Today I recommend a recently released "Journey to the Bell Buds", directed, written and produced by Makoto Shinkai, which set a number of box office and word-of-mouth records as soon as it was released. On this warm spring day, the film warmed many viewers with its healing story.
The film tells the story of Suzuya, a 17-year-old girl living in the countryside of Kyushu, who one day meets a young Kusata who is traveling "looking for a door". Following in his footsteps, Suzuya came to the ruins of the mountain, where he found an old door that seemed to have been left behind after collapse and destruction. As if attracted by a mysterious force, Suzuya stretched out her hand towards the door... Soon after, "doors" across Japan began to be opened one by one, and disaster befell the world from the other side of the door. So Kusanagi traveled around as a "closed door master" who locked the door.
"Suzuya's Journey" tells the story of the girl's magical journey to find "doors" around Japan to prevent disasters, showing the harm caused by natural disasters such as the "March 11 earthquake" to individuals, families, and society, and conveying warm and healing humanistic feelings. This time, Makoto Shinkai's imagination starts from traditional Japanese customs and culture, blending reality and fiction, past and future, people and cities.
Director Makoto Shinkai posted on Twitter after the film's release: "Since that day, 12 years have passed. Our land is still shaking, but it's not just a notion of fear, abandonment, or impermanence, I hope it can also produce strength, abundance, and beauty. While thinking about these questions, I wrote "The Journey of the Bell Buds"
Therefore, director Makoto Shinkai chose to use animation to heal the scars of pain in the hearts of the victims, and in the film he wanted to show not only people's fear of natural disasters, but more to express that even if human beings are tormented by natural disasters, they still have the belief that they want to "live", and it is precisely because of this belief that human beings still have the courage to move forward in an impermanent world.
As a result, he also takes the audience through the beautiful places in Japan that have been devastated by earthquakes. At the same time, it is also a coming-of-age story, giving some warmth, hope, and strength to keep going for those who have encountered impermanence and sadness in disasters.
Then "Journey to the Bell Bud" is a road type movie, the advantage of road type films is that the pace is fast, the novelties encountered can be more rationalized, and you can also see different scenery, but the director of Xinhaicheng is more recognized and familiar to the public in 2016 "Your Name", which also has a number of box office and word-of-mouth records after its release.
It tells not only the story of Suzuya's growth, but also the funny and touching story of Kusata and Suzuya's two-way redemption and the story of preventing disaster by closing the door. There is a character named Aunt Huan, and in the film it allows us to see a kind of female power, a kind of not giving in, not giving up, not stopping, constantly exploring... This feminine power does not exist in isolation, but interacts with and supports other female characters.
In the movie, we see the deep and subtle family affection between Ling Ya and Aunt Huan, and in the follow-up, Aunt Huan also poured out her heart, twisted the knot of the two people, pulled away the clouds, understood each other, Ling Bud self-redemption at this moment realized the handshake with the memory and made peace, Ling Bud did not pack up the past memories and throw them away, but answered the past with the present, those obstacles that seemed to never be passed, now they have survived.
Secondly, in this journey of two-way redemption, Kusanagi has to bear the responsibility of saving the world because of his ancestral identity as a "closed door", and this responsibility presses him to death. When he finally realized that he had become a stone and was about to step into the mortal world (death), he was afraid, he was restless, and he was more and more eager to live.
As he said, "I know that life is like a mayfly and death is like a shadow, but I still pray that even if it's just another year, one more day, one more time, we want to live." ”
When Kusata gives up his life because of duty, Suzuya appears in the mortal world to save him from the worm, and when Suzuya does not value life, he tells Suzuya to cherish it. From closing the door with respect for the land to Suzuya's self-redemption, Shinkai Makoto offers his sincerity to everyone, and he gently prays that all people will one day be able to lock all the sorrows in their hearts and return them to the earth.
This became a two-way redemption journey for him and Suzuya!
Regarding the face of disasters, I feel the horror of natural disasters, which are huge and human beings are thin. May there be no disaster in the world. Makoto Shinkai is very good at portraying, whenever an earthquake strikes, people can't see it, the endless flow of people is as usual, the sales clerk in the convenience store, the mother holding the hand of a child, every frame in the picture is detailed, and the kitten minister who drives the plot, all animal creatures are full.
In Weatherchild, "I'm content with what I have, don't ask for more, but please don't take anything away." "Under the values promoted by a certain social superstructure, it is more like lying flat.
But in "Journey to the Bell Buds", the attitude towards uncontrollable disasters is to accept impermanence and even face it calmly. It is also in line with the values of Jingwei reclamation, Dayu water control to Yugong moving mountains, adhering to the values of people who conquer the sky and believe in the people. Privately, there is no superiority between the two. Because some people are almost exhausted just by living. Life is not easy, mutual understanding.
"Journey to the Bell Buds" wants too much, wants to express too satisfied, resulting in too few places to leave white space, and places to ponder become light as feathers. Makoto Shinkai does not hesitate to "create a world where only cats and cats are injured", giving life to cats and cats from stones, and also sewing everything he wants to say. The cat cat is both the doppelganger of the bell bud and the symbol of the victims; Not only to echo the relationship between Suzuya and her sister-in-law, but also to bear the loss that everyone will eventually face. Along the way, the cat is the clue of the tandem journey, to the end, and become a sacrifice to solve the problem...
The beginning and end of the end of the film echo is unfinished, giving people a romantic color, "as long as you live, you will be full of hope", although it sounds like a helpless compromise, but it also reflects that human beings still have the courage to move forward in this impermanent world of life, and the scars of the past are always remembered in their hearts, but they cannot stop there, they can only move forward with hope and slowly heal in their hearts. Makoto Shinkai's 9 years of thinking about natural disasters brought this film to a successful end.