"Giovanni Island": The train is fast, don't make me wait

"The Island of Giovanni", japan's oscar-winning best animated film this year, chose a theme that is extremely sensitive to our people: the representation of the trauma inflicted on Japanese civilians by World War II. However, even if the audience who hates Japan so much and wants to "kill all the Japanese" will have a hard time hating the Japanese in the film. The islanders of Sedan Island have lived all their lives in the remote north surrounded by the sea, have never even seen the appearance of the Japanese mainland, have not experienced war, and even do not know what war is, but after the defeat of the entire country, they have involuntarily become a kind of people who need to pay the price. The film shows them as a group of people who are on the sidelines, living only seawater, beaches, fishing boats, cooking smoke, fields, and streams, and their perception of the outside world is quite ridiculous, such as the Americans coming to rob the women, and the Soviets are the hairs of bears who kill with their bare hands. Hearing the Emperor's declaration of defeat on the radio, the crepe crepe words, and the intermittent signal made them turn their heads and ears to show that they did not understand. Most of them are disconnected from the civilized world, and the children's sacred relics– the train that represented the means of civilization at that time – could not reach the forgotten island.

Pure peace and broadness in childhood, separated from adults by one layer, more and more immersed in their own small world, ignoring the hatred of the country and the family, and have no concept. The child's world is like paradise, life is full of inexhaustible bright sunshine, warm sea breeze, butterflies in the wilderness and eggs on the edge of the cliff, like a carefree paradise. The uncle of the chaojianghu saw them, and also revealed the childlike and overflowing side of "Lupin III", lightly telling the adventures of those life and death moments, and diluting the knife licking blood into a thrilling bedtime story, after all, who can bear to break the innocent child's dream. Also accompanied by young and old children, intimate with nature, with a surreal fantasy (Galactic Railway), everything is no less than Ghibli's "Totoro". Dialogue between adults is often short and subtle, sometimes a bit cool, which is a highly realistic effect, because the story is all from the perspective of children, and the understanding of the adult world must be exaggerated and incomprehensible, and the handling method is very similar to Spielberg's "ET Aliens".

The Soviets came and sent the island's soldiers to Siberia, occupying houses and schools. When the soldiers broke into the classroom, the atmosphere was tense. But after the initial tension, the contradiction did not intensify. At first, to show the Rejection of Uninvited Guests by Japanese children, a very playful set of images is used: hearing the Soviet folk songs playing next door, they immediately suppress each other with their own national songs. These two pieces are very melodious and moving, the Japanese "Red Dragonfly" is more in line with my appetite, the picture of the song is dragonflies flying in the mountains, the grass reflects the golden sunshine, a young man and woman innocent running in the mountains and forests and grasslands, evoking a wet memory; the Soviet "Katyusha" is also very pleasant, but influenced by the translations I watched as a child, such melodies always associate with revolutionary stories, including great patriotism, tragic sacrifice and fruitless love.

The use of music to represent the collision of different cultures, Xu Ke's "Huang Feihong" was used at the beginning, but "The Island of Giovanni" achieved the romantic fusion that "Huang Feihong" could not complete. Through the continuous interlacing of songs, the camera pulls away, the sound becomes blurred and long, and the two songs seem to synthesize the same melody. Fast forward a year later, Japanese students have become catchy with Katyusha, and Russian students have sung "Red Dragonfly" as if they were singing it, and the song echoes across the classroom. Then, Junpei and Tania, the daughter of a Soviet officer, develop a delicate and delicate affair, and the Soviets bring the fruits of modern civilization to the island, all of which reveal the possibility of peaceful coexistence between the two cultures. At this time, Sedan Island is still heaven, beautiful music constantly promotes emotions, the songs of the teachers, the piano played by Tanya, or the beat of the after-dinner dance, accompanied by young men and women running in the fruit forest, bathed in the ocean of petals, the scene flows into the heart like a spring spring, with a warmth that can melt the ice and snow.

Peace is fragile and therefore not long-lasting. The father and uncle each had good intentions, which led to the repatriation of all the islanders to the mainland. At this point, the tone has changed dramatically, and the first half is sunny and poetic, accompanied by steamships floating in the violent waves, transitioning to the sky is gray, everything is depressed, gloomy and depressed, the unattainable peaks in sight, the depressed woods, the raging wind and snow, disease and death are within reach. The film not only shows the suffering that earns people's tears, but also shows the tenacity to compete with suffering. "The Night of the Milky Way Railway" by kenji Miyazawa, a giant of children's literature, carries the father's thoughts about his deceased wife, and also becomes the source of the children's endless yearning for the train, and the keepsake of transnational love (I have to praise the train running between the houses, the light and shadow swaying, like a dream, and the strange romance that makes people tear up). In the first half, the train is an innocuous daydream, and when the children have to face the bloody reality, the train gives them courage and will, becoming a spiritual pillar against the pressure of fate, and the train that rides the sky in the fantasy covers the haze of pain and parting in reality with a poetic light. Only such a powerful spiritual force can soothe the misery of looking at each other with relatives in vain, and can heal the wounds of suddenly separating from the yin and yang of their loved ones.

The return after half a century is not much suspense, since the title of the film is Giovanni's Island, we know that they will eventually return to their homeland, reunite with the deceased, hand over the letters, are the paradigms of war and anti-war movies. However, time has passed, the same portrait, the same book, through half a century of time, overshadowed with different meanings, the scene of the old people dancing hand in hand, transformed into an after-dinner pastime half a century ago, like two childish songs merged into one. Time has given them the answer that there is such a precious value in the world that transcends national boundaries, nationalities, politics and cultures, and the dialogue between Giovanni and Campanella in "Galactic Railway Night" quoted at the beginning of the film is a poetic love and beauty that bursts out of the strong quality of survival, saving many souls of faith in the darkest and helpless days. (Text/Fang Yunan)