"Nezha's Devil Boy Comes to the World" is probably the biggest dark horse this summer, and it has conquered a large number of fans in the form of national style animation. Like similar movies such as "The Return of the Great Sage", this movie's impressive performance has once again caused fans to comment that "domestic animation movies have risen".
In the author's opinion, the film itself is indeed trying to present a Chinese-style value connotation, but the traces imported from it are still obvious. Perhaps this film is the beginning of the awakening of a certain type of movie, but after this beginning, there is still a long journey waiting.
1 | Myths and Retelling
French philosopher Michel Foucault once said: "The important thing is the age of telling myths, not the age of myths." Because, in different ages, people will recreate myths The sorting and adaptation of the myths allows the myths to express their demands. The same goes for Nezha, the big IP.
After Nezha in "The Romance of the Gods" returned to his parents, he had an impulse to kill his father to Li Jing who burned his temple. It may express his dissatisfaction with the family ethics of father, father and son under the patriarchy; In ", the part of killing the father is deleted, and the part of attacking the dragon palace is added, which reflects the decisiveness to eradicate evil; "Legend of Nezha" makes Nezha cute and cute.
In this movie, Nezha still undergoes drastic changes. In my opinion, the two most important dimensions of this adaptation are the call for family affection and the struggle against the subject and destiny. The former brings out the modern function of Nezha story, while the latter reveals the difference in value connotation between the East and the West.
2|Family and temperature
Chinese people are probably an ethnic group that attaches great importance to family, we are eager to get temperature and comfort from family. Unfortunately, in the modern changes, the past family concept can no longer take on such a responsibility; on the contrary, the conflict between the individual and the original family and the dissatisfaction with the new family have made "family" a negative term.
"Magic Boy" reconstructs a story about family. In this movie, the Nezha family is more like a modern Chinese family. Li Jing is no longer a simple head of the family. On the contrary, he needs to coax his wife and occasionally accompany his son with a smiley face; Madam Yin is not only a gentle and virtuous internal helper, but also swearing, she can also go out to seduce demons. Become the backbone of the family; and this childhood Nezha is probably like our childhood, because of the work of our parents, we lack the company of our family.
In such a family, the new story still presents a kind of family love. In fact, the nature of love has remained the same, the same is the sacrifice that does not count: Li Jing is willing to give up her life for his wife and children, Madam Yin is willing to fight for the family like a rough man, and Nezha is also willing to fight against her friends. , Rescued Chentangguan and faced the catastrophe alone.
In this atomic family, concealment and misunderstanding still exist, but when the knot is uncovered, the three of them will still be moved by each other’s efforts, and the same emotions will overflow the screen, moving beyond the story Movie viewers have become the biggest tear gas bomb in the film. The emotional outpouring of
is touching, probably because the viewers desire for family love. Here, "Magic Boy" seems to fulfill a major duty of art: to speak for others the desires and hopes they want to say but cannot.
3|The other dimension of fate and subject
"Magic Boy" lies in the vulgar sentence "My fate is up to me." This is actually an important difference between Eastern and Western cultures. In Western culture, destiny is immutable, which is probably something they have determined since the origin of civilization.
In Greek mythology, fate is the most irresistible. Even Zeus, the king of the gods, cannot escape. The tragedy of Oedipus is a clear proof: even if he was abandoned at birth, he could still meet his father at a corner, kill him easily, and be able to meet his mother and marry her in a brave time.
In Hebrew civilization, destiny is in the hands of God, but his will still cannot be violated. Therefore, because of a word of God, Abraham can give birth to a son at a hundred years old, and he must silently sacrifice his own son. Even if he does nothing wrong, he must endure the so-called "temptation." In such a tradition, "I cannot control my fate" is the true portrayal.
And the East is not. Buddhism teaches that karma is karma. A person’s present is the result of his/her past actions, and his/her future depends on him/her.Her words and deeds at the moment; Taoism preaches the inheritance of descendants, and the influence of human behavior will be passed down from generation to generation. The Eastern concept of destiny is quite interesting in that "existence precedes essence". People decide what their essence is in their constant existence.
is the same as Nezha in "The Magic Boy". His fate will be changed because of the choices of others or himself. Due to Shen Gongbao’s surprise calculation, Nezha’s inheritance is no longer the spirit ball but the magic pill; due to the meticulous education of the three of Li Jing, the magic pill not only learns from evil, but also learns how to think for others and how to demon; C’s kindness, Magic Pill and Lingzhu are no longer a natural pair, they have become friends who are going through the heavens together...
Nezha said, what kind of person is only one can decide, and this is also The inner logic of the whole story. Who Nezha is depends on himself, depends on the people around him, not a vast and speechless heavenly way, or the incarnation of the Sanqing that has never appeared. Although
's style of "My life depends on my life" is bad, it is also trying to plan an Eastern style of narrative. However, this does not mean that the movie "Magic Boy" is flawless.
4|Imperfections and Imports
In terms of the film's expression form, it is true that the green mountains and rivers and the shrine pictures and the dialect form of Taiyi real people have become embellishments with Chinese characteristics. However, his style of painting still seems to have left too many traces of foreign comics. Its own character modeling reminds me of Earl Dracula in "Hotel Spirit" or the various males in "Mulan"; the design of the scene seems not so Chinese. This learning and integration is probably the beginning of innovation, but it is far from the end of innovation.
And in terms of the completeness of the story, this movie still needs further refinement. The movie clearly shows high-level powers such as Yuanshi, Tianting, and Yuxu Twelve Golden Immortals. They seem to be the spokespersons of the so-called destiny, but this "destiny" seems too empty. In the face of Shen Gongbao and the dragon's small movements, they did not move, which seemed to reflect the mediocrity of the so-called fate. Since the opponent is so weak, Nezha's resistance and success seem to have been weakened invisibly. In fact, similar contradictions are no longer in the minority.
5|About the expectation that
"Nezha: The Devil Child" is a good film, but this does not mean that he is a perfect film. In the long-term drying up of domestic films, Chinese moviegoers will probably see hope like a long drought when they see every remarkable film. However, we still have a long way to go before the maturity and even the rise of Chinese animation films.
