How I wish that the fragments or endings of these tiny stories could become your pure and true food.
December 20, 1912
Kenji Miyazawa
[1] A sad and solemn adult fairy tale
What is a fairy tale?
Fairy tales should be stories for adults, not simple and childish "children's books" for enlightenment.
In my impression, fairy tales are always sad and beautiful, and we are sad because we meet the purity that is easily ignored and rare in reality, and we are grateful for the "beauty" invented by the author because we meet the purity that is already uncommon in reality.
I sometimes think that the concept of "childhood" is too far away from me, probably as far away from the Earth as the Milky Way overhead, and I have not really looked up at the stars for a long time, nor have I seen a pure white snow field that has not been trampled.
"Defend innocence, do not refuse to grow up" was once the slogan of youth, in fact, they are as hypocritical as the lies of politicians, and like big mathematical problems that have not yet been proven, just staying in the stage of "think about it".
Galactic Railway Night 2006
"Galactic Railway Night" is just a novella of about 30,000 words (less than 40,000 words), and if it can be summed up in one sentence, it is "the sad story of two children about separation" - this extremely "long" separation, about the galactic journey, but also about life and death.
This means that if the focus is on "Galactic Journey", "Galactic Railway Night" can become "Galactic Railway Night 2006", under the genius interpretation of Japanese CG master KAGAYA, the 2006 CG animation of only 49 minutes, more emphasis on the description of the Galactic scenery, in this version, no characters appear, the progress of the story is basically dependent on the narration of Kuwajima Noriko and kaga Tani rei's music - you can guess her relationship with Kaga Taniya.
Because the picture presentation of the work is extremely beautiful and dazzling, planetariums in many parts of the country will use it as a dome movie to tell about the Milky Way and constellations, which is regarded as a popular science film of astronomy. Therefore, parents and children with the original intention of parent-child interaction, the public who have seen "Galactic Railway Night 2006", are likely to naturally ignore the various extremely profound symbolic expositions behind the original story of the fantasy grand. Just think of "Galactic Railway Night 2006" or "Galactic Railway Night" as a fairy tale about the sea of stars and friendship.
Galactic Railway Night (1985 edition)
If you focus on "life and death", "Galactic Railway Night" can become this 1985 version of "Galactic Railway Night" - nearly 40 years ago!
The length of the whole play reached 113 minutes, basically restoring the original novel, the only "drawback", I am afraid that as an adaptation, its narrative rhythm is too slow; at the same time, from today's (provocative) point of view, this animation work more than 30 years ago must be too "simple" in terms of technical presentation.
However, to evaluate the "technical power" of an animated film, our eyes should not focus on the bombardment of "light pollution", but on how the animation restores and expresses the original novel.
In "Galactic Railway Night" (1985 version), the protagonist shows people with a cat image, which enhances the affinity of "Galactic Railway Night", and is more in line with the fantasy temperament of the original work, and even, in the sensationalism of the final "answer revealed", it can also be more "exaggerated" through the anthropomorphic animal image, resulting in a stronger sense of emotional publicity, bringing the audience more shock and aftertaste.
I think that watching anime and watching the original novel will be a completely different experience.
Although the story is all about the poor and lonely teenager Joe Benny (here using the translation of "Galactic Railway Night", there are also translations for Giovanni, Giobany, etc.) and his only good friend Kobenella (here is also the translation of "Galactic Railway Night", there are also translated as Camberella, Campanella, etc.) travel in the galaxy train in the universe together.
They met several strange passengers and saw many unseen landscapes, and later, after the train reached a place called "Charcoal Bag" (Dark Nebula), Kobenella mysteriously disappeared.
Later, Jobany realized that this cosmic journey was just a dream he had on the hillside - Kobenella under the mountain drowned while saving his friend, and the galactic train in the dream was actually a "ferry" to extradite the undead to heaven; and he accompanied Kobenella on the last journey to the "other shore".
However, using pictures to present a certain emotion is direct, while experiencing the text to imagine the picture is indirect. Everyone will see the same picture, but in their hearts will present a very different "Galactic Railway Journey".
The Myth of Sisyphus
In "defining" the "Galactic Railway Night" as a sad and solemn adult fairy tale, it actually involves three angles: "sadness", "solemnity" and "adult fairy tale".
To say "The Night of the Galactic Railway" [sad] is best understood, because it is a sad story in itself. The starry sea scenery in front of it, full of beautiful imagination, is just like "writing sorrow with a happy scene", accumulating strength for the final "silent reading of sadness".
Speaking of "Galactic Railway Night" [solemn], the core nature is that the novel condenses all the essence of the author's thoughts, beliefs, and past, and the work uses the communication between Joe Bani and Kobenella to explore with the reader what is death and what is true happiness, which we will feel particularly deep and have to face at first hearing.
In fact, this already coincides with the "existentialism" that emerged later—yes, at this moment I think of Camus and his Myth of Sisyphus.
Unfortunately, "Galactic Railway Night" did not have any literary influence at all when the author was alive, to be precise, "Galactic Railway Night" was not yet written before Kenji Miyazawa's death, let alone published.
This meant that even if the connotation of "Galactic Railway Night" was deep, it could only be temporarily buried in history(at that time).