Yunxiang Xu's Column: Nolan's Odyssey vs. Stephen Chow's Journey to the West

Renowned director Christopher Nolan's latest film, *The Odyssey*, has once again achieved outstanding box office results. By the time you read this article, the global box office should have already surpassed $1 billion, possibly even setting a new personal best for the director. Interestingly, after *The Odyssey* was released, a netizen posted online: "A man spent 7 years on a deserted island with a goddess as beautiful as Sharon Stone. No wonder he didn't want to go home, no wonder he made up stories about cyclops, witches, and sorceresses blocking his way. He couldn't possibly tell his wife, 'I had an affair with a hot girl on a deserted island for 7 years.'" Indeed, comedy is often the closest to the truth. Honestly, after watching *The Odyssey*, I found that many online reviews seemed less insightful than this netizen's humorous post—at least that's how I see it.

"This is a Christopher Nolan work" under scrutiny In Nolan's portrayal, Odysseus eats "lotus flowers" while recalling his journey. While Homer's epic also describes this scene, stating that the "lotus flowers" caused him to lose his memory, I interpret Nolan's cinematography differently. Odysseus' "lotus flowers" actually symbolize hallucinogenic drugs. The monsters, giants, witches, Hades, and the ghosts of fallen comrades in war are all products of Odysseus' drug-induced imagination. Odysseus took drugs to alleviate the pain of violating the natural order (building the Trojan Horse to deceive the gods) for victory in the Trojan War. Because he violated the natural order, he couldn't—rather than couldn't—return home.

This might also be why Nolan deliberately didn't depict the gods in Homer's version of *The Odyssey* (the only appearance of Athena, in many fans' and viewers' eyes, is merely a physical manifestation of Odysseus' "guilt"). In Homer's epic *The Odyssey*, humans are merely sacrifices in the gods' power struggles, but Nolan's version (as I see it) tells a story of a "brainstorm."

In *The Odyssey*, Nolan cast Kate Winslet as the goddess Athena. (Photo source: IMDB)

If you're familiar with Nolan as a director, you know he has always tried to "shoot" sci-fi, fantasy, and other far-fetched themes in a realistic way. This is what allowed him to elevate the superhero theme of Batman to a new level. When this "fake to real" technique was applied to *The Odyssey*, it was a bit "overly clever." Seeing a bunch of scholars, critics, and netizens nitpicking about whether this person or that horse in the movie is historically accurate (this is a myth, where is the historical accuracy?). Of course, any period piece will always have people pointing out what's historically inaccurate, partly to boost their own presence and partly to enjoy the dopamine rush of "well-read and erudite."

But Nolan's *The Odyssey* attracting these people shows that he didn't succeed in making them recognize "this is a Christopher Nolan work."

Who criticized Stephen Chow's *Journey to the West* for not being faithful to the original? In the Han cultural sphere, one of the "Four Great Classical Novels," *Journey to the West*, has far more adaptations than Homer's epic *The Odyssey*. However, the most discussed adaptation is probably Stephen Chow's 1995 film *A Chinese Odyssey* (coincidentally, the English title of this film is *A Chinese Odyssey*, not the commonly used *Journey to the West*).

*A Chinese Odyssey* includes *Journey to the West: Canto One Hundred and One - The Moonlight Gem* and *Journey to the West: The Final Chapter - The Romance of the Immortals*. At the time, the adaptation by Stephen Chow's team was so "shocking"—the finished film was so different from what fans expected that it suffered a box office disaster.

The team in *A Chinese Odyssey* told a story of a man's infidelity. The man played by Stephen Chow first fell in love with the White Bone Spirit played by Maggie Cheung, and then, in the process of rescuing the White Bone Spirit, accidentally fell in love with the Purple Spirit Fairy played by Anita Yuen. He then felt that others would think he was a villain for being unfaithful, and he didn't want to be a villain, so he had to force himself to pretend that the White Bone Spirit was still his true love and deny that he had fallen in love with the Purple Spirit Fairy. Many years later, *A Chinese Odyssey* became one of the most profound and representative films for many fans of Stephen Chow—of course, it has its flaws, but no one would think that this is the content of Wu Cheng'en's novel *Journey to the West* after watching this film.

In Stephen Chow's version of *Journey to the West*, Stephen Chow (left) plays the All-Seeing Monk, and Anita Yuen plays the Purple Spirit Fairy. (From the movie DVD)

In other words, Stephen Chow made the fans, critics, and experts who watched *A Chinese Odyssey* know that *A Chinese Odyssey* is Stephen Chow's work, not a "Wu Cheng'en *Journey to the West* movie version." But Nolan didn't achieve this. Currently, many of the voices criticizing the film *The Odyssey* are "this is not Homer's epic, Homer's epic is not like this," even though the "Trojan Horse" scene in Homer's epic is quite important in the film, but Nolan didn't succeed in making everyone feel that this is his work, not a "Homer's epic movie version."

Can't Nolan do this? No, when Nolan shot the *Dark Knight Trilogy* adapted from the superhero comic *Batman*, he completely changed it to "unrecognizable." Did anyone criticize Nolan and these three films for the "original"? In fact, Nolan's *Dark Knight Trilogy* is almost universally recognized as the greatest *Batman* work (even the greatest "superhero work"), surpassing the "original" in status.

So why didn't Nolan make everyone feel that *The Odyssey* is his work? In my opinion, it's because Nolan was "too well-behaved" when shooting *The Odyssey*.

Nolan's dislike of electronic products is well-known in the industry. He once said in an interview that the reason he doesn't use a smartphone is "he would definitely get addicted." To avoid getting addicted to his phone and affecting his work, he resolutely doesn't use one. From this, you can see how different the thinking and behavior patterns of someone who thinks "avoid temptation, stay healthy" are from those who turn themselves into addicts for the sake of "artistic creation," and how different their reactions to "difficulties" are.

Even after superhero movies became rampant, Nolan's Dark Knight remains one of the best superhero movies in the minds of many fans. (Photo source: IMDB)

This can be clearly seen from the DEI casting in *The Odyssey*. Since the left completely controls Hollywood, not doing DEI casting for a movie may not necessarily affect box office performance, but it will be targeted by communists from the start, causing trouble in movie promotion, and will lose the qualification for Oscar awards from the start. For someone who is responsible for the livelihoods of hundreds of people with a production budget of $250 million, they won't be reckless and say "whatever" to the studio—and Nolan is clearly the responsible type.

Why does the left insist on making Helen black? But if you have unfortunately seen any DEI works—movies, games, novels, any form of artistic creation, you can clearly recognize the strong leftist flavor. Honestly, "diverse casting" has existed in human society for a long time. Not to mention hundreds of years ago in Europe, where Aryans played Jesus and the Jews in the Bible, in Puccini's *Madame Butterfly*, the Japanese girl was not played by a Japanese person, and the American captain was not played by an American. In the more recent movie era, Moses crossing the Red Sea didn't really find "ancient Jews" (modern Jews have undergone great mixing, with significant differences from ancient Jews) and ancient Egyptians to play, not to mention Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's Shakespearean plays using a full cast of Japanese actors.

Unfortunately, the left forces the use of DEI in artistic creation, not for the sake of "diverse casting," but mainly to ride on you, bully you, brainwash you, and force you to think in the way they consider "correct." For no other reason, because it's fun (stop joking, if bullying others and forcing others isn't fun, why has human society been fighting for power for thousands of years, just for "I say so"). You can understand it this way: using "diverse casting" in film, game, and entertainment works is actually a ritual of "pledging allegiance" to the left, similar to some gangs requiring new members to first go kill someone. Therefore, such works will inevitably have roles demonstrating leftist thinking, such as the protagonist in the Marvel series *Ironheart* telling you why "zero-dollar purchases" are correct, even though it has nothing to do with the plot development. Or, in the game *Dragon Age: Inquisition*, you will be punished if you don't use "leftist standard terminology" (it will really make the character you play in the game do push-ups).

The left's insistence on forcibly diversifying entertainment works is not for the sake of "diversity," but for the purpose of Marxist brainwashing education. The image shows the seven dwarfs in the live-action version of *Snow White* adapted to leftist diverse casting, eventually all replaced with CG. (Photo source: Twitter/@EndWokeness)

Can you see these in Nolan's *The Odyssey*? Not at all. For example, the most criticized "black Helen" before the movie's release.