"What is the strange truth about killing good people and saving bad people?"
This is a line in the trailer of the domestic animation movie "Mr. Miao".
The film is adapted from the original short film of the same name by the author of "The Great Protector", Bu Sifan, and is cognate with "The Demon Child of Nezha".
As early as the trailer was released, "Mr. Wonderful" was marked with the mark of "recommended for audiences over 13 years old".
This is also another domestic animation film with independent ratings after "The Great Protector".
Originally scheduled to be released on the last day of 2019, some predicted it would be the last theater dark horse of last year.
But just one day before the release, the topic of #Mr. Miao's withdrawal rushed to Weibo's hot search list.
In 2019, when domestic movies are frequently withdrawn and rescheduled, this news is still regrettable.
Why was it withdrawn? When will it be rescheduled? We don't know.
Fortunately, the "Animation New Year" series of activities held in Hangzhou arranged only one release of "Mr. Miao" last Sunday.
The event was hosted by the Executive Committee Office of the China International Animation Festival, and hosted by The Hangzhou Film and Television Association, Zhejiang Xingguang Film and Television Co., Ltd. and other units.
Kaya also organized a movie group to participate.
Before there was "Nezha", after there was "Jiang Ziya", the situation of "Mr. Miao" is really difficult.
But it prefers to try the sword to the side of the sword than to "family fun", which is admirable enough.
Although there are still flaws in the editing, the subject matter is indeed bold and cruel enough.
The film unfolds in the form of a unit story, telling the secret of the protagonist Ding Guo's life and his adventures.
The background of the story is also well understood, mainly around a peculiar "flower": the other side of the flower.
Legend has it that the other side of the flower can fulfill all wishes, but the reality is that it resides in the purest of hearts and brings disaster to those around it.
Ding Guo and his master Old Man Liang, as tracers, had to collect twelve golden flowers and a Kunlun sword to have a chance to save the world.
But they face one of the biggest problems – after removing the flowers on the other side, the host will die.
This is not only the choice of the fruit, but also the choice of the host itself.
The film begins with the story of collecting the last flower on the other side, telling the choices of different people and the results of their choices.
As for why it is "adult animation", you may be able to understand it after watching the three stories in the movie. (This article has plot spoilers)
The first story, about the choice of kindness.
Xiao Wen, the host of the other side of the flower that Ding Guo and the two meet, is a righteous son adopted by a disabled old man.
In order to find the fire cicadas that profiteered, the people in the village gave up farming and thought about the dream of getting something for nothing all day.
Only Xiaowen still diligently insisted on planting crops, but because no one would buy these grains again, he could not even exchange the money for medicine for his adoptive father.
After Ding Guo and Old Man Liang informed him of his origins, they also told him that "only if you are willing to do so, your sacrifice is meaningful."
Those who are not willing to sacrifice will have their spells invalidated, and the other side of his flower will also lose value.
At first, Xiaowen refused to make sacrifices. But his adoptive father's words to him made him quickly change his mind: "Don't worry about my old bones, I have already lived enough." ”
Thinking that he could restore the village to its former state and restore his adoptive father to his healthy body, Xiaowen finally decided to give up his life.
This is the person who made the fastest choice in the whole story, but also the fastest person to be sacrificed.
The other side of the flower that Xiaowen exchanged for his life was swallowed by his greedy adoptive father, and his sacrifice was in vain.
Ding Guo and Old Man Liang left to find the next host, leaving behind a disdainful sentence "Sacrificed the best person, just to save this kind of person."
The second story, about the choice of silence.
The next host found is Xiao Du, who "gambles every time he wins", who relies on the money he earns in the casino to buy food for the homeless children in the village.
In the process of searching for Xiao Du, Ding Guo met the heroine Yin Feng.
Yin Feng was also looking for a host for the other side of the flower, but she was different from Ding Guo. In order to save more people, she will kill every host of the other flower.
They didn't need their consent, and they didn't need to know their origins, she just wanted them to die.
Whichever side you choose, it means death. But Xiao Du chose the third way - he fled the village.
The other side of the flower will bring disaster, then his departure may be able to restore peace to life here.
Also carrying the legendary other side of the flower, Xiao Du and Xiao Wen made two completely different choices.
The word "sacrifice" is too great, some people are perfect, some people are afraid, it has nothing to do with right or wrong.
Because in their hearts, they all have people and things that want to "save."
The third story, about the choice of unsolvable solution.
Yun Xiang's story is obviously the saddest of the three.
If Xiaowen's "kindness" is his return to his adoptive father, Xiao Du's "kindness" is his selflessness to his children, and Yunxiang's "kindness" is more like a helplessness of "people being good and being deceived".
Her husband, who was originally a man who would rather suffer himself than keep her safe, eventually became gambling and hedonistic, and even forced his wife to take all the money from the family from the prostitute.
It wasn't that she didn't know that her husband gambled every day, but she never imagined that even she herself would become her husband's principal in the casino.
So she chose to escape, she persuaded herself not to go to her husband's change, nor to believe in the fact that she was the host, she just wanted to wait for a "brother Ning's return" who would never have results.
Therefore, she wanted to exchange her life for a permanent "escape".
And this time, the escape, instead, let the other shore flower begin to devour her consciousness, and the red other shore flower that spread over the mountains began to bloom.
Eventually, Ding Guo's persuasion calmed her down.
"It doesn't hurt, it's fast." This was the last thing Yun Xiang heard Ding Guo say.
Twelve other flowers were finally gathered, and she became the host of the sacrifice.
And the saddest thing is that until the last moment of her life, Yun Xiang always believed that her brother Ning was a "good person".
Ding Guo and his party, who gathered the flowers on the other side and the Kunlun Sword, finally came to the Thousand Buddha Caves.
Here, they finally discovered that everything they are going through in this world is really just a cycle.
The extravagant fashion formed by the ice jade among the nobility made the villagers near Jinghu Lake start to collect in the lake in order to chase interests;
However, people under the lake will be infected with bitter cold, cold and trembling, and must take fire cicadas for a long time to alleviate the disease;
So people have caught fire cicadas and sold them to jade pickers, but these captured fire cicadas can eat the spores of the other shore flowers and reduce the flooding of the other shore flowers;
The reduction of fire cicadas allows the spores of the other shore flower to spread, and the gradual flooding of the other shore flower gives rise to greed in people's hearts.
More and more people go to the lake to collect jade, more and more people are plagued by bitter cold; the price of fire cicadas rises, and jade miners eventually can't afford to pay the fee and die miserably in the cold.
As a tracer, the most important thing is to take this news out and let more people in the world know.
Only in this way can the world regain its proper order.
The protagonist Ding Guo, the biggest role in the story, is not so much to find the truth, but to lead different people to make their choices.
Sacrifice or not sacrifice, sacrifice yourself or sacrifice others.
Who can guarantee what the world will look like when the truth about the flowers on the other side is passed on?
Perhaps, everything is still going on, the mining of ice jade has not stopped, and the flowers on the other side are still spreading.
"Kill the good guys, save the bad guys."
This question, which is thrown out from the beginning of the film, still does not have a standard solution, like a illogical multiple-choice question.
But what if killing one "good guy" can save countless "bad guys"? What is the standard of the so-called "good guy" and "bad guy"?
Just like the classic "tram problem", Kaye can't give an answer.
The best thing about the film is that it always makes people believe that the tracers represented by Ding Guo and his party have chosen to make the world a better place.
In the short film "Mr. Miao's Wild Goose Falling Avenue" created by Bu Sifan, a sentence of Lao Tzu was quoted - "Knowing the common knowledge, not knowing the constant, acting in a vain manner".
And the reason why people are human is because people are always making choices. There is no absolute good or bad, and there is no absolute good or evil.
Ding Guo has also experienced life and death again and again, which is also the choice he faces again and again.
And the meaning of these choices is the core theme of "Mr. Wonderful".
The title of the film, "Mr. Wonderful", only mentions that TA is the "person" who created the flowers on the other side.
But what is the true face of "Mr. Wonderful"? Why create greed? And why should he guide Ding Guo to discover the truth?
The only direct voice of "Mr. Miao" in the whole film is that he said: "Saving or not saving is just a choice." ”
This echoes another line that appeared in the trailer as early as possible: "Some things are more meaningful than life and death." ”
Human life and death are short and nihilistic in the long river of history.
And the meaning of each person's life begins to become different in one choice after another.
Ultimately, we can become independent individuals.