There is a term called magical realism, that is, the first half of the film is reality, and the second half is magic, to achieve "magical realism".
In fact, the film is telling you under the guise of an investigation that in that era, the lonely old man's own desires, the placement of the mentally ill, cross-dressing, extramarital affairs or teacher-student love, etc.
In the river of that era known as the "mainstream", the above problems were all "riverside mistakes" in the social environment at that time, and the madman was like a person who was "punished" under the crushing arrangement of fate or under the big wheel of the times, symbolizing the harsh moral environment, values and suppression of these mistakes in society.
Ma Zhe, an officer who follows mainstream values, a man of integrity, but is inflexible, which makes people feel uncomfortable. What's wrong with him?He just wants to do his job well, and feels that the real ** is not so simple, and the "mainstream" tells him that closing the case requires a complete chain of evidence, such as criminal motives, human witnesses, physical evidence, and a complete textbook process. The murderer in the village who says the child throws stones at him is a laughing maniac who doesn't believe he can kill a few people, even though the truth in the film is likely that the madman is a lonely old man who has been overabused for a long time, leading to a violent awakening.
The righteous and courageous do bad things, the police are persistent, but the truth stings those with the fragility of "privacy" and the state of human nature. After realizing that there are a lot of people and behaviors in this world that are not "normal", and that the consequences of revealing the truth are more or less irreversible, the officer breaks down. He felt that he had exposed the "mistakes of the mainstream river", which led to self-blame, guilt, and incomprehension, and began to divide dreams, illusions, and reality.
But his subjectivity is not wrong;Instead, he just wants to do his job.
If this must be said to be false, it is also an objective error – ignoring the simple objective fact that "this is actually a madman killing people".
But he is just a person, and the theme of the film implies at the beginning that mortals do not have God's perspective, and mortals without suffering cannot see the truth of fate and God's perspective.
Or on a deeper level, as Buddhism says, all human beings suffer from greed, anger, and delusion, and his mistake is delusion, attachment to the truth, ignorance of the truth. This is the most exciting part of Yu Hua and the director, what they want to shoot is not Sherlock Holmes, but to shoot Hamlet with a thousand eyes.
Finally, the first thing you should know before watching this movie is that many types of art have the same form of expression – blank. Painting, photography, ** and film all have this artistic expression. If you can't read the spaces, I'm sorry, you'll give this movie a low score. But this is a gross underestimate. This is indeed a good movie to be seriously appreciated, and the movie does not tell you the clues, the reasoning process, and the truth as clearly as Sherlock Holmes Kaneda Edogawa. I'll tell you why people think, why God laughs, and I'll tell you about the private reports of people on the margins of that era. By the way, it creates the image of a mortal police captain with integrity, immutability, and a strong sense of responsibility, and eventually collapses because of it.
Because of director Yu Huahe's blank space, different people can make different interpretations of the movie, which is also the charm of blank space. Of course, my interpretation is that the truth is Officer Ma, and the dreams that connect most of the characters in the river reveal the truth of the case, but as Officer Ma reveals the truth, it indirectly brings harm to the poetry teacher and the barber, which is also the reason for Officer Ma's collapse. As for the scene where the third prize was won, and the obvious light and shadow filter at the end of Officer Ma and his wife bathing their child, this is completely an open-ended interpretation that the director clearly left to the audience. I want the child to be healthy, and Officer Ma really got a third-class honor for ongoing health enforcement, so I explain it this way.
Officer Ma's dream reminds me of the long dream of "The Last Night on Earth", which is too emotional, on the contrary, the long dream of "The Last Night on Earth" is a fantasy dream that is detached from reality. The dream of this movie is a dream close to the "truth", but it feels good and pleasantly surprised to watch the movie.
Of course, the film also discusses that the way of dealing with superiors such as police chiefs and politicians is the most correct way, causing the least harm to society and bringing relative stability to society. It may seem like they're happy to close the case, but it's actually the right thing to do. I have to say that when Yu Hua wrote this **, he had a "undoubted" observation of life, the world, society, and the times.