Beneath its gorgeous and even somewhat pompous exterior, Barbie tells more than one serious topic

I have to say that Margot Robbie's image is indeed very suitable for the classic style of "Barbie", and she herself also meets some standards of Hollywood beauty, so starring in "Babylon" gives people the feeling that it is also in line with the tone of the film. Instead, Harry Quinn in "Suicide Squad" is a little far away from us, or a little unaccustomed to it.

Beneath the ornate and even pompous exterior, the irony of the story is quite strong. The applause and laughter that came from time to time in the premiere theater speaks for itself, as well as the silence and invisible tears that you can't hear. So, what kind of movie can bring so many emotional reactions to the audience, let's unveil the mystery of this movie.

01 When Barbie came to the human world

At the beginning of the film, director Greta Gerwig shows us a world of Barbie Paradise in her imagination, where countless Barbie and Ken gather. The same life is repeated every day, from bathing to eating breakfast, but there is no real liquid in sight. Until one day, the classic Barbie found that his life had changed somewhat.

This time, although there was no real liquid flowing out, she could feel cold and warm in the shower. There was no milk in the cup, but she could taste the expired spoilage and the slices of bread were fried. In short, the usual beautiful and peaceful state, or fixed drama, has been broken. The most important thing is that her tiptoe feet can be laid flat.

In fact, to some extent, she has a real human physique. After the guidance and advice of the "devastated" predecessor Barbie, Barbie decided to drive the car to the human world to find the little girl who brought about changes for herself. In other words, who thinks of herself as a toy Barbie, she has to find that owner in order to fix herself.

But the bad thing is that Ken, who has always had a good impression of Barbie, also came to the world. This is a fatal mistake. In the vernacular, this buddy came to the world without learning well, and brought the set of patriarchal ideas back to Barbie Paradise, he believes that the human world is ruled by men and horses.

What makes Barbie even more frustrated is that the girl she is looking for, Sasha, has long been an older child, and not only feels ridiculous about her arrival, but also puts Barbie's negative impact and arrangement. And when Barbie was about to be forcibly taken back to Barbie Paradise, she was intercepted by the sudden appearance of Gloria (Sasha's mother), of course, there was also her daughter Sasha among the companions.

02 Subvert the patriarchal world

It turns out that the person Barbie is looking for is not Sasha, and Gloria, it is the latter who adds new elements to Barbie on the new drawing paper of the human world, which causes problems in Barbie's world. Of course, this is nothing, when the three women return to Barbie Land to find that it has been occupied by Ken and countless other Ken. Ken reproduces a more extreme set of patriarchal society from the human world into Barbie's world.

The structure of the film is clear, and the front is Barbie going to the human world to find a solution to her own problems. It turns out that the bigger problem appears after returning to Paradise, and she never thought that she brought a bigger trouble back after taking Ken to the human world. And this time, with the assistance of Gloria, she will retake her Barbie Paradise.

According to the plan, they first summoned all the Barbies who had been deeply seduced one by one to escape Ken's control, and then let the sisters pretend to be still devoted and obedient to Ken's world, and the last trick was to use their jealousy and competitiveness to start infighting.

Although those dance and fight scenes are very broken and pompous and contrived, it is more or less that the creators deliberately created such playful scenes, so that the male world represented by Ken showed a disgusting and clown-like gesture. "High Commander", who has always been handsome and cool, is a bit of a self-destructive image performance in this movie, but it completes the satirical function of this film very well.

03 Find yourself

The film does not stop at subverting the idea of male rights and highlighting the consciousness of women's rights, but continues to ask another level of questions, about how people know themselves, that is, who "I" really is. Ken should be himself, not a suffix character premised on Barbie, not the man behind Barbie, and not her appendage. And vice versa, Barbie is also herself, not belonging to anyone.

When it comes to reclaiming Barbie Land, Barbie expresses her understanding of equality to Ken. After all, in the old days, Barbie was the leader of the world, and every day was "Barbie night", in fact, it was also depriving Ken of their freedom. In fact, this film is a metaphor for the current world through the women represented by Barbie and the men represented by Ken.

Since subverting the so-called male power discourse in the real world will seem powerless, then in the movie, through another Barbie world where you can find the corresponding characters and identities, a power grab action. And when everything returns to its former order, the key question is not how to learn how to protect women's rights and interests, or fight against patriarchal ideas, but what kind of person do you become after you have a soul.

So after experiencing the discovery of its own problems and saving the Barbie world, the movie finally arranged Ruth Handler (the founder of Barbie) and Barbie a spiritual dialogue, which is the last content to be expressed by the creators, that is, to make Barbie truly become a woman, not a symbolic doll.

Despite all the hardships and eventually death that come with being human, Barbie is willing to be a living human being. In the final scene of the film, Barbie, who seems to be carrying a school bag into a certain building, seems to be applying for a job. But at the end, we see that she went to the gynecology department of the hospital. Yes, the joy of being a woman is written on her face.