2020 This is the worst era, but also the best era, the worst era is because of the impact of the epidemic, this Spring Festival is very quiet, lonely and depressed in the days of isolation is always inevitable, the best era is China in this epidemic reflects how a big country to overcome difficulties, even in the face of not understanding, but also maintain the style of a big country, born in China can feel a sense of pride.
Of course, affected by the epidemic theater all shut down, heavy losses, whether domestic or foreign blockbusters can only be released in a selective manner, it is expected that among the foreign blockbusters introduced, there is a movie black humor movie that has been expected by many people, that is, "Jojo's Whimsical World", this movie Douban 8.4 points, Rotten Tomatoes freshness 80%, popcorn index up to 94%, can only wait in anticipation.
This film is dedicated by Taiga Viditti, the ghost director who has directed "Thor 3" and the "widow sister" Scarlett Johansson, to touch history in a fantastic way, through the unique perspective of children to deeply reflect on war and human nature, war in the director's lens is both cruel and full of childlike black humor, this is definitely not a good time to be a Nazi.
Taiga Vidity is known as a ghost talent, and within a few years of entering the show business, he was nominated for the 77th Academy Awards for Best Live-Action Short Film with his self-written and self-directed feature film "Two Cars and One Night", which has since won the attention of film critics, and in 2016, the also self-written and self-directed comedy adventure film "The Hunt for barbarians" was released, which became the highest-grossing film in New Zealand film history with a box office of $8.4 million.
In 2017, he directed the 17th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor 3: Twilight of the Gods, bringing a personalized witty style to the film, changing the seriousness of Marvel films and achieving great success, which achieved a total global box office of $854 million.
As the media commented, the audience can always see the New Zealand customs and viditti-style absurdity and black humor in him, this black sense of humor also substituted into "Jojo's Whimsical World", and in this film, because of the inability to find a suitable candidate, the director himself played Jojo's fantasy Hitler, although there were not many appearances, but left a deep impression on the audience.
The quality of the film is also well known, the film won the 92nd Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay, the 44th Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the 92nd Academy Awards Best Picture.
The plot of the film is simple, a black humor film about World War II, after the German boy Jojo discovers that his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic, his personal understanding of the world is challenged, and although he expects to be helped by his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler, Jojo gradually finds that his perception of reality begins to disintegrate.
Since the film has not been released, let's briefly analyze what kind of changes will happen when the war meets the childlike heart of children, and why this movie is worth looking forward to.
Children and war
The film's black humor and children's perspective make it easy to think of "A Beautiful Life", but this time it is mainly from the perspective of children to look at war, and what role does war play in the growth process of children? When war and children are combined, everything is both cruel and full of childish fun in ignorance.
Children are like a blank piece of paper, how the family or society draws on this blank paper affects the child's life, good or evil, everything is full of possibilities, Jojo is this little boy, the father has gone to the battlefield, and the mother is dependent on the small town in Germany, and like many small town children, they have to join the training camp, prepare for the future war, in the training camp, an officer K who returned from the battlefield wounded is responsible for training them, under the continuous theoretical propaganda, Jews are synonymous with demons and bad people in the hearts of many children, war is great, demons are to be destroyed, but is that true?
In this movie, Jojo began to think and feel about the war at the age of ten, in fact, for children of this age, the game is the main theme of their lives, but the war is not because you are a child will favor you, after all, you have to teach the children a lesson, as for the result, it depends on how the director shows it in the framework of his own film.
Joshua in "A Beautiful Life", as a Jewish child, was sent to the concentration camp with his father, and when other children knew the cruelty of the concentration camp early on, under the protection of his father, he only thought it was a game, a game that could hold out until the end to get a tank, Joshua was lucky, so his childhood was the norm, war did not leave a trace on him, nor did it make him think about the meaning of war.
In the Japanese animation movie "Grave of the Fireflies", the wayward brother finally raised his sister to death, although the movie ended in tragedy, from the movie we can see that the brother has a positive and one-sided attitude towards the war, for the war he believes is his father's righteous battle, it is the father who went to fight for a great cause, he suffered countless hardships in the war, until finally when his sister died of hunger and malnutrition, the brother still did not think about why we have to suffer this problem, The news of Japan's defeat made him sadder than his sister's death, because the war was still normal in his mind.
Different directors express the relationship between war and children, when the themes expressed are different, producing different artistic effects, and this time director Taiga Viditti went a step further, neither making children ignorant of war, nor treating war as a great game of justice, but starting to reflect on what war really is with a child's innocent eyes. When the war meets the girl you like, which is more important, for the child, patriotism, when the Nazis are just playing, but the feelings must be taken seriously, so you have to choose love.
Who is the guide for the child
Who has the greatest influence on the child as they grow up? Some say that it is a parent, some say that it is a teacher, and some say that it is the overall social environment, in fact, it should be the result of the joint efforts of many parties, but the final decision is actually the child himself, although the child's mind is beginning to be in ignorance, but it can make judgments according to continuous guidance, of course, there is a correct guidance is the icing on the cake.
In "Jojo's Whimsical World", there are two important guides, one is Jojo's mother, the other is Jojo's imaginary Hitler, one real and one virtual, in the virtual reality, Jojo slowly grows up and finds his own way out.
Jojo's mom, played by "widow sister" Scarlett Johansson, stands out in the play, presenting a happy, free and loving mom in a stunning way, and only free people love to dance, which Jojo's mother taught him.
In the play, you will find that although the mother opposed the Nazis, she has always been a member of the Nazi resistance organization, but in the face of Jojo's enthusiasm for the Nazis and entering the training camp, she did not make any positive guidance, such as saying to Jojo that the Nazis are bad and should not be brainwashed, but let Jojo play, go crazy, even if he is injured and almost dies, there is no bad language, some are just slowly guided by normal life, as if the Nazis do not exist in Jojo's world.
Jojo's mom said that one day, you'll meet that special person — she'll teach you to love.
The only thing her mother taught Jojo was love, love for life, and meeting the person worthy of love on the way to the future, just like she met Jojo's father, because mom only taught Jojo to face the world with love and kindness, so Jojo's kindness became his background, which is why under the Nazi brainwashing, Jojo was able to struggle out.
Another virtual guide is Hitler, this image can be said to be the epitome of the overall social environment at that time imposed on the psychology of children, in Jojo here has become a specific lover Hitler, this character image by the director himself played, not much appearance but very interesting, looks a little neurotic and always in Jojo encountered difficulties to do a lecture, trying to further deepen the idea of Nazis and war, this image can also be said to be the image of the complementarity under the lack of fatherly love, After all, the role of the father is not really a substitute for the mother.
Since Hitler's image is the product of Jojo's imagination, he, like children, will also lose his temper, and the tone of voice is also childlike, which is also an indirect satire of the war maniacs, and this irony is not the first time, Chaplin as early as 1940's "The Great Dictator" contributed to Hitler's funny and paranoid image.
The last two minor guides are Elsa, a Jewish girl hidden in the attic by her mother, and Jojo's instructor K, who is found hiding in the attic by her mother, but this girl is different from many girls: independent, a little rebellious and strong. The first time he met Jojo, he was intimidated, and it was this girl who made Jojo's faith shake a little, didn't he say that the Jews had horns on their heads? Where are the horns on her head, and more importantly, it makes Jojo feel love, because mom said that when you feel the butterflies flying in your stomach, you may meet love.
Instructor K looks a little crazy and paranoid, but he sees the future of the Empire most clearly, so he tries to face the world with madness, it can be said that Elsa and Jojo's lives were saved by him, when the mother fell into the Gestapo investigation, Aisha boldly came out but remembered the wrong birthday, if it were not for K's concealment they could not escape, and finally when the defeat, angrily denouncing Jojo as a Jewish boy also saved him from becoming a victim of war, this mad man is so complex and cute, he is a victim of war, It is also the future image of these bootcamp children.
But Jojo eventually learned to tie his shoelaces, learned how to look at war, war and him are still very far away, he wants only a childhood, growing up is very painful, freedom is very important, so when freedom comes, then dance well.
"Jojo's Whimsical World" is a very delicate and childlike noir war movie, in this movie, the director let us see the unknown side of war, war is not only a cruel fight in the adult world, but also a plausible game in the eyes of children, so the little fat man finally cheered for Jojo to have a Jewish girlfriend, after all, now is definitely not a good time to be a Nazi.
In the face of media interviews, the director said, I just want to make a funny movie, create a strong emotional experience, "Jojo's Whimsical World" first attracted the audience with laughter, and when they let down their defenses, I began to convey a heavy theme for them a little bit.