Author: Du Xiaojie, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Nanning Normal University
As the final work of Makoto Shinkai's "disaster trilogy", "Journey to the Bell Bud" has broken a number of imported animated film records and has become a hot film in the market. Like the director's well-known predecessors such as "Your Name" and "5 Centimeters Per Second", "Journey to the Bell Bud" is still a youthful love narrative, but the reason why it can produce such a strong appeal is due to its rich emotional poetics.
"Journey to the Bell Buds" poster
Pacification: emotional healing for the after-effects of disaster
Unlike Makoto Shinkai's mostly fictional works, the story framework of "Suzuya Journey" is based on the major earthquake disaster events in Japan over the past century. In the film, the male protagonist Kusanagi, as a closed master, protects the real world by sealing the earthquake force hidden in the ordinary world - Vermi. The heroine Suzuya's "trainee closed-door teacher" journey of love travels through Kyushu, Ehime, Kobe, Tokyo and Iwate, connecting the sites of five major earthquakes that have caused heavy trauma to Japan since 1923. The sealing of the power of disaster is like a grand requiem ceremony, which is not only a consolation for the deceased, but also a consolation for the survivors.
This emotional appeasement, on the one hand, is achieved through the sealed narrative, and on the other hand, it is also manifested through the warm narrative of the journey. Five earthquake cities and five sealing ceremonies run through the warm narratives of different dimensions. In Kyushu, Suzuya accidentally removes the key stone that seals the door, and develops an ambiguous relationship with Kusanagi in Pingshui. In Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku, high school student Chigo takes in and helps Suzuya, who has left home in a hurry, and is a sisterhood between peers. On the way to Kobe, the bar owner's wife Ryumi takes care of her all the way, which is a chivalrous love between strangers. In Tokyo, Serizawa joins the team that saved Kusata without hesitation, and it is the brotherhood between classmates. And in the final battle of Iwate, not only the ignorant love between Suzuya and Kusata was sublimated, but also the parent-child relationship between Suzuya and his aunt was confirmed and enhanced.
"The fireworks of the world are the most soothing to mortals." The journey to Lingbud is actually a warm journey. Compared with the fierce but short ritual process of banning the door, the film gives the most time to these daily emotions without too many contradictions and emotional ups and downs. It is these warm narratives in different dimensions that provide solid emotional support for the film in addition to the fantasy sealed story, and build a warm and orderly human love world. These warm feelings, familiar or unfamiliar, are not only a comfort for Ling Ya, a survivor of the loss of loved ones in the earthquake, but also a tribute to the positive and optimistic emotional world of people after the earthquake. For moviegoers, it is a huge emotional comfort and healing.
Reconstruction: The Emotional Call of the Post-Industrial Era
From the perspective of subject matter, "Journey to the Bell Bud" belongs to a typical fantasy narrative. Writing fantasy stories in the context of contemporary prosperous cities, this dislocation of spiritual values is itself a soft resistance to post-industrial civilization. Just as the white dragon in "Spirited Away" forgot his name in the process of modernization, the continuous expansion of modernity, the continuous deepening of industrialization and informatization, is also cutting off many connections between people and history and memory. In this sense, "Journey to the Bell Buds" conceals the theme of "memory and resistance", and the weapon of resistance that the work relies on is the powerful call to the emotional world and the imaginative reconstruction of emotional relationships.
In the film, the closed master Kusanagi must recite the mantra when he seals the door: "Think and think, pray to the god of the sun that is not seen, and pray to the god of the land that the ancestors will replace for generations." This mountain and this river have been endured for a long time, and I am very grateful. Sincere fear, sincere fear. Do what God will give! "Mantras, as the expression of the relationship between man and god, are both a contract and a reinforcement of the emotional field. The mantra chanted by Kusata does not mean to force it, but is more a gratitude and retelling of the feelings of the god of mountains and rivers for nourishing all peoples, and praying for new blessings through this act of gratitude and retelling. Therefore, the seal of Vermie actually relies on the reconstruction of the emotional relationship between man and nature in harmony.
While chanting the mantra, the closed door master must also recall the people and emotions associated with the location of the door. In Ehime Prefecture, the site of the vermifer outbreak is an abandoned school. At the crucial moment of the sealing ceremony, Suzuya replaces Kusata, who has turned into a chair, as the closed master, and finally succeeds in sealing the vermia by recalling the emotional scenes during the school's existence. In several other seals, it is the same call to past emotions that gives the sealing ritual great power.
The vermicom's breakthrough gates are all chosen in the ruins abandoned by humans. Whether it is the villages and towns of Kyushu, Ehime's schools, or Kobe's playgrounds, they were once the places where people were buzzing, and they were also the carriers of people's daily emotions. However, when the place is abandoned, the memories and emotions that used it as a carrier are gradually forgotten, and Vermiel has the opportunity to create disaster. The film links the occurrence of disasters with emotional desolation, metaphors for the crisis of post-industrial society: urban renewal and crowd migration disrupt the emotional connection between people and geographical space and others, and eventually cause unbearable emotional disasters; Only by rebuilding the emotional connection between man and nature and between man can we fight disaster with the power of emotional community.
It can be said that "Journey to the Bell Buds" is not only a journey of sealing, a journey of chasing love, but also a journey of emotional reconstruction that refuses to be forgotten. By reconstructing places and people's emotions, the vermire can be eliminated. By reconstructing the emotional memory of Japan's "311 earthquake", Suzuya's own life universe has been repaired. Refusing to face the truth that her mother died in the "311 earthquake", Suzuya's emotional memory has been in a turbulent and unstable state. In Iwate, the site of the earthquake, Suzuya, who sealed the vermia, returns to the memory scene, shares touching emotions with his self twelve years ago, and finally walks out of the haze of life. Through the summoning and reconstruction of emotions and memories, Suzuya also completes the growth of the inner self.
The Medium of Emotions: The Human Dimension of Animated Films
Compared with "Your Name", "Weather Child" in the "Disaster Trilogy" and the famous work "5 Centimeters Per Second", Makoto Shinkai's "Journey to the Bell Buds" has more diverse emotional narratives and provides more emotional resonance. The film itself does not stop at the one-way expression of strong emotions, but while showing the power of emotions, it guides the audience to take the initiative to call and reconstruct emotions, and use active emotional generation to fight the pain caused by forgetting and disasters. It is the docking of the artistic narrative and the real world that makes the film have a deep resonance with the audience.
Animation is a genre of light and shadow, not a subject matter exclusive to a certain group of people. Japanese animators represented by Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai firmly grasped this concept, built animation into a carrier of public emotional narrative, established artistic and life connections with the widest possible number of people, and promoted animation to occupy an increasingly prominent position in the Japanese social and cultural system. Using animation as a medium to show and reflect on the constant proposition of life is the success of "Journey to the Bell Buds", and it is also where domestic animation needs to be further improved. (Du Xiaojie)
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