The recently released movie “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” has become a hit! The large-scale movie not only has twists and turns in the plot but also has a large number of wanton shooting fights and naked bloody death scenes. The controversial scenes of violence in the movie are the parts that stir up the emotions of the audience the most, such as the plot of the massacre at the Spiritual Training Hall, the dramatic trial, and the overlapping of music and shooting, making the whole scene full of bloodbath and mystery. The holiness of charm brings a strong audio-visual impact and artistic tension.
After watching the movie, many people think of classic Hong Kong movies with the same theme, such as John Woo’s “Hero” series of movies. Although they vary in scale and level of restraint, these films are full of fights, and guns, and some even involve sex and violence. These morally and legally prohibited plots are reflected on the screen, giving people a different feeling and even an artistic experience. This is what we often call “aesthetics of violence”, the most typical of which is Quentin Tarantino’s series of R-rated movies. From “Kill Bill” to “Pulp Fiction”, these movies were not only not rejected by the public because of their violent scenes but also developed unique styles.
Aesthetics of Violence and Identity Impulse
Psychoanalysis believes that violence comes from people’s primitive instincts. Freud divided human impulses into sexual instincts and death instincts. Sexual instincts include hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and other instincts, which are related to people’s self-preservation and race; death instinct is just the opposite, causing organic matter to return to the state of inorganic matter. The death instinct is an “aggressive instinct” that can hide in the unconscious, causing people to turn themselves into bystanders or even participants in death.
Due to the restrictions of ethics and social customs, people’s subconscious desire to attack is suppressed and hidden, and the intuitive image and fictionality of film art have become the best choice for people to vent their desire to attack. In “Kill Bill”, the heroine is surrounded and suppressed by the “88-man group” and kills the attackers one by one to break through the siege. The hearty and hearty battle scenes allow the audience to experience the approaching danger with empathy and also show the heroine’s composure and extraordinary combat power. This is also an excellent embodiment of Quentin’s violent aesthetics. As Jung said: “Ugliness is also beautiful. Even bestiality and evil will shine seductively in the bewildering aesthetic light.”
Jung’s psychological archetype theory assumes that each person’s personality contains four archetypes: Persona, Anima, Animus, and Shadow. A persona is a social performance of behaving in accordance with the expectations of others, often used to conceal the immoral aspects of the shadow archetype. Femininity is the feminine qualities in a man, such as emotional sensitivity and empathy. Male potential refers to the masculine traits in women, which are manifested in the pursuit of power independence, and self-improvement.
Among them, the animalistic shadow prototype is the inner desires and emotions, which often contain despicable elements and are also the most powerful and dangerous part. The violent tendencies hidden in the shadow archetype have long been a moral taboo, and for ordinary people, this moral taboo adds a lot of mystery. The interest brought by this mystery makes taboo-breaking adventures more exciting. The stylized and even poetic “aesthetics of violence” allow people to writhe and dance between soul and flesh, and experience “animal transformation” while enjoying modern civilization. “The taboo pleasure, thereby alleviating the violent and bloodthirsty impulse deep in the heart inspired by the shadow archetype.
Postmodernity and Absurdity
The typical characteristics of postmodernity are pluralism, decentralization, and chaos. The commercialization of movies has also made audiences have higher requirements for innovation in film form and content. The imitation and dissolution nature of forms such as parody in the new era also brings about the disappearance of originality, while “violent aesthetics” uses fresh Film language and values to make up for the lack of imagination and weakening originality in modern society, providing a different genre of film and television. The recently popular “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” is a parody of the allusions to Zhou Chu’s Elimination of Three Evils in “Book of Jin” and “Shishuoxinyu”. It not only gives a new interpretation of the original allusion in terms of content but also carries value. , the violent scenes in the film reject the dry lens and create a different kind of artistic experience.
Use Violence to Control the Evil but Not the Good
A qualified film production should assume the social responsibility of promoting positive values. However, violent films often contain doubts about universal values and subvert grand narratives. If you are not careful, you will fall into the quagmire of revenge and indiscriminate killing and become purely emotional. It’s not enough to let it out. “Violence aesthetics” is only an artistic technique and form of film. Without a good value orientation, it cannot be regarded as a good film.
The controversial point about violent movies is whether they will lead young people to imitate movie plots and eventually lead to real-life criminal behavior. As mentioned before, movies can allow viewers to indirectly participate in violence by watching, so that the wildness in their chests can be temporarily vented and vicariously satisfied, thereby inhibiting the ravages of shadow models and reducing crime. But equally, if a movie portrays a violent subject as an idol, it will lead to fascination and even imitation by people with criminal tendencies.
“Bobo Doll Experiment” and the Origin of Violence Acquisition
The famous psychologist Albert Bandura had a famous “Bobo Doll Experiment” that demonstrated how children learn aggressive behavior. He divided a group of children into three groups. The first group of children entered a room and saw an adult violently attacking the Bobo doll, such as hitting it with a stick and punching and kicking it. At the same time, the abuser also verbally threatened and insulted the doll, and then Was rewarded with candy. A second group of children observed the same scenario, but the attackers were severely punished. The children in the third group did not see any violent incidents but were watching movies or some insignificant activities.
The next day Bandura asked all the children to enter a room with a Bobo doll and found that the first group of children who observed the violent scene began to imitate the aggressive behavior in the camera and continued to attack the Bobo doll with sticks and even their own hands and feet. Relatively little aggressive behavior was observed in the other two groups.
Bandura used vicarious reinforcement to explain this phenomenon: when an observer is rewarded for seeing the behavior of others (role models), his behavior is indirectly enhanced; when an observer is punished for the behavior of others, substitution will occur. Punishment, thereby inhibiting corresponding behavior.
It can be seen that violent movies should not only make the audience “pleased”, but also show the negative effects of radical behavior, which is what we often call “evil begets evil.” The point that “The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon” does not deviate from the mainstream value narrative is that the protagonist Chen Guilin’s violence is more directed at evil forces, and he has a chivalrous heart. In the end, his evil deeds were punished accordingly, and he realized himself. The unity of redemption and law, the distinction between good and evil, and the satisfaction of judgment in the absence of justice.
Of course, different people have different acceptance thresholds for violent aesthetics, and teenagers in the learning stage should also reduce their exposure to violent movies or games. But all this cannot deny the existence of violent aesthetics. As Faulkner said: “Sometimes, people need to be reminded of the existence of evil, and they need to correct and change. He should not always remember only goodness and beauty.” This may be This is the social significance of the aesthetics of violence.
