An Xu's back was already drenched in cold sweat!
Was he lying?
Why would he lie?
If he lied, which part specifically was the lie?
In this story, what is real and what is fictitious?
Was the fantastical drift real?
Or could it be...
that I misunderstood?
For the first ti, An Xu realized that this story wasn't as straightforward as it seed on the surface, and his previous understanding and interpretation were too one-sided!
However.
No matter how hard An Xu racked his brain, he couldn't understand why he would lie, but he faintly felt that there was a terrifying truth behind it all!
It made him very uneasy!
"What's wrong?"
Jiang Zhu noticed that sothing was off with An Xu—the famous director from Qi Continent seed restless.
An Xu still didn't answer.
He looked up at the big screen.
He wanted to know what the truth really was!
What exactly was the story that Xian Yu wanted to tell!
He didn't realize that his hands were trembling slightly.
...
On the giant screen.
After leaving the island, he finally reached another shore.
This ti, it wasn't an island!
This was the Zhao Continent of Blue Star!
He was saved!
As he stepped onto the shore, imnse exhaustion overtook him, and he collapsed.
In a daze.
He saw the tiger jump off the lifeboat, stretch mightily, and then walk into the jungle.
Reaching the edge of the forest, the tiger stopped.
"I was sure it would look back at , ears turned back, emitting a roar, ending our relationship in so way,"
he said, but the tiger did not look back.
This fearso companion, the animal that had helped him survive, vanished from his life from then on.
He was rescued by passersby.
As he left, he was in tears.
Not for being saved, but because the tiger left him so easily.
The tiger was without sentint.
He rembered the lessons of his father from childhood, but he insisted on believing:
In the tiger's eyes, he must have been more than just a reflection.
"We didn't say goodbye properly."
He hadn't said goodbye properly to a girlfriend, to his family, to the tiger. He seed to repeat such words more than once, but this ti tears flowed.
...
The audience seats were silent.
When he was rescued, no one cheered; instead, like him, they were imrsed in the sadness of the tiger's departure.
Indeed.
There's always sadness, accompanying each other for over two hundred days, depending on each other for survival, struggling to live, transitioning from adversaries to companions.
Nobody disliked the tiger.
In fact, they liked the tiger.
"If only the tiger could have continued accompanying him," soone said.
"He lost everything, and he only had the tiger left, but the tiger belongs to the jungle, so it left him."
"I feel the tiger had feelings for him."
"After more than two hundred days together, maybe the tiger started to see him as a master or even a friend."
"This story is a bit more fascinating than I thought."
"The first half-hour was genuinely boring; indeed, the build-up with family was aningless."
"The pacing is problematic in the beginning. The movie is about two hours long, and it only gets exciting after an hour in."
"It feels like this movie is quite thought-provoking."
"I thought it was a comrcial film, but towards the end, it started to feel like it had so arthouse elents."
"..."
The audience's instincts were not as sharp as the professionals', but they too gradually realized that this movie was not comrcial; rather, it was filled with contemplation.
About humans and nature.
About survival and perseverance.
About the power of faith.
About the importance of companionship.
Such taphors and implications abound, and these are the hallmarks of arthouse films. Yet the process wasn't boring, especially once the shipwreck started, almost entirely capturing the curiosity of the audience, an aspect rare in comrcial films.
Yet An Xu's brows furrowed even more.
"No!"
He kept shaking his head.
It couldn't be that simple!
He didn't believe it was that simple!
Jiang Zhu didn't know An Xu's thoughts; she was sharing her opinion: "The beginning was boring; after the shipwreck, it beca exciting, but such an ending seems to lack so power, feels like it's still missing sothing..."
If Jiang Zhu were to rate it, she would give it an eight out of ten.
It was a movie worth eight points, quite good, but that was all.
But this wasn't the official ending.
The movie wasn't over yet.
...
On the giant screen.
The movie appeared to be heading towards an official conclusion.
"Since I was the only survivor, the Japanese shipping company sent two people to find . They needed to find out the cause of the ferry accident to process the compensation matters..."
he told the writer.
The scene switched.
The shipping company's employees didn't believe his story.
How could an island exist with thousands of erkats undetected?
How could bananas float?
A brief argunt ensued.
They believed this wasn't the truth!
Finally.
He spoke again:
"You don't want things you haven't seen, no surprises, no fantasy, no animals, no islands..."
His expression changed for a mont.
Inside the movie theater, the audience was taken aback.
They had believed what he had told them, but his words seed to suggest sothing was amiss?
At that mont.
Pi told the second story.
"Four people survived; the cook and sailor had already relayed their accounts. The cook pulled aboard with a lifebuoy, my mother climbed up on a bunch of bananas and drifted to the ship. That cook was disgusting, he ate a rat, that man was like a beast, the sailor broke his leg jumping off the ship..."
As Pi narrated, the shipping company employees' faces shifted with emotion.
And in front of the giant screen.
So viewers looked utterly bewildered.
Others furrowed their brows tightly.
They realized a problem.
It was a problem An Xu had already realized before.
Pi…
lied!
Two stories, one true and one false!
The author understood and he connected the two stories:
"In both stories, the zebra and the sailor broke their legs, the hyena killed the zebra and the orangutan, so, the hyena is the cook, the sailor is the zebra, your mother is the orangutan, and you are... the tiger."
An earth-shattering twist!!!
...
Ssshh!
With the author's last word, a jarring noise suddenly erupted in the cinema hall, like the harsh scrape of shoe soles against the floor!
It was painfully ear-piercing!
Extrely uncomfortable!
The light from the giant screen shone on the audience's faces, reflecting faces that, unknown when, had beco utterly horrified, ghostly pale and rather frightening!
Inside the cinema!
It was as if the temperature suddenly dropped, the air turned frigid, oppressive to the point of almost becoming stagnant!
"Huff… huff…"
Jiang Zhu gasped heavily, his chest heaving violently, his eyes filled with disbelief!
The truth!
This was the truth!
The blood-soaked truth!
The sailor was the zebra, he broke his leg and lacked the power to defend himself; the cook was the hyena, extrely aggressive; the mother was the orangutan who had protected the protagonist, and the protagonist was the tiger who ended it all!!!
Therefore!!!
The cook killed the sailor, then killed the mother, and Pi killed the cook!
What kind of magical adventure at sea?
It was nothing but a human bloodbath, in the quest for survival, blades drawn against one another!
That tiny lifeboat was the scene of a terrifying series of bloodshed, simply a living hell!
Underneath the magnificent packaging of the movie, lay filth and sin!
Just like the calm ocean!
Calm on the surface, but with raging undercurrents below!
Those beautiful, elaborate shots, the more resplendent they were, the more lethal!
Wrong.
It was more than just slaughtering!
Every slaughter has its reasons, but on that tiny lifeboat, the slaughter had only one reason—they were starving!
For survival!
They were eating people!
"Ugh…"
Jiang Zhu felt queasy.
Boom!
After the utmost silence, the entire cinema hall suddenly exploded!
All the viewers started to clamor as if they had gone mad, so even scread, so couldn't help but to stand up!
"My God!!"
"I'm getting chills all over!"
"This is too scary, too horrific!"
"It turns out that there wasn't really a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, or a tiger in the magical adventure, everything was a story made up by the protagonist. In reality, all these animals were people, they were killing each other, they were eating people!!!!"
"Holy shit, so there were no animals on the boat, just people!?"
"Eating corpses?! I'm gonna throw up, damn it!"
"How can this be so terrifying!"
"I really thought this was a story about the protagonist and animals, but it turns out not to be about the law of the jungle among animals, but about people who lose their humanity and resort to cannibalism in order to survive!"
"I get it now! Crap! Where did the teeth on Cannibal Island co from? They ca from corpses!"
"Humanity has been annihilated, such a beautiful story, such a stunning ocean, why is the truth so cruel!"
"I've been deceived by Xian Yu!"
"All the previous plot points were traps, so many traps were dug!"
"I'm convinced, Xian Yu is GOAT, I'm in awe, truly in awe!"
"I's worldview is shattered!"
"…"
The audience was paralyzed by fear, the horror boiling over!
The movie did not explicitly state that they were eating corpses, but by using animal taphors, even the most naive audience understood!
This was why their faces turned deathly pale and even trembled!
A shocking twist instantly shattered everyone's beliefs, making them question every single shot they had seen before!
At this mont.
Looking back, every piece of the plot was utterly terrifying in hindsight!
Even...
The seemingly insignificant mouse in the movie, almost unnoticed by everyone, had an extrely symbolic significance!
"I won't be able to sleep tonight!"
Jiang Zhu, struggling to contain the discomfort in his stomach, trembled as he spoke:
"Xian Yu is too twisted, how did he co up with such a terrifying story, I've been writing scripts for so many years, watching movies for so many years, and this is the first ti I've been scared by an art film!"
Scared!
Truly scared!
What was terrifying wasn't the imagery; there wasn't even a depiction of animals being eaten in the movie, but this was precisely what made it more chilling!
Because everyone would imagine it!
The more they imagined, the more panic-stricken they beca!
However, as Jiang Zhu reacted so dramatically, An Xu suddenly let out a long breath and said sothing that made Jiang Zhu go completely stiff:
"You think this is the truth?"
You think the second story is the truth?
You think Xian Yu didn't deceive you twice in a row?
You think, this is the most horrifying answer?
An Xu pressed his hand to his heart, where his heartbeat was excessively fast and his whole body was cold, as if his breathing had almost stopped.
He thought more, saw more than the audience.
Therefore…
He was more horrified by the story's terror than anyone else!
——————————
ps: Thank you to Alliance Hierarch [Liu Martin] for his support; I kneel before the great benefactor ▄█▀█●. I know many people are indifferent to this movie, but as described in the book, after enduring the first thirty minutes of setup, as the shipwreck saga unfolds, it becos very exciting, and the ending twist is overwhelmingly terrifying—assuming you've not been spoiled by any reveal. Now those who haven't seen it have been spoiled by , my apologies, ti to wrap up for today and ask for your monthly votes!
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