The author of this article is @Ghost Foot Seven of the Xiaowan family
The only purpose of movies is to make life more interesting than movies
Speaking of the Japanese animation memories of many fans, if the 90s were Hayao Miyazaki, the 00s were Toshi Imatoshi and Hideaki Anno, then by the 2010s, Makoto Shinkai's name could not be bypassed.
Refreshing the box office in the history of Japanese films, and the box office of three consecutive works exceeded 10 billion yen, Makoto Shinkai is undoubtedly a new generation of representatives who support today's Japanese animated films.
What I want to say today is the latest work of Xinhai Cheng, which will be released, screened and pre-sold in the mainland tomorrow, which has exceeded 87 million yuan——
"Journey to the Bell Buds"
The mainland box office of "Journey to Lingya" is expected to catch up with "Your Name." 》
"Journey to the Bell Buds" is a follow-up to "Your Name. " and "Children of the Weather", Makoto Shinkai renewed the "three-year contract" to launch a new work.
With the same fresh and beautiful painting style, and the same healing wrapped in disaster & fantasy, "Journey to the Bell Buds" continues the classic setting of the previous two works, continuing to bring a touching story of youthful love and adventure.
After three years of the pandemic, "Journey to the Bell Buds" still contains more echoes of reality and adherence to protecting daily life than the previous two games, and in this new work, we can see a more mature and delicate Shinkai Makoto.
The protagonist of the story is an ordinary female middle school student, Suzuya, who lives with her aunt after her mother's death.
The days in the town are uneventful and peaceful, until one day, Suzuya meets a strange boy looking for ruins on the way to school, and Suzuya, who follows the other party out of curiosity, is involved in a fantastic adventure that affects the lives of countless people.
The boy, Kusata, claims to be a "gatekeeper" who travels all over the country, and is responsible for closing the doors that scatter around the world to keep out disasters that threaten people's lives.
Suzuya accidentally destroys the other party's work, and Kusanagi is turned into a three-legged child seat by the mysterious cat, and everything is messed up.
Feeling apologetic and helpful, Suzuya takes Kusata on a journey to close the doors and try to recover at the same time.
It was also in this adventure to save the world that she finally plucked up the courage to face the knot in her heart.
It is not difficult to see that "Journey to the Bell Buds" once again introduces the concepts of "disaster" and "guardianship".
Hidden in the doors are "earthworms" that can cause earthquakes - they are unconscious ancient forces, but also symbols of the impermanent catastrophe.
With Your Name. Unlike the relatively fictional disaster setting of meteorites and floods in "Children of the Weather", "Suzuya Journey" is set in the 2011 "March 11" earthquake, which was painful for the Japanese people.
The huge destructive power gushing out of the ground is embodied in the film, and the protagonists Suzuya and Kusata's confrontation with the disaster also have a concrete entity.
The details of the family life that once existed here every time the door closed, the neighborhoods and towns that were abandoned for different reasons, the tragic reality of Suzuya itself experiencing an earthquake and losing loved ones, and the chair that Kusata turned into with a missing leg...
These episodes in the movie carry a faint sense of sadness and point to the countless families that were broken in the "3.11" earthquake in reality.
What "Journey to the Bell Buds" wants to do is to give these people the courage to look back, say goodbye to the pain, and continue to live.
But at the same time, the film dissolves relatively serious or painful themes into a hot-blooded adventure story with the relaxed tone of youth adventure and the fantastic picture of a girl traveling with a chair.
Suzuya and Kusata fight against the nameless forces that keep pouring out of the ground along the way, and also receive help and encouragement from different people along the way, and "Suzuya Journey" conveys the confidence and hope of rebuilding the homeland formed by the goodwill of every ordinary person.
This time, Makoto Shinkai expresses his feelings for ordinary people more directly than his previous works.
In addition to great love, Suzuya, who has lived seemingly carefree with her aunt since she was a child, also had to face that unavoidable and secret private problem when she grew up.
How to miss her deceased mother, the heart knot of "reconciliation" and "letting go" accompanies Suzuya all the way, and finally she returns to her hometown and is released when she faces her former self through the door of time.
The pain of losing a loved one in the disaster has become the most moving scene in the film through the encouragement and understanding of Suzuya who grew up to his younger self.
Yes, no matter what kind of trauma and hardship we face, all our hopes come from the future, obstacles will be overcome, and at some point in the future, we will definitely look tenderly at ourselves who we tried to persevere.
"Suzuya Journey" is more concerned with Japanese reality than Makoto Shinkai's previous two works, and at the same time, the healing effect of this film has a more universal and wide-ranging meaning for the world that has just experienced the epidemic.
Makoto Shinkai admitted in an interview that "the impact of the earthquake 12 years ago is still there, and I hope you don't forget this."
Moving forward courageously may not mean forgetting the pain, and everything we have experienced will become part of the memory and understanding, and become a new courage and strength.
True growth may not be what can be done now, but never afraid of the next challenge and test, which belongs to every ordinary us, and has just begun.
In terms of production, in addition to Makoto Shinkai's consistent high-quality aesthetic graphics and action-packed storyboard design, "Journey to the Bell Bud" also adds cute "male protagonist" small chairs and more cute cats and cats, plus a series of personalized characters created by group portraits, and the viewing process is full of fun and surprises.
THE MUSIC FOR THE FILM IS STILL PERFORMED BY THE WELL-KNOWN JAPANESE ROCK BAND RADWIMPS AND KAZUMA KINOUCHI, WHICH IS RADWIMPS' SUCCESSOR TO "YOUR NAME. has collaborated with Makoto Shinkai for the third time in a row, and their musical style is a natural pair and complements Makoto Shinkai.
RADWIMPS' previous soundtracks not only closely integrate with Makoto Shinkai's story, but also become widely sung hits of the year. With this collaboration, everyone can once again look forward to listening to the Divine Comedy brought by RADWIMPS in the theater.
This is the first highly anticipated anime masterpiece this spring, so let's take a "Suzuya Tour" that is "transparent" from the picture to the story.
Can "Journey to the Bell Buds", which is quite strong at the pre-sale box office, surpass "Your Name." set a new record, and the answer is about to be revealed.