Foreword: "Rainy City" is a 2011 Japanese animated short film directed and written by Yuyasu Ishida, which received a lot of praise from many audiences, with a high score of 8.2 on Douban. Although this is a short film, it is a highly completed work. The quiet plot of the film is healed, giving people a sentimental but heart-warming memory feeling, and behind the quiet atmosphere, the audience has many unknown imaginations.
The film is about a small town, I don't know when, every day is raining continuously and worryingly. Some people moved to far away places, some moved to the highlands, away from the wet and sad rainy city. One day, a little girl in a yellow raincoat shuttled through the streets and alleys, met a rusty robot, became friends with him, and accompanied him for a lifetime.
Many people say that after watching it, they don't know what director Yuyasu Ishida wants to express to us, and some people say that what they see is desolation and loneliness, but this is only a superficial meaning. If you carefully taste this film, you will find that there is a big charm behind the desolation and loneliness. The sound of dripping rain, the ticking bells, the sparsely populated streets, with the soft and pure music of the background with memories, if you understand "Rain City", and even read Ishida Yuyasu, I believe that everyone will get a different emotional experience.
The short film does not have fierce contradictions and conflicts, but a story about various reflections on the reality of life triggered by memories, through non-linear narrative structure and exquisite lens language, allowing the audience to produce complex and healing emotions in the rain. Coupled with the exchange of cold and warm tones, it expresses a warm companionship that transcends family affection and takes us into a heart-warming journey to heal the heart. Next, I will interpret the charm of this short film from three levels: narrative structure, lens language, and theme discussion.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, narrative structure: the use of non-linear narrative to skillfully present the story, reality and memory intertwined, memory in memory, the story of the people's joy and clutch</h1>
The film adopts a non-linear narrative approach to tell the story, and the non-linear narrative structure is not like the linear narrative structure of the film, which often tells a story in chronological order and consists of a "beginning-development-climax-end" structure. On the contrary, it is intricate in the narrative order, showing a state of "chaos", sometimes in the form of "flashbacks" and sometimes in the form of "interludes" of memories.
First, using flashbacks and setting up suspense at the beginning, let us find the answer to the story in the question, and then unfold with the memories of the old woman, telling the story of her meeting robot friends when she was a child
The film begins in a small room where an old woman dressed in yellow with wrinkled hair sits quietly on a stool. The walls were covered with photographs, and a table next to it was lined with greenery, and one of the "short cylinders" had been turning its black slippery eyes, looking at the old woman sitting opposite.
Seeing this, we can't understand what the film is trying to express, and from the naked eye we seem to see only an old man sitting alone. This sparked our curiosity: Who is the old woman? Had she experienced anything unusual before?
Such a plot arrangement has a good role in promoting, such a suspense setting, immediately aroused the audience's interest in watching the movie and the audience's inner emotional fluctuations, can't wait to know the "secret" outside this room.
The plot of the memory begins to unfold, and in the memory of the mother-in-law, she was still a little girl at that time. At her mother's behest, she ran toward a crooked path to her grandmother's house. The sky was pouring rain, and the rain was dripping on the ground. Dressed in a yellow raincoat, she glided excitedly through the sparsely populated streets.
In the face of the cold and silent street, the endless rain, but her eyes are only curious, innocent and happy. On the street, she met a robot sitting on a chair, and two small figures cheered in the pouring rain. She happily stepped on the rain on the ground, stirring up a splash of water on the ground. She played hide-and-seek with him, and he cooperated with her. She was making a fuss, and he was with her.
In the old woman's memories, there is a silent but better than a sound expression. Such an exquisite arrangement strongly caused the audience's inner emotional fluctuations, and felt a touching innocence and happiness. This is probably what the director wants to express: no matter how bad the environment is, we still have to maintain the original innocence and heat.
The film uses this flashback technique, intertwined in reality and memory, allowing us to find answers in questions, thus leading to the warm friendship that follows. Let us see an innocent little girl, a gentle and sentient robot. The interaction between them made us feel warm ripples in our hearts, as if we saw the simple and fearless self of that year.
Second: insert another kind of memory into the memory, the two memories are intertwined and contrasted, which strongly causes the audience to fluctuate emotionally, highlighting the loneliness of the robot waiting and the desire for the companionship of friends
In the memory of the old woman, the director inserted two memories of the robot upside down. These two memories are the source of his original intention, and they are also the testimony of his good times and the inseparable abandonment; these two memories show the robot's miss of his former friends and his desire for the companionship of his friends, as well as his selfless and unrequited waiting.
First recall: The robot looked at the girl in front of him who was smiling at him, and he recalled that many, many years ago, when the weather was still sunny, and there was a girl who held his hand and smiled at him like this.
But then heavy rain hit the town, and the girl wore a red raincoat and prepared to move away from the town with her parents. Before parting, he and the girl in the red raincoat reluctantly said goodbye. The girl was in the car farther and farther away, and he stood in the heavy rain, waving his hand in the direction where the girl's car was far away.
The second memory: after his body has collapsed, as a push camera moves, the picture passes through the narrow tunnel, and he recalls the time he spent with the girl. At that time, the sky was very blue, the sun was shining warmly on the ground, emitting a warm yellow color, there were still many people on the street, and there were still many cars on the road.
The robot's first memories range from the warmth of the sun to the sadness of a faint parting. The second time was a warm memory, but this time he was built on the body that collapsed in waiting, and behind the warm memories exuded a sense of loneliness and longing for the company of friends. This kind of plot arrangement breaks the inherent concept and creates emotional fluctuations for people from the development of story content. Make the audience's emotions rise and fall, see the sadness and separation of the characters, but behind the sadness and separation, there are ripples of inner warmth, giving the soul a healing growth baptism.
In short, whether it is the use of flashbacks and memories in the structure, or the design of the story content, the audience can straighten out the clues of the film while more deeply understanding the film. And arouse curiosity to immerse yourself in the story, have emotional resonance with the protagonist, and find the answer you want from it.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, Lens Language: The strong contrast between the cold scene and the warm picture highlights the theme of loneliness and companionship</h1>
The short film uses a lot of long shots, mainly cool tones, interspersed with some warm colors, to create a kind of poetry. The long shots slowly in the rain not only set the tone in response to the theme, but also touch the audience's inner softness while making the audience emotionally resonate.
First, the film uses long shots, slowly exposing the appearance of the town to the audience, highlighting the depression and loneliness of the town, the old, and the loneliness and smallness of the characters
Long shots, as the name suggests, are continuously filmed for a scene and a scene in a relatively long period of time to form a relatively complete lens paragraph. In short films, such slow long shots are used to show the scenes in the memory and hint at the inner fluctuations of the characters. I mainly analyze short films from the perspective of long motion shots and long depth of field shots:
Motion long lens: Changing long shots with different shooting angles (orientation, height), a long motion lens can play a set of lenses composed of different scenes and different angles
In the film, more sports long shots are used to shoot the appearance of the town, such as the little girl walking through the street, and the camera turns to the face of the town with her perspective: the raindrops drip on the ground to form water waves, and then the camera constantly switches, turning to the lifeless houses, discarding the waste on the ground, the chaotic poles, and the gray sky. Different angles and different directions followed, and the focus shifted to the close-up of the mottled walls, and finally the panoramic lens was used to present the whole street, and in the center of the street, there was a muna robot sitting on a chair with its head bowed, standing motionless, allowing the rain to corrode his skin.
Under such a slow and quiet long shot, the depressed, lonely and old appearance of the town is completely exposed to the audience. At the same time, I also see the loneliness and smallness of the robot, which can't help but make people feel a sense of compassion and make people think deeply.
Depth of field long lens: the use of technical means to shoot a large depth of field, so that the scene in different positions in the depth (from the foreground to the rear scene) can be seen clearly, a long depth of field lens is actually equivalent to a set of long-range, panoramic, medium, close-up, close-up shots combined to express the content.
In the film, the little girl walks on the street and, out of curiosity, comes to a long and narrow path. The camera follows her through the path, the long shot from the top to the bottom, from the near to the depths of the road; the appearance of the path is presented in front of the audience, the two ends are gray and tall walls, lifelessly surround the little girl inside, highlighting the little girl is getting smaller, but also creating a sense of tension.
Another long shot of depth of field, after the robot's body has fallen to the ground, he recalls the past, the picture came to the narrow path again, at the back of the cold road by the slow long lens to the front of the road, the camera slowly passed through the long path, the scene from dark to bright, the scene in front of the scene became clearer and clearer, and finally presented the picture of the road ahead: blue sky, warm sun, passers-by walking on the street, driving cars, a little girl holding the robot's hand with a smile.
The film uses such a long shot of depth of field not only has continuity, but also fully expresses the connotation of the story, and the front of the road is like the depth of memory, and as the lens moves, it gradually enters the deepest part of memory. This slow way of advancing can also fill the gap in the language in the short film, set off the psychology of the characters, show the changes in the emotions of the protagonists, and can bring the audience into the inner world of the characters in the story, and have an empathetic effect with the protagonist.
Second, the use of light and shade two different shades of contrast, the production of different visual effects, the expression of different theme meaning, enhance the emotional tension
The film presents the depression of the street in cool tones, dominated by dark gray and cold blue tones, reflecting the coldness and desolate atmosphere of the rainy city, giving people a deep sense of coldness and echoing the lonely waiting of robots.
The yellow raincoat worn by the little girl and the red raincoat on the grandmother's body add a touch of color to the town. In Grandma's house, it is also warm yellow, bringing the audience a warm affection. The robot's memories are also warm colors, and the memories of this warm yellow tone contrast with reality, enhance the emotional tension, and bring the audience a strong sense of visual impact.
Through the use of different colors, it brings the audience a strong visual conflict and guides the audience's emotional direction. At the same time, it also reflects the two different themes conveyed in the short film, one is the repressed loneliness, and the other is the warm companionship. The two themes collide with each other, leading the audience to reflect on more of the value of life.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, theme discussion: Behind the cold rainy city, there is a reconciliation of loneliness and companionship, a mutual fusion of time and memory</h1>
The main connotation of "Rainy City" contains multiple layers, including loneliness, waiting, years, companionship, and memory. Through a story plot of only nearly 10 minutes, it compactly and clearly shows the two protagonists' waiting and special companionship beyond family affection under the years and memories.
(1) The ticking rain bell metaphor: the passage of time and the eternal survival of memory
Although there is no dialogue in the short film, the art of sound in it is intriguing, especially the sound of rain and the ticking of bells hanging on the wall, which add a different listening feeling to the quiet atmosphere.
In the short film, although the old woman's young face has faded, she can still clearly remember what happened when she was a child. The changes in her life course from childhood to old age have always been accompanied by the sound of rain and the ticking of bells. The sound of raindrops runs through the film, echoing the bells that the old woman hangs on the wall. This naturally formed sound art also alludes to the passage of time and the perpetuation of a memory. And those passing years will also be integrated in the memory and will be preserved forever.
Such a voice also hints that we should cherish time. Time is like an arrow, like water flowing for years, cherish every time in life, but also cherish every memory. Although time is gone, memories can last forever. Feeling the good memories in the memory is also to add a beautiful color to your life.
(2) In addition to coldness and loneliness, it is beyond the waiting and companionship of family affection
The robot in the short film has been soaked in the rain for many years, and its body has been soaked. The little girl pulled him forward, and he followed her with his own slow pace. But after a while he fell to the ground, and his body was torn apart and fell to the ground.
The little girl looked at him in a daze as he had fallen to the ground and was no longer formed, and did not give up on him. She ran to her grandmother's house and called for her grandmother, and she took her and came back again. Grandma, wearing a red raincoat, looked at the robots scattered on the ground and remembered him. It turned out that Grandma was the girl of that year. Grandma touched his head and pushed his head in the direction of home.
Finally, even though the years had passed for a long time, he still saw the girl in red whom he waited for every day, and that was enough. Although he waited alone for a long time in a cold environment, he could feel that he did not feel guilty about his loneliness. At the same time, his waiting is unforgettable and makes people cry. But this tear is heart-warming, a kind of spiritual comfort.
Since then, the robot with only its head left has been with the little girl in the yellow raincoat until her twilight years. Although there were only two of them in the tiny house, and it felt lonely and lonely, they knew each other that they had each other's company. Decades of vicissitudes, this special companionship beyond family affection has long surpassed the loneliness in the heart, and the apparent loneliness has also reached a reconciliation with each other's company.
The connotation of the film may not be only this, all the directors to be expressed are condensed in this short period of nearly 10 minutes. But waiting, companionship, time, and memory are the main theme connotations of its expression. The director uses the form of silence to show the audience a kind of companionship that transcends family affection. Time will pass, loved ones will grow old, but what moves us is that this loneliness and companionship reconcile with each other, the fusion of cold and warmth, and the pure beauty.
epilogue:
A good film can always use the lens to express delicate emotions; it can always inadvertently touch your heart and cause you to rethink your heart. "Rainy City" is such a short film that can stand the precipitation of time, allowing you to calm down one afternoon, examine your life, and examine every encounter and parting in your life.
Whether it's family or friendship between old women and robots, some of the experiences in their lives may also be experienced by each of us. I hope that in the long river of years, we will cherish every time and memory, and also cherish the precious companionship. It is even more necessary to treat every parting with a normal heart, and after parting, you can still embrace the beauty and the world with the original innocence and heat.