I've heard people say that when you can't have it anymore, the only thing you can do is to keep yourself from forgetting.
--Wong Kar-wai
Memories of the Brick Hut is a 2008 Japanese animated short film directed by Hisahito Kato that won the Best Animated Short Film Award at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009. This short film, which has no dialogue and only 12 minutes, has a high score of 9.3 on Douban.
As the sea rises, the higher the piles up the houses
"Remembering the Building Blocks Hut" tells the story of an old man who beat the hut higher after his house was flooded by the sea, and later dropped his beloved pipe on the way to move, in order to find it, he put on a diving suit and went deep into the "old house" below, which stirred up the story of the past.
In just twelve minutes, the rough picture quality shows us the warm first half of an old man's life and the second half of his lonely life, and he has exhausted the love and warmth, loneliness and memories of life.
Island-like cottage in the middle of the sea
What kind of charm does this short film have, and it can win the Oscar and the 9.3 rating of netizens? In this article, I will analyze the three aspects of picture quality and background music, the selection of characters and memory fragments, contrast and symbolic sublimation, and take you to understand the charm and uniqueness of this animated short film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > picture quality and background music: the picture quality is rough, highlighting the old man's vicissitudes; the music is gentle and just right, suggesting that the old man's heart is like water and the change of mentality</h1>
1. Hand painting style
As early as twenty years ago, the animation we were exposed to was already a picture quality with clear lines and vivid colors. Nowadays, like Makoto Shinkai's animation, each frame is beautiful enough to be used as a desktop background and mobile wallpaper. "Memory Building Block Cottage" uses the most simple and unpretentious hand-drawn style, with rough brush strokes, noise covering half the screen, and blurred pictures.
Accustomed to watching beautifully crafted anime, I was a little disappointed to see this picture quality at first, and I did question its great fame. However, when I understood the connotation of the short film, I had to admire the director's cleverness.
Rough hand-painted, warm yellow coloring, a strong sense of history, like a yellowed old photo telling the long-term changes in the world, which corresponds to the theme of the film about the "memories" of the elderly, but also more perfectly moved the audience's nostalgia. Compared with the exquisite picture quality, the rough picture quality can better render the loneliness and vicissitudes of the elderly.
2. Gentle and just right background music
The entire short film does not have a monologue and dialogue, but relies on the overall smooth, sometimes sounding, sometimes abrupt music to drive the development of the plot.
The neighbor's house has long been flooded by the rising sea, only the old man is still stubbornly insisting on continuing to build the house on the original house, and the result is that only the old man lives alone, and no one can talk to him or chat. There was not even background music during the dull dinner time, only the laughter on the TELEVISION set in sharp contrast with the loneliness of the old man.
Without companionship and dialogue, the elderly repeat their daily habits day after day: drinking red wine before meals, smoking buckets, fishing. The choice of gentle pure music as the background seems to tell the situation of the old man's long flow of water and the heart like water.
The moment he picked up the pipe, he opened the door to the old man's memory, and the music sounded
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > with the elderly as the protagonist and every important moment in life as a memory fragment, which can touch people's hearts more</h1>
1, lonely old people
Unlike other animations, "Memory Building Blocks Cabin" does not feature young and beautiful boys and girls as the protagonists, but chooses an old, wrinkled, and faltering old man as the protagonist.
On the one hand, in order to fit the theme, memory is like red wine, the older the more pure, so from the perspective of the elderly to look at the problem of memory is more meaningful for discussion.
On the other hand, the role of the elderly is more likely to make people feel pity and cause deep thought. We will all grow old, and perhaps one day we will face the protagonist's encounter: the wife is dead, the children and grandchildren are not around, every day a person faces a house full of old photos, old objects, a person eats and sleeps and looks at the scenery, what kind of state of mind will it be? Do we also have the courage to let memories warm us?
Relying on the bustle of the TV set to ease the loneliness of the heart
2. Unforgettable important life moments
The old man recalls the moment when his wife picked up his pipe for him, thus opening the door of memory: taking care of his bedridden wife, taking photos of the family, finding her other half, her daughter leaving home to go to school and playing with blocks when she was a child, bumping cups with her lover in the house she built together, and being with her lover until they were together...
The short film uses flashbacks to gradually present the memory of the old man to the audience. This pile of piles from near and far, are important moments in the minds of the elderly that cannot be abandoned and unforgettable.
From the beginning of the short film, the old man stared at the photo of his wife, and he could know the weight of his wife in his heart. Therefore, these memories are related to his wife, although there are sad and lost, but more is the moment of happiness and happiness, it is they that make up the old man's entire life, give him warm strength, and support his meaning of living.
Warm and hilarious family portrait
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > uses before and after contrast, symbolism and meaning sublimation, enhances the artistic effect and appeal of the short film, highlights the theme of the short film, and arouses people's deep thinking</h1>
1. Before and after comparison
Contrast of the environment outside the cottage
At the beginning of the film, the audience is shown a panoramic view of the outside environment of the hut: the hut stands in the middle of the endless sea, with a scattered short pointed roof on the side. When night falls, only the old man's hut is lit up, like a desert island in the vast ocean, filled with the atmosphere of loneliness, suggesting that the other houses are no longer inhabited.
At night only the old man's hut was lit up
The hut in the memory is located on a vibrant meadow, with large trees in front of it and more huts around it. Laughter, you chase me, birds and flowers, cooking smoke, full of the most ordinary fireworks, ordinary but warm.
Used to run on grass
Back to reality, the ordinary bustle of the past can never come back, all this is a luxury. This strong contrast allows the audience to be lifted to a high place with the emotions of the old man, and then pulls back to reality fiercely.
The hilarity in the memories contrasts with the loneliness in reality
The journey of the old man looking for memory is a constant switch between reality and memory.
There are wives in the memories, as well as daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, and in reality, only the old man stands abruptly in the same place; in the memory, there is a family photo, eating and playing together, and in reality, only the old man eats alone.
The short film cleverly switches back and forth between the old man's memories and reality, and the old man's mood is like riding a roller coaster, sometimes rushing into the sky, sometimes falling to the bottom. As the saying goes, there is no harm without contrast, and the loneliness of the old man here rises to a new height.
The sofa here used to sit for a family, but now it is empty
Before and after comparison of eating environments
At the beginning of the short film, the old man is leaning over, drinking red wine slowly, and eating fish in small bites, all of which are unique to the old man's slow motion has outlined the lonely figure, and in front of the TV set with bright light and laughter, the old man's loneliness has nowhere to be placed.
At the end of the short film, the screen of the TV is dark. At this time, the old man, after opening the door of the past, no longer needs the lively companionship in the TV.
The short film shows the change of mentality of the elderly through the comparison of the eating environment before and after. Although he is still alone, he still has memories of love in his heart.
2. Take pipes and seawater as the figurative, symbolizing companionship and memory
The object of the pipe runs through the entire animated short film, whether it is reality or memory, the old man holds a pipe in his hand or a pipe in his mouth.
On the surface, he is addicted to smoking, but in fact he is obsessed with the past. When the pipe that has been accompanying him falls into the seabed, even if there is a drawer of pipes, the old man can't find any suitable one to replace it, and is determined to dive into the seabed to retrieve it.
Why is the old man so attached to this pipe? We find the answer from the old man's memories. This pipe had accompanied him throughout his youth, and perhaps to him it was like his wife, who was there. Pipes symbolize companionship.
His wife once picked up a pipe for him
There is another thing that runs through the whole film, and that is the sea. Stacking houses in the sea sounds absurd. The plot develops downwards, and it is not difficult for us to find that every layer submerged underneath is an extremely important part of the old man's life. The rising sea and the gradually increasingly high cabin actually symbolize the memories of the old man. The cabin is his memory, and the sea is his subconscious, and subconsciously he drowns out his memories to reduce the pain of memories.
3. The ending uses sublimated expression to express a positive outlook on life
I believe that many people can't help but worry that the old man will be overly sad when he sees the old man opening the door of memory layer by layer under the sea and finally reaching the original memory, and from then on, he will indulge in memory and die in pain.
As a result, the old man returned home, changed the habit of pouring only one glass of wine in the past, took two wine glasses and poured red wine, as he once toasted with his wife, raised the wine glass and touched the opposite wine glass, "boo" - a crisp toast sounded.
This is the old man toasting with the past, and toasting with the old wife in the memory. At this point, he no longer needs the lively sound of television to fill the emptiness and loneliness in his heart. Because the old man no longer feels lonely, his heart is full of love and warmth in the memories, giving him the courage and hope to live well.
The sublimation at the end is the essence of "Memory Building Block Hut", and the entire animated short film is elevated to a positive life height.
Cheers to the past
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > written at the end</h1>
Survival and death are things that everyone can't escape, and I once saw a question: If you can choose, do you want yourself or your partner to go first? On the surface, the one who left first seems unfortunate, but the one who survives has to bear the pain of the death of his lover and the loneliness of being unaccompanied, which must be sad and sad.
"Memories of the Building Blocks Cabin" gives us the inspiration to look positively at life and death and memories. It is not terrible to live with memories, what is terrible is that we cannot escape the cage of memories, and we are depressed.
Although we can't go back to the past, it is those sweet and sour memories that make our lives. When you no longer have the people and things in the memories, at least you still have warm and beautiful memories.
May we all be like the old man in "Memory Building Block Hut", let the past become our strength to meet the future, and feel the spring, summer, autumn and winter with love and warmth.
I am @ Slender Grass, share with you the warmth of this world, thank you for seeing here, if you also like my text, welcome to pay attention to Oh!