We have all heard the saying that a person dies three times in his lifetime:
The first time, when your heartbeat stops, you are biologically declared dead; the second time, when you are buried, you are declared dead in this society; the third time, when the last person in the world who remembers you, forgets you, you truly die.
The opposite of life is not death, but complete oblivion.
I saw the warmth of family affection in Dream Quest, an animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead, and I had to admire the whimsy of the creators. I have to say that the picture of the undead world is so beautiful. This movie Douban score of 9.1 points, very good!
In the film, MiG has a musical dream that is not accepted by his family, he loves music, but he can't touch it. If he follows the rules in order to get the love of his family, he would rather follow his own heart.
Mig's great-great-grandfather, Ector, wanted to chase his dreams and wanted to sing music to the world, so he left his wife and daughter and went after them as he pleased. Great-great-grandmother Merda didn't have time to cry for the musician who had abandoned her home. She kicked music straight out of her life and then struggled to earn money to support her daughter.
Melda's love for her husband is true love, and hate is also true hatred, and even his face is not allowed in the photo. There is nothing wrong with a person having a dream, but it should not be left alone for the family to pursue the dream. More important than dreams is obviously responsibility, responsibility as husband, responsibility as father. The never-ending Exto makes Melda's hatred difficult to express. So she hated music, and she felt that it was music that had torn up her home. She did not allow the people in her family to touch the music, as if everyone who liked music would inevitably become a negative Extor.
MiG is an outlier in the family, obviously very well-behaved and obedient, but secretly obsessed with music. His idol is the god of song, and he has always wanted to be like the god of song.
At the beginning of the movie, it is actually a bit suffocating, especially Grandma is strictly guarded by music, as if it is a little girl with flowers and branches, and she is always seducing her MiG.
Dad said to Mig, "Whoever he is, he abandoned his home with a cruel heart, and you have to learn that he has no future." ”
Grandma said to Mig, "Aren't you afraid that you will be like him in the future, no one will remember, if you die, the photos will not be on the altar at home?" ”
Mig felt that as long as he was exposed to music, he could not care about anything else.
By accident, MiG arrives in the world of the undead, a world of brilliant fantasy. All the undead can return to the human world to visit their relatives on the day of the "Day of the Dead", and as long as someone enshrines their photos on the altar, they can smoothly cross the petal bridge and return to the human world.
Mig holds the mutilated photograph, and because of the guitar on it, he mistakenly believes that the god of song is his great-great-grandfather. The deceased family members were happy to see him, but he could not stay in the undead world for long, as long as his family gave him blessings, he could return to the human world.
The great-great-grandmother's blessing was conditional on keeping MiG from touching music, which was hard for MiG to accept. He thinks this is his own life, why can't he live according to his own ideas? The god of song is also his family, he will certainly not object to his love of music, he decided to find the god of song to bless.
Mig meets god of song's former partner, and they go to find god of song together.
In the undead world, Mig saw the dissipation of the undead with his own eyes. He was forgotten, in the world of the living, without photographs, without an altar. Eventually, it will also disappear in the undead world, which the undead call "ultimate death."
The memory of the living person works, and the existence of this world relies on the power of memory. Everyone has a day to disappear, sooner or later, sooner or later.
The reason why this "partner of the god of song" helped Mig so much was that he hoped that after Mig returned to the human world, he could put his photo on the altar. He was afraid that he would be forgotten, that he would henceforth dissipate into the undead world.
The god of song, Dracus, always said that he seized the opportunity, and also inspired people to be good at seizing the opportunity. However, his so-called "opportunity" was stolen. He stole his partner's guitar, stole his partner's songs, and even murdered his partner, Ector.
It wasn't that Héctor didn't want to go home, Dracus wouldn't let him quit, he needed his song. So, he shot at his good friend.
MiG, who learned the truth, was thrown into a big pit by Dracus. Dracus was afraid that the truth would be exposed, that his honor would be damaged. He told Mig that success comes at a price, and that to succeed you have to be willing to sacrifice everything, as long as you can seize the opportunity. It turns out that his price is to sacrifice others, and his opportunity is to possess songs that do not belong to him.
Merda saves MiG and Héctor, who turn out to be the family.
Mig regretted that he shouldn't have ignored his family, who had always loved him and just wouldn't let him touch the music. But do dreams and affection really have to be opposites?
Fearing that Mig will not be able to return from his long stay in the world of the undead, Melda chases after Mig and says she wants to save his life. But Mig said, "You're asking for my life, I'm not happy without music, but you just won't let me play, you never understand." He still didn't understand, since the family loved each other, why couldn't they support each other?
Melda actually loves music too, and she remembers her husband playing guitar around and singing to him. With her daughter, Coco, Melda felt that there was something more important in her life than music. So she wanted to settle down, and Héctor wanted to sing all over the world. There was disagreement, there was separation, there was blind hatred of music.
Dreams and family affection do not necessarily have to be opposed, but there must be appropriate trade-offs. It is necessary to balance them according to the current situation of life, not to be either-or and cannot coexist. No matter which one is preferred, responsibility always comes first.
Exto's picture is snatched away by the god of song, and the family works together to help him get it back so that Mig can take it home and worship it.
Merda had a grudge against him, and even though she knew that he had wanted to go home and had been murdered, there was no way for the resentment she had accumulated to dissipate suddenly. Mig advised her: "You can not forgive him, but we should not forget him." Merda said to Ector, "I won't forgive you, but I'll still help you." ”
Their daughter, Coco, MiG's great-grandmother, was also in a state of imminent doom, and she could hardly remember her father.
The body of the undead Extor was clearly destroyed, indicating that the last person in the world remembered himself, and his daughter Coco was about to forget him.
The end of the film is very warm, and the god of song is revealed his true face. MiG also received a blessing from his great-great-grandmother, this time without any conditions. Because of love, each other can make concessions, the kind that is willing.
Mig and Ector's time together in the undead world made him understand that nothing was more important than his family.
I always thought that the antonym of love was not love, and it was not until later that I understood that the antonym of love is forgetting.
The whole thing that an old man might remember is, "My dad was a musician, and when I was very young, he and my mom would sing very nice songs together." ”
And the song that everyone likes to sing, "Remember Me", was not written to the whole world, but by Exto to his daughter Coco.
"Remember me, saying goodbye is a last resort, Remember me, don't cry about it, Although I am not by your side, you are in my heart, Secretly sing a song in the middle of the night and send your thoughts to you. Remember me, forgive me for going far away, Remember me, when the guitar plays out sadness, I'm sorry I can only accompany you with music, Until I hug you again, remember me. ”
I love this movie, the graphics are gorgeous and the ending is warm.
I also have points that I don't like:
The first point is that there is a suspicion of moral kidnapping, because I don't like it, so I don't allow my family to do it. Because I don't like it, I think it's for my family. Life has indeed met people who have imposed their will on others and have always said, "I do this for your own good."
Second, although family affection is important, should there still be many people who prefer to be alone in the undead world? If so, I'm worried that I'm one of the "deserved" ones.
(Picture from the internet, invasion and deletion thank you!) ）