Revisiting The Gremlins Franchise & Mogwais In Chinese Folklores

How's it going lurkers? How did you enjoy your Thanksgiving? My Thanksgiving wasn't horrible. However, my mother and I DID manage to dodge a really nasty car accident, last Wednesday.

Hopefully, everyone's Thanksgiving Day went well with family and friends. 

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we must prepare for Krampus Day, Saint Nicholas Day, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, and Christmas Day.

I am sure that some of you will be celebrating this "festive" season with Christmas films whether they are the stereotypical Lonely Romance Comedies, or something creepy like Christmas Slashers. You may even want to go the Horror Comedy route with Gremlins, for example.

After all, Gremlins is technically a Christmas Horror Comedy film. The original movie is set during the time of Christmas. I published a blog years ago about the Gremlins audiobooks. In addition to my blog about the Gremlins audiobooks, I published another blog last June about the disturbing dream I had about killing Gremlins. Then, I briefly explained about mogwai in Chinese folklores.

So, to delve into more detail about these FUGLY monsters, the term "mo" derives from the Sanskrit "Mara," meaning "evil beings," which shares a cognate with the Persian "Magi" from which the English word "magic" derives. This is according to tribe.net.

Mara in BOTH Buddhism and Hinduism determines the fates of death and desire, that tether people to an unending cycle of reincarnation and suffering. He is the source of wickedness and purposely leads people to sin, misdeeds, and self-destruction. 

"Gui," on the other hand, does not necessarily mean "evil" or "demonic spirits." Gui simply means "deceased spirits" or "souls of the dead." 

In modern Chinese, gui has evolved into normally referring to the spirits/ghosts of unrelated family members seeking their revenge on mortals, who have caused them anguish, when they were still alive. 

It is common for mortals to rectify their sins by sacrificing money to gui by burning (usually fake) paper banknotes so that gui can have funds to use in their afterlife.

Also, Tribe.net states that the modern popular use of mogui as "demonic" and gui as "devils" are somewhat outcomes of Western influences.

Satan in The Book of Job is translated as "diabolos" in Greek and "mogui" in the Chinese Biblical texts. Therefore, Satan is "Mogui" in Chinese. 

Whenever you have the chance to re-watch Gremlins, you will have a slightly better understanding about mogwai in Chinese folklores.

As I briefly explained in my Killing Gremlins blog (which you can click on and read below), the water or rain to be more exact, is for reproduction during the mating seasons.

Mogwai in Gremlins are depicted as asexual creatures with the ability to morph into dangerous monsters. 

The scientists in Gremlins 2: The New Batch believed, that Gremlins are either mischievous and mean-spirited reptiles, or simply viruses.

You learn something new everyday!

Because Gremlins is a Christmas Horror Comedy movie and because today's blog is about mogwai in Chinese folklores, let's revisit the Gremlins audiobooks and my dream about killing them for another Throwback Thursday.

Who Remembers The Gremlins Audiobooks From Hardee's? (2013)

Have You Ever Killed Gremlins In Your Dreams? (2015)

Have You Ever Killed Gremlins In Your Dreams?

How's it going lurkers? The other day, I had this really odd dream. Considering the timing, it was a bit strange. 

Those, who have been subscribed to me for the last 2 years already know, that I published a blog about Gremlins and its audiobooks.

As I was saying, I had descended our basement stairs (I haven't visited our basement, since the last days of The Bush Administration). 

A shadow of strange-looking ears flopped around with highly pitched cackling. I peeped around the corner of our basement and noticed there were Gremlins. They turned our basement into a recreational lounge!

Staring with both eyes, I did a double-take, while asking myself, "What the hell? Am I hallucinating or something?!" 

This led to yours truly grabbing 1 of our many brooms. My family will tell you, that I am always killing bugs (mostly spiders) with a broom. 

LOTS of damage can be done with a thick piece of wood and twigs, when you put enough force into it.

After putting on my gym shoes and grabbing a broom, I ran downstairs yelling, "GET UP! GET YOUR UGLY ASS UP, RIGHT NOW!!!" There was 1 Gremlin lounging on his bean bag, while giving me a cocky look.

"Don't give me that look. You know what I said just now. Get up or I'll make you."  Because he wanted to be a defiant demon, I whacked him upside the head with my broom.

Out of nowhere, another Gremlin threw a knife at me from the side. He didn't stab me. However, he did graze the side of my face. 

"This is the part where you start running. That knife just costed you your life."  That smug, piece of shit Gremlin, that was lounging on his bean bag finally got up and wanted to fight me.

"Oh, now you wanna do somethin', huh?" I took the end of the broomstick and jabbed him in the eyes with it, as he squealed.

Next thing I knew, the knife throwing Gremlin jumped on my back. I bit his slimy hand so hard, that he bled profusely. 

Then, I crushed it and began using him as a shield for the other Gremlin, that wanted to fight me.

The pompous lounger ended up killing his jumping friend. When he killed the jumper by accident, I chased that lounger around the house, until I was finally able to break my broom in 1/2, stake him, and force the broom through his throat.

Finally, I woke up that afternoon (The daytime's my Vampire Sleeping Hours) and asked myself, "What the fuck was that all about?"  I soon remembered that it is June.

June 8, 2015, will officially be 31 years, since the release of the movie, Gremlins. 6 days later, I will be turning 33.

Talk about strange! I'll leave you with these interesting facts:

Mogwai is an ambiguous word. In Cantonese, it can mean "monster," "evil spirit," "devil," or "demon." 

According to what I recently learned on Wikipedia, Mogwais [魔怪] exist in Chinese folklores. 

Supposedly, they are harm-inflicting demons, that reproduce during the mating seasons.

A Mogwai's reproduction is normally triggered by rain. The rain is suppose to denote "rich and full times ahead." 

Mogwais can also personify ghosts of unrelated family members, that swear vengeance on mortals, who caused them anguish when they were still alive. 

Learning can sometimes be so very interesting. It's amazing what we learn.

So, have you ever killed Gremlins in your dreams? What are your thoughts about this?