Chinese viewers may not get a chance to catch the\u00a0Chloe Zhao-helmed\u00a0Marvel\u00a0movie \u201cEternals\u201d in theaters due to China\u2019s thorny relationship with the director, but the film\u2019s meshing of Eastern and Western ideas has nonetheless appealed to some Chinese viewers.<\/p>\n
Many reviewers on the Douban social media platform who have seen the film \u2014 presumably through illicit means \u2014 have commented on how excited they are to identify with what they feel are Chinese elements buried within the typical Marvel superhero showmanship. One wrote: \u201cChloe Zhao really is a Chinese person in her bones \u2014 at the end, she even pays tribute to the Five-Fingered Mountain and Ne Zha!\u201d referring to a well-known place and character from Chinese mythology.<\/p>\n
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The \u201cNomadland\u201d director tells\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0that she sought to include elements of Eastern philosophy in \u201cEternals,\u201d honing in on Taoist principles such as the \u201cvirtue of inaction,\u201d of acting in harmony with nature, and of finding a balance between yin and yang.<\/p>\n \n \u201cIn our society, in the stories we tell about ourselves, we often emphasize and celebrate masculine strength \u2014 the strength of constant action, of winning, of innovating and expending. In \u2018Eternals,\u2019 we wanted to explore the feminine strength in all of us \u2014 the strength that comes from vulnerability, love, forgiveness and \u2018actionless action,\u2019\u201d said Zhao.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the characters in \u2018Eternals\u2019 are trying to find the harmony between the masculine and the feminine sides of them, the \u2018yin\u2019 and the \u2018yang,\u2019 and only when they find the balance do they become whole,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n The director referenced, for instance, how at the film\u2019s climax, Eternals Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Ikaris (Richard Madden) were, despite their opposing ideologies, able to \u201cchoose not to act and to embrace vulnerability and love.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to have these moments in a superhero film was deeply meaningful to me,\u201d said Zhao.<\/p>\n When developing the story, Zhao wanted to challenge ideas about absolute good and evil by adding more nuance to the relationship between the Eternals and the Deviants, the latter of which she envisioned as a sort of ecological allegory representing the Apex predators exterminated by humans over the centuries so that humanity could flourish.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike the classic Western representations of demons, the demons in Eastern religions are often powerful ancient spirits of nature. Instead of exterminating them, we should acknowledge and appease them,\u201d explained Zhao. \u201cThere is no such thing as absolute evil. Only energies that have to be redirected with understanding and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n While Chinese viewers have gone so far as to read the film as a modern take on the 16th century classic text \u201cJourney to the West,\u201d comparing the Eternals to the epic\u2019s main character Sun Wukong, the iconic immortal monkey king tasked with protecting a monk on his pilgrimage, any perceived parallels weren\u2019t active choices, explains Zhao.<\/p>\n \n \u201c\u2018Journey to the West\u2019 was a big part of my childhood and Sun Wukong is one of my favorite literary characters of all time, but they were not direct influences for me for \u2018Eternals,\u2019\u201d Zhao explains. She admitted, however, that perhaps \u201csome ideas seeped in subconsciously.\u201d<\/p>\n Disney revealed last week that\u00a0\u201cEternals\u201d will debut on streaming platform Disney Plus on Jan. 12. The movie opened in the U.S. on Nov. 5, collecting $71 million in its opening weekend. It has so far grossed $395 million worldwide.<\/p>\n Chinese viewers may not get a chance to catch the\u00a0Chloe Zhao-helmed\u00a0Marvel\u00a0movie \u201cEternals\u201d in theaters due to China\u2019s thorny relationship with the director, but the film\u2019s meshing of Eastern and Western ideas has nonetheless appealed to some Chinese viewers. Many reviewers on the Douban social media platform who have seen the film \u2014 presumably through illicit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7036],"tags":[18612,18611,18613,18614],"class_list":["post-16072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-director-chloe-zhao","tag-eternals-director-chloe-zhao","tag-marvel-movie","tag-philosophy-behind-her-marvel-movie"],"yoast_head":"\n