< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction</h1>
Different from the visual impact brought by Junji Ito's horror pictures, many "horror" animations in Japan give the audience a reflection on human nature and a creepy feeling behind the deep meaning. Well-done Japanese animation, one is strong logic, Oshii Mori and Imatoshi two masters of many works, from the point of view, is a link, behind the logic is very strong; and the other, there is no logic to speak of abnormal narrative, but this kind of work often makes you think under the premise of not knowing enough about the story, such as "Cat Soup".
This Japanese masterpiece combines the characteristics of horror and cuteness, integrating the two themes of life of violence and growth, a work of less than 30 minutes, but mixed with too many philosophical questions about the fundamentals of life, full of fun and at the same time allow the audience to see a lot of human thoughts.
The "Hand of God" that Controls Everything
Many people, including me, the first feeling of watching "Cat Soup" is that the painting style is strange, but they can't understand it. But every time you look at it, you will have a new feeling, from the perspective of painting style, the protagonist's two cats are still relatively cute in the image, in addition to some other creatures with very different styles, the imagination of Pegasus Starry Sky is both strange and familiar. Coupled with the background music, it always gives people an inexplicable sense of weirdness, and the work has a surrealist aesthetic. As a divine work, what is even more shocking about "Cat Soup" is the large number of metaphors and human thoughts mixed in.
First, let's take a look at a common way of expression in many film and television works - the aesthetics of violence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "aesthetics of violence."</h1>
Violent aesthetics refers to the sensory presentation of violence in an aesthetic way, poetic pictures, and even fantasy shots to show the violent side and violence of human nature. The viewer is often amazed by the artistic form of expression, and thus cannot produce a specific discomfort with the content.
"Aesthetics of Violence" originated in the United States and matured in Hong Kong, which is a kind of film art taste and formal exploration. It usually manifests itself as the ritualization of violent action scenes. It is characterized by the use of postmodern techniques by the creators to dissolve the gunfights and fight scenes in the film into games and jokes with no specific meaning; or to symbolize them as visual and auditory aesthetic elements closely related to the content of the film.
Director Wu Yusen's stylized treatment of violence in his films has become a milestone in the history of violence in films, and a series of restrictive Hollywood regulations on films have been proposed for violence and pornography. The emergence of Wu Yusen's "Hero Series" films makes his violent films no longer regarded as "violent films", he provides audiences around the world with a new perspective on violence - the oriental aesthetic perspective, for the first time making violence a "meaningful form" (Clive Bell), followed by Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Oliver Stone, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and others The stylized exploration of violence has also caused quite a stir in the world film world, setting off a sensation The craze for "aesthetics of violence".
Wu Yusen's "The True Colors of Heroes"
"Aesthetics of Violence" also presents a pluralistic style and spiritual connotation that includes both homogeneous and heterogeneous factors due to the differences in regional and cultural backgrounds of different countries (regions). Quentin Tarantino of the United States, Wu Yusen of Hong Kong, China, and Takashi Miike of Japan have all been called "masters of violent aesthetics". Even cartoons that were originally simple and cute but were added to the violent content were labeled as "violent aesthetics".
"Aesthetics of violence" is a broad, "pan" aesthetic concept, and the main feature of the works in question is the display of aggressive power and the embodiment of an exaggerated, unconventional act of violence. In some works, the presentation of violence can be divided into two forms: First, violence after formalization and social transformation, violence becomes easy to accept, for example, bullets, bloody scenes after being treated by means of stunts and other means, its aggressive tendency is partially hidden. Another situation is to show the violent process and the bloody effect more directly, rendering the sensory stimulation of violence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > symbol of "violence" in Cat Soup</h1>
1. Animation "Cat Soup"
The anime Cat Soup is produced by J.C.STAFF Animation and based on the Japanese manga nekojiru Udon, directed by Japanese animator and director Ryo Sato.
Poster of the work
Story introduction: Cat sister is seriously ill and bedridden, the soul is being taken away by the god of death, the cat brother desperately snatched back half of the cat sister's soul from the hands of the god of death, but the cat sister's eyes are sluggish, they need to find the four-petal flower to get the cat sister back to normal. In order to find the soul of the sister, the cat brother took the sister who resembled a puppet on a journey, in the process of finding flowers, they met the circus, met the old woman who sewed the body of the kitten, met the abusive animal and wanted to cook cat soup... And finally successfully found the four-petaled flower, the sister recovered her sanity, the sister and brothers loved each other happily home, and the family sat together and started dinner. However, in the short time that the cat brother went to the toilet, the father, mother and sister disappeared one after another, and the world...
The final reunion
2. The symbol of "violence" in the animation
One form of expression of the aesthetics of violence is to symbolize it.
In terms of purpose, the starting point of this journey is salvation, and the cat brother embarks on a journey to save his sister, just as the original intention of the person, starting everything with good wishes, but violence is inevitable. At the beginning of the journey, at the circus, the cat brother witnesses and takes pleasure in human violence. Squeezed to the extreme, after a flood wash, violence followed the surviving cat brother to board the Noah's Ark, the cat brother became an impulsive abuser, and the violence was passed on. He has no compassion for the well-meaning pig brother, from eating his flesh to whipping his bones, the demented cat sister can hardly do anything, but knows how to whip the pig with the cat brother, which seems to become a passive follower under the influence of the environment. The pig, who had been powerless to resist, chose to resist with the same violent resistance at the last second, and he bit off the cat's brother's arm. While escaping from the giant's castle, the younger brother used scissors to cut off the giant's limbs and "fight violence with violence".
I have only one weapon for violence, and that is violence. - Sartre
Different levels of lens expression
The root causes of violence have long been uncovered step by step. There are already traces of the cat brother's behavior. One fish was cut into pieces by a group of fully armored samurai, leaving only the next skeleton, which swam in the sea, traveled through time, and stranded on the beach where the cat brother played in his childhood. The cat brother poked the only remaining fish eye and swallowed it into the stomach. Violence has long since sown its seeds.
The life of a fish
In the anime Cat Soup, there are too many symbols of violence.
When the cat brothers and sisters came to the circus, they met a magical magician who could bring the dead to life, and the premise of the dead was to turn the living into death. The divided female performers are full of impact compared to the intact bodies that were later resurrected. And the scene of the resurrection of the dead is the expectation of human beings.
In order to satisfy people's desires, the master conjured up all kinds of things that human beings desired, fish representing food, chairs representing needs, enslaved elephants, victims of violence.
Conjured up elephants
The third performance of the circus is the declaration of the real theme, a transparent white bird, blue and white body, is the blue sky and white clouds, the symbol of nature, but people in order to obtain the illusory beauty under the scream of the big bird, with a rope to constantly squeeze the right foot of the big bird, cruelly cut the big bird, cut off the big bird's foot.
The oppressed big bird
Under the lens, the big bird symbolizes the nature we live in, people continue to squeeze everything in nature for money and wealth, and the wonderful fantasy in the mouth of the big bird represents all the resources that human beings need. Humans who only know how to take, greedy and unaware. But nature is a balanced ecosystem, just as a bird loses a foot, and a lost balance of nature will bring unpredictable and unknown disasters.
There is no reason to commit violence, only self-inflicted consequences. - Horace
The big bird that lost its balance brought a huge flood that annihilated the entire world. There is another theory that the bird represents human desire, and while desire brings everything, excessive desire and demand destroys everything.
The flood overturned
Life still leaves a little expectation. The cat brother and sister took the boat representing hope, the cat brother pulled shit to feed the fish, the pig brother fished the fish to eat, the cat brother ate the eyes of the dead fish; the corpses on the sea were taken by the big birds to the young birds, the young birds ate the things that were bred by the shit, the plants were eaten by the animals, the life flowed, and the big natural resources were actually cyclical.
The rescued cat brother did not want to eat the fish caught by brother pig, but did not hesitate to take the meat of brother pig to make pork chops for his sister to eat, and even gave a piece to brother pig. The perpetrator was unconscious, and ironically, the pig brother also ate pork. Lu Xun mentioned in "Diary of a Madman" that people "eat people", and a similar rendering method represents the ignorant exploitation of Mother Nature by human beings.
The water receded, the surrounding area turned into a desert, the cat sister and brother sat on the piglet and moved forward, the piglet was in pain but had to be beaten by the cat brother, and the unconscious sister was also involved. Behind the violence is the nature of human beings to enslave other creatures, and the participation of the sister also reflects the influence of the environment on the ignorant, even the good. As demonstrated in the Lucifer effect of the real-life experiment, psychologist Philip Zimbardo did a "Stanford Prison Experiment" in 1971 that explored the psychology of human nature, and the experiment showed that "good people also commit atrocities." ”
"The Lucifer Effect": Lucifer, God's favorite angel, later degenerated into Satan.
Cat Sister also joined the violence
The pig brother, who had not resisted, bit off the cat brother's hand before dying. Too much desire will eventually regurgitate. The hand that the younger brother lost actually represents the original heart that was lost in the pursuit of purpose.
The giant who first coaxed the cat brothers and sisters with precious things, and then prepared to make it into cat soup, had a certain suggestive significance from the beginning, and the decoration of "people, sex, and desire" in the family and the cruelty to the birds had long been reflected. Behind the inexplicable excessive goodwill may be a trap, and the giant who exposed his nature is finally eliminated by the cat brother.
When the cat siblings stepped on the gears of the earth, they saw a frozen blood-red ocean and stranded whales, as well as mushroom clouds large and small. Industrial pollution of the oceans, oil spills, white pollution, overfishing of marine life, and wars have scarred and overwhelmed this beautiful planet. In order to allow the multitude to recall his sins, the author uses the hand of God to turn back time. Cat brothers turn back into babies, humans turn back into apes, guillotines rise, creatures degenerate, bombs are recovered from ships, people who jump off buildings return upstairs, people who are hit by cars return to places where they weren't hit, death row inmates haven't been shot yet, and the earth has changed back to that beautiful blue earth. And everything is just soup in God's bowl.
Time back in time
The awakened cat brothers and sisters took a boat to a dark underground world, a gray sky, full of mechanized things. With the development of the machinery industry, most people are more and more dependent on these things, and most people live day after day like machines. At the end of the mechanical world, the younger brother found the only colored four-leaf flower, which restored his sister's sanity. The world is complex, and the original intention can make a person exude hope and the meaning of life. The cat sister who had regained her mind smiled and gently stroked her brother's head.
Wish granted
If the story ends abruptly here, it is probably a perfect ending, and it can also leave some good. But the story continues, the cat sisters and brothers come home, the family is happy to be reunited, but when the brother goes to the toilet, everyone disappears one by one. The God who wipes the corners of his mouth may be able to tell us everything, that God has eaten the earth and that everything naturally ceases to exist. If nature is destroyed at the hands of man, everything we rely on will eventually disappear, and nature and time are irreversible.
It's all about to disappear
Regarding the representation of violence in the work, different symbols represent different meanings:
Violence under ignorance
The cheers of the crowd when the bunny girl was divided, the unconscious cat sister smashed the pig with a stick, and ate the pork itself.
Violence in the name of love
The cat brother killed the pig that had been loyal to his duties for the cat sister, beat the pig, and cut off the limbs of the giant.
Violence in nature
Samurai who round up live fish, cats who eat fish eyes, giants who torture birds, and even gods who eat the earth and play with time.
Different kinds of violence actually represent a kind of greed and demand between people, people for nature, and people for all things, as well as different feedback. Most of the violence is more impressive under the warm lens. All kinds of symbols show the author's consideration of ecology. Human beings are not the center of all natural things, we need to reflect on the existing state, social development so far, many problems are still continuing, to restore the earth to its original state, people to find their original intentions, need to review the past.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the surrealist artistic beauty of Cat Soup</h1>
This 30-minute animated short film contains a large number of symbolic intentions, constructing a surreal view of the world with linguistic symbols.
Art can symbolize emotions through form, because art form is also a form of life from a semiotic point of view.
—Aesthetician Susan Lange
Surrealism focuses on human transcendence, strives to break through the logical and physical view of reality, and tries to combine the concept of reality with the experience of instinct, subconscious and dream, and has reached an absolute or transcendent true reality. This effort to express irrational reasoning is that Surrealist painting has an abnormal and authentic realm.
The work unfolds a story of redemption and saving the sister from the perspective of the cat brother. The work constructs different worlds between reality and fiction, the cat sister is seriously ill and on the verge of death, the cat brother is out of the soul and takes the cat sister through the cosmic flood, and finally everything returns to the original point. The four-petaled flower that has been searched for to restore her sister's sanity is actually next to the cat sister's house.
A four-petaled flower that determines the fate
If the four-petaled flower on the doorstep of the house is found at the beginning, the story will no longer exist. The work brings the audience more personal reflections on the various experiences of cat sisters and brothers, and the figuration of thinking about various problems in reality can make the audience feel the beauty of this art from the essence. Surrealism advocates the use of an abstract language to express the improvisational induction of the mind, creating a "surreal artistic realm between reality and imagination, concrete and abstract".
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > thinking</h1>
This dark fairy tale dedicated to adults was originally written by Chiyomi Hashiguchi. In 1998, she made this classic with her life, at the age of 31. Since 1990, Chiyomi Hashiguchi has been serializing Cat Soup in Gallo Manga Monthly. After her death, the manga was continued by her husband, Kazuichi Yamano, who used her pen name "Nekojiru" to continue to create.
In "Cat Soup", in addition to the performance of natural disasters and human disasters, there are more human violence, God (nature), humans, cats, pigs, different classes of mutual harm, the final end can only be destroyed together. In this world driven by gears, what human beings can do well is to believe in themselves, pursue their own existence value, and after retrieving their original intentions, they will also change the world.
The starting point of the cat brothers and sisters
The cat brother once impressed the god of death, and in order to save his sister, he searched the mountains and rivers until the world dried up, but in the end he lost everything. Finally, the picture of the family taking pictures together on the beach begins and ends again, and it seems to become nothing again. What we need to do may be to start now, rather than to regret it after losing it, and swallowing a cat brother with a fish eye from the future on the beach seems to mean that everything has been predestined, but if it had been discovered earlier, perhaps the ending would have been different.
Resources:
"A Brief Analysis of the Surrealist Artistic Beauty in the Animated Short Film "Cat Soup"" Ma Fangnan