Last year I was able to watch one of China's best animated films 大鱼海棠 which is based on the classic 山海经. A few weeks ago I chanced upon 海大鱼 on Youtube and I don't know if I should be happy because I am at least not disturbed, unlike after watching 大鱼海棠. Anyway these days I watch light movies to relax because work has become too much and I have to divide my time well between my full time job and chores, and also my me time playing one of the hottest otome games on Google Play... in four servers!
I'll make this brief so I can watch an interesting online lecture I found earlier. 海大鱼 has the folk belief or story 海神娶亲 (sea god gets a wife) as main backdrop. Ali is an orphan whose friend is an official. One day she is named as the next lady to be sent out to the sea as offering to the sea god. Her official friend betrays her but eventually tries to search for her. When Ali came to the sea palace, she sees her husband who has green hideous face, but keeps calm. They are suddenly attacked and Ali helps her husband remove one of the darts. (At this point I was thinking if this is Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast...) She eventually rescues a small fish who turns out to be a sea spirit. This sea spirit rescues Ali from drowning when she is attacked while taking a bath. (At this point, viewer should have the suspicion that sea spirit and husband is one and the same, or maybe I have been watching too many movies that surprises are very rare.) So to cut a long story short, husband and sea spirit turn out to be the same person. Ali's male friend dies. Husband has a super jealous wife who pretends to be Ali's servant and who is actually the one behind the attack on their wedding night. She also tries to kill Ali after realizing her husband is already in love with her rival. Basically the wife and husband's stepmother are in connivance and are the ones who fabricated the idea that ladies should be sent to the sea god so that these wives can bear an heir and the two can dispose of the ladies.
So while the movie ends happily with Ali preferring to stay in the sea palace with her love, there are unanswered questions. Why doesn't sea spirit love his wife? In ancient Chinese belief system, although men are allowed to have more than one wife, he is still expected to at least show respect to his wife. If sea spirit is a virtuous person he should never allow his wife to serve a new wife as that is humiliating her. And there is also the double persona question although I know I shouldn't be making a big deal out of it, but Ali is voluntarily in an extramarital affair with sea spirit. She is technically married to her hideous husband but she becomes pregnant with whom she thought is another man. So... morality wise, this movie seem to deviate from the norms.
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