Editor's note: Recently, the 92nd Academy Awards came to an end. The Korean film "Parasite" won four major awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay, becoming the most watched film. In addition to the only "Parasite", we should also see other works other than the halo, for which the "Bright Viewing Group" has selected "Jojo's Whimsical World", which won the best adapted screenplay, "Joker", "Joker", which won the best actor and best original score, "Marriage Story" with best supporting actress, and "The Irishman" that won 9 nominations, hoping to bring readers a richer and more diverse viewing horizon.
Author: Peng Chuqin
At the 92nd Academy Awards, Jojo's Whimsical World attracted attention for winning Best Adapted Screenplay. Directed by New Zealand director Taiga Viditti, the film tells the story of Jojo, a boy who aspires to join the Hitler Youth, who, under the influence of his mother, turns from a cult of Nazis to saving Jewish girls. In the film with the theme of World War II, children's perspective of the film is not uncommon, such as "Tin Drum", "Ivan's Childhood", "Boy in Striped Pajamas", etc., "Jojo's Whimsical World" compared to the seriousness of previous films, in the warm color of the image presents a comedic color, this comedy color is mainly based on the absurd narrative, and embedded in the absurd narrative of anti-war consciousness.
Poster of Jojo's Whimsical World
Absurd Narrative: The Logical Misalignment of Reality
Absurd narrative refers to the narrative of narrative literature that creates absurd artistic content or artistic images in abnormal irrational forms or other surrealist means, which is often misaligned with the logic of reality. In the film "Jojo's Whimsical World", this dislocation is mainly based on the narrator's child identity, that is, the children's active thinking and whimsical characteristics become the logical basis for the absurd narrative of the film. Jojo was a child who idolized Hitler and often fantasized about talking to Hitler, and this self-talking form of dialogue drove Jojo's outward behavior, from fanatical loyalty to the Nazis to suspicion to active protection of the Jewish girl Elsa, corresponding to Jojo's imaginary obedience to Hitler, quarrels, and complete abandonment. With Jojo kicking Hitler out of the window in the video, he completes the return of self-consciousness and ends this absurd form of dialogue.
Stills from Jojo's Whimsical World
If this kind of "self-dialogue" is Jojo's inner fantasy as a child, which is an exception, then the absurd narrative of the film's foreign behavior is more universal, which is reflected in the contrast between the identity and behavior of the characters in the film, that is, the adultization of children and the childization of adults. Because of his cult of nazis, Jojo often pretended to be an adult to interrogate Jewish girls hiding in their homes, and even seductively tried to find out the distribution of all Jews hiding on the premise of promising safety; York was Jojo's good friend and a full member of the Hitler Youth, and at the end of the allied attack, he carried a mortar and mishandled like an adult soldier who could not fight. Adults showed a distinct childliness, with Nazi officer Klensendorf designing new uniforms for himself: exaggerated red cloaks, M36 steel helmets with red ribbons, submachine guns with high-pitched sounds to release music to confuse the enemy, and Kronsendorff's image designs appeared in street battles with the Allies; the Gestapo five went to Jojo's house to search, mechanically and repeatedly "Hiel!" Hitler!” [The Nazi marching salute] is also full of hypocrisy —like a fool who can't think. The contrast between identity and behavior makes the film detached from basic reality and creates a comedic absurd narrative.
In addition, "Jojo's Whimsical World" further promotes the logical dislocation of this reality with the help of surrealist visual images, such as when Jojo has a crush on Elsa, the film shows jojo's stomach full of butterflies, so that the audience can intuitively feel the impulse, shame and ecstasy of juvenile love, which obviously does not exist in reality.
Anti-War Consciousness: The Dawn of Humanity in War
If you abandon the absurd narrative shell of "Jojo's Whimsical World", in fact, this film is a youth growth story in the war years, and the protagonist Jojo's observation and growth allows the audience to witness the dawn of humanity in the war, which is the persistence of goodness, the pursuit of love, the yearning for freedom, and it is precisely this dawn that lays the foundation of the film's anti-war consciousness.
Jojo longed to join the Hitler Youth, but in the training camp could not accept the order to kill a hare, in a panic had to secretly release the hare, which is the goodness of human nature; in order to express his "loyalty" to the Nazis, Jojo wanted to expel the Jewish girl Elsa, but uncontrollably fell in love with her, and then chose to protect her, which is the love of human nature; when the Allies won, they wanted to hide from Elsa for a longer time, but bravely told the other party under the inspiration of freedom that this is the freedom of human nature.
If Jojo himself has a change in the growth curve, this brilliance of humanity has always been with his mother, Rosie. Rosie was ostensibly friendly with the Nazi Party, but in fact she had been serving the Resistance, she always longed for the destruction of the Nazis and the liberation of Germany; for the Jews, she was a "Schindler" figure, trying her best to protect the Jews while maintaining herself, Elsa was the object of her protection hidden in the home; for her son Jojo, she was a good mother by example, she told Jojo, "You have grown up too fast, not like a 10-year-old child, this age should not celebrate war, discuss politics, should be climbing trees, Then accidentally fall off the tree", the words are full of love for the child. In fact, it is Rosie, as the embodiment of the perfect image, who is sentenced to hanging, further sublimating the light of humanity in the character in a tragic way.
In addition, when the Nazi officer Krensendorff was captured, there was also a flash of humanity, and when he saw Jojo being captured by the unsuspecting Allies, he first expressed his guilt for the murder of his mother, and then loudly "slandered" Jojo as a Jew, and in the insults, he attracted Allied soldiers to drive Jojo out. Perhaps Krensendorff was powerless to resist the drive of the war machine, but after being captured, he still chose to save as many lives as possible after being captured, free from the war machine, which is ironic for the war itself.
"Jojo's Whimsical World" recounts the history of World War II from a child's perspective, with an absurd narrative technique to tightly wrap the core of anti-war consciousness in the image, behind the irony, ridicule, and playfulness, it is an endless mockery of war, while praising the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature under extreme living conditions, which can be called a masterpiece of World War II themes, and also because of the subject matter, the film's historical perspective is destined to lack a certain degree of presentness, so it was only nominated in the Academy Awards for Best Film, which can be described as unsatisfactory. (Peng Chuqin)