If you describe an animated movie like this, the protagonist in the movie constantly recalls the past time, and then the plot is advanced by relying on today's self to make one evaluation after another of the self in the memory, will you instantly feel that this animated movie is familiar? This is because many animated films are aimed at either attacking reality, satirizing the past, or inspiring the future by comparing the protagonist's memory self with the real life self.
The combination of virtual and real is a very common film shooting method,
Whether it is an animated film or a live-action movie, this technique is very common and is also a well-known performance method for many directors. Of course, different directors will also put their own exclusive labels through the combination of virtual and real, just like the famous Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki. He likes to use the combination of virtual and real in his works, and labels it as "environmental protection" or "anti-war" and other Miyazaki styles.
But Takahata, another animation master who also came from Studio Ghibli, often did not like to wear such a "big hat" on his works, and he was more like a realistic painter. Compared with the overhead worlds in Miyazaki's animation, Takahata is more interested in depicting the real world, and his combination of virtual and real does not have such and such "great labels", some are just a warm human sketch that happens around you and me.
Director Takahata's 1991 animated film "Fairy Tale of the Years" is such a warm and healing little story. It does not have any grand themes and tear-jerking love stories, it only has a slow shot language and a beautiful soundtrack; the memories of the protagonist in the story do not have any twists and turns, some are just small stories that happen to you and me like childhood or happiness, or feelings, or sadness.
The protagonist of the story may be about the same age as you and me, and even the funny things that happened in her childhood are the same as you and me, but such a simple documentary-like small story can move us beyond the grand themes of other stories, precisely because of its truth.
Myoko is a 27-year-old Tokyo white-collar worker, and in a fast-paced metropolis like Tokyo, work and life are about to fill this girl who is about to say goodbye to the flower season. However, in the face of the hustle and bustle and convenience of the metropolis, Myoko has had a dream since she was a child, that is, to experience the joy of farm life in the countryside, but since her parents' generation, she has settled in Tokyo, so she has no relatives in the countryside, so Myoko's dream since childhood has been delayed.
This little wish of Myoko may be a "common disease" for today's urban people. The daily "tug-of-war" between work and bed has long exhausted us physically and mentally, and many people dream of getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city, "escaping" into a small village with no quarrels with the world, and enjoying the pleasant and idle farm life.
Myoko finally took a ten-day vacation from the company to go to her eldest sister's in-law's in-laws, Yamagata Prefecture, to enjoy the "pastoral life" she had dreamed of since she was a child. If the whole movie is just a story about Myoko as an urban person, spending a happy vacation in the countryside, and then returning to the city to continue to work hard after full of feelings, then "Fairy Tale of the Years" will not surprise so many people, and the director of this film, Takahata Hoon, does not take such a "cheesy" routine.
In the film, the 27-year-old Myoko can often "meet" with the 10-year-old Myoko 17 years ago, and Takahata cleverly arranges the "two Myoko" in the same shot, such as the 27-year-old Myoko sitting in a daze on the train seat to the countryside in the next second, and the next second the 10-year-old Myoko magically ejects her own little head from the train car.
10-year-old Xiao Miaozi has the same joys and troubles as all of us in childhood, she is also picky, willful, and loves to play with small tempers; she will also make up all kinds of small reasons to excuse herself in front of her mother because of the miserable exams; she will blush like a small apple because of the nia'ji age when she first opened her love sinuses; she will also be secretly moved by the wonderful performance of a sunny, handsome boy in the game...
10-year-old Myoko seems to be like all of us at that age, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes confused and sometimes moving, it is such a colorful picture that makes up our colorful childhood.
One of the reasons why "The Fairy Tale of Time" can resonate greatly is that director Takahata's depiction of childhood is so real and even "bone-chilling". The childhood story of Myoko on the screen is a story that takes place in the childhood of all of us, without deliberate beautification or fabrication, purely restoring the bittersweet and bittersweet of each of our childhoods into the movie.
I don't think everyone's childhood is perfect, but the childhood memories in most animations are different from the memories of you and me in real life. Myoko's childhood memories in "The Fairy Tale of the Years" are like a time machine, so that we seem to "see" ourselves at that age when watching the movie, and this kind of personal experience-like memory is more likely to resonate with all of us than the "beautified" childhood.
Myoko, who had longed for a long time in the countryside, finally got her wish, and she came to the field of safflowers that she had read countless times in the book, and began to pick hard like the flower picking girl described in the book. The rain that had just fallen cast a damp scent on the safflowers, which looked particularly charming.
It is said that director Takahata Hoon, in order to be able to better portray the myoko in the safflower field, personally went to the safflower field in Japan to pick a summer, and even wrote an introductory book "How to Pick Safflower" after returning.
The hard work of Myoko and the farmers around her, combined with the perfect restoration of the beauty of the Japanese countryside in the anime, constitute a harmonious and beautiful picture. At this time, even if the director does not deliberately tell the viewer the importance of the environment to us, I think everyone will yearn for or protect this beautiful picture in their hearts, which is Takahata's "magic".
The depiction of 27-year-old Myoko's rural footage in "Fairy Tales of Time" is more realistic than a documentary, and this sense of reality is due to Takahata's pursuit of animation details. Myoko's time in the countryside is not simply enjoyment, but truly sees herself as a farmer, doing all kinds of agricultural labor to the best of her ability.
The conversation between her and her brother-in-law's cousin, Toshio, is also more about her yearning for country life and her childhood memories and confusion. The 27-year-old Myoko also seems to be able to finally remove the shackles that she has been wearing for so many years and wander freely under the sunset in the countryside.
Another clever point of "Fairy Tales of Time" is that the memories of Myoko are interspersed into the dialogue between Myoko and Toshio in the movie, 27-year-old Myoko always likes to use her childhood insights to skillfully solve the "problems" in front of her, and the director is also cleverly telling the audience that Myoko is such a childlike "big girl".
From childhood to adulthood, Myoko has always longed for the idyllic life in the countryside, and it is precisely because of her unbroken childlike heart that the 27-year-old Myoko has completed her childhood dream.
Ten days of vacation passed quickly, and Myoko was about to return to the city to start her white-collar life again. Grandma Toshio, who has long loved Myoko, expresses her desire to keep to marry Toshio.
Hearing her grandmother's sudden request, Myoko panicked instantly, and she chose to escape at a loss. At this time, Toshio, who was in the dark, happened to meet The Myoko who "escaped", in fact, the two people who had already secretly had a secret affection, but no one "broke through the window paper".
At this time, Myoko took out her own "trick" and said an unsolved mystery that had plagued Xiao Miaozi and her "two" for many years, hoping to alleviate the current embarrassing emotions, but toshio, who looked thick but liked Myoko, deftly cracked Myoko's "problem", in fact, there was no unsolved mystery, some are just an answer that I really like you so simple.
At the end of the film, the hesitant Myoko embarks on a journey back to Tokyo, when the director carefully arranges for the 10-year-old Myoko and the 27-year-old Myoko to "meet", and the little Myoko pulls the arm of the big Myoko and runs to the future that suits her best.
"The Fairy Tale of Time" is actually a warm and healing little story, telling the story of Myoko, who has an unbroken child's heart, a journey that she has dreamed of having since childhood. Takahata makes it easier to touch people's hearts by interspersing myoko's childhood memories with the film.
This alternating film language of fiction and reality does not lead the theme of the film to the grand theme of what world peace and man and nature should live in harmony, but through almost documentary memories and harsh details, this animated film can reach the softest area of the human heart. The whole movie is like we're sitting on a cool afternoon summer day, listening to an old familiar friend who tells a warm and healing little story.