This film actually tells the story on two levels at the same time. One is the external, realistic level. The other is an internal, allegorical level.First, the realistic level. When war broke out in Nubia, more than 100 Chinese citizens living in the country, led by two diplomats, embarked on a perilous journey of 10,000 miles to return to their homeland, and finally succeeded in returning to the embrace of their country. The story is both exciting and true. The excitement comes mainly from the endless surprises and the unexpected solutions to them. And the truth is contained in it.
For example, at the beginning of the film, four diplomats were returning to the embassy from the airport after sending off a group of expatriates. In consideration of the safety of the four people, he decided to pay the fine in exchange for the opportunity to leave the dangerous place as soon as possible, which was a surprising solution.
The four were then released and were about to walk out of the gate when the bomb exploded and the four were shaken down by the shock wave. This is another accident, its occurrence is so sudden that it almost takes one’s breath away, and the true face of the cruelty of war is also shown through this. Another example is the two roulette games between Zong Dawei and the rebel leader. The first time, Zong Dawei faced a life and death test, grabbed his pistol, probably won the bet and managed to save the life of the local old man, but lost the bet and lost his own life. Forced to gamble on life is already enough of an unexpected plot, and the final result is even more absolutely unexpected – to avoid spoilers, the author points to the end.
Here to emphasize is that in the process of the accident, the performance of human nature is real and shocking. The second roulette, which occurs near the end of the film. This is still an accident – the rebels had been released to the crowd, suddenly found among the Chinese mixed with a little girl from the country, so no longer accommodating, and Zong Dawei again forced at gunpoint to make a life and death decision. The three times Zong Dawei raises and fires his gun, and the unexpected resolution of this disaster with its many twists and turns, allow us to fully experience the true immersion in front of the big screen, and full immersion, there is no more realistic way to feel the war environment than this?
And then there is the allegorical dimension. There is an episode in the film that best illustrates the allegorical nature of the story. As the two diplomats lead more than a hundred Chinese citizens on a trek through a foreign war-torn land to a location that is theoretically unlikely to be bombed and relatively safe, a thought-provoking conversation takes place between them. David Zong argued for not telling people the truth – that they, as leaders, had no real assurance that there would be rescue at their destination.
Cheng Lang, on the other hand, believes that people should be told the truth, drawing on his own painful experience of being deceived as a child, and believes that any deception is intolerable behavior. In my opinion, this is an extremely profound parable. From Zong David’s point of view, if the truth is told too early, I am afraid people will not even have the courage to go to their destination, and what rescue is there to talk about? Don’t people need to save themselves before they can be rescued? This brings us to the question of faith.
In a world full of uncertainty, what strength do we rely on to sustain us, to overcome all the difficulties and dangers, and to rush to the beautiful faraway places we long for? Whose guidance should we follow as we walk our own path? The film has many of these allegorical scenarios. Here are just two others.
One is a circle of fire with dead branches piled up in the shape of letters of the alphabet. This is of course a distress signal, hoping that the embassy staff can see and understand it through the satellite system, and come to help in time. It also symbolizes the fire of hope and the light of salvation.
Zong Dawei and Cheng Lang light the fire together, and when Zong Dawei is not there, Cheng Lang still does the same. This in turn symbolizes the passing of the flame of hope that never goes out – the young Chenglang himself, who is also representing hope and the future. Another is the episode where a young girl adopted by her Chinese mother from another country reads the story of Sinbad’s voyage. There is clearly some correspondence between the story in One Thousand and One Nights and the plot of this film.
From the half-burned children’s picture book that Zong Dawei finds in the ruins of the war, to the story of the little girl who reads the picture book while following the adults on their long journey, the story of survival in reality is a wonderful echo of fiction and reality, like two intertwined parts of a piece of music. From the above, we can see that the film actually tells two stories: reality and fable.
There is foresight in order to see the future and to bring hope to everyone. Cheng Long only saw that there was no rescue for Dilat for the time being, so he came to a negative conclusion and wanted to tell everyone the “truth”. But he did not understand the ability, experience and confidence of Zong Dawei, nor did he think about the tacit understanding between Zong Dawei and the organization. As well as not understanding that, compared to no possibility, a 50% probability makes people hopeful.
Although I believe that things are in the hands of man, but the result can only listen to the fate of God. After some trekking efforts, they finally reached Dirat. Just when they thought they were safe, they did not expect Mufta to make things difficult for them, to detain Fatima, and asked Zong Dawei to accompany him to play the game of life and death. The game of life and death, a game often seen in film and television dramas, revolvers left a bullet, taking turns to shoot to bet on life and death. Although Zong Dawei was very afraid inside, but for the sake of everyone, had to answer the battle with. After firing a shot, not killed, that feeling I’m afraid only people who have come back from the dead, can experience. There is a big sigh of relief in the details, Zhang Yi acted too fried, will be his inner tension and fear, completely performed.
In addition, there is another most important reason, is that we are Chinese, is now able to enjoy peace, love life of the Chinese people. In the real story, people in a troubled environment return to the peace and warmth of the motherland. In the fable, people in turmoil find the faith that settles their wandering souls. And what is this faith in reality? It is the motherland. A strong motherland.
