Image from the anime "In Search of Hidden Happiness"
I like animation as much as I like words, because the existence of these things makes us feel that the life in front of us is not too bad.
Last year's animated films such as "Dream Quest" and "Beloved Van Gogh" undoubtedly brought an unparalleled visual feast to everyone, and once again verified that animation can cover all groups without distinction. I like animation, perhaps because its different visual experience makes us feel simple and relaxed, or perhaps because it narrates the truth of life in a variety of depictions, which always makes us gain something.
The last issue of buns recommended the main theme of the domestic animation "Turn this page", today our theme is also animation, but it is the route of healing. I hope you can feel comfortable after reading it and drip through this week!
In Search of Hidden Happiness is a feature film directed by Alessandro Rak in Italy. Some people say that this is an adult fairy tale that can be compared to "The Little Prince".
But it is also a moving story of family affection, and what is different is that its plays are digging towards human consciousness and thought, accompanied by memories and a lot of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. The religious aspect of the cycle of life, the meaning of life, and the way to find happiness becomes an important part, and it is through this that the script turns the story into a deeper spiritual level.
Ten years ago, the male protagonist, suffering from cancer, decided to put aside his musical dreams and leave here to go to Dharamsala, India, to become a monk, and he hid this fact in order not to make his brother sad. The younger brother, who did not know the inside story, held a grudge against his brother who abandoned him, and finally he gave up his musical dream, preferring to be a taxi driver in Naples, listening to the radio day after day through the streets, meeting different people, listening to different stories.
At the beginning of the film, it is said that after death, the soul may return to the city it once was, accompanied by a stormy seagull, we come to a stranger's city, which is where the dead are concerned, and we begin to know those who he could not let go of before he was born. We see the male protagonist driving a taxi in a rainy city, he describes it as sloppy, usually living in the car, stubborn and desperate unwilling to associate with his family.
As he continued to meet different passengers, his thoughts were brought back to his memories along with these current experiences, which were knots that he could not get around for a while. This stream-of-consciousness narrative allows us to gradually enter the heart of the male protagonist, and also makes the story extremely sad and fragile.
The director does not want to tell a story in a flat and straightforward way, so the main narrative of the film is interspersed with different people, the beautiful woman who forgot her wallet and left the wedding ring to him, the passenger who turned garbage into treasure, and the rebellious old lady like a child, each of whom is like a wise man on the road of reconciliation between the male protagonist and himself, allowing him to re-examine life from different angles and ways.
In addition to this narrative thread, the film is also interspersed with a radio program called "The Art of Finding Happiness", in which the male host talks about the meaning of soul, life, reincarnation and happiness, which is ostensibly easy to convince listeners, which may also be one reason why my brother became fascinated with Buddhism and chose to go to India to become a monk.
But the persuasiveness of this line stops at the male protagonist meeting the host of the show in the car, and also wants to have a reversal of what the film wants to explore, the story is packaged with religion, which is also the first look, but this is not the theme that the director really wants to say, it is like irony, so it is enough to wake up the dreamer.
The play's attempt at a sense of form, in addition to the memories of stream of consciousness, is also connected with the flight of the seagull and the toy car of the brothers' childhood, life is like a journey, the road will inevitably come to an end, but at the end of the peak, it is a new beginning, a new journey. My brother dies at the beginning of the film, as if he had fallen at the end of a beautiful world.
Maybe the dearest person in the world has gone, you can really feel that emotion, and then be enveloped by inexplicable sadness, feeling that something bad will happen, so the male protagonist refuses to open the letter from his brother. The two lines full of symbolic metaphors in the film are interesting, they also make the hero's journey of awakening very complete, add a sense of form to the script, and also give the story an indescribable sense of fatalism.
This is an animated film full of humanistic temperament, in addition to the beautiful picture, its music is also very beautiful, the brother's profession is violin, the younger brother is a talented pianist, but the music has not allowed them to find hidden happiness, but let them embark on a different path in life. The music in the film creates a poetic and sad aesthetic atmosphere, making the already stream-of-consciousness story more dreamlike, it is completely different from the commercial animation in Hollywood, and the thickness and spirituality of the story can even be easily killed by live-action movies.
It is also a Western cartoon with a very Oriental charm, with simple pictures and flexible music, integrated into Buddhist Zen, exploring the true meaning of music, life, and happiness. "Happiness is not in the past, not in the future, as long as you are doing something that will make you feel happy at the moment, this will become an endless present, and happiness is endless happiness." Living in the present moment, there will always be a time to pull out the dark clouds and see the sun.
Interested friends can take time to see in their spare time, the film is really very very meaningful, but need to be patient to watch, the painting style you may not be adapted to but really very beautiful.
Off-topic, this is a film made using Moho. If you have any good inspiration after watching the film, whether you are an indulgent amateur or a professional animation practitioner, you can use Moho to show it