Mogwai

According to Chinese tradition, mogui are certain demons, which often inflict harm on humans. They are said to reproduce sexually during mating seasons triggered by the coming of rain. Supposedly, they take care to breed at these times because rain signifies rich and full times ahead. The term "mo" derives from the Sanskrit "Mara",[citation needed] meaning 'evil beings', which shares a cognate with the Persian "Magi" from which the English word "magic" derives. In Hinduism and Buddhism, Mara determines fates of death and desire that tether people to an unending cycle of reincarnation and suffering. He is the source of evil and purposely leads people to sin, misdeeds and self-destruction. Meanwhile, "gui" does not necessarily mean 'evil' or demonic spirits. Classically, it simply means deceased spirits or souls of the dead. Nevertheless, in modern Chinese, it has evolved to refer usually to the dead spirits or ghosts of non-family members that may take vengeance on living humans who caused them pain when they were still living. It is common for the living to redress their sins by sacrificing money to gui by burning (usually fake) paper banknotes so that gui can have funds to use in their afterlife. Notably, the modern popular use of mogui as 'demonic' and gui as 'devils' is somewhat a consequence of Western influences as Chinese-language biblical texts translate the Satan in the Book of Job and the Greek term 'diabolos' as mogui.






Mogwai in the Gremlins series

As depicted in the 1984 Joe Dante film Gremlins and its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the word mogwai is used by some Chinese characters to describe a rare sentient animal. It is a furry cute creature that if exposed to the right stimuli will transform into, and/or create (given the circumstance) gremlins. If exposed to water, it immediately reproduces more of its kind asexually by budding from its back; if it eats food after midnight, it becomes a gremlin (a more reptilian and evil creature). Sunlight will kill a mogwai (like a vampire) and other lights will annoy or hurt it. Most of the mogwai creatures are mean-spirited and mischievous, with Gizmo, the most famous mogwai, being a rare exception. Little else is revealed about the mogwai's biology. In Gremlins 2 Gizmo is taken to a laboratory, where the scientists speculate that mogwai are rodents. However, when confronted with gremlins, they believe that the gremlins are reptiles or viruses. The scientists also note they are uncertain as to whether Gizmo's cuteness is genetic. They also explain Gizmo's hatred of bright lights by calling it an allergy.
In the novel Gremlins, by George Gipe, published by Avon Books in June 1984, it is stated mogwai were created as gentle contemplative creatures by a scientist on an alien world, and that the transformation into gremlins was an unintentional effect. Also, in the novel, it is stated that for some reason, mogwai are now almost always born mischievous or just plain evil, with a very rare gentle one (such as Gizmo) viewed as an anomaly and hated by other mogwai.



Mogwai Video