"Night of the Soul" is a domestic thriller produced and directed by Xiang Qiuliang, Xiang Hesheng, the founders of Xiang Brothers' films, and starring Wang Ziyi, Wang Jinsong, Liu Yuanyuan, Han Xitong, Li Qinqin and other actors, which will premiere on Tencent**, iQiyi, and Youku on June 2, 2023. The film uses a bizarre car accident as an introduction to unfold three weird stories, namely "Ecstasy Soup", "Soul Line" and "Soul Night", through different characters and plots, ** human desire, hatred, cowardice and other weaknesses, as well as Buddhism's concepts of nirvana, cause and effect, reincarnation and so on.
The main character of the movie is Duane, an ordinary office worker with a wife and daughter, who drives to visit his wife in the hospital on a rainy night, but accidentally bumps into an elderly man. In a panic, he actually buried the old man and wanted to evade responsibility. However, his car did not catch fire, and at this moment, an old man with a prosthetic eye appeared, mistaking him for the security guard he was looking for, and led him to a gloomy residential building. Here, the old man begins to tell three stories, each with some connection to Duane that makes him horrified and uneasy.
The first story is "Ecstasy Soup", which tells the story of Duane and a beautiful and food-loving woman upstairs in his house, and finally found out that the woman was pregnant, and his wife was also pregnant at this time. The story reflects the greed of human nature, and Duane betrays his wife in order to satisfy his desires, but does not want to pay the price, and is finally punished.
The second story is "Soul Thread", which tells the story of Duane's daughter who found a puppet in an old room and actually communicated with the puppet, and when her daughter was bullied at school, the puppet possessed and used different cruel means to retaliate against the bully, which eventually led to a tragedy. The story reflects the hatred of human nature, where Duane's daughter has a strong sense of revenge because she was bullied, but she doesn't know that her actions will bring greater consequences and ultimately hurt herself and others.
The third story is "The Night of the Soul", which tells the story of Duane who drove into the old man on a rainy night, and buried the old man directly, only to find that the old man's body kept appearing beside him, making him unable to get rid of the shadow of sin, and finally in a dream, he saw that his wife and daughter were also killed by him, and he realized his mistake. The story reflects the cowardice of human nature, where Duane does immoral things in order to evade responsibility, but does not dare to face his conscience, and ends up in the hell of self-punishment.
These three stories are actually Duane's inner visions, his projections of his own desires, hatred, and cowardice, as well as his judgment of himself. In the real situation, Duane did not betray his wife, nor did he let his daughter take revenge on the bully, nor did he bury the old man, these are all his psychological conflicts and struggles. When he woke up, he chose the right thing to do and sent the old man to the hospital, thus overcoming his human weakness and attaining what Buddhism calls nirvana, that is, liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
"Night of the Soul" is a well-structured and profound domestic thriller, which not only brings the audience a tense and exciting visual experience, but also brings the audience an ideological shock, making people reflect on their own humanity and the wisdom of Buddhism. This movie is worth watching and thinking about.
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