Author | Ren Tian
The hot girl at the bottom has once again reached the peak of her life.
In March of this year, Shaye Kobayashi offered a double offer for graduate students in educational psychology at UCLA and Columbia University, and in the end, she chose Columbia University.
Within two years, her TOEFL score improved from 62 to 104.
▲ In March this year, Kobayashi Sayaka was admitted to the news of Columbia University in the United States
Who is Kobayashi Sayaka?
Produced in 2015 and released in China in 2016, the Japanese film "Hot Girls at the Bottom" tells the story of a girl who plays all day, Kudo Sayaka (Jun Arimura), who is not only unpopular with her father at home, but also ranks first in school, which is the waste material of the population, but she does not care.
Her mother was forced to send her to cram school. In the new environment, the girl's heart defense is opened, and the story of an ugly duckling counterattack has also begun.
▲ "Bottom Hot Girl" poster, the film is currently rated 8.3 in Douban
This bottom hot girl, the prototype is Kobayashi Sayaka.
- Sayaka Kobayashi herself
Looking back at the movie, this is not exactly a story of a hot girl counterattack, its logical structure lies in the composition of the characters' choices for a series of events, and why they choose that way. It reveals to us that everyone has a desire and judgment for something lurking in their hearts.
As a real koi that leaps on the dragon gate, we should be clear about what happened to the so-called counterattack, how it happened, and the complex external environment and psychological reasons behind it.
At that time, "Hot Girls at the Bottom" became popular in East Asian society, and the problems revealed by the film were more worth exploring than the blood it presented.
Hot girls in the ruins
The story of the bottom student counterattack, no matter how to tell it, is easy to become a bowl of cheap chicken soup.
However, the Japanese always shoot sincerely when they shoot blood. Sincerity implies a natural appeal, greater than superficial incitement.
This is related to the second breath in the bones of Japanese film and television creators.
The story of "Hot Girl at the Bottom" is also very easy to fall into the trap of selling cheap chicken blood, and when it is filmed, it is a refreshing high-end dish, and if it is not filmed well, it is a soup treasure that is mixed out.
▲ Stills of "Bottom Hot Girl"
"Hot Girls at the Bottom" is very simple to shoot, but don't be blinded by successful words such as counterattack and hot blood.
Beyond the simple inspiration, "Hot Girls at the Bottom" wraps up a serious social problem. The deformed family and education have shaped countless waste materials, how will they rebel against the fate of being doomed to become waste materials?
In the film, Kudo Sayega, as well as a cram school waste student similar to her, on the one hand, she is struggling for her individual dreams, on the other hand, she is also revenge against reality, revenge against her father, family and school.
- Sayaka Kudo
Kudo Sayega was born into a troubled low-class family. The whole family has psychological problems.
In East Asian societies, such families are quite common, so they are of particular relevance.
Dad is an old wounded person who failed the college entrance examination, the first escapist personality in the family (his stories are all revealed by his mother), he is secretive about his struggle history, and he pins all his hopes on boys.
It's a typical father figure, cold, authoritative, and unquestionable to cover up his failures. He despises women and always puts on a posture of suppressing to the end.
Sayaga and her sister, as well as her mother, have always been unpopular with their father.
Sayaga, whose grades were getting worse and worse, was a waste in his eyes.
▲ The father figure of "Bottom Hot Girl"
He was paranoid that only by raising his son to become a professional baseball player could the family have hope.
However, the son eventually became the product of educational failure. Under the influence of his father's escapist personality, he became a dependent personality - he did not like baseball but practiced for many years, and would not refuse others in small groups (assholes told him to buy cigarettes, even if he was scolded by his sister, he insisted on buying them).
So that in the end, the son also stood against the father.
▲ Kudo Sayaga (first from left) and his family
Interestingly, another character in the film who does not appear, the father of the bad boy Reiji, is also a typical example of an authoritative father who does not establish an intimate relationship with his children.
Japanese film and television dramas are very good at shaping such paper people's fathers - they obviously exist, but there is no temperature, and their children do not study hard because they have to fight against their fathers, learn to work hard, and also because they want to "retaliate against their fathers".
After analyzing the psychology of the character, you may suddenly understand: each character's values determine why he does that? And, how does a sleeping part of their hearts awaken?
This translates into a beautiful character arc of the film.
Therefore, in such a family composition, everyone is swimming through their darkest days, and if the hot girl wants to achieve the success of rebirth - admission to Keio University, the obstacles in front of her are not to be pushed down by a pot of chicken blood.
▲In the cram school, Kudo set a seemingly impossible ambition - to be admitted to Keio University
This is a miracle, but this miracle is full of practical significance.
Scrap charged
How Kudo Sayega became a waste material is clearly described in the film.
The double failure of family and schooling has molded a girl with a genius imagination into a useless "waste" - waste in the eyes of adults, and waste in her own eyes.
▲ Kudo felt that his life was like this.
The father has excessive machismo tendencies, has a preference for sons and daughters, and has long-term neglect and suppression of his daughters, prompting Sayaga to have self-doubt, self-depreciation, and eventually self-abandonment.
The problem of education in schools is also exacerbating this tendency. She was at the bottom of the school, and the teacher would pull at her hair and dismiss her as waste.
▲ The school teacher taunted Kudo, who was determined to take the exam
When the teacher learned that Sayaga was going to take the exam, he also sneered, and even in turn advised the cram school teacher not to have hope for waste, and not to destroy the system of the school going straight to the university.
The exam is not a monster upgrade, there is nothing dramatic to speak of. But this clash of fathers, against families, against education and culture is enough to give dramatic tension.
Against the world, her mother was Sayaga's only comrade-in-arms. At the beginning of the film, the mother tells her young daughter in the bedtime story that there is no stereotype in the world, and everything can be changed, sometimes in just one night.
For children, "knowing that there is a possibility" is a very important beginning, but unfortunately this concept has been suppressed for a long time.
▲ Sayaga, who feels defeated, hugs and cries with his mother
Mothers are victims of repressive education. But in fact, she is clear-thinking, not cowardly, very assertive and executive. Unlike the usual cowardly and unsympathetic shadow mothers, who are bullied to the margins by their strong fathers.
She is honest and kind, can see the positive meaning in adversity, has the courage to take responsibility, and dares to insist on what she thinks is right: such as insisting on educational investment in children, praising children for not betraying their classmates and being punished, and resisting her father's ridicule and support.
▲ Father and mother have a difference in educational concepts
But that didn't change her and her daughter's vulnerable position in the family.
Sayega is not a special case of this social culture, and the students of the cram school, even the cram school teacher, Nobuki Hirata, are victims of this educational culture.
They gathered in a small world, huddled together for warmth, and charged at the world of adults who belittled them.
It is precisely because of this contradiction and contrast. Cram school seems to have become a fairy tale world. When Kudo first arrived, he was pried open by Hirata Sensei without a word.
He was like a magician in this fairytale world.
▲Cram school teacher Nobuki Hirata
Don't accuse this setting of being too simple and rude, the teacher's praise is like a beam of light for Kudo, illuminating her constantly depraved life.
The film is based on a true story written by Nobuki Hirata, who is definitely the key to this miracle.
But he had no bizarre knack. For example, in the face of students who are addicted to video games, he studies video game strategies. When I met Kudo, who was dressed in fashion, I discussed with her how to become fashionable and whether boys could wear crop tops.
The method is clumsy, but the knife works, and even has a good interaction with the students in the late decisive period, which is a good way to enhance trust and get close to each other, so that one person's long-distance running has become a multi-person auxiliary, belt running and accompanying running, locking up the victory for Kudo Sayega KaoKeiying University.
▲ It was Hirata who influenced Kudo Sayega's entire life
On the first day of Sayaga's cram school, Hirata asked her to write keio university's floating dream on a form.
This action is not a whim, and writing down a specific goal is an important ritual of solidifying it, which will make the person who set up the flag excited and happy, and devote himself wholeheartedly, like a life designer to unfold the blueprint, is a proven and effective way.
Hirata's praise of Sayaga's language is also interesting. He praised Kudo, "You are really genius-level creativity + exaggerated intellectual barrenness", "You are simply the queen of the ignorant tribe outside the fashion trend".
The seemingly frank dialogue is lighthearted and funny on the one hand, and on the other hand, it tests Sayega's psychological strength and avoids the pit of error (such as Reiji's mother often said that "as long as you do it will be done", it sounds reliable but is a popular fallacy).
▲ Even if the test is not ideal, Pingtian also praises Sayaga ▲ Even if the test is not ideal, Hirata also praises Sayaga
He is more like a magician who can summon magic.
In addition to formulating a study plan, Mr. Hirata also recommended history comic books for students with weak history, and gave good luck coffee before the exam, watched over each other (when The results of the Sayaga exam did not come down, Pingtian, the old president, and Reiji sat and waited, knowing the details of everyone hugging and laughing and crying after passing), and wrote a letter of encouragement, which is equivalent to saying that the entrance examination of Kudo Sayaga has become the hope of the whole family + the whole cram school teacher and the principal + cram class friends + girlfriend trio.
Both the underlying motivation and the unconscious power are very important before the decisive blow strike strikes, and it is really summoning magic—summoning the flow of Kudo Sayaka, evoking a learning state that keeps her fully engaged and accompanied by excitement. When the character is in a state of flow, it feels as if time has stopped, and the difficulty of this activity just matches her skill, neither getting bored and giving up, nor nervous because it is too difficult...
▲ The scum turned into a bully
Dreams shining into reality are originally bizarre things, but the depth of polishing and details will merge credibility with reality, and when all the sparks of inspiration accumulate to a sufficient scale, the protagonist's decisive event must break out-
Having exhausted all the tips, having enough insurance, and having high morale, can you have no chance of winning?
The realization of the maiden
Speaking of the heroine's self, of course, it is the key in the key, the adolescent girl who used to wear heavy makeup not only knows how to eat, drink and have fun, she needs to be admitted to Keio University in exchange for a confident life, defeating the fate that is destined to become a waste.
It should be emphasized that Kudo Sayega is not an ordinary hot girl, she is just a potential success figure with the hot girl symbol, and her prototype, Kobayashi Sayaka's second success this year, is enough to prove this).
Successful people are first and foremost dreamers with unique styles, adhering to unique ways of thinking and values, and being able to endure arduous deliberate practice and delayed gratification, which is well reflected in the film.
▲ At the bottom of the school slag Kudo Sayaga, completed the transcendence of the self
Secondly, we need to solve a logical problem, put a very promising superficial hot girl does not do, why should we learn to be a bully? Hot Girls, like the audience, don't just take a reason and act.
Of course, it is to change the dilemma of being forced to drop out of school, but this is only a small goal.
The original lying flat road is not feasible, the balance of habits is broken, and the personality of being forced to desperately refuse to lose is stimulated. It is best to take revenge on dad by accomplishing the impossible task of changing the position of yourself, mom and sister in the family that is not valued.
This is the intermediate goal.
▲ An exciting moment for the entrance examination
Then at this time, the screenwriter's portrayal of the shining point in the mother's personality has fallen into practice, and Sayega inherits his genes and experience, naturally independent, assertive, responsible, stoic, strong, optimistic, confident... Break through the cage of her self-deprecation.
The self-confidence she needs is a process of continuous combat and accumulation, similar to the rookie player upgrading and fighting monsters: the backlit shot of the Chinese and American girl riding a bicycle, the glimmer of the pursuit of dreams, the big wave that was most important in the past gradually straightens out, and the tears in the cold wind are sealed on the face.
▲ Kudo Sayaga who is traveling against the wind
Why do we like inspirational stories? Because resources are never enough, time is never enough, being loved is never enough, justice is never enough.
If we still want to achieve something in a short life, we must grasp everything in our hands, fight against the lack of our desires, and transcend the courage and tempering of animal nature to see the beautiful light of human nature.
This is the ultimate self-actualization.
I have to admit that in terms of digging into the psychology of the characters, Japanese screenwriters are more delicate than many eastern countries.
▲ Hirata encouraged Kudo Sayaga to stop running away and face it bravely, which was the best way
At the end of the film, Sayaga jumped on her father's back like a child, and at this time, the most powerful vengeful goddess in the family, changed back into her father's little daughter.
Toughness is not a sign of strength, gentleness is.
After gaining strength, she realized that true strength is to converge on the edge and be gentle with her family, because "I have become a giant."
At the end of the film, Sayaga reconciles with his father
At this time, the younger brother was also inspired by the example of his sister and took the initiative to reconcile with his father, and the adolescent sisters and brothers found a way to break the intimate relationship.
In addition, I also appreciate the film's treatment of the love between Sayaga and Reiji, why can't the cave flower candle be realized together with the title of the gold list?
Because if they meet, it must be higher.
High up, pleasure and pain are all there.
Author | Ren Tian
Edit | A tree
Typography | zun zun