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Many people around me recommended the movie "Catching Dolls" starring Shen Teng and Ma Li, so I went to Yizhuang Tangge Cinema to watch it.

There was an event at the cinema that day, where one ticket to "Catch Dolls" could be exchanged for four game coins, allowing you to experience catching dolls on the spot. Walking next to the doll machine, the moment I put the coin in, I suddenly had a strong feeling that "I will definitely catch a doll", as if I was controlled by a mysterious force.

Sure enough, a white doll fell out after a casual grab. It all seemed to be pre-planned.

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I excitedly brought my doll into the movie theater and started my movie-watching journey.

I won't go into details about the plot, as there are already many spoilers online. What impressed me most about this movie was not the main plot, but a small detail that only lasted a few minutes.

It was in the classroom that Teacher Wei Xiang had a debate about materialism and self-awareness. The protagonist Ma Jiye (played by Shi Pengyuan) said something thought-provoking during the debate: "Don't you think everything is controlled? Monitored? Everything about us seems to be preset and arranged."

He said that no matter it is heaven, God or Wong Tai Sin, there seems to be a mysterious force that is pre-setting and controlling our lives, and we are unaware of it. He also asked other students: "Don't you have such a feeling? Don't you have such an experience?"

Of course, these are not his exact words, but that's the general idea.

After he said these words, the whole class burst into laughter. All the students were laughing so hard that they were bent over. They were all laughing at him and thought his ideas were very strange.

After class, the teacher called Ma Jiye to the office and was very angry. Because his remarks made the teacher lose the qualification to be selected as an advanced student, the teacher asked him to leave the school early.

At that time, the audience in the theater where I was was also laughing, treating this plot as a joke.

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This scene only lasts a few minutes in the movie and did not attract much attention. Various film reviews online also ignored this plot.

However, it brought a huge impact to me, and I felt like I had met a soulmate both inside and outside the screen.

This line from Ma Jiye reminded me of a post I made to my friends in June, when I didn’t know about this movie yet.

The following is my original message from my circle of friends:

I now feel more and more that "everything is predetermined by God". Of course, the "destined by God" here is not a traditional feudal superstition, but the world we live in now is likely to be a piece of code in a computer controlled by a higher civilization. Everything you see, your so-called self-awareness, and all your actions are just the result of the operation of a higher civilization program.

Of course, I don't have any evidence or clues to prove these statements. I just want to say that in the past few years, too many things have happened around me that cannot be explained by science or probability. Even many times, when I do an action, I have a hunch about what consequences this action will cause (the action and the result are completely unrelated).

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At that time, my remarks also caused confusion among my friends.

Because I am a technology/Internet media person with nearly 20 years of work experience, there was a time when I was a thorough materialist. I absolutely do not believe in the existence of ghosts, God, heaven, or Wong Tai Sin.

My friends believe that the above-mentioned understanding of mine is occasionally a manifestation of "work pressure and hot head".

They would tell me that the world is material, and matter is an objective entity that does not depend on human consciousness. All phenomena, including natural and social phenomena, are manifestations of material movement. Regarding the understanding of supernatural phenomena such as ghosts and gods, materialists believe that these understandings often remain at the stage of perceptual understanding and lack rational analysis and scientific verification. Therefore, these understandings cannot be regarded as a true reflection of the objective world, but rather a product of subjective conjecture and superstition.

Similarly, in the past, if someone told me about supernatural phenomena, I would refute them with a materialistic point of view and comfort them by saying, "You are too tired recently. The pressure from study or work is too great. Take a good rest."

In the past 10 years, my friends who are familiar with me know that my main job is to visit various parts of the motherland. Through these years of visits, I have traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers and accumulated experience.

Now I am no longer a complete materialist.

Of course, I still firmly believe in "Technology for Good" and will lead by example to do more things to make society better.

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Back to the movie "Catch the Doll".

What I want to discuss now is that when that scene in the movie appeared, the audience in the theater regarded it as a kind of comedy effect. Smart audiences would say that Ma Jiye was trapped in "The Truman Show" without knowing it, while we, the audience standing in the God's perspective, seemed to see through everything, watching the characters in the movie perform, enjoying this kind of fun beyond the plot.

However, I think this is precisely the director's clever integration of his own ideas, which is his profound thinking and insight into our existentialism. He is not only telling a story, but also guiding us to think about some more fundamental questions: Is the world we see and perceive real? Or is it just an illusion woven for us by some higher-level existence? Who are we? What is the meaning of our existence? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

What I want to say is that when we are amused by the comedy of this movie, have we ever realized that in real life, you and I may also be manipulated and controlled by an invisible thread like the characters in the movie? Are we just chess pieces on a larger chessboard, manipulated by some unknown force?

All your self-righteous thoughts, actions, your thinking, emotions, everything about you - everything you hear, see, feel - is just the result of being controlled by an emotion, a code, or something else. Do we really have free will? Or is it just the product of some kind of program or rule?

These questions may sound absurd or even scary, but they are worth our deep consideration. You know, even Musk has said that the probability of humans living in the real world may be less than one in a billion.

Just imagine, if we find that our lives are not completely controlled by ourselves, then what is the meaning of our lives, our choices, our dreams and pursuits?

This may be a question that each of us needs to explore and answer in our own lives.