Importance, belief and life of Pi (2023)

Based on the best seller by Yann Martel and set in the realm of magical realism, this bold and remarkable adventure film centers on an Indian boy named Pi Patel, the son of a caring and caring zookeeper. The film is directed by Ang Lee, who brought us the stunning romantic swordsmanship"Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger"– which received 10 Academy Award nominations, making it the first Asian film and only the seventh foreign-language film to receive a Best Picture nomination.

But first, for those few who haven't seen the movie or read the book, spoiler alert! Do not read this unless you have seen or read Life of Pi.

In the story, which begins with the obligatory cute prologue about a precocious child, the family decides to move from India to Canada, taking many of the animals with them. When the freighter carrying the family is caught in a storm, the stage is set for the main act: Pi is left adrift in the Pacific in a 26-foot lifeboat, accompanied by a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450 pound fish. -Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all compete in a fiercecompetenceFor survival. It's worth mentioning that for a long time this project was considered unfilmable due to the concept, as a long list of directors (including M. Night Shyamalan) joined the project and all of them dropped out.

Em termos de desafios de produção e um orçamento muito limitado, Ang Lee foi forçado a enfrentar seu próprio tigre. Filmar na água pode literalmente afogar uma produção em problemas, atrasos e custos excessivos; Basta olhar para os problemas de Kevin Costner, que fracassou comaquatic worldafter cutting a budget of $175 million. To accomplish the film's extensive water sequences, the filmmakers had to build the world's largest self-generating wave tank.

Now here's the scamInnovation– Lee opted for 3D, even after a relatively unsuccessful foray into special effectsHulkFranchise. That's why relying so heavily on computer graphics was a spectacularly bold move: 3D has always given images a subtle artificial quality that tempts you to remain incredulous.

In the computer animation industry, the most pronounced form of this effect is called„spooky valley.“It's a hypothesis by Japanese robotics professor Masahiro Mori, who proposed that when human replicas look and behave almost, but not quite, like real people, they elicit an enteric reaction of disgust; The "valley" refers to a drop in a graph of human observer comfort levels.

However, the success of CG in films such asPlanet of the Apes: Pre-Evolutionit probably encouraged Lee to gamble that technology would be able to encourage subtle emotional responses in animals. This gamble paid off. The orangutan and tiger were exquisitely portrayed not just in terms of facial feelings, such as an orangutan looking pensively out to sea, thinking of a lost child. Filmmakers even captured the movements of four real tigers on set. Furthermore, 3D is ideal for portraying a restless sea of ​​hypnotic beauty.

As a result, the film dramatically depicts the distance between Pi and the tiger, the lifeboat's limited space, and the overwhelming, endless horizons of the ocean around it. Because of that, this rare film adaptation is actually more fun than the book. However, Lee never attempts to showcase these digital effects; he controls them with a firm hand, compelling them to discreetly serve in the narration of history. By the way, I've sailed, and no movie has better captured the sweltering, claustrophobic feeling of a storm or the perfection of a fun night sailing in a warm, inviting sea.

The director presents us with truly magical images full of majestic whales and the reflection of a carpet of stars in a calm and peaceful sea. They are infographics taken to the level of visual poetry, a demonstration of what the medium can do if you let itPerformancerun free, this goes a long wayavatarjHugo. This film is an artistic triumph to rival masterpieces like Kurosawa's.dreamsand Bertoluccistealing the beautyin terms of movie genius.

As the exquisite beauty of the ocean is revealed just beneath the drama unfolding on the lifeboat, the film's true meaning lies softly beneath the story's surface. The story is so moving that even President Barack Obama, in a letter to the author, called it "an elegant testament to God and the power of storytelling."

To understand the jewel ofwisdomBuried in the story, pronounced "a story that makes you believe in God", we need to understand that the story isn't really about fighting a physical tiger, but metaphorically about questions of meaning and faith. . This story is a worst case thought experiment, modern work story, all about findingspiritualityand the meaning of life amid all that is terrible and terrible in today's world. By surviving and understanding everything that goes wrong in the world, he discovers the importance of being human.

The moral of the story is pretty clear and is revealed at the end, when Pi is forced to tell the Japanese investigators an alternate version of the story: a sailor with a broken leg, a French chef, Pi, and Pi's mother. Eventually, we realize that the zebra is the sailor, the hyena is the cook, the orangutan is Pi's mother, and the tiger, Richard Parker, is actually Pi. The details of cannibalism and savagery are gruesome. Finally, Pi simply asks the author, "Which story do you prefer?"

Pi obviously preferred the better story, a massive extrapolation of wishful thinking that made him understand things and launched him into a new life with a loving wife and family. The other story, in which people are reduced to primal horrors, could only lead to a brutally destroyed life. In this story one can see all of history as God's task; but at the same time it is clear that God was really present in every moment. And in the end she realizes that Richard Parker is in fact her savior.

Richard Parker's real name, which was lost due to a misspelling, is "Thirsty". And where else, other than getting lost in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, can you be surrounded by water and still die of thirst? In the same way, God is really all around us, but many of us cannot receive manna from heaven. In Hindu culture, water symbolizes the "ocean of life" where all living things exist as a coherent body. The sea torments Pi with waves, threatens him with sharks and even steals his family. At the same time, the sea also gives it life. Flying fish rain down on him, a magical seaweed garden grows, and in the end, he bestows the gift of wisdom. Even Pi's real name, Piscine, represents a lake, an object built to contain water, the water of the spirit and of God.

not the figuresTo the life of Pi,as in every dream, because cinema is essentially collectiveRing, are actually parts of the Self. At a higher level, the tiger is Pi's primary self, the orangutan represents the universal love evidenced by a protective mother, the brutal hyena is the cruel cook who is the shadow, and the shy zebra is a young sailor with a broken leg. represents the innocence of youth and the first to die. All of them are essential for us to become what we are.

The most important part of the self, however, is the raft that represents your belief. It's something he needs to build on to be effective. The common thread, the backbone of this story, is that it is his raft that never leaves him. More than any other part of the story, it is the unseen force that keeps him safe and the force that transforms him into the individual he becomes.

Our challenges are what help us define ourselves; which drives us to be more. What greater challenge could there be than being captured by a ferocious tiger? Especially when that tiger is yourstemer,Anguish,Depressiondesolation and despair. It is our faith that helps us cross the cruel and endless sea. This is also a message for all entrepreneurs and innovators, never give up your belief: believe in yourself, believe in your vision, believe in a better world.

Just as pi is a mathematical construct that can never be fully understood, thethe life of piit is essentially unfathomable; as well as the battle between religion, science and spirituality. But just as Pi finds inner peace—"Loneliness set in. I turned to God. I survived"– perhaps the final message of the film is one that simply exhorts us to find inner peace as well.