Try to be kind to yourself and the people you meet. Maybe everyone you meet is fighting a tough life battle. ——Meg Jay
Not long ago, wrote a film review of Shunji Iwai's "Love Letter". Many people, like me, met Shunji Iwai through "Love Letters" and other films. In people's eyes, Shunji Iwai is a director who is good at making beautiful and pure love stories, so he was labeled "Youth Love" and "Aesthetic and Innocent" "Director tag.
I didn't really understand Shunji Iwai with so many faces until I watched the high-scoring crime drama "Swallowtail Butterfly" with a completely different style.
Today’s article, I would like to talk about the thinking that this film brought to me from two major aspects. The first part of
, , starts with the audiovisual language of the film, including the background, characters, plot, music, and narrative method, and makes a simple summary and analysis.
The second part , through the theme and connotation expressed in the film, combined with the characters in the film, analyzes with psychology: how to complete self-salvation in adversity, recover from trauma, and finally break through the cocoon and become a butterfly to have a better life?
01
1, "Swallowtail Butterfly" and "Love Letter" are written and directed by Shunji Iwai based on his own novel of the same name, but it is completely different from the style of "Love Letter". Its themes are classified as crime, plot, humanity, Youth and growth, the whole story frame is grand and dark, and the style of painting is gloomy and heavy. The film reveals the depiction of the human nature of the marginal characters at the bottom, showing the reality and mental state of people on the margins of society from different angles. The film
was released on September 14, 1996, with a Douban score of 8.7. The background of the story is at the peak of the Japanese economy. It tells the story of a group of "yuan thieves" who flocked to the "Yuandu" gold panning from all directions. They are struggling for dreams and survival. Although their feet are stuck in the mire, they always have all the good things in their hearts, ultimately love and kindness. Their instincts let them break out of cocoons and become butterflies, grow angel wings, and fly in the bright sunshine like swallowtail butterflies.
Yuandu,, Chinese words mean: the place where gods live in Taoist legends. From the poem "Beiyue" by Yuan Hao asked: "Who can lend me two yellow birds with long sleeves and a flick of Yuandumen." In the
film, "Gento" is Japan's Tokyo, and "Gento" is an illegal immigrant.
2, It takes some patience to watch Iwai Shunji's works. His film has a slow narrative and is of a slow-hot type. The first half of the film is relatively boring, and the emotion and suspense of the film are often left to the end, which makes people surprised.
Although the plot of "Swallowtail Butterfly" is fictitious, it is based on a real historical background. In any case, the real thing is always easier to move people's hearts.
Before shooting the movie, Shunji Iwai took a long time in the MV and commercials. The things he shot at this time constituted his own understanding of the image, and also formed his image style. In Shunji Iwai's movies, we often can See this MV-style narrative method.
In the narrative of "Swallowtail Butterfly", although there are many scenes in the film, the director did not photograph the transition between them, but played down the connection between the scenes in the film, the bustling city and the dirty opium street, As well as the "blue sky" second-hand goods market, many scenes are presented separately, which can better highlight the differences between them, expressing the contrast of human characteristics under the different values expressed by different scenes. Each scene in the
film has its own meaning: the flea market represents poverty and freedom; the city represents fertility but snobbery; Opium Street represents sordid and hopelessness. These scenes are presented individually to achieve the best contrast effect. Make the characters in the play more full and real. With a narrative like
, if you take out many of the clips separately, it will be an independent and complete MV. In the
3 and films, the director uses music as the basis to form fragments of fragmented shots with a sense of emotion, supplemented by frequent switching of the main color, making the style of the film very unique, and also creating a lot of young and romantic temperament. A cruel fairy tale in reality. The
film uses a lot of space to express music. The song "MyWay" appeared 4 times before and after, once when the protagonist secretly buried the body of the second master of the gang and drove away; once appeared in the first chorus of Couliguo and the band; and once when Feihong was inThe night before the death of the police station; and the final humming of Yajia and Couliguo when weaving the garland, all echoed the theme very well.
"MyWay" is a famous English pop song in Europe and the United States that has taken the world by storm. It begins with the phrase "And now, the end is near", telling the story of an old man who is about to die, when his life is about to end. , He looked back to his friends around his life, cried, laughed, loved and hated, and told how he was strong and confident to face the challenges of life. In the rushing years, he has not much to regret, he is proud of his life, and walks out of his own life.
"MyWay" uses the original English version sung by Frank Sinaqu in the film. It is said that Iwai Shunji insisted on using the original version at the time, so he had a dispute with the screenwriter Makoto Kawai. In the end, Kawai gave in and spent several times the cost to purchase the right to use the original version. Another interesting point of
is that the film incorporates Japanese, English, and Chinese, and it constantly switches, which reflects the lack of belonging of the gangsters who have left their homes, and makes the audience feel the kind of people in the play. The helplessness and bitterness of no home. They will always be a group of people on the fringes of the city who cannot find a place to belong.
4, Finally, do a simple analysis of the characters in the play.
(1) Huo Feihong , from Shanghai, had no legal residency, made a living in the flea market, and was later violently beaten to death by the police for making counterfeit money.
Feihong hoped that Couliguo would succeed in the worldly sense and become a singer, and even gave up his love for her.
Actually, Feihong’s ending is metaphorical at the beginning of the movie. Feihong has leg problems, so it hurts to walk when it rains, implying that Feihong is a butterfly with broken wings and can never fly high.
(2) Gu Liguo came to Yuandu from Shanghai with two elder brothers. After the second elder brother was hit and killed by a car, he was also separated from the eldest brother. In order to survive, she became a prostitute, but she was kind and energetic.
Couliguo is a prostitute. Although her fate is rough, she is more kind. When she can't protect herself, she takes in Yajia, and considers her as a younger sister to take care of her.
Couliguo was born with a good voice like an angel, and finally became a singer as she wished, but Couliguo, who achieved worldly success, was not happy. After Couliguo escaped from the dead, finally lived a peaceful and happy life with Yajia.
(3) Yajia is a poor girl. She didn’t even have a name at the beginning. Her mother died and was almost sold. Fortunately, she met Couliguo to take care of her, and she painted on her chest. A larva, and named her "Yaka".
Yajia initially thought that money could buy back the life she was asking for, but Feihong’s death made her realize that even with so much money, the most precious things could not be bought back. So after Feihong died, they paid The money was burned, sacrificed to Feihong, and he found his identity at the [Qingkong] repair station-Yuandu people. At the end of
, they understand: money does not really bring happiness, but keeping their kindness and simplicity in their original intentions allows them to gain peace. Director
gave Yuan Pirates a lot of sympathy and praise in the play. Through Feihong singing "MyWay" before his death, Gu Liguo decided to take care of Yajia, even the brutal gang boss Liu Liangkui was saved. Human kindness, the snobbery record company and the police violent against Feihong all reflect the director's deep portrayal of the humanity of the characters in the film.
As the director embodies, human nature is not simply as evil as the devil, nor is it just as good as angels; it is also not the inherent goodness of human nature or the inherent evil that we have always thought of, it is complex and multifaceted. We Human nature cannot be viewed with a dualistic thinking of black and white, that human nature is either good or evil, or good or bad, but from the essence and perspective of life.
A good film, in addition to allowing the audience to appreciate the film’s audio-visual language, character creation and plot structure, the most important thing is to trigger people’s life and growth through the theme and connotation expressed in the film. Deep thinking is the great significance and unique charm of a good movie.
And the greatest charm of "Swallowtail Butterfly" lies in this.
02
The fragment of Yajia's tattoo on Opium Street is the real title of "Swallowtail Butterfly". This very important segment reveals the real theme of the movie. Here, she changed from a caterpillar to a swallowtail butterfly. The swallowtail butterfly has meaning. She symbolizes that in the most miserable and desperate life, the yearning for freedom and all the good hopes still remain in people’s hearts. .
"Swallowtail Butterfly" represents the meaning of hope. It was revealed for the first time, and this meaning runs through the movie.
Under the guidance of the doctor, Yajia, who was tattooing, finally remembered chasing butterflies as a child. In the toilet, Yajia crushed the swallowtail butterfly. As an adult, Yajia finally decided to engrave it on her chest. This clip of
is very touching. In childhood, Yajia was in such a dirty toilet and in such a bad environment, even if her mother was picking up guests in the next room, she was still playing the house so seriously, preparing the world for her little doll. The most exquisite food in the world, this exquisite food is the water scooped out of the toilet and the trash out of the trash can. Even so, she still imagined the most beautiful things.
The vitality in this kind of adversity is so powerful, how did it come from, and what meaning will this childhood adversity bring to your growth? How do successful people complete their own salvation in adversity?
1, Just like everyone seems to experience memories, growth, dreams, childhood, and first love, most of us have experienced childhood adversity in our childhood.
American clinical psychologist Meg Jay told us in the book "We have all been injured, but we have a better life" that most people at can come out of childhood adversity, because of that adversity The setbacks, blows and hurts you bring to you will make you different from others, you become stronger, you have the abilities that others don’t, and those childhood adversities bring positive promotion and strength. .
Psychologists have brought us a set of data, all kinds of childhood injuries are added together, if you want to spend your childhood smoothly, or that some people have never had any injuries in childhood, his childhood is simple, Healthy, but this kind of people account for only 25% of the whole society, that is to say, 75% of people have had childhood adversity more or less.
How did childhood adversity come from? Too many, such as before the age of 20:
parents or siblings have died. Family members of
often yell at you, hit you, insult you, isolate you, or act like you are scared.
family members have alcoholism or drug abuse.
was bullied at school.
family members who have phantom mental illness
live in a very poor family. The
family members have been to prison.
was sexually assaulted and so on.
All these are the source of childhood adversity. Childhood adversity will bring great harm to our body and mind. These injuries will slowly become secrets, hidden in our subconscious. It is like a nightmare, but you can’t express it. These injuries will give you later Bring complex psychological problems.
But Meg Jay said in the book: All of these people who have experienced many childhood adversities, most of them will find ways to cope with and save themselves, and be able to come out of adversity, and have the ability to become a super normal person. This ability is called "resilience".
The human body is resilient. Although we have experienced various blows and setbacks, we can still walk out of our starting story.
2, What is resilience?
According to the American Psychological Association, the so-called resilience of refers to a person's ability to show strong self-adaptability in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy or continuous major stress. Despite facing severe challenges, they can still achieve success. A core meaning of of resilience is: people behave better than expected in adversity, and when encountering many disadvantages, these people are always able to work in a good direction.
psychologists say that what affects many of us is our own starting story.
starting pointA story is the earliest story that affects each of us. It is the story that will bring you harm. This is the most important picture of our childhood adversity.
Now we know that the resilience in the body can help us out of childhood adversity.
So, how does a super successful deal with childhood adversity?
In the book, the author proves through many long-term follow-up cases that any kind of childhood adversity can mobilize coping methods and use the body's resilience to complete self-salvation.
(1) The first way to deal with it is: anger. Children who have suffered school violence can use anger to initiate self-healing.
It turned out that anger itself is also a means of healing, a way of self-help. Anger can create a sense of existence, make people recognize reality and existing conditions, and recognize their own value. In the case of
, the little boy suffered from school violence. He was scared and pleased to be very angry at the beginning. The little boy began to save himself. He kept practicing running every day to make his body gradually become stronger. To learn Jiu-Jitsu, you can People who easily subdue to bully him. Because of his persistence in training, he developed good habits and superpowers to overcome difficulties and solve problems, and finally became an officer in the army.
British child psychiatric psychologist Michael Rutter explained: The whole process of the little boy is a kind of tempering effect. Although ruthless and excessive pressure and frustration are not good for us, moderate pressure is not a bad thing. After experiencing stress, we will not be so afraid of the fears that will be triggered by future difficulties. We will start to regard threats and problems as situations that can be controlled.
Many parents now paved a particularly smooth road for their children very early, paving a road to the sky without difficulties and setbacks. They are always afraid that their children will suffer and endure hardships, making their children lose the ability to defend and cope with difficulties. A certain survivability. In fact, the reason is very simple. If you want to harden something and turn iron into steel, you need to put pressure on him, give him frustration, and make him stronger and more capable.
(2) The second way to deal with it is: escape from the heart. The little girl in the case of
, her mother is a mentally ill patient, has a very serious two-way emotional disorder, she lives alone with her mother, this is a scary thing for a child.
The response method adopted by the little girl is: escape from the bottom of her heart, a kind of magic she invented by herself. She makes the world out of focus, away from her mother, and her inner self generates a way of escape, and then stays away from the surroundings. Environment, escape from the mentally ill mother that would harm her.
Every time her mother gets sick, she will focus on one thing. No matter how her mother yells at her or pulls her, she can't feel it. She uses this method to protect herself.
Later, the girl was admitted to a good school, went to work and live in a new city, and completed self-salvation.
Of course, this method cannot be overused, otherwise it will make the child suffer from paranoia. The case of
reminds me of "Swallowtail Butterfly", Yajia, who played house in the toilet when she was a child, was immersed in her world attentively without being affected by the harsh external environment. This should also be a kind of heart. The escape from the depths is an inner healing power, using his own resilience to deal with the harsh environment around her.
We don't want this kind of thing to happen to our children, but if we encounter it unfortunately, we must be full of hope and believe that things are not that bad, and we can choose to lose focus with the world like a girl.
We often say not to escape, but to face it bravely, but sometimes avoiding is not necessarily a bad thing. Avoiding in another world can also be creation, self-repair and healing.
(3) There are many other ways to deal with childhood adversity: secrets, vigilance, masks, alienation restart, anti-heroes, etc. Many cases in the book
prove to us that those who are in adversity and frustration can always work hard in a good direction.
has a set of data that is very shocking, that is, one in every nine people loses their parents before the age of 20. A child who loses a parent will accompany the pain throughout his life, but it will make the child mature and become strong. There are many When children lose their parents, in order to survive, they become strong, self-disciplined, and successful.
No one wants to lose their loved ones, but in case of misfortune, most children can use their strong resilience to get out of the pain and restart their lives.
There are ways to cope with all kinds of childhood adversities. Of course, the ones we read are individual cases. In reality, many people’s lives are broken and ruined by childhood adversities, and some childhood adversities haunt us like nightmares. I can't come out for a lifetime. In the
movie "Harvard Road", the heroine and Liz also had a deep childhood trauma and experienced childhood adversity. She has lived in a slum since she was a child, and her parents are both "addicts." She started begging at the age of 8, her mother died of AIDS at the age of 15, and her father entered the shelter and lived on the street. She returned to school at the age of 17, and changed her destiny ever since. From this girl, we have also seen how to overcome difficulties and obstacles. A kind of spirit, a kind of motivation to face self-choice in life. All these superheroes,
, give us great hope. Let us know that as long as you have hope, you can also step out to find your coping method in adversity, and use your own resilience to restart your life. , Get happiness and become a superhero.
written at the end
In fact, no matter what kind of coping method, love is the greatest power to heal misfortune, your love for others and the love that others give you.
Trauma will never go away, but love can overcome fear .
Meg’s last few passages in the book moved me very much. I think I have benefited a lot. I hope to keep these words in my heart. Now I give it to you and hope it will help you:
(1) Keep fighting spirit inside. Make yourself stronger and overcome obstacles on the road .
There is no need to always feel sorry for the time when you were angry before, and there is no need to always feel ashamed for the past. People with strong adaptability come along the way of struggle and growth.
Remember , you have to find ways to create some inner peace for yourself.
Find someone to tell your secret. If that person is wrong, try another person. If
was not well taken care of when you were young, you should take good care of yourself as an adult. Have a personal checkup every year, sleep well, eat well, play well, exercise well, work well and rest well.
(2) If you think you may be suffering from depression, anxiety, insomnia or other stress-related diseases, you must ask a psychologist .
Remember , even if you have struggled internally, you can still become a resilient person and a good person.
Yoga and meditation can also help reduce stress, but this is not the only way.
You can focus on things that you think are natural, such as reading, running, cycling, nature, movies, etc., to keep your spirit away from the painful past, which in itself is a powerful self-healing power.
Stay away from the things and people that bring you hurt and heartbreak, so as not to be traumatized again.
Protect yourself from harm, but don’t block love outside. In your life, make good people feel more present than bad people.
(3) Grasp your present, so that your past will not appear so prominent in life. We have different definitions of success and adversity, and different definitions of ordinary and normal.
Find someone who loves you and someone you love. There is no need to choose a position in life, a diversified vision will enrich our choices.
If you have children , then ask yourself according to your expectations of your parents, let yourself become your ideal parents, and build your ideal family according to your expectations. However, must resist the urge to protect children from all harm and let them learn to be strong . Life will inevitably create difficulties for children. Children develop empathy and receive various forms of care in the process of overcoming difficulties and solving problems.
What you want others to do for you, you do for your children.
The moment of injury is always inevitable, but the psychologist Sand Berg said: Those times that carry suffering are fundamentally challenging.Every day you persist will ultimately determine what kind of person you will be.
(I am the catkins in August, I am here, waiting for you, waiting for the wind.)
