After the Spring Festival, for the first time, there is a movie that can make the circle of friends check in.
280 million in two days.
Maoyan's box office forecast is also growing at a rate close to 100 million per day.
What is a commercial blockbuster?
No.
Among this year's popular theatrical films, its obscure stream of consciousness can be called the first, so that after watching the movie, many people directly issued doubts such as "I am sleepy and can't understand":
What kind of life do you want to live?
How do you live?
The only reason why I can associate such a result with such a style of work is because of one name:
宫崎骏.
For the bulk of the audience.
rushed to the theater to watch this movie for the first time, and it was only because of the trust in him.
So this time, did the old man live up to expectations?
Perhaps quite the opposite.
Sir thinks that this is a rare expression of Miyazaki's true feelings.
So today, we don't talk about the background of the story, nor the political metaphors corresponding to the characters, fantasy creatures, etc.
Let's just talk about the growth narrative.
And this is the core of understanding this story, and it is also another layer of answers to the movie.
(There are spoilers in this article, it is better to take it after watching the movie)
01
In the first half of the movie, many viewers will keenly feel: this time the old man Miyazaki is not the same as before.
Not only does the realistic scene occupy a lot of space.
And it's not "comfortable".
It seems that he still creates a complete fantasy world, but compared with works such as "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Spirited Away", his temperature is colder, the background is heavier, and his temperament is more thorny.
For example:
The first scene of the film is not for comfort.
The sirens of air raids, the mother in the sea of fire, the young male protagonist who rushes out of the house in three steps and two steps like a beast, and the outside world as hideous as purgatory......
And the beginning of the fantasy adventure in the middle section is not friendly.
As an invitation, the heron shows its teeth and a human head like a huge sarcoma, and the toad crawls all over the body, which can be regarded as the temptation of the beginning of the dream.
"Life" is indeed Miyazaki's most ruthless temperament and the most personal perspective.
Why?
Jiang Lang's exhaustion of talents and the fatigue of self-repetition?
Sir feels that the above "discomfort" is precisely because he is extremely sincere, and in this multi-metaphorical work, the intensity of reflection is unprecedented.
The story of Life is not complicated.
The mother of the young Mu Majin died in a hospital fire during the war, and the father of the wealthy merchant married his mother's sister Natsuko as the stepmother of the real people.
Natsuko is pregnant with a child, but the real person does not fully accept this new "mother", and he can't let go of his biological mother's death.
The family moves to the mother's family's idyllic mansion, only to discover all sorts of anomalies in the house.
One day, Natsuko disappears in Tower Mountain, and the heron lures the real person into the world of Tower Mountain.
The real person goes through a series of fantastical adventures and meets his mother, Huo Mei, who is the same age as him, in the tower world.
He finally lets go of his mother's death, rescues Natsuko, and returns to the real world to reunite with his father.
But here's the thing.
Why does the first hour of the movie tell the real life of a teenager in great detail?
If you read the article posted by Sir before.
You may think that this is Miyazaki's indulgent memories of his teenage life?
Not really.
Because it is precisely this kind of detail arrangement, we can understand the real man in an all-round way:
He was a not-so-likable child.
Real people, that is, real people, are also expressed in the lines of the movie.
Because of this, he is no longer like the energetic witch Kiki, or the little girl Chihiro who is willing to give herself, but the real person has his delicate and self-interested and aggressive side.
He doesn't want to be associated with people.
The evaluation of real people by various people in the film is "arrogant and arrogant".
The overly detailed action display we saw in the early stage may be the psychological feelings of real people.
The real person's ego is too strong and he is addicted to the past, so the interaction with others in his eyes is more like an external "invasion" behavior, leaving traces of discomfort everywhere.
Natsuko and himself sat in the same rickshaw, and he could clearly feel the squeezing of space and the offense of Natsuko's movements.
He was reluctant to call Natsuko "Mom", only saying that this was "the woman that his father loved".
In the story, only a real family of three is neat and clean.
The mothers-in-law who are working at home for the first time appear in a worm-like wriggling motion, while the other students in the real class all behave rudely and viciously.
It's not so much the truth, but the real person who is stuck in the cracks of growth, the world that is distorted in his eyes.
What to do?
In response to this "invasion", the real person reacts by attacking and lying.
The real people in the early stage couldn't put down their navy hats anywhere.
On the one hand, it is a status symbol of the elite family, while the other possibility, the poison of war, lives in the body of this teenager.
Unlike the previous works, where the adventure begins with truth, goodness and beauty, the adventure in "Life" begins with a lie.
It was a real person who smashed himself on the head with a stone in order to gain his father's love and show that he was superior.
It was from the moment the wound on the forehead that the lying appeared that the heron showed its fangs.
And the response of real people, from wooden sticks to bows and arrows, is to counter violence with violence.
So you see.
In contrast to the traditional stories of juvenile adventure, Miyazaki handed himself his first knife here.
He dissected his own heart.
Exposing all of his malice, arrogance, and fear is an undisguised introspection.
But here's the thing.
Is this really just an autobiography by Hayao Miyazaki?
No.
In fact, what we can clearly see is that Miyazaki does not simply want to say "anti-war", but hopes to explore the eternal topic in the face of grand hatred and the environment of rising militaristic sentiment through the growth of young people:
How should people live their own lives?
And to talk about such topics.
You can't be affectionate, gentle, and sometimes, you need a self-dissecting scalpel.
02
If the "life" in the first half can still be accurately understood by many audiences, then in the second half of the "dream", it is difficult for many people to understand.
It looks sparse.
But if you look closely, you will find that the so-called fantasy world is actually isomorphic to the real world.
The Tower world is almost the opposite of the real world.
In reality, green envelops everything, static and grand;
Inside the tower, the flowers are in full bloom, and the houses are small but natural.
In reality, the appetite is restrained and vigilant, a small bowl of rice is divided into seats, and the real person eats lightly and tastelessly;
In the tower, people are not afraid to show killing and eating, the big knife cuts at the fish belly, the stomach and intestines flow sideways, and everyone holds the plate to share the food.
A bite of jam bread can cost half a face.
In reality, the ship's cherished equipment has turned into the shadow of a whole row of ships carrying the undead in the distance in the Tower world.
In reality, the old lady Kiriko who follows behind the real person;
In the tower world, it is a female captain with strength and beauty, who allows real people to experience the living rules of the other world.
The direct gaze of desire, the direct face of life and death, and the equal treatment of life.
For the first time, the real person felt that the sacred moonlight could shine on his body in the small latrine.
It also allows him to truly empathize with others and be willing to bury a tired pelican who is destined to die in battle.
And this.
It also became a turning point in the story.
In simple terms.
The two worlds are built to allow real people to better understand the external reality. And to complete the growth of the human soul, it is necessary to go through three "mothers".
One is Natsuko who belongs to the real world, a stepmother who is not recognized by real people.
She is pregnant, waiting for a new life to start after the war, but she is banished to a fantasy world and is in a state of stagnation.
She punctures the first layer of introspection in the story: the thorn in which the relationship between people is concealed.
The mother and son are polite and actually hate each other.
But really when they poured out the truth of "I hate you", they really stretched out their hands to accept each other.
The second "mother" is Kiriko.
Her image changes from a wriggling old woman to a lifeless little doll to a vibrant female captain.
She has no blood relationship or social mother-son relationship with the real person, but she took the real person into real life.
Even the scar on his forehead is exactly the same as a real person.
What she punctured was the disguise of the elite over the common people.
The third mother, Huomei.
He is a victim of war, a guide to the nature of real adventure, and a guide for him to complete self-redemption when he opens the book "What kind of life do you want to live".
She saw her child at the age of a young girl, and was not afraid to accept that she would die in the flames.
What Huomei pierces is the sharpest last layer of the film, that is, the hypocrisy of the creator.
Creating a parallel world to think that you can start over may be an escape from reality.
Yes, although the other world is beautiful, it is also a reflection of reality after all, and it also has the ugly plundering and killing of human nature, as well as the self-righteous and fair checks and balances of the upper class.
These two worlds always overlap in some places.
When the parrot king captures Huomei, the soldiers line up to watch and worship, which is similar to the scene at the beginning of the movie, when people line up to pay attention to armored vehicles and children imitate the walking posture of soldiers.
The whole film grew up to shatter the hypocrisy of the rulers who stood at the top, maintained their bloodline, and stood under the halo of the Meiji Restoration.
The real person overthrew the self-righteous building blocks of the uncle.
Those building blocks that think they are noble for checks and balances are essentially stones full of malice and attack others, and the sparks from the stones are a war that destroys lives.
Human history has repeatedly demonstrated that many atrocities have been committed in the name of justice and self-righteousness.
A real person, a child of a family of vested interests in the war, and at the same time an ordinary person with PTSD due to violence.
He finally stroked his scars and confessed all his lies, cowardice, and guilt.
After completing the subversion, he also has the courage to look directly at the truth, "to return to the real world full of violence, hurt, and lies." ”
The moment he walked out of the dream, the tower, which was protected by the arrogant elite, was also overthrown.
Yes.
"Life" is not just a personal memory of Hayao Miyazaki.
In the official commentary of the film released by Ghibli, Miyazaki said that the film "Heron" is his gift to his grandson.
I also hope that at the time of release.
"Whether the world ends in turmoil or falls into a new catastrophe, this film can transcend its time. ”
Is it possible?
Sir doesn't know.
But at least from the perspective of the film itself, this story does not belong to a certain era.
03
Perhaps for many people, watching "Life" will inevitably usher in disappointment.
Miyazaki seems to have changed.
It's no longer light, it's no longer "fun", and in this story, even the cute wah-wah wah-wah-wah, Miyazaki gives them to be scorched by flames in the moonlight, like a jet of veins.
In simple terms.
It's thick enough, it's real enough.
No more "pleasing the audience".
This kind of personalization has made another name frequently appear in the comment area of Douban - Hideaki Anno.
I believe many people have heard the story of Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno, who once worked in Hayao Miyazaki's studio and was "abused".
Even "EVA", which later became a cultural phenomenon in Japan, was commented by Hayao Miyazaki as "too selfish".
But these two animators, whether they contain myths about their homeland, the world, and war in their vast imaginations, or they indulge in their own spiritual world and deal with the relationship between themselves and others.
Until now.
What they want to express tends to be the same: "Dreams are an extension of reality, and reality is the end of dreams." ”
In the end, I chose to "come out and face it".
So from this point of view, "Life" is indeed an extremely personal auteur film.
It was a box office hit.
It's just because of our trust in the name Hayao Miyazaki (according to the fandom, it is a director who can carry the box office alone).
But at the same time.
This is also one of Miyazaki's most sincere works.
In the past, the fantasy paradise he created has always been a kind of spiritual freedom that is different from the mainstream, giving us a kind of courage and sobriety that runs counter to the established reality.
Now, in the illusory reflection and growing pains, we follow the old man into the real world and travel through our own hearts.
That's the power of cinema.
At the end of "Life", the reason why the real person did not forget after the adventure was like in the fairy tale was that he left traces of another world:
Blocks and dolls.
And after we finished reading Hayao Miyazaki's heavy life work, we also treasured that imaginative fragment of inspiration.
We choose not to forget him.
The picture in this article comes from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: It's Tu Yile