One day, looking back, you will find that the person who gave you a lot of pain is also your salvation. -Hayao Miyazaki
I Lost My Body is an animated feature film directed by French director Jehemi Crapan that debuted at last year's Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics' Week Award. As the second Netflix film to impact the Oscars for Best Animated Feature, it was finally nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Based on Guillaume Laurent's novel Happy Hand, the film tells the story of a severed hand that relies on sensation and memory to desperately search for its own body on the streets of Paris. It may seem like an almost absurd setting, but watching the whole film, I think every adult can be deeply touched.
As director Hermi Crapan puts it, "In this film, I'm talking about the little things — hands, but when I push the storyline, I'm talking about the bigger story".
The film has two clues, the boy Lauffield and his severed hand. In particular, the clue of the broken hand, which fights many obstacles such as pigeons, rats, and dogs, makes people feel strange, wonderful and at the same time full of emotion.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > legend of soul ferrying</h1>
The so-called soul ferry refers to the soul stranded in the human world because of the unfinished heart, it needs someone to guide it, so that it can successfully find heaven after completing the wish, this process is called soul ferry. Only the souls who have passed through the ferry can safely leave this world and return to the Garden of Eden.
This approach is easily reminiscent of another American film, Passenger, a thriller film made in 2008 directed by Rodrigo Garcia. The film tells the story of how the souls of the people who lost their lives in the plane accident were redeemed step by step, and finally they were transported away.
People in many countries actually believe that the soul can exist without the body, and in this film, director Jehemi Clopan defines the soul as a specific carrier, that is, the broken hand, and the broken hand allows the soul to be transported through an adventure.
The severed hand loses its body and insists on returning to its master's side, which is actually a salvation of the soul, because it has too many obsessions to let go. And through the journey of finding the body, it finally realizes the ferry of the soul.
When Lauffield and the broken hand complete the leap of life, it not only represents the courage of Lauffield after he is born to death, but also hints at the abandonment of the broken hand obsession.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the tragic death of pigeons and the relationship between their parents</h1>
"Suffering and happiness are not necessarily mutually exclusive. But, more often, what people feel in suffering is a frustration in the meaning of life. - Zhou Guoping
When the broken hand jumped off the window sill, it fell into the nest of the pigeons. The pigeons, who were protecting their children, clashed with the severed hand, and died unexpectedly during the fight, which actually symbolized the death of their parents because of him. The three broken eggs in the bird's nest also represent the tragedy of a family of three. Although Laufer was a survivor, he was actually lifeless.
As a child, Lauffer lived a very happy life. His mother taught him musical instruments, his father doted on him, and his dream of becoming an astronaut and musician came to an abrupt end because of the death of his parents. The direct cause of the traffic accident that led to the death of his parents was also because of him, and he has been living in self-blame ever since.
Relationship therapist Sharan Hancock pointed out in The True Love Code that each of us has three layers of structure, namely the protective layer, the wound layer, and the true self. After The loss of his parents, Lauffield chose to protect himself in autistic way, and the cowardice and mediocrity he looked like were actually his protective layers.
When the broken hand was unconscious, he kept recalling the carefree life of his childhood, and the fragments of repeatedly grasping the sand, which actually implied that the past was like the sand passing, irreparable. This flow actually represents his layer of pain. Although I didn't want to think about it, I still appeared again and again in my dreams.
Since you have grown up, can you continue to fall into the trauma of the past and continue to grieve? After the grief, we must bravely face the appearance of our true selves. The broken hand took a look at the pigeon's corpse, jumped out of the garbage truck and continued to run, which also implied the abandonment of the parents' obsession with shelter, and at the same time let go of self-blame.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > rat is a symbol of sojourn life</h1>
Psychic seclusion is a term for psychoanalysis, "which means that people are originally in need of entering a relationship, but when the outside world is not very friendly, they cannot establish basic relationships with others." To protect themselves, they closed the path to the world of relationships and entered a lonely spiritual path. ”
There is a reason for the formation of Lauffield's reclusive personality. After the death of his parents, he was placed in foster care at his adoptive father's house. When we first met, it could be seen from the expressionless face of the adoptive father that the adoptive father only had cold eyes and no love for him, and the lack of love for the growth period was undoubtedly a disaster for Lauffer.
In this case, he naturally walked into the lonely and cold "spiritual seclusion", and became the object of abandonment and oppression under passive passivity.
The place where Lauffer lives is no different from the rat's nest, there is no warmth, crowded and cluttered, the film once again makes a metaphor, people are like rats, and when the broken hand meets the mouse, he first extends his finger to show a friendly, but in exchange for the greed of the rats, like his adoptive father, every day let him hand over the money for the work.
Growing up in a cruel foster home, Lauffer chose to shut down his emotions and become a taciturn man. He gradually lacked enough courage for life and became very cowardly and powerless.
Fate has arranged suffering, how to get out of the dead end?
Lauffield's change first requires a break from this sojourn life, which is why the severed hand has to fight this group of rats to the end. Unable to escape such a gray life, the soul cannot be redeemed.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > swan means elegant and deep love</h1>
"There is only one way to escape from somewhere: to renounce oneself. There is only one way to get out of yourself: to fall in love with someone. —Mia Cotto
On a rainy night, the broken hand was tired and wandered by the lake not knowing where to go, when he encountered a white swan with an elegant posture that radiated light.
This white swan represents the librarian Gabriel. Laufer fell in love with her.
Sometimes love comes as simple as that, and just the kind greetings and exchanges on the walkie-talkie on the stairs opened his heart. Love gave Lauffield hope, a vision of escaping from his present life that inspired him to change.
As Balzac said in The Comedy of Man, love is our second rebirth. In order to get close to Gabriel, Laufer quit his previous job, and even went to the master carpenter to make a wooden igloo for Gabrielle.
But what I didn't expect was that Gabriel finally rejected him. The broken hand watching the swan wander away, in fact, also hints at the disillusionment of this relationship. The light that appeared so easily was once again extinguished by the rain. This is also the main reason why the broken hand watched the swan leave in the rain, indicating that people's hearts are still worried.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > barking yellow dog keeps dreams away</h1>
The broken hand saw the man playing the piano in the room, and his mind thought of the dream of Rauuffel. The appearance of Laufer playing the piano coincided with the person in front of him. The old dream is long gone, and the image of the pianist and astronaut is getting farther and farther away from him.
The barking big yellow dog made the broken hand run away, and also made the broken hand wake up from the dream of the past.
Lauffield quit his job as a food delivery man, began to learn carpentry, and moved out of that emotionless home, which was actually a change, an attempt to jump out of fate. But in the end, fate made a small joke, and in an accident, Lauuffel lost his right hand.
His old hopes were lost, and his new job and new environment did not seem to change his destiny.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > want to challenge fate and "live to death"</h1>
The broken hand struggled to return to Lauffield's side and lay down beside him, but the miracle did not happen. Lauffield's lost right hand was still bandaged, and the severed hand could no longer merge into its original body.
Does this mean that fate can no longer be changed?
I don't think so.
In the process of returning, the broken hand encounters all the obsessions in Lauffield's heart, the self-blame for his parents, the antipathy towards the hermit family, the love for Gabrielle, and the fear of losing his dreams. When it successfully broke through the level and opened the leap of destiny, in fact, the soul had completed the return, and in this process, the soul completed the final ferry, and he reconciled with the pain.
The last-minute shock that Rauffield jumped out of the snowy night let go of all his repression, and he released in his own way the strong desire to change his fate. This was the beginning of his real change. The film ends abruptly, but there are infinite possibilities.
The dissipation of obsession may not change fate in an instant, but it makes Lauffield calm, as if he had received an epiphany of life. As Heidegger mentioned in His book Being and Time, "Man cannot be mentally awakened without forcing himself to a dead end in thought."
It is this kind of "born to die" that makes people suddenly wake up in a difficult life and pluck up the courage to try to jump out of the predicament and make changes.
Fate may set an unfair beginning, and to turn the tables around, we must figure out what must be accepted and what can be changed. This is also the deep meaning of "I Lost My Body". The physical and mental pain suffered in the past can no longer be changed, the important thing is that you have not been completely defeated by fate, and still retain the belief of jumping!