Director's Intention
According to director Jiang Wen, Ma is initially very fearful but does not know the origins of his fear. The turning point comes when he sees his village in flames and his fellow villagers massacred. He then overcomes his own fear and begins longing for death. In the final scene, Ma dies a satisfying death as he has fulfilled his desire.
Read more about this topic: Devils On The Doorstep
Famous quotes containing the words director and/or intention:
“The director is simply the audience. So the terrible burden of the director is to take the place of that yawning vacuum, to be the audience and to select from what happens during the day which movement shall be a disaster and which a gala night. His job is to preside over accidents.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)