Author: 213/Anitama Cover Source: Utopian New Sons and Millennium Magic
Title: "Utopian New Child and Millennium Magic"
Original name: My My New Child and the Magic of The Millennium
Nation: Japan
Year: 2009
Director: Katabuchi Sushina
Starring: Mayuko Fukuda Nanako Mizusawa Nagayori Morisako Manami Honjo
http://www.bilibili.com/video/av4467831/
Recently, the new work "In this corner of the world" supervised by Katabuchi Suori was released in Japan, and it was said in the new voice that he was once poor in order to make this film. Anitama had also interviewed him in the early days, was an old friend of ours, and had recommended his "Princess Aletti" in the weekend patch, so she decided to recommend another of his theatrical masterpieces, "Utopian New Son and Millennium Magic".
Compared to the slightly heavier Princess Aletti, which was introduced, Utopian New Child and Millennium Magic looks a little more childlike and bright. Released in 2009, the film is based on the 2004 autobiographical novel "マイママイ新子" published in 2004. Although the experiences of the two protagonists are quite nostalgic for their childhood, when Katabuchi Su naoshi also turns part of his attention to the reproduction of history, the reason for this is not unrelated to "Princess Aletti".
Although "Princess Aletti" is a fictional era background, the setting is very similar to medieval Europe, and when it was released in France, Katafuchi Sumizu received a question from a French audience, "Why would a Japanese person want to make a movie with France as the stage?" Since they have all made works based on French history that the French people recognize, why can't they do the same thing with Japan as the stage? So under this kind of thinking, "Utopian New Son and Millennium Magic" appeared.
As the title suggests, because the protagonist Shinko is a little girl who loves "fantasy", the story told in this film is divided into reality and imagination. Aoki Shinko, a third grade elementary school, has lived in The City of Fangfu in Yamaguchi Prefecture since she was a child, and because she often listens to her grandfather tell stories about a thousand years ago, she loves to fantasize about what happened here a thousand years ago.
Kiiko Shimazu, a transfer student from a big city, is obviously different from the children who grew up in the countryside, and when the restrained Kiiko and the native New Son became friends, they met more and more companions to play with, and at the same time, they became more and more integrated into the fantasy rural pastoral life. And beneath the vast rice paddies where Shinko and Kiiko are playing, there is indeed the story of another pair of good friends from a thousand years ago. The young girl Kiyohara Noko came to Zhou Defense because her father became a Zhou Defense, and she wanted to have a playmate, so she took the initiative to get acquainted with the little maid who did not smile, despite the difference in identity and artificial obstruction, the friendship between the two was still the same. The happy times of the two pairs of girls travel through thousands of years of time and space, as if they were enchanted.
Although the protagonists and supporting characters are all children, "Utopian New Son and Millennium Magic" can certainly not be simply and rudely regarded as a children's movie. Katabuchi must think that the films that are suitable for children must also be suitable for adults, so as to attract more parents. Children can actually understand a lot of things, it doesn't matter what they can't understand for a while, put aside and wait for 10 years and 20 years, they will find that they have become very important things. When Katabuchi read the original book, he felt that this was an imaginative and graphic novel with many complex plots, rather than the type of blind cheerfulness to comfort the soul.
In addition to recalling the moving aspects of childhood, "Utopian New Child and Millennium Magic" also expresses that "life and death are in harmony". There are more than one set of life-and-death relationships in the film, such as Shinko's classmate Daji and his father. Does death only bring pain? As Katabuchi says, "Death is not isolated in a hospital, but in one's own life." If you place the shadow of death next to the child who is desperately playing, the life will appear more and more shining."
The story takes place in the 30th year of Showa (1955), which is also very close to the year of birth of Nao Katabuchi himself, but 50 years ago, the "Yamaguchi Prefecture Defense City Kuniya" is a place that the audience knows about Ichiji but has never personally experienced, and it still needs imagination, so how to reproduce it? There is a lot of evidence work behind this, the "Utopian New Scout Expedition" has gone to the scene several times to shoot, and Katabuchi Sushina said a lot of interesting things that happened behind the scenes in the blog written at the same time as making this film. In the film, the audience may not pay too much attention to the shots, and the production is very careful, such as the Mazda LB tricycle that can now enter the museum, which has specially bought the physical description map, but because the close-up shot did not make the needed look, it is very regrettable that the film is straight.
Needless to say, the meticulousness of the wheat field scene that appears a considerable number of times is referred to the aerial photograph of Fangfu City in Showa 32, and the varieties of wheat are also calculated according to the data that the barley, beer wheat and naked wheat planted in that year should be barley, beer wheat and naked wheat. Shinko's home was based on the identification of the original author, Takaki Nobuko, and the descriptions in many works were combined, and when compiling the materials, photos of Takaki Nobuko's former residence were found in the "Report on the Excavation and Investigation of the Zhou Fang National Government in Showa 49". The background of this part is made by art supervisor Shinichi Uehara, and because the restoration is so realistic, Takaki Nobuko watched the film and exclaimed that "the scenery around her home in her childhood is reproduced in 360 degrees".
Another important plot source of this film is the Japanese heian period female writer Kiyoshi Nayan's essay collection "Pillow Grass", which is mostly written in the daily life of the palace and diaries, and the content is fragmentary text such as "Spring is the best when dawn breaks", which is a classic called Shuangbi and another Japanese literary work, "The Tale of Genji". Kiyoshi Nayan's father, Kiyohara Motosuke, served as a Zhou defender, and her teenage years were exactly a thousand years away from showa 30 years, and the maiden Noko was actually Kiyoshi Nayan, and the story of a thousand years ago originated from "Pillow Grass". Many fragments of Nozi's life are described in the Pillow Grass, and the restoration of the residence is also a reference to the architectural ruins of the Zhoufang Guofen Temple.
There is also an interesting tidbit, because Kiyoshi Nayan and the Yin-Yang Master Abe Haruaki are in the same era, she also has a description of serving the Yin-Yang Master in "Pillow Grass", Katabuchi Su nao originally envisioned Letting Noko learn a spell with the Yin-Yang Master, so that Abe Haruaki, who was not yet a leader at the time, appeared in the story of a thousand years ago, but because of the in-depth development of the part of The New Son and Kiiko, the space limit had to be omitted.
The production company for "Utopian Shinko and Millennium Magic" was MAD HOUSE, and the producer was the president at the time, Shungo Maruta, although this was the first time that Katabuchi sushina had worked with them, but it was also said that MAD HOUSE did do things a little differently. In addition to the involvement of mad house personnel, Nao Katabuchi also brought in helpers from Studio 4°C during the "Princess Aletti" period. It was selected as a special film by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and was screened in theaters for seven months, but the box office was still up to 300 million yen. The film was not limited to Japan when it was announced, the English trailer and YouTube promotion have been launched as early as before the official release, the premiere was also placed in the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, and then participated in the United States, France, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Australia and other countries to get many awards, in addition to landing in South Korean theaters.
Nowadays, animation is becoming more and more gorgeous, using more and more action scenes, more and more CG and 3D, and Katabuchi's work in this regard leaves the impression that it is not without new technologies, but that it is still very realistic after use. In the interview, he also mentioned the difference with Hollywood animated films in the United States, which has become more and more standardized, whether it is the specific plot and how to draw each character has formed a fixed rule, it is more difficult to produce freshness. At such times, the "will" becomes a weapon, resonating across borders and cultural circles. Perhaps because Katabuchi Sushina is the supervision of this kind of work with a strong personal color, it is reasonable to say that the Japanese elements are very strong and not full of action scenes of the animation is more difficult to have good commercial results overseas, but the enthusiastic fans of "Utopian New Son and Millennium Magic" have accumulated a lot, and the British company All the Anime launched a crowdfunding for the production of english DVDs on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and as a result, nearly 1900 people participated in the 30 days. It raised more than 10 million yen, which was more than three times the target amount, and then released the English version in 2014.
Katabuchi's works are worth revisiting, and "Utopian New Son and Millennium Magic" is even more used as his masterpiece, if you want to know more about this overseer, let's look at it from now on.
【References】
The Making of Cantok Katabuchi Of My New Child
"My My New Child and the Magic of a Thousand Years" A small miracle caused by an overly sober anime movie
The Movie "My My New Child and the Magic of a Thousand Years" directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Anitama Katafumi Direct Interview (7) – The continuity of the timeline contained in the portfolio
This article is for publication by Anitama only, and no unit or individual may publish part or all of this article in any form.
Official website: http://www.anitama.cn
Official Weibo: @AnimeTamashii
WeChat public number: Anitama0815
Cooperation email: [email protected]
Original: m.anitama.cn/article/9afaca471d0ad0b2?utm_source=toutiao