After the Spring Festival, for the first time, there is a movie that can make friends circle check in one after another.
280 million in two days.
Maoyan’s box office forecast is also growing at a rate of close to 100 million per day. What kind of commercial blockbuster is
?
no.
Among this year's popular theater movies, its obscure stream of consciousness ranks first, so much so that after watching the movie, many people directly expressed doubts such as "I'm tired and can't understand":
Do you want to live? What kind of life
君たちはどう生きるか
can associate such achievements with such a style of work just because of a name:
Hayao Miyazaki.
for most viewers.
rushed to the theater to watch this movie as soon as possible, just because of his trust in him.
So this time, the old man failed to live up to expectations?
may be just the opposite.
sir actually feels that this is a rare expression of true feelings from Hayao Miyazaki.
So today, we will no longer talk about the background of the story, nor the political metaphors corresponding to the characters, fantasy creatures, etc.
just talks about growth narrative.
And this is the core of understanding the story, and it is also another layer of the answer to the movie.
(This article contains spoilers, the effect will be better after taking it after watching the movie)
1
In the first half of the movie, many viewers will keenly feel: Mr. Hayao Miyazaki this time is different from before.
Not only does the realistic scene take up a lot of space.
and it's not "comfortable".
seems to be that he still created a complete fantasy world, but compared with works such as " My Neighbor Totoro " and " Spirited Away ", his temperature is colder, the background is heavier, and the temperament is more prickly. .
for example. The first scene of the
video is not for comfort.
The sirens of air raids, the mother in the sea of fire, the young male protagonist rushing out of the house in three steps and two steps like a beast, the ferocious outside world like purgatory...
And the beginning of the fantasy adventure in the middle is not friendly either.
As an invitation, the heron shows its teeth, its head looks like a huge sarcoma, and toads crawl all over its body, which is the temptation to start the dream.
" Life " is indeed Hayao Miyazaki's work with the coldest temperament and the most personal perspective.
Why?
Exhausted talents and fatigue of self-repetition?
sir feels that the above "discomfort" is precisely because of his extreme sincerity. In this work of multiple metaphors, reflection is unprecedented .
The story of "Life" is not complicated.
The mother of the young Makoto Makoto died in a hospital fire during the war. The wealthy businessman's father married his mother's sister Natsuko as Masato's stepmother.
Natsuko is pregnant with the child, but Zhenmao does not fully accept this new "mother", and he cannot let go of the death of his biological mother.
The family moved to the pastoral mansion of their mother's family, but they discovered various anomalies in the house.
One day, Xia Zi disappeared in the tower mountain, and the heron lured the real person into the world in the tower.
real person experienced a series of fantasy adventures, and met his mother Huomei, who was the same age as himself, in the world of the tower.
He finally let go of his mother's death, rescued Natsuko, and returned to the real world to reunite with his father.
but the problem is.
Why does the first hour of the movie describe the real life of a young boy in detail?
If you read the article sir posted before.
may think that this is Hayao Miyazaki's indulgent memory of his teenage life?
is actually not.
Because it is precisely this kind of detail arrangement that we can fully understand the real male protagonist:
He is an unpleasant child.
Real people, that is, real people, and the lines in the movie express this.
Because of this, he no longer looks like the energetic witch Kiki or the little girl Chihiro who is willing to sacrifice herself. The real person has his refined, selfish and aggressive side.
He doesn't want to be associated with people.
Various people in the video commented on the real person as "arrogant".
Those overly detailed action displays we saw in the early stage may be the psychological feelings of real people.
Zhenren's self is too strong and he is addicted to the past, so in his eyes, his interactions with others are more like an external "invasion" behavior, leaving traces of discomfort everywhere.
Xia Zi and himself sat in the same rickshaw. He could clearly feel the squeeze of space and the offense of Xia Zi's movements.
He was unwilling to call Natsuko "Mom", and only said that she was "the woman his father loved." In the
story, only the real family of three is neat and clean. When
first appeared, the mothers-in-law who worked at home appeared with a kind of insect-like squirming movements, while the other students in the real class all behaved vulgarly and behaved evilly.
is not so much reality as it is the distorted world in the eyes of real people stuck in the cracks of growth. What to do with
?
responded to this "invasion", the real person's reaction was that attacked and lied about . Real people in the early days of
couldn't let go of their navy hats wherever they went.
On the one hand, it is a status symbol of an elite family, but on the other hand, it is possible that the legacy of the war is living in this boy's body.
Unlike in previous works, where the adventure begins with truth, goodness and beauty, the adventure in "Life" begins with lies .
is a real person who, in order to gain his father's love and show that he is superior to others, he used a stone to hit his head and blood.
From the moment the lying wound appeared on the forehead, the heron showed its fangs.
The real response, from wooden sticks to bows and arrows, is to fight violence with violence.
So you see.
Compared with those traditional juvenile adventure stories, Hayao Miyazaki handed the first knife to himself here.
He opened his heart.
exposed all his malice, arrogance, and fear. It was an unabashed introspection.
but the problem is.
Is this really just an autobiography of Hayao Miyazaki?
no.
In fact, what we can clearly see is that Hayao Miyazaki not only wants to simply say "anti-war", but also hopes to explore the eternal topic in the face of grand hatred and an environment of rising militarism through the growth of the boy. :
How should people live their own life.
and want to talk about such topics.
You must not be affectionate and gentle. Sometimes, you need a scalpel for self-dissection.
2
If many viewers can accurately understand the first half of "life", then the second half of "dream" is difficult for many people to understand.
It looks very scrappy.
But if you look carefully, you will find that the so-called fantasy world is actually isomorphic with the real world.
Tower World is almost the opposite of its neat counterpart in the real world.
In reality, everything is covered with green, quiet and grand;
In the high tower, flowers are blooming, and the houses are small but natural.
In reality, people are wary of appetite control. Small bowls of rice are divided into separate seats, and real people eat them blandly;
In the high tower, people are not afraid to show off killing and eating, with big knives cutting into the fish's belly, and the intestines flowing across it, everyone holding it Share food on plates.
One bite of jam bread can cost half your face.
In reality, the ships my father cherished turned into the shadow of a row of ships carrying the undead in the distance in the tower world.
In reality, the old lady Wuzi follows the real person step by step;
In the tower world, she is a female captain with strength and beauty. She acts like a teacher and a mother, allowing the real person to experience the vivid rules of survival in another world.
looks directly at desire, faces life and death, and treats life equally.
For the first time, the real person felt that the sacred moonlight could shine on his body in the small toilet.
also allowed him to truly empathize with others and be willing to bury a tired pelican who was destined to die in battle.
And this.
also became a turning point in the story.
simply put. The two worlds of
are built to allow real people to better understand the external reality. To complete the spiritual growth of a real person, one needs to experience three "mothers" .
One is Natsuko who belongs to the real world, a stepmother who is not recognized by real people.
She was pregnant and waiting for the start of a new life after the war, but she was exiled in a fantasy world and was in a state of stasis.
She exposed the first layer of falsehood in story reflection: is the hidden thorn in the relationship between people.
This mother and son adhere to etiquette, but in fact they hate each other.
But the moment they confessed the truth of "I hate you", they really extended their hands of mutual acceptance.
The second "mother" is Wuzi.
Her image changes from a squirming old woman to a lifeless little doll to a vibrant female captain.
She has no blood or social mother-child relationship with Zhenren, but she brings Zhenren into real life.
Even the scar on his forehead is exactly the same as the real person.
What she exposed was the elite’s pretense of being superior to the common people.
The third mother, Huomei.
is a victim of the war, a guide to the essence of real-life adventure, and a guide for him to complete his self-salvation by opening the book "What kind of life do you want to live".
She saw her child when she was a girl, and she was not afraid to accept her fate of dying in the flames.
What Huomei exposes is the last and sharpest layer of the film, which is the hypocrisy of the creator.
Creating a parallel world in the hope of starting over may be an escape from reality.
Yes, although the other world is beautiful, it is also a reflection of reality after all. It also has the ugliness of human nature in which people plunder and kill each other, and there are also fair checks and balances from the top who think they are right. The two worlds of
always overlap in some places.
When the Parrot King captured Huomei, the scene where the soldiers lined up to watch and worship was very similar to the scene at the beginning of the movie where people lined up to watch the armored vehicles and children imitated the movements of soldiers.
The growth of the entire movie is to shatter the hypocrisy of the rulers who stand at the top, maintain blood purity, and stand under the aura of the Meiji Restoration.
The real person overturned the self-righteous building blocks of my great uncle.
Those building blocks that are thought to be noble and used for checks and balances are essentially pebbles full of malice and criticism of others. The sparks caused by the pebbles are wars that destroy lives.
Human history has repeatedly demonstrated that many atrocities are committed in the name of justice and self-righteousness.
is a real person, a child of a family with vested interests in the war, and an ordinary person suffering from PTSD due to violence.
He finally stroked his scars and admitted all his lies, cowardice and guilt.
completed the subversion, and he also had the courage to look directly at the reality, "Go back to the real world full of violence, injury, and lies." The moment
walked out of the dream, he was caught by the arrogant elite. The protective tower was also toppled.
Yes.
"Life" is not just Hayao Miyazaki's private memory.
In the official movie commentary released by Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki talked about the film "Heron" as a gift to his grandson.
also hopes that when it is released.
"Whether the world ends in turmoil or plunges into a new disaster, this film can transcend the times."
Is it possible?
sir doesn't know.
But at least from the perspective of the film itself, this story does not belong to a certain era.
3
Perhaps for many people, disappointment is inevitable when watching "Life".
Hayao Miyazaki seems to have changed.
It is no longer light, no longer "interesting". In this story, even the cute wow wow, Hayao Miyazaki gave them to be burned by flames in the moonlight, like the spray of blood vessels.
Simply put.
It is thick enough and real enough.
no longer "pleases" the audience.
This personal turn has caused another name to appear frequently in Douban’s comment area—Hideaki Anno.
I believe many people have heard the story of Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno. Hideaki Anno once worked in Hayao Miyazaki's studio and was "abused" miserably.
Even "eva", which later became a cultural phenomenon in Japan, was evaluated by Hayao Miyazaki as "too self-centered".
But these two animation authors, whether they include the myths about home, country, world, and war in their broad imagination, or they are indulged in their own spiritual world, dealing with the repeated friction between themselves and others.
is here now.
What they want to express tends to be the same: "Dreams are an extension of reality, and reality is the end of dreams."
finally chose to "come out and face" .
So from this perspective, "Life" is indeed an extremely personal author's film.
It was a hit at the box office.
just stems from our trust in the name Hayao Miyazaki (according to the fan circle, he is a director who can single-handedly carry the box office).
but at the same time.
This is also Hayao Miyazaki's most sincere work.
In the past, the fantasy paradise he created was always a kind of spiritual freedom that was different from the mainstream, giving us the courage and sobriety to go against the established reality.
Now, in the reflection of illusion and the pain of growth, we follow this old man into the real world and travel through our own hearts.
This is the power of movies. At the end of
"Life", the reason why the real person did not forget about it after his adventure like in the fairy tale is that he left traces of another world:
building blocks and dolls.
After watching Hayao Miyazaki's heavy life work, we also treasure the fragments of imaginative inspiration.
We choose not to forget him.
The pictures in this article come from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Tu Yile
