1. Basic animal nature and extravagant human nature

It is not so far in the past that an individual who knows only about "doing good to others" cannot survive. An attack is a basic survival ability of an animal, at least for defensive purposes.

Modern civilization promises a moral utopia in which individuals "deserve" to enjoy a peaceful life free from hostility and attack so long as they obey the moral laws.

The substitution of moral humanity for attacking animality is, on the whole, the best state of group interest. But the theory about its feasibility is always with the phrase "if everyone... At the beginning. It's like saying: if every drop of water in the ocean stops moving, then the sea can be as calm as a mirror.

If that happens one day, it could be called the progress of civilization. However, if we give up our ability to attack just because we are used to this idea, it is a kind of waste degradation and animal unsoundness.

In the film, at both domestic and international levels, how far has this been achieved?

A. Internationally, the outbreak of the war of aggression itself declares the abolition of human nature. The aggressor is the beast. This is one reason for the carnage. Jiang wen warned us: we should not only treat each other as a person, but also as a complex of people and animals. It is possible to show either side, and we should have a calm awareness and be prepared for both sides. Therefore, do not discard your animal instinct to attack.

The cruelty of the villagers in the film, who are wishful and exhort Japanese officers to relax their minds with an imaginary "friend, fellow countryman" at the moment before the massacre, shows the absurdity of the dislocation. What the villagers never fully realized was that the Japanese army never treated the Chinese as equals. To them, the Chinese were a species outside the moral sphere, an animal, and an inoffensive animal, just as the word "livestock" implies.

As the citizens of the invaded country, they are not aware of the reality of war and treat the enemy with their daily interpersonal relations.

But why are the nationals?

B. at home, you will see the "surface of humanity".

Human nature is the substitution of animality for moral law for the law of the jungle.

But there are two situations in this replacement: one is that the animals, for the sake of common interests, renounce the attack and abide by the moral code. In this case, the animals secretly preserve their instinct to attack. The second is a particularly powerful animal that forces other animals to give up (and forget over time) the instinct to attack, in other words, turn the masses into livestock.

Both of these situations have seemingly the same human surface, namely that in daily life, the nationals do not bite each other as animals do.

But in the face of foreign enemies, the second animal does not know that it has the potential to respond in ways other than livestock, where its teeth have been extracted for thousands of years.

The state formed by the alliance is different from that of the emperor. Of course, the national form and the national form are mutually reciprocal, in other words, when animals are originally very strong, it is not easy for a particularly strong animal to appear.

In addition to cowardice, the second form of state organization gives livestock a reasonable mindset: the people do not know the country.

Our civilization is older than others, but at the expense of animal imperfection.

At the end of the film, the brutality of the beast awakens the hero's animality, and he finally turns from an animal into a sound animal. But his countrymen are still unsound, and his country is still a country of cattle.

Autonomous animals and unautonomous animals

Now let's talk about the Japanese.

In jiang's view, the Japanese were a special kind of aggressor. Although all aggressors are beasts and are inhuman, we can assume that this is incidental. But in Mr Jiang's view, it was much easier for the Japanese to become aggressive beasts than for the average man.

Livestock is certainly not autonomous. The Japanese have not given up on animal aggression, which seems to be the sounder animal at this point, but they are equally unrestrained. In Japan, there is another form of "enslavement," which is loyalty to the emperor, narrow nationalist pride, and the samurai spirit that carries them out.

This effect of enslavement is shown in a u-shaped curve in the Japanese pinto house. When he was just captured, he was filled with the impulse to sacrifice for his motherland. The scenes in which both the Japanese pinto house and the translator screamed for death and tried to save their lives.

However, after being imprisoned and fed by the villagers for half a year, it is more important to break away from the atmosphere full of sense of honor. After half a year, the humanity of hana began to show. This contrast clearly reveals the spiritual enslavement of Japanese people by "Japanese sense of honor". At the same time, it also affirms the value of the good side of the unsound human nature of the Chinese people.

But in jiang's view, the possibility of Japanese returning to human nature and the value of Chinese kindness do exist, but they are not decisive. What jiang emphasized was the influence of "Japanese sense of honor" on the Japanese people, as well as the fatal defects of the animal unsound nature of the Chinese people (only know the kindness, do not know the defense, only hope that others do good for good, dare not imagine and unable to deal with the possibility of others do evil for good).

The "Japanese sense of honor" of militarism is reflected in the section of hana's return to the team, and the impression that it is almost impossible for a Japanese man to escape from spiritual slavery in this atmosphere.

The slaughter in the film is a tragedy of the Chinese, which is rooted in the imperfection of the national animality. The Japanese animal behavior, the Japanese under the "Japanese sense of honor" and "slavery", is far from human nature, far from the independent judgment of right and wrong, and becomes the machine of war and pure beast.

Mr. Jiang also criticized both countries for their deep-rooted shortcomings.

As a realistic patriot, jiang wen's realistic appeal is to remind the Chinese people to perfect their animality. To Japan, jiang wen only gave criticism, not give hope. Mr Jiang had no such intention: to make the Japanese themselves aware that militaristic thoughts and narrow sense of national honour hurt them, and to take the initiative to transform Japan into a less "particularly dangerous" nation. Because it's still wishful thinking.

The defects of Chinese human nature shown in the ethnic contradictions have long existed within the ethnic group, which is also the inevitability of jiang wen's shooting "let the bullets fly".