Strange Question

When I first saw this sequence I was also confused until I looked closer...it's some kind of turtle whose blood is being drained, I think. I'm not sure what it pecked at, except the purpose was to get the turtle to extend its neck! I took it to be making some sort of soup, perhaps. I don't know much about Asian cuisine, but I thought maybe turtle (snapping turtle?) blood/soup might be a delicacy...Hope this helps!

And yes, it's a beautiful film!

Evelyn

In Chinese culture, turtles supposedly possess medicinal qualities capable of prolonging one's lifespan when ingested. The logic behind this practice is that the turtle has the longest lifespan of any animal. I know turtle is served most commonly in a soup or stew. As far as the blood goes, I haven't ever heard of that, but it's very possible.

It did peck at some kind of bird.

i am chinese. it's not a turtle. we call it "bie" or "jia yu", they are completely different. i searched all over the internet, surprisingly there is no translation of this animal! here are some pics of the animal hoping it can help. http://www.meishichina.com/Health/UploadFiles/200505/20050514150047663.jpg
http://www.huoguo.com.cn/pic/hg/37.jpg

anyway...it's a very precious animal and we chinese think that it has a lot of medical values. we believe it can strengthen our body and make us look younger. the normal way eat it is with soup.

in the movie,..two guys...one holding "bie" the other holding an artifact (i guess) "bie" pecks it then its neck straighten which make it easier to cut its throat and make "bie" blood soup which can give you a better voice we chinese believe, just like what said in the movie "Drink this and your voice will pierce the heavens yet be tender and more fluid than water"

thats all i know...wish it can help...and someone find the translation of "bie"

It is also forshadowing the end when the concubine or Douzi kills himself. The turtle's throat is slit as well as his own.

We Chinese are notorious when it comes to the effect of foods/supplements on our well-being, body or soul. I'm ashamed to say that my people are almost unilaterally responsible for the plight of endangered animals from sharks to tigers. It's horribly sad not just for the animals affected, but even more so as evidence that we've not "evolved" from many of these awful, baseless superstitions. Come on: turtles live a long time, and so eating turtles will make you live longer! Why don't we eat trees then, or dine on mountains???

Lu Xun wrote a short story titled "Medicine". In it, he used as a back drop the superstition that taking in the blood from someone freshly executed would be a panacea (not sure if it's true or made up). The story begins with a family, whose young one is dying of TB. They spent their savings going to the square to buy a bun soaked with the person being executed on that day. The bitter irony is that the man being executed was a revolutionary - someone who gave up his life in the hope that his people might leave their foolish old ways behind. Of course the little boy died anyway. The final scene finds the two mothers in the same cemetery. The mother of the sick child couldn't understand why her child was not cured, while the mother of the revolutionary was wailing to the high heavens about the fate of his son - all the more sad because she HERSELF is not free from the kind of superstition for which her son died. She says to a big black bird perched on the tree above, "Oh son, if your spirit be alive, come in the form of that bird, and come down to earth to this headstone". For a moment, the big bird does nothing. She pleads again. The bird took wing - not to be earthbound, but to soar majestically into the sky.

Douzi's most famous play is "ba wang bie ji","ba wang" is the name of the king,and "(yu)ji" is the name of his wife.
Ihe dish is called "ba wang bie ji" too.In Chinese "ba wang" can be explained as another name of the chinese softshell turtle,the meaning of "bie" is "leave" or "farewell" ,"ji" is the same pronunciation as "chicken" in chinese.
As the dish has the same pronuciation with Douzi's play,Master Yuan make the dish in order to please Douzi.
And,In traditional Chinese pharmacology,drinking animal's blood is usefull to people's body.

Bie=Jia Yu=Wang Ba=softshell turtle

so the name of this film is Ba Wang bie Ji, also means: Ba Wang said goodbye to Ji. Ba Wang is the king's name, Ji is the concubine's name, as for the dish, wang ba(softshell turtle) is the repsentation of Ba Wang, the fake chicken(pronouced as Ji in Chinese) beaten by softshell turtle is Ji. So the dish is also called Ba Wang bie Ji.

the dish is some kind of soup with softshell turtle's blood in the film, i dont ever know that... i only know the soup of softshell turtle.