The Pilgrim's Progress What adaptations have been made to the original work?

ashley

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In April last year, the United States released an animated film of "The Pilgrim's Progress", adapted from the allegorical novel of the same name by the British Puritans John Bunyan, regardless of whether the "second best-selling book in history" is accurate enough. The status and influence of the world literary world is unquestionable. An epic journey, faithfully adapted to modern-day. Christian faces distractions, challenges, and perils at every turn of the way. But ends victorious, with helpful guides, qiwan.cc as he stays on the narrow path to the distant Celestial City.

In 1978, there was an animated short film of the same name (hereinafter referred to as the 78 version). The content is simple and refined, but it is more loyal to the original. Except for a few scenes that are mainly character dialogues, they are basically all included. Can be found).

The Pilgrim's Progress  What adaptations have been made to the original work?

The animation movie released last year lasted less than two hours and abandoned many of the scenes in the original work. If the calculation is simply based on the number of scenes, including 15 scenes, the book has a total of 23 scenes (refer to China Radio and Television Press, Chen Gang translation division), each specific scene has been adapted to varying degrees . Some of the adaptations are outstanding, but there are also some individual parts that need to be discussed. The following are listed in order according to the chronological order in the movie.

In the opening chapter of the novel, the author saw in his dream that a man was reading a book at the door of his home, carrying a heavy burden on his back. Because from the book he learned the tragic ending of the city in which he lives, he and his family will also be burned to death in the fire unless he escapes early, but he does not know where he can escape. This thought and heavy burden tortured his feelings every day, and his family and neighbors not only did not understand, but regarded him as a "fool." Finally one day when he was reading a book in the field as usual, his heart was sad, and a cry of helplessness came to him to indicate the direction of his escape from the trial, so he embarked on the road to the "Sky City".

The film made a richer interpretation of this opening. An ancient city that was once uncursed is now controlled by the ghost king Apollon, and the shrewd ruler-its descendants and babble-in addition to letting the city people work endlessly in shifts, lie that if they cross the wall There is only one dead path beyond the border. But one day an accident happened, a person went missing outside the border, and a wall-filled manuscript was found in his residence. It turned out that he had been exploring the truth of the world beyond the border according to the guidance of a book. The protagonist "Christian" secretly kept his book out of curiosity, from which he learned the origin of the city, the sins of the people in the city and the coming trial. The strong anxiety and the desire to pursue some kind of strange kindness and righteousness became his burden more and more, and finally drove him to the entrance of the forbidden place to the outside world, regardless of the opposition of his family and friends. In order to stabilize people's hearts, the ruler spread rumors that he had encountered an unexpected event, but his departure caused some commotion and discussion in the city.

This opening is both reasonable and profound, and the screenwriter may have borrowed another work from Ban Yang's "Soul City Jihad" to use lies and deception to seize the rule of "Almighty King" over "Soul City" and guard it with false lies City scene. The ruler successfully led the eyes of the masses to the temporary and material goals at the moment, making people have no time to think about eternity and soul, while weaving a set of lies to guard against the invasion of truth, any mind that seeks truth and meaning is Isolation or blockade as a source of pollution, just as Louis described the situation where Prince Ruilian was trapped by a witch in the underground dark world in "Silver Chair", may help us understand the profound meaning of this magical opening more intuitively.

The first obstacle encountered when leaving the dying city is the discouraged marsh. With the help of "help", the Christian can pass smoothly. When leaving, "help" reminds him: don't forget that various forms of help will not leave you Too far. This sentence was added by the screenwriter, and it is also in line with the reality of faith, that is, when we urgently seek to know the truth in our hearts, there is often no lack of help around us. But we still have to be careful to watch out for some apparently opposite sounds. The Christian received instructions from the evangelist to go to the narrow gate, and soon met the "Mr. Shi Zhi", he told the Christian to give up the unrealistic method and go to another place to find help, so the Christian obeyed his The instruction turned to a mountain: Mount Sinai. It is the place where God issued the commandments to the Israelites, so Mount Sinai is usually used to represent God's law. The way Mr. Sezhi helps Christians relieve the burden is to let him obey all the laws, and then he can remove the burden.

The film is very new to the presentation of Mount Sinai. The whole mountain is a man with a half body, grumpy and harsh. Street signs standing all over the mountain make it look like a cemetery. There is no hope because no one can meet the requirements of the law. This image looks like a description of the law in "Christian Essentials": "The terrible threat of the law may come to everyone at any time, they surround us and chase us viciously, so we All we can expect is the demise at any time. " But if you study the context of Calvin's passage, you will find that he is telling the law that it can teach people a complete and unquestionable righteousness. The reason why the law despairs is that people lose their ability to obey. Therefore, the presentation of the image of the law in the film is not very accurate. It caters to the mentality of manifesting sins and convicting others by the law, so that people's hearts are disgusted, feared, and evaded by the law, but they are not consistent with the image and function of the law itself.

The initial promulgation of the law had a positive intention, that is, to teach the people to live a correct life. In fact, the perfection required by the law manifests the absolute justice and holiness of God; in addition, the law itself contains promises-if Someone who can live the life of the law completely can be justified before God-but because of the depravity and loss of the ability to keep the law, when sinners look to the law, they are only discouraged and desperate, not only following the promise On the contrary, he was even more guilty. Mr. Zhong Shizhi, the original work of Ban Yang, instructed Christians to help a gentleman named “Law-abiding” in Dexing Village. This gentleman was fair and well-known. However, to go to Dexing Village, he must first climb the steep and burning Sinai Mountains This is an almost impossible task for Christians, and this description is more relevant to the teaching of the Bible.
 
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