It was a curious trailer – a boy drifting amidst the vast
ocean with no one for company but a tiger. It was a captivating picture but if
you’re like me and have not read the book, it probably made you wonder how much
plot can come out of it. It pried on my curiosity, half in wonderment
and half vexed that a boy drifting in the middle of the ocean with a tiger caused so
much hype. I decided, out of curiosity, that it was a movie I had to see.
Half the movie was
practically for your eyes to feast on and watching it all in 3D was totally
worth my buck. If Inception was a
movie about a dream within a dream, within a dream, then Life of Pi was a movie about a story within a story, within a
story.
Before I rant about some revelations I had about the movie,
let me give a quick back drop:
The Story
An unnamed author searching for a piece to write about was told of
a man who had a story that could make him, or anyone who hears it, believe in Christianity. That
story belonged to a particular Piscine Molitor Patel, a.k.a Pissin’ Patel, as
what his childhood bullies called him. Bullying tended to gravitate towards him because of his unusual name but at the beginning of one school year he confronted potential bullying by naming himself Pi and explaining the genius behind the mathematical figure, henceforth was remembered as Pi.
The
Patel family owned a zoo in Pondicherry and lived a relatively affluent life. However, land
disputes saw them packing to Canada via a Japanese freight ship with their
animals. Out at sea, they met a huge storm. Fortunately Pi was able to cling onto a life boat and survived the storm with an injured zebra, a female orangutan, a hyena and a Bengalese tiger called
Richard Parker. It was no cruise. Rather, it was
rumble in the ocean; an endeavour to stay atop of the food chain! Thus commenced the story of how Pi survived not fighting the sun, dehydration, starvation and the vast ocean, but rather how he conquered Richard Parker.
Towards the end of the movie, Pi told the story of the two stories he shared to two Japanese officials concerned about the events that followed the demise of their ship. The entirety of the movie was based on the first, how he was stranded on a life boat with a hyena that killed both the zebra and the orangutan who, in turn, was killed by the tiger called Richard Parker. The alternative story depicted human brutality and that the animals were merely representations of the Japanese ship’s survivors. It was the ship's cook (hyena) that killed both the injured sailor (zebra) and Pi’s mother (orangutan) for use as bait. Provided with both accounts, Pi asked which of the two stories they preferred. Neither officials knew which of the two was the truth as both seemed incomprehensible. So they went with the animal story. Pi merely answered them with, “and so it goes with God”.
My Thoughts
These thoughts are coming from someone who has never known the existence of the book before the movie. So when I walked out of the cinema, I felt like I needed a moment to digest everything. When I finally pieced everything together, it was pretty much mind blowing. I must get my hands on that book!
“...and so it goes with God”. These few words put everything together for me. When I had thought that the first half of the movie held little significance but for background and humour, I realised that Pi's name had in fact been carrying the symbol of our human understanding of God. Pi is an irrational number shortened to 3.14 because the randomness of its numerous decimal places transcends the human mind. Like the two stories Pi told, neither one could be proven true but preference went to the animal story because the reality of human callousness goes beyond comprehension. The things we don't understand - having a God we don't understand - may just be part of those decimal places. The first half of Life of Pi was to teach us that there are a lot of things out there that cannot be understood and yet we choose to believe some and not others, thus setting the scene for the rest of the story.
I also love how Pi was made from prince to pauper quite literally. He did not lose all his wealth and became a homeless boy rather he lost absolutely everything - his wealth, his family and even at some point his affinity to human nature. To some extent he transcended beyond humanity and sunk even lower to become lesser than man - an animal. He went from looking at animals behind the safety of a cage (symbolizing the separation between man and animal) to becoming one of them. Pondicherry was a place where food was literally piled in front of him but out there with the animals, he had to EARN it yo'.
In retrospect, however, I love that he met the jungle before he lived in the jungle. First was the school jungle where he learned to overcome his predators with his wit and intelligence, as well as his perseverance. Second was his very first encounter with Richard Parker when he learned, quite brutally, that out there in the wild some animals killed by nature to sustain themselves. I think I can also say there's significance in the fact that Richard Parker and Pi had met eyes then. Fear dwelt in the eyes and animals like tigers and dogs act when they sense this fear. During that initial eye contact Pi's fear had so much been damped down by his curiosity of Richard Parker that it may have perhaps affected their relationship when they met again.
These stages became significant as Pi strived to survive the jungle using those very same qualities. The intelligence of humans that upheld their place on top of the food chain helped Pi find innovative ways to survive the ocean with Richard Parker. He had been naive the first time he met Richard Parker, but living with him the second time round he very well knew that tigers could not be tamed or made best friends out of, but rather could be conditioned. He did not let Richard Parker feast on his fear but learned to overcome it by correcting his mistakes.
Algae Island was another guise to the reality vs. preference dichotomy that had been recurring in the movie. It was so abundant of food and fresh water that strandees could practically live lavishly there rather than cling to blind hope drifting amidst the vastness of the ocean and towards home. That is, if it was without the cruelty of the island itself. In return, visitors are bound by the island and its rules. In the bible, there's a verse that says "the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender" Proverbs 22:7 (note, 22/7 is a close-enough fraction representative of Pi, coincidence?). This corresponds to how a strandee is slave to the wealth of the island. Similarly, everything on this earth is borrowed. If we want it for ourselves, then we are slaves to it. God has put humans on earth, but we are only here temporarily. Where we belong is with him. Until then, we have to resist all temptations otherwise fall slaves to it. This is allegorical to the idea that sometimes we aim for comfort than choose the reality that's before us. Such was when the Japanese officials chose to believe in the animal story rather than believe in the truth of men killing men, all for the sake of feeling a sense of comfort.
So there goes my rants and opinions. I'm not expert in theology or philosophy so I can't argue if proven wrong. Anyways, this movie is worth the watch, even if its just for its pretty CG:
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the above images.
