电影《功夫之王》浅析中西方文化融合(2)

菜单

Ba Jin once said that no matter where cultural integration is from, the east or the west, it belongs to human beings, everyone has the right to be affected and gets benefits from it. The changes are inevitable with the increasing cultural exchanges and the influences between the east and west. What’s more, there is no need to be afraid of the integration between Chinese culture and western culture even though we hold a cultural competition. Cultural integration is not a simple absorption but a process of selection and collision. It selects the superior and eliminates the inferior and then adapts the original two cultural elements into a new cultural system. The famous movie star Jackie Chan once said that you shouldn’t copy anyone else, as long as you are different in the world, the world will accept you. You don’t have to be superior to others, yet you must have your own features. We acknowledge other cultures, but we have to preserve our own uniqueness as well.

Since the 1990s, with the rapid development of China, more and more Chinese cultural elements were used in Hollywood movies, not only a variety of Chinese images, but also Chinese Kung Fu, traditional Chinese customs and so on. In the face of Hollywood movies adding Chinese elements more and more frequently, here is a question: What the film phenomenon it is? And what is the distinguishing feature of this phenomenon?

Scholars You Fei and Cai Wei once said in The Journal of Film Theory of the World that what Hollywood producers do in short is to copy and plagiarize. Hollywood producers copy all the existing things in which mythologies, histories, literatures, dramas, news events, and even other different concepts, forms and technologies were included. Although this description was a little absolute, there is no doubt that Hollywood has injected new vitality for the American films by creating exotic wonders. To Hollywood, the international melting pot, scholars Lan Aiguo once said that as long as it is a piece of material, you can throw into Hollywood, and the product must be made in America with a distinctive mark of American culture.

To this, Chinese filmmakers need to have a clear understanding on the one hand, on the other hand, more efforts should be actively made to shape the screen images of persification. With the improvement of the screen images, the Chinese national image will also be better.

3. Universal Features in the Film

3.1 Scenes

“Chinese cultural elements are not only traditional cultural spirits which are identified by most Chinese including overseas Chinese, but also those images, symbols or customs that reflect the national dignity and interests.” (qtd. in LiQi, 2009: 12)

Kung Fu is one of the most important parts in Chinese culture. The name of this film is The Forbidden Kingdom and it represents lots of fierce fight indeed, but there is little connection between the backgrounds and Kung Fu. Compared with the traditional Hong Kong style of martial arts, it is more like a mythical martial arts film. The whole story was based on the Chinese classic literature Pilgrimage to the West and there were some immortals who were closer to the god. Except for the characters, they were the same as the common beings. Therefore, they looked like Greek gods who lived in the Olympia mountains. The home of the immortals were in the sky and their monarch was Jade emperor whose name represents Chinese cryptic jade culture. In ancient China, jade was usually regarded as the eternity and virtue and that is why we called Jade emperor. Besides, Kung Fu is equal to the combat skills in a narrow understanding and has become a comprehension of nature in this film, which is just like Taoism thought from Chinese classic philosopher Lao Zi. On the one hand, the acquirement of Kung Fu needs physical exercise, on the other hand, it also needs spiritual understanding. Although the entire movie focuses on the American boy’s dream, when the monkey king appeared with ponytail, thousands of Chinese people debated and disputed. To be honest, this movie is just a new story that has borrowed a classical person in literature, monkey king, and adapted the Pilgrimage to the West. What we need to pay attention to is that the view of the story is western not Chinese. Hence, powerful and unconstrained imagination of the playwright must be admired by those who like this story. To those who dislike the movie, they may think that the producer must have misinterpreted the Chinese culture completely. But no matter how people judge this movie, the sincerity and good faith from the director and screenwriter shouldn’t be denied. Indeed, great efforts have been made to approach to Chinese culture even though sometimes it is so difficult to catch on the quintessence of it. For the sake of avoiding desecration of the classic masterpiece, the producer and director set up the whole story in a dream, since it is a dream, the total film sounds reasonable no matter how strange and impossible things happened. It should be admitted that this is a Chinese cultural feast of vision and audition: Kung Fu, chivalrous spirits, national fairy tales and Taoist Philosophy are presented in the film adequately. Except for that prototypes of these leading roles and their relevant Kung Fu or weapons, alehouse, folding screen, bamboo forest, temple, desert, peach forest, palace and Five elements mountain which are Chinese special cultural scenes can also be found in those literary works and films,