Culture Shock Series: Cast Away.

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 2010)

There was an earthquake in Sino 1978, when the government decided to open the gate of the country and allow the free trade and economics. That marks the first wave of material renaissance in Far East. That's something you can easily check from any history books nowadays, but what you probably won't find in the books is the sentimental values of people at that time. When Sino people had their very first color TV, first Teddy bear, first turbo washing machine, they attached their feelings to them, only to find out there are far better quality of products out there waiting for them. Into the 1990s, they are all confused because there's no clearer boundary between good communism and bad capitalism. Former garbage and treasures now exchanged ID cards. Now in 2010s, despite one's denial of his/her lost status, we are all castaways.
The image Cast Away portrayed with Tom Hanks is quite simple, an everyday man was the sole survivor on a coral island, and the only friend he got was volleyball. People take an interest in seeing this movie for questioning our take-for-granted identity of human being, etc. However, the true controversy off the screen comes from the ever-clever product placement in it, that the storyline actually is one huge super commercial for Fed Ex, Wilson sports, and some other brands. Whoever wrote the script must be a genius. Yet, we as conscious, commercial-spoiled human beings are questioning something beyond Chuck Noland's humanity issues. That is, is there ever a point of rooting your sentimental values on mass-produced products? How about actually hug the values provided by your everyday Coke commercials and such? I am afraid no one will go to bed with a Wilson volleyball even after seeing Cast Away, but I am quite sure there are people who get frustrated when they find out half their life was devoted to something equally lifeless as Wilson.
My first guess is the value system everyone possesses in this world. Taking mine for example, my system told me the most valuable existence in my life was those time with my family, especially when I was only a child who's not ashamed asking for a hug every minutes. But, that's the answer I got when I was older and things can't be same ever again. When I was 18 years old, I had my favorite computer, Nintendo game console and my admission letter from a University. My value system told me at that time the most valuable in my life was again something from the past, the moment I celebrated my manhood with best friends, the family and hometown I am about to say goodbye to, etc. There can be many explanations to this stupidity. For me, it would be immaturity because I was a teenager at the time. However, the moment my father saw me off the way to the university at the train station, he also felt his life was pumped out into a vacuum after parting with me. For months and years this vacuum was choking him so harsh...... Another explanation would be an uneven value system. That we do not have multiple types of wealth that can balance out if one goes wrong. I graduated from finance major, so I personally like this explanation as it sounds slightly more scientific and economic. However, the dilemma presented to me again was like this: as an atheist, I accept "we are here and now only" values. But again, any reasonable, self-respected realists would end up in a paradox, that any wealth in the long run is perishable so there's no need to raise a family(remember you may end up like Chuck Noland that your wife accepted your death when you are just missing), there's no need either to plan for your living, etc. Then in a month or two, the wreckage of your consciousness and health would be warning that you are walking drunk and sleeping in death.
But you won't be that ignorant. Like Chuck Noland you will finally learn to pick yourself up and find something to behold. Luckier than Noland, besides volleyball we've got football, the world cup, Beckham's tattoo, NBA, and what we IMDb guys like the most, movies. You can even make a ranking list to value them like I did. I listed God as No.1, and that's predetermined because otherwise my pastor's going to have a serious conversation with me. Then, it didn't take very long for me to find out whatever was at No.2 in my authenticated value system tends to overthrow the God. Matthew 13:44: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." It finally appeared to me that a value system I made that had God on the highest ranking doesn't work. Instead, a value system put into me by God would be beyond my reasoning. It asked me to put behind everything and accept him and him only. As a sinner, I have run away from this answer several times.
The enormous ocean washed up Chuck Noland. His passion, his 5 years of life, his family and every other thing possibly he owned in his value system. What proved to be waterproof in his heart was pain and loneliness. What would bring him salvation? I don't know because this is only a movie, a world conceived in people's mind, which may or may not have the concept of salvation at all. But I know his pain and loneliness can't be more real than ours. And, it doesn't seem like a value system dilemma to me anymore. It seems more like a dilemma of soul. On one side, it's the brooding and evolving sin, still escalating in the time-line, while on the other side is Holy Spirit's unchanged whispering prayers for us, echoing in the eternity.