Just finished watching the last episode of a Chinese TV show 极限挑战(Go Fighting), which is an game-variety-reality show filled with challenges and tasks and it has been on for about four years. The last challenge of the last episode I watched was letting the five members/actors escape an island by going through a tunnel in a limited time, which represents their lifespan. If they failed to escape the tunnel in the given time, all the pictures in their phones would be deleted, (as they would lose all their memories from outside world).
After entering the tunnel, they were obstructed by a gate with some patterns on it. In order to open the gate, they had to solve the puzzle, so they went back looking for clues. They found out there was a chair in the half way to the gate, and one person had to sit on it to keep the gate open, which means one person had to sacrifice himself to let other people survive and keep moving. Therefore, one person whose feet got hurt earlier in the show stayed, and the rest continued. As they went through the tunnel, there were several gates in their way and each gate had different puzzle and required one person to stay to keep the gate open. The escaping team members were getting less and less. Time was running unstoppably and everyone was sweating from their foreheads to their feet. In the end, only one person called Bo got out with ten to twenty seconds remaining. I don’t think this was scripted beforehand. So Bo survived and he could keep all his memories. As he escaped and walked out of the tunnel, he kept looking back at the last gate and wondering if the TV show director was releasing his friends since he completed the task, but they didn’t. He couldn’t smile to the camera because his success was exchanged with all his friends’ sacrifices.
Then the camera switched to the people who were stuck in the different levels. As the timer was counting down, one person said, “They all have been my best friends together for four years, and if I have to choose one person to remember before I’m gone, I would choose…” He paused, “Umm… There’re so many…” Then his eyes turned wet. With the background music, it’s so easy to relate and get emotional with this scene and his words. And there’s another person who were stuck because he had to hold a picture against the tunnel wall to keep the gate open. In front of him, there were about twenty pictures on the wall capturing their past memories from previous episodes and seasons. He stared at those pictures and his eyes were filled with tears, “It’s been four years. We have gone through so many…”
I love this TV show because it’s not only entertaining but it can also reflect ourselves, bring us positivity and make us think about the definition of love.
We are really lucky to have those who we can share thoughts and go through difficulties together in our life.
Thank you!
Junshuai Feng 