The sci-fi animated film Memories Trilogy, released on December 23, 1995, consists of three short films with very different styles and quite experimental films. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, the film brings together a number of industry prodigies such as Imatoshi, Koji Morimoto, and Okamura Tensai to achieve these three "memories" that are either gorgeous and sad, or absurd, or extremely frightening. Katsuyo Otomo also won the "Noburo Oto Award", one of the highest honors in the Japanese animation industry, at the 51st Mainichi Film Awards in 1996.
"Her Memories", which I want to talk about today, is the first chapter of the "Memories Trilogy". It is based on Katsuyo Otomo's early manga work Magnetic Rose, directed by Koji Morimoto and scripted and set by Toshi Imatoshi. The elaborate, delicate scene production that does not even repeat the pattern on each marble column, the concise and profound, and the story setting that people can't help but savor and study over and over again, make this "Her Memories", even if it is placed 25 years later, is still a very exquisite and very shocking "space opera".
It uses an ethereal and poignant "cosmic song" to explain to us three classical philosophical questions about "memory":
What is the > recall <h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right"? </h1>
According to medical explanations, the basic process of memory is composed of three links: "recognition", "retention", "recall and re-recognition". Memory is a human look back at the past, a process of restoring past experience. According to its purpose and the presence or absence of intermediate media, recall can be divided into "intentional recall" and "unintentional recall", "direct recall" and "indirect recall".
"Her Memories", as the name suggests, "she" refers to century song Eva. The rose-shaped spaceship, located in the center of the cosmic graveyard but constantly sending out distress signals in the opera aria of Madame Butterfly, is the only tool to carry and perpetuate Ava's "memories".
Ava spent the rest of her life, engraving the most glorious highlight moments of her life and the happiest sweet times here forever. Then she exiled herself to wander through the vast expanse of the universe, reading the memories over and over again that made her intoxicated. This is Ava's conscious, autonomous act, and it is not difficult to understand "intentional recall" and "direct recall".
After Ava's death, the spaceship inherits her "legacy", and after merging with her former "obsession", the so-called "memory" begins to become "unintentional memory" and "indirect memory". Powerful AI simulates what she looked like before she was born, repeating the trajectory of Ava's life day after day, from her voice and smile to her diet and living. At this time, "Ava", although still "alive" in the same unchanging memory, can no longer be called the real Ava; the "memory" at this time has long since changed from Ava's original intention to an indirect habit of AI unconsciousness.
It was like a horrific scene that appeared in front of the rescue team: in the empty "castle", a mechanical cherub suddenly appeared, repeating "Madam, lunch is ready" in his mouth. This led the team members to mistakenly believe that there were indeed human survivors here, because AI did not need to eat. But they don't know that this is only because "AI thinks Madame needs it" In the "memories" of AI (artificial intelligence), there is no Ava's death, only she maintains a brilliant "eternal life" with the most beautiful posture before she died.
Without human "memories", it is like an empty pavilion without a foundation. Even if the performance is beautiful and real, the image that does not have the real emotional support can only be a pile of cold data. Like the delicacies and wines, precious jewelry and exquisite costumes that lost their masters in the film, and the bouquet of roses that "give me my favorite Ava", they did not gain immortality because of the blessing of technology. On the contrary, all that remains in the world is their gorgeous and fragile shell, which is immediately destroyed by the slightest touch.
Without human control, this spaceship carries the hostess's overly persistent and even distorted love, and extreme narcissism, which will continue to send out distress signals in the center of the cosmic cemetery, and use the weapon of "memory" to constantly test the "invading" humans, constantly create a confusing "gentle township", let wave after wave of rescuers go forward and follow, and unconsciously become the sacrifice and funerary product of "Ava" immortality.
I believe that many of the rescue team members who came here before were like Miguel, impressed by the powerful memories of "Ava" and willingly became part of her "memories".
Miguel, when he first saw Ava's hologram, he was attracted by her swaying posture in the wind, and couldn't help but chase it up, so he was complained by his companion Heinz that "you haven't seen holograms"; in the restaurant, he also lost due vigilance against fine wine, and couldn't help but pour himself a glass of wine to toast for his wife; in the luxurious living room, facing the incense powder and jewelry, looking at the photos hanging on the wall, facing Ava's beauty and achievements, he actually lamented that Ava "it is a pity to follow this kind of man." 。
Finally, after "seeing with her own eyes" a highly sought after scene before Ava's life, after personally participating in it, unconsciously, in the photos on the wall, the position of Ava's original lover Carro has become Miguel. This scene implies that the man is about to surrender to "her" unparalleled memories, replacing his former lover in the memories, and swearing to die consistently for "her".
In the end, Miguel's ending is indeed a complete abandonment of his identity and memories. In the name of Ava's lover "Carro", he always accompanies the AI-made "Ava", becomes one of the keepers of this "rose tomb", and together with the hostess of the tomb, in the middle of this silent cosmic cemetery, eternal blooming until it withers.
For the calm and calm Heinz, AI's approach is another. First, by breaking the music box with a statue resembling his daughter, he indirectly evoked the painful memories of losing his beloved daughter; then directly let his daughter suddenly fall and disappear on the ceiling in front of him, so that he was tormented by sudden fright; finally, "it" simply went down in person, carefully restoring the most ordinary but warmest morning in Heinz's family, trying to borrow Heinz's memories of his daughter and wife, so that he would willingly "stay forever".
However, the mechanism is exhausted, and ai has failed in the end, because
Here, the title "Her Memories" has another meaning for Heinz, that is, his "memories of his daughter". The glorious memories of a world-famous man will certainly make people sigh and sigh; but the love and infinite guilt of a seemingly ordinary father for his daughter are also important memories that cannot be ignored.
"Memories are not places to escape", when he said this heart-wrenching line, Heinz finally accepted the fact that his daughter had long since died, and also understood the true meaning of memory for himself. He completely rejects the temptation of hypocritical happiness and raises his gun to shoot at Ava's AI avatar. At the end, under the powerful magnetic field of the devouring body, the rescue team's spacecraft "Corona" was torn into pieces, and Heinz floated in the dark universe, but opened his eyes in relief in the two flying rose petals.
Where do < h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > memories come from? </h1>
Since it is a link of memory, as an activity of the human brain, human "recall" is naturally derived from the "hippocampal structure" and "amygdala" of the human brain, which is closely related to the changes in the chemical composition of the brain produced by external stimuli. The "recall" of AI (artificial intelligence), different from simple storage and invocation, can be formed through a series of complex learning processes. Even so, the memories generated by AI in reality are still in their infancy compared to the complex memories of humans.
The cause of the whole film is this mysterious spaceship that emits SOS signals and sings in the cosmic graveyard; all the memories of the spaceship naturally come from its hostess Ava; and Ava's memories come from her flashy past life.
From the photo wall full of photos of her surrounded by flashes and lovers, from the showroom dedicated to displaying various exquisite trophies, the holograms that are constantly sung repeatedly, from the plot of her being praised by the nobles in the background, to the final scene where she floats in the holy glory, is held up by the eyes of the crowd, and sings the beautiful melody of the world, we can see that the main body of Ava's memories, although she has her own brilliant life, what really achieves these memories is the praise and affirmation from the outside world.
In the trophy-filled showroom, on a trophy inscribed "Ava Fried Forever Singing," Ava's hologram repeats her former glory
As an opera singer, the loss of her voice makes Ava miserable, because she can no longer sing in front of the audience, and as a natural aristocratic lady, a world-famous woman who is loved by thousands of people, the change of heart of her lover is even more unacceptable to her, because it means that the memories that were once loved will all be destroyed. She could not accept all this, so she personally ended the life of her lover, boarded this luxurious spaceship alone, "sang" in the depths of the vast universe, and continued the "beautiful dream" on the spaceship that she never wanted to wake up.
After Ava's death, the ship inherits her "memories". Even though the real situation has long since decayed, "it" continues to repeat the songs of Ava's life, repeating the glorious stories of her life.
Ava's memories come from "others" and the spaceship's memories come from "Ava". Therefore, for those suspected "intruders" who are close to themselves, the spaceship chooses to lure them with songs, and then unknowingly spies on the weaknesses of the other party's heart, using the other party's "memories" as bait to turn them into part of their own huge "memories".
It is worth mentioning that although this is a fictional science fiction story, the image of the heroine "Ava" has two real "archetypes", which makes this film more realistic.
One is maria karass, the queen of twentieth-century opera. Not only is Ava somewhat similar to Karas between her eyebrows, but part of her legendary experience is derived from Karas's personal experience. Born in the United States, the Greek soprano began to learn piano at the age of 8, singing an aria from Bizet's opera Carmen at the age of 10, and appearing on stage at the Royal Opera house in Athens at the age of 15, starring as Sandusa, the heroine of the song "Country Knight". In her twenties, she became internationally famous and became the first soprano in the international opera world at that time. Later, she fell in love with the Greek ship king Onassis, and eventually died of a heartbreak due to the other party's empathy. And onassis, in her pursuit of Karas, once invited her to ride on the carved and painted sea palace "Christina", which is also the prototype of the luxurious spaceship inside in this film.
Ava, the heroine of "Her Memories", contrasts with the real-life opera queen Maria Callas
The second is the aria of Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly", which appears repeatedly in the film, "A Clear Day". In the play, the Japanese geisha Qiaosang, who fell in love with the US Navy officer Pinkerton, sang this song "A Sunny Day", standing on the hillside by the sea, looking at the distant blue sea, fantasizing about her beloved husband returning on a white warship and meeting him. But the cruel thing is that when her husband returned again many years later, he was only willing to take her back to China with him just to return to his children. In the end, Qiao Qiaosang, who turned his back on his faith in pursuit of love, but eventually lost everything, committed suicide in despair after sending away his child.
Whether it is Karas, Qiaoqiaosang, or Ava in the film, they obviously have an enviable appearance, and a moving singing voice, when standing on the stage, they should be the perfect women that countless people dream of, but because the most precious memories come from hopeless love, they can only be trapped in it and depressed.
Tragic women like Callas and Madame Butterfly, who can't be loved, are not uncommon in film and television anime, and even in real life. It is precisely because these real "prototypes" derived from reality evoke the common "memories" of the audience in front of the screen. Only to make such a science fiction story that obviously happened in distant space, but let people have such a "déjà vu" sense of familiarity after watching, but also more unspeakably infinite.
Stills from Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > where will the memories end up? </h1>
At the end of the film, as the "Devouring Body" spaceship swallows everything around it indiscriminately, the figure of "Ava" in the spaceship rises in the bubble of green grass representing good memories. Ava sang incessantly, descending like a god, and under the dazzling light of the sun on her body, the originally dilapidated wreckage of the spaceship gradually returned to a vivid and vivid aristocratic figure. In Ava's heavenly and beautiful singing, they gave the artist of the past the warmest applause.
But in stark contrast, in the next picture that immediately jumps to, in the luxurious bedroom that gradually collapses, the picture is closer, and above the decaying and yellowing velvet brocade, there is such a frightening red face and dry bone. "Memories" has created an eternal and immortal artistic temple for Ava, but it has also become the lonely end of her life. Although AI left her a "volunteer" to accompany her forever as her lover Carlro, it was only a self-deceptive illusion after all. It is true that everything is forever stuck in the moment before destruction, but it cannot lead to a more distant future. Because the false "memories" that have been filtered out by Ava and all the pain exist only in the past, and will not produce any future with hope.
On the other hand, the only two "living people" in the spaceship, Heinz and Milg, made different choices as early as the moment of parting ways, doomed to be led by different "memories" and led to their own completely different "futures".
Is it to enjoy the beauty in the illusion? Or are you struggling in reality?
No one can make a choice right away. But even so, in reality, the subconscious mind will still make certain choices for us.
Why is it that when human beings encounter incredible happiness, they often judge whether they are in a dream in order to "bite their fingers hard"? Because usually only pain can keep people awake and calm, get rid of the illusion, and return to real life.
And excessive indulgence in beautiful "memories" and fictional dreams built by such "memories" will only make people feel more and more difficult in reality, and the happiness of life will be further reduced. That's because they only see the happiness in their memories, but they forget how much harder they have worked in the pursuit of that happiness than they do now.
At the end of the film, when I saw Heinz, who should have died in space, floating in the ruins of no man's land, suddenly opened his eyes, blew up the two rose petals in his helmet, and the whole film was frozen at this moment, an inexplicable warmth rose in the author's heart. Because from the plot point of view, the father who let go of his hands, from the memories full of thorns, and truly embraced his daughter, finally crossed the barrier in his heart and reached the "future" he wanted from another level.