I remember that when Elder Gong was interviewed in the later stage, he said that he did not know why he created the "Faceless Man", he said: Writing that this character came out. In fact, we also know that all the "characters" who can appear in the writer's pen must be able to find models in real life. It is precisely because it is too familiar that it will fall into the abyss of "forgetting" and "unconsciously appearing".
In addition, the more interesting point of "Spirited Away" is that most netizens' familiarity and curiosity about the faceless man is more than that of the white dragon, and Weibo has appeared on the hot search of "heartache faceless man". So is the faceless man's favoritism towards Chihiro really what netizens call "love at first sight"? If not, what message does Miyazaki want to convey to the audience through the Faceless Man?
Before explaining this question, let's briefly talk about the background of this movie -
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > hidden in the context of Spirited Away</h1>
Almost everyone has tacitly accepted that the backdrop for Spirited Away is the financial turmoil in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. But what we really need to figure out is what kind of impact this bubble economy has brought to Japan.
In the film, Chihiro's parents turned into pigs to make a warning, but what is more noteworthy is that Chihiro's parents in the movie first try to call out to the shopkeeper, and then they can't find anyone before eating with a "positive mentality" of waiting to pay again, which is different from the essence of the "running single behavior" that we have to question in the past. So we don't need to overemphasize whether this behavior is polite or impolite, but should focus on whether the "behavior of excessive consumption in advance with a positive attitude" should be allowed to exist.
The reason why the financial crisis broke out was ostensibly because capitalists advocated national capital to cause the people to be overly optimistic and consume in advance, resulting in the national economy being hollowed out; in fact, it was because of the non-transparency and asymmetry of market information. The real process of capital operation in this country is only in the hands of a small number of people, and the masses are easily led by the nose of authority.
In other words, why Chihiro's parents turned into pigs is actually caught in the routine of "authoritarianism", they mistakenly believe that this time and space can also be overdrawn in advance, and credit cards can also be used as cash, and the point of their mistake is more that "they follow the trend and look up to the debt capacity of the country".
"Should we unscrupulously consume in advance and take everything too optimistically?" The answer given by the movie is no, but for this misfortune, Miyazaki's attitude is optimistic. Since the loss has been caused, that fragmented era already exists, what the people can do is not to stay in love, not to look back, and to bravely go forward, this practice corresponds to the end of the white dragon saying to Chihiro, "Chihiro, I will go to you, don't look back, keep going forward." ”
Learning lessons and moving forward optimistically is the attitude of life that the film wants to convey, but Miyazaki does not try to hide the scars, but instead uses the shell of the "palace fairy tale world" to reinterpret the storm with a peaceful and calm mood. Misfortune does not exist because of avoidance, we always have to face it bravely.
Japan's economic crisis reached its peak in 1989, and "Spirited Away" was released in 2001, so the "hidden world" is not so much a microcosm of Japan in crisis as a portrayal of a Japan that is in ruins. Due to the poor operation of capital, japanese companies in the real world choose to save themselves by laying off employees, and workers will continue to reduce their own value in order to ensure the source of livelihood, and obtain their own living space by being squeezed to maximize the needs of enterprises. Desperately dedicating himself was the only portrayal of the small friends of the hidden world, and it was also the only way out for the Japanese people at that time.
This cruel way of competition corresponds to the scene when Chihiro breaks into the working environment of the small coals, and the boiler grandfather not only has no gratitude for Chihiro's initiative to help, but even warns Chihiro not to rob other people's jobs. The invasion of outsiders (Chihiro's arrival) puts other people who are already living in distress in danger of being eliminated, and the shortage of jobs is the first motivation for Grandpa Boiler to refuse and push Chihiro to Grandma Tang. Perhaps pushing Chihiro to Grandma Tang is not a correct decision, but as the highest voice in the oil house world, Grandma Tang is chihiro's only way out at the moment.
In fact, this statement is half right and half wrong, and it is true that this recognition of "the same is the fallen man of the end of the world" has aroused the faceless man's concern for Chihiro, but this is just the illusion of the faceless man. In fact, compared with the faceless man whose sense of existence is basically zero, everyone's cognition of Chihiro is at least still there. Xiao Ling, who has been verbally complaining about Chihiro, turned her head or took the initiative to take care of this newcomer and frizzy little friend; the white dragon who has a heart of revenge for mankind may help Qian find her father and mother's promise, and even the boiler grandfather who does not get any benefits will exchange the name of "his granddaughter" and "precious medicinal materials" for Chihiro's early journey...
In the face of difficulties, Chihiro, who has always relied on her parents, learned to be alone, even if it was not smooth in the middle, but she still tried to do it; and the faceless man who wandered outside the oil house world, if it were not for Chihiro's accidental stay, he would still be in the same place.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the "weird behavior" of the faceless man reflects the emptiness and confusion in the hearts of the people</h1>
As mentioned earlier, all the friends in the oil house have to work hard to survive because they know that this is a busy, lazy, and hard-working world. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory mentions that only when people have completed the next level of needs, high-level needs will appear, and this principle applies to all countries in the world today. The emergence of education faults in South Africa is the same as the neglect of the faceless man in the oil house, and when solving the problem of food and clothing becomes the only goal of everyone, all spiritual pursuits are secondary. The little friends in the hidden world are not deliberately rejecting the faceless man, but they have no time to pay attention to others.
There is a saying in psychology called the "primacy effect", which refers to the "first impression" of interpersonal communication, and as the time of contact increases, the other party will get more information and ideas from the other party. Chihiro and the Faceless Man have markedly different attitudes toward the oil house world, the former being actively accommodated, though to stay and save his parents; the latter being ignored and still doing nothing.
The "attention" of the oil house world to Chihiro was initially from the exclusion and resistance of the same industry, and later in the process of getting along, the intersection became more, and the stereotypes gradually became less, which was the result of Chihiro's initiative and her efforts to give back.
The answer is obviously no, the Faceless Man's attention to Chihiro is actually only because of all the people, he is the most idle one, in this busy world, only the unemployed nomads have time to notice the arrival of outsiders. The faceless man's first glance at Chihiro is curiosity, and this curiosity corresponds to the "mushroom law" in psychology, new things and people like mushrooms, before growing up, always experience unfair treatment and the pain of not being valued.
In the oil house world, the faceless man is the "other", and Chihiro's arrival makes the faceless man realize that the next "other" has appeared in the hidden world. When Chihiro has not yet integrated into the oil house world, both of them are "aliens" of this world, and they are not valued or favored. What is particularly strange about people is that when a bad thing becomes the responsibility of two people, the pain will be halved.
The faceless man is hovering around Chihiro with the mentality of "looking for a confidant", and the real change is Chihiro's stay in the busy. This small detail made the faceless man subconsciously feel that Chihiro acquiesced to the signal he had released, so he was good at advocating Chihiro as the only salvation.
At this time, the faceless man changed from "how to get close to Chihiro" to "How to help Chihiro?"
This transformation is essentially good, but because he is not deeply involved in the world, the way he expresses his likes and cares is more like that of a child, and he stabilizes the dependence of the two by constantly giving each other more things. In this "symbiosis" relationship, Chihiro has the initiative, and this asymmetrical pulling relationship causes the faceless man to use foreign objects to constantly "give grace" to Chihiro to consolidate his bond with Chihiro, and this perverted friendship also implies that the faceless man will go to change because of the fear of loss and the fear of returning to the shadows.
Speaking of "shadows", it must be added that the character's styling is composed of white faces and black bodies. When "The Return of the Great Sage" was broadcast, some netizens questioned the character image of the Great Demon King, which borrowed from the scene of the faceless man in "Spirited Away" who went crazy and devoured everything, but in fact, this function appeared earlier in the chaos recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas". "Sub-Silence" describes "chaos" as follows— no ears, claws, noses, but mouths, and its shape is like a meat moment, and it is muddy. The closest thing to this narrative in Spirited Away is two people, one is the "pre-decay god" and the other is the "faceless man who has been rejected by Chihiro and mad", and the only commonality between the two is that "it was dirty and muddy at that moment".
In addition to being contaminated, there is another feature of the faceless man's body. The white face of domestic Peking Opera is represented by the adulterous male Cao Cao, at first I also thought that the styling design of the faceless man was borrowed from this song art, and later found the true corresponding emotion of "white face" in the Japanese Noh drama and "Strange Cat". "Strange Cat. In the episode of "Faceless Monster", the butterfly appears in the face of the mother's crazy "brainwashing", and the face of this time corresponds to the butterfly who gave up his butterfly for the glory of the family, which means lost; the other scene is the end when the medicine man pokes through the true identity of the faceless monster, and the butterfly is also holding a white face in his hand, which means nothingness.
In addition, the devil Mophister in "Faust" is also such a face, and friends who have learned about this will find that in Japan, the white face is more representative of "nothingness" and "lost". These two labels not only correspond to the personality characteristics of the faceless man, but also echo the background of the entire movie, the "wandering" of the faceless man corresponds to the ordinary people in real life due to the psychological shadow of the "financial crisis", who have become cautious and extra cautious after facing the impact of the economic collapse, which is synchronous psychology with the faceless man who appears in the camera for the first time.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the awakening of self-consciousness and find the true destination</h1>
Some people think that the oil house unilaterally rejected the faceless man, but in fact the faceless man is also rejecting the oil house.
A large part of the oil house's rejection of the faceless man stems from his idleness, which is just the elimination of the "weak" by the rapid development of the economy of post-capitalism, from a certain point of view, the interpersonal relationship hidden in the apparatus is more complicated, people have little time to calm down to listen to each other's voices, and the faceless man will go from the initial silence to the final hysterical "I want" moan, the loss of communication ability to become the marginalized group of society is the epitome of countless modern people in our human society On the other hand, because the oil house partner subconsciously feels that the faceless man is the embodiment of the "ghost", gathering negative energy, violence and desire, even the greedy tang mother-in-law is also withdrawn in the face of such a person, in fact, it also shows that the faceless man who has lost his emotions and becomes procedural is also the "black shadow" in the hearts of modern people.
Back to the original question, why is it that the faceless man is also rejecting the oil house world? It is because before Chihiro stayed at the door, the faceless man had a thousand chances to come in, but he never really stepped into the oil house, and the movie did not deliberately emphasize that the faceless man did not have the ability to enter the oil house world by himself.
He only gave up this choice to Chihiro, who he thought was the same world, and in fact he was essentially disgusted with this material world and the supremacy of interests, which is why chihiro appeared in taiko bridge tomorrow morning but never stepped into the hidden world. He hesitated because he was afraid of loneliness being ignored, but he was afraid of depravity.
When Chihiro goes to return the seal for Bai Long, she mentions to Ling that she wants to take the faceless man, and Chihiro says that the faceless man only became bad after coming here. "Here" obviously refers to "oil house", has the faceless man who left the oil house really got better? The film does not directly explain, but on this tram to Grandma Qian, the faceless man becomes unusually silent, just quietly following Chihiro and no longer bothering her.
At this time, the faceless man and the state of "wandering by the bridge in confusion" and "angry to the point of madness and loss of control" have obviously changed, and he has begun to have thoughts and understand thinking, and has begun to become no longer dependent on Chihiro and no longer pins his value on others. It is worth mentioning that the tram where Chihiro and the faceless man are riding is written "Middle Way". The Middle Way is actually a Buddhist term whose opposites are two sides, namely bitterness, birth and death, voidness, yin and yang, and so on. When Shakyamuni spoke, he proposed to stay away from the two sides, and as for the middle way, these two words on the train clearly pointed out that this journey was the path of cultivation for the two "others" in the oil house world.
In the process of self-persuasion of the faceless man, the most subtle change is that after they arrive at Qian's mother-in-law's house, Qian's mother-in-law takes the initiative to invite him into the house, which is the second good person besides Chihiro to approve of him. Unlike the attention that the oil house exchanged for money, the people in the new environment released full of kindness to him, and this comfortable, comfortable, and unrestrained space allowed the faceless man to find a long-awaited sense of belonging and security, which is why he finally chose to stay here. In fact, I personally feel that this point corresponds to japan's healing culture, and it is a very warm thing to meet a confidant in another country.
The reason why Chihiro thinks that the "oil house" has damaged the faceless man is because the material of the oil house makes the faceless man lost and becomes overly dependent on capital, but deep down Chihiro feels that the faceless man is like a child who has not grown up, so when she mentions where his home is, the faceless man will collapse to vomit and cry.
The Faceless Man is indeed a blank piece of paper before he encounters Chihiro and does not enter the oil house, but unfortunately, he is afraid that everyone will forget himself because he is busy, and he will not be able to cross time and space to reach the other shore where Chihiro is. For Chihiro, who also lost her parents and lost her home, her fate is something to ponder. However, Chihiro is only a small representative of the Japanese people, and there are still tens of millions of people to find a sense of belonging and security.
The harm of the financial crisis to the people is not only the loss of property, but also the spiritual invasion. The burden of the economy allows people to spend more time in the process of producing value, while ignoring the spiritual sustenance and self-pursuit of individuals.
Miyako also wants to use Chihiro to take the faceless man out of the hidden world and finally Chihiro to take his parents back to the human world to express the confidence and expectation that Japan can still be revived after the crisis; similarly, there are two redemption returns in the movie, one is that the faceless man realized his value after leaving the oil house and learned to survive in another way; the other is the cheers of the oil house friends after Chihiro recognized his parents, which broke the rules and regulations of the past, the hierarchy was strict, The scream from the heart is actually the author's expectation and vision for the future.
Don't be afraid to lose, even if there is beauty in the hidden world, it is all a bubble. We always have to summon up the courage to move towards the future.