In 2009, Wes Anderson created a stop-motion animation, The Great Fox Daddy, which presents the audience with a vivid tone control, a rich storyline, and rather obscure thematic hints that will bring a fox family to life. Nine years later, he brought his second stop-motion animation "Isle of Dogs", setting the scene in Japan, the protagonist image to a group of dogs, and adding a profound Japanese culture and image metaphor, so that the audience can experience the compositional aesthetics full of retro colors when feeling the childlike fantasy, and further implement the formalist aesthetic style to the end.
"Isle of Dogs" borrows the story of Attari who has overcome difficulties and obstacles to find a guard dog, and the absurd story is expressed through the antagonistic relationship between children and dogs, which has both irony and truth, as well as some technological sense of the future city and political metaphors, today, let us walk into the image world he built for us and experience the charm of "Isle of Dogs".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, borrows the perspective of children to observe the adult world, and completes the presentation of metaphorical core and cultural connotation through the exploration of the path of finding dogs. </h1>
The film is set in Japan, a fictional apocalyptic city with a strong sense of spooky and horror, and a serious canine plague, which Mayor Kobayashi used as an opportunity to launch an exile of dogs, which is the origin of Inuyasha Island.
In such an isolated island, the yin and yang mistakenly captured Kobayashi's adopted son, and the 12-year-old Attari's dog was also imprisoned here. For Attari, his guardian dog is equivalent to his family, so he hijacks a plane and begins the rescue of his dog. In this story, the starting point is Atari's perspective, and the emotional connection between him and the dog makes the story full of rich warmth.
Metaphorical expression is Weiss's effective expression method, which has been used repeatedly in past works, and in the film, political struggles and conspiracy theories continue to appear, which is easily reminiscent of the haze of war in World War II. During the mayor's speech, Attari's plane fell directly to form a mushroom cloud, which coincided with the political metaphor of the "little boy" nuclear bomb, making the audience sigh Weiss's ingenuity.
The film explores the deep relationship between animals and humans at the end of human society, after the order of Mayor Kobayashi, many citizens showed a feeling of indifference or even indifference to their pets, scientists developed a vaccine to treat the plague, but it was brutally killed, which seems absurd, but it provides credible conditions for the survival of the film, when animals threaten the survival of humans, how should humans deal with their relationship, or then link to the current new coronavirus, What if the threat of animals is because humans do not deal with and relate to nature?
Weiss did not deliberately construct a complex background environment, but put the foothold on the level of warmth and beauty, the puppy "leader" did not have the experience of adoption, so there was not much feeling for humans, but in Atari, he saw the insistence of the individual, which made the leader moved and shocked, and took on the responsibility of rescuing the guard dog without hesitation, even a dog knew gratitude and help, which was associated with the human behavior itself. What's more, the initiator of the embarrassing situation of the guard dog is actually the father of Atari.
But to take a step back, you can't put the cruel hat on Attari because of the father-son relationship, after all, everyone's thoughts, experiences, and positions will influence his behavior, Attari rejects his father from the heart, which is the positive side of him, the film is always looking at the complexity of the adult world with a gentle and friendly eye, which contains incomprehensible political positions, but it seems that Kobayashi's decision has not changed because of this decision, in fact, this is the attitude that Weiss wants to express.
For the beauty of human nature, are metaphorical in the entire rescue process, the innocence and kindness of pet dogs reflect the greed and selfishness of human beings, let the audience see the little light flashing in the darkness, but also feel the warm power in the indifferent society, I have to say that Weiss's ability to tell stories is really first-class, telling us a profound truth through a simple story, providing countless reflective angles and cases, worthy of admiration.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, the ultimate aesthetic composition feast, color, composition, shape are integrated into the rich Wei style, every frame is like a dream. </h1>
Weiss was once obsessed with stop-motion animation, he reduced the frame rate of 24 frames per second, so that each animated character has a different degree of "freeze-frame", which is actually the subtlety of stop-motion animation, reflecting the frustration, more conducive to showing the character's expression and action language. Many people will think that stop-motion animation should be for children to see, in fact, this is a big misunderstanding, as long as in-depth research can be found, stop-motion animation has an incomparable beauty of ordinary films, of course, this is based on a lot of meticulous work, "Isle of Dogs" in order to truly restore the expression of each animal, it has produced more than 1,000 kinds of animal puppets, these are pure handmade, its complexity can be imagined.
The color saturation in Weiss's films is very high, which can be clearly perceived in "Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel", in "The Great Fox Daddy", the yellowish tone is used, and in "Isle of Dogs", a dazzling variety of colors are used, presenting a sense of detachment from the real world, giving people a dreamlike visual impact.
In terms of picture presentation, the entire film adopts an axisymmetric layout method, which exerts symmetry and balance to the extreme, especially in the picture of the characters, which is basically symmetrically distributed, but if it is used excessively, it will cause the picture to be too boring and boring, so the film also uses a large number of incomplete symmetrical compositions. For example, in the scene where a family is watching TV, with a pet dog as the central axis, the number of characters on both sides is not consistent, although it is orderly, but there will be no depressing feelings.
Weiss once admitted that the films of Japanese film master Yasujiro Ozu have a great influence on him, and many of the spaces and pictures about the film are derived from Ozu, especially the depiction of family relations is accurate and in place, which can reflect the missing or unbalanced positional emotions in the family. Whenever Atari looks for a guard dog, the picture is always in a depressing space with Japanese characteristics, and there is an illusion of putting pressure on Kobayashi, which is actually the feeling deviation formed by the composition.
Weiss is by no means a decent creator, his ideas are wild and varied, some people joke that "from a frame of the picture can judge whether the film is from Wes's hand", which should be regarded as the highest level of praise, but also to see its unique picture processing ability to leave a deep mark on others.
In the film, Weiss also uses a variety of shooting techniques such as in-and-out painting and pulling up the lens to create a wide range of extra-painting spaces. For example, when the dot meets the indigenous dog, the rear scene is moved to the top, and the angle of the overlook is presented, and then the indigenous dog enters the painting from below, becoming the visual center of the picture, and also giving the foreground picture a huge imagination space, these presentation methods require extremely exquisite scheduling techniques, which is effortless for Weiss, and has to sigh at his rich experience and different observation perspective accumulated over the years.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, citing famous bridges to pay tribute to Japanese film masters and cultural connotations, and localizing the spiritual core to form a pluralistic theme. </h1>
Weiss is very fond of Japanese culture, which also makes him familiar with Japanese culture, and the film's ukiyo-e, bushido spirit, haiku poetry and food culture all show the audience a comprehensive view of Japanese history and culture.
In Inuyasha, which is full of Japanese style, Wes uses his unique experience to conduct a kind of cultural international exchange, and in addition to the just mentioned Yasujiro Ozu, the film also pays tribute to another film master, that is, the famous Kurosawa Akira. In Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, the bridge section is used in the film, the most obvious of which is the "Seven Samurai" composed of Dot, Atari and five other stray dogs, who symbolize the spirit of the samurai. "Among the Seven Samurai" says that "it was also a defeat, and the victory was not the samurai, but the peasants", and the spiritual victory of the people at the bottom was achieved through the inheritance of Atari.
As the leader of the canine group, Attari has a completely independent way of thinking, and the dot is no less than attari, it is no longer the embodiment of the dog, but becomes a "person" with an independent spirit, in this regard, the relationship between the dot and the attari is more like the ancient monarchy relationship, they have a pure friendship, and there is an unusual superior-subordinate relationship, around the center of which is the struggle for human rights.
Although Weiss's story of Attari's lone rescue of dogs takes place in Japan, its core is still American personal heroism, and in the face of power rule, most Japanese people choose patience and deworming, and only white girls bravely stand up and expose the mayor's intrigue. On the garbage island, the breakdown of Mayor Kobayashi's family relationship is also a true reflection of the family problems and social hot spots that have emerged in the elections that the United States is concerned about.
The film also appears in the picture of tapping Taikoo, one of the most representative instruments in Japan, mainly used to drive away diseases, in the Warring States period to inspire people, in this film, Taikoo is mainly integrated into the story as a soundtrack, adding to the film's militaristic color and tension elements. In addition, the soundtrack "Samurai Theme" in "Seven Samurai" was also used in this film, which can also be regarded as Weiss's spiritual tribute to Akira Kurosawa.
The reason why "Isle of Dogs" is touching, the key is that the characters can reconcile with the external world, which is a kind of benign growth in itself, allowing their values to be integrated into the external world, seeking a balance point from it, looking at all external changes with a peaceful attitude, and extending this meaning through the portrayal of the master-servant relationship, so that the film has a different depth of portrayal.
epilogue:
"Isle of Dogs" continues Wes Anderson's consistent film style, in the absurd humor at the same time the use of a variety of metaphors for the mockery and mapping of reality, the film language, soundtrack, picture presentation and character shaping are all unique, through a simple and warm story to build a wonderful and interesting world, through this layer of appearance, let the audience in the black humor will smile, experience the wonderful relationship between people, this movie is not for children, it is more like a pair of inner self-portraits for adults.