productivity.

As the Western path expanded to its extreme, a global market was established, and China was unified in terms of market economy, it reached the threshold of a change of dynasty.

It's just a threshold. More than 10 million people died in Europe in World War I, and more than 30 million people died in World War II.

Not enough death.

If half of Europe's population had died in the two world wars, Europe might have really been able to forge its own "great unification" and a more progressive system, at least it would not have been a problem to kill off the aristocracy that had been passed down for thousands of years.

As the characteristics of capitalism gradually became known, the West returned to the Middle Ages, and the upper class began to remain unchanged.

But the root cause of the problem has not been solved, that is, under the country's degraded organizational capabilities in the late stage, capital expansion has reached its limit, and coupled with problems in the supply chain for various reasons, it will still collapse.

I'm afraid the only way to solve this problem is the East.

Even the ancient East could sustain a population limit, and industrial society can sustain a higher limit.

Modern China has the ability to solve the root causes of problems.

The West needs to understand that humans are inherently perfect and can transform themselves. Humans can also become gods. If gods fail to do well, they should be deposed from their position as gods.

Each individual is relatively independent yet connected as a whole; they are not like wild beasts in a dark forest, attacking and plundering each other.

If not resolved, neoliberalism, the German-barbarian system, imperialism, colonialism and postcolonialism, hegemonism, etc. will inevitably destroy everything in the surrounding areas and leave itself trapped on an isolated island.

And resolving the contradictions of capitalism is the destiny of the East.

When Assistant Shen Santong saw that the interview was over, he came over and said, "It's been coordinated."

"Then start it." Shen Santong ordered.

Seeing that Shen Santong was not shy about talking to her, Dong Qing joked, "Director Shen, is this related to the movie 'The Return of the Great Sage'? Are you hiding something from me?"

Shen Santong had no need to hide the fact: "Before the New Year comes, I plan to share the joy with others. I plan to open the copyright of The Return of the Great Sage to fourth- and fifth-tier cities, towns, villages and other areas with underdeveloped infrastructure and no cinemas, and give away copies."

“Make friends with the audience.”

Shen Santong said it lightly, but Dong Qing felt breathless.

(End of this chapter)