I once had a superficial understanding of Miyazaki Hayao and thought that he was just a film director who made children's fairy tales. I was never interested in his cartoons. On the contrary, I enjoyed all Jin Min's works and marveled at Jin Min's perfect combination of reality and dreams in the world of light and shadow. In February this year, with the strong recommendation of my friends, I met My Neighbor Totoro. As a result, I was completely moved by such a pure story. Since then, I have watched 8 of the 1 1 works directed by Miyazaki Hayao. Only then did I realize that the reputation of "Akira Kurosawa in the animation film industry" is by no means exaggerated.
Although most of Miyazaki Hayao's works are stories about children, they involve adventure, country life, magical creatures, magic, war and so on. In addition to * * *, its subject matter is extremely rich. On the theme, Miyazaki Hayao always pays attention to the issues of growth and environmental protection, and reflects the grand themes of man, man and society, man and nature with the help of fairy tales and the internal metaphors of various characters. These constitute the reasons why Miyazaki Hayao's animated films "Old and Young" and "Xian Yi" are world-renowned.
Miyazaki Hayao's works are worth repeating. I have watched Spirited Away three times, and I have a deeper understanding each time. The second time I watched it with my 14 year old brother. He said the story was interesting, but he didn't understand the meaning of the story. This may be because Miyazaki Hayao and others have set too many metaphors for the characters in this film, which makes them difficult to understand.
Let's talk about Chihiro's parents. Through Chihiro's communication with his parents and his performance in the trip, I don't see anything unique about this couple. Miyazaki Hayao didn't describe them too much, but in the scene of Shen Yin restaurant, we can see that the role of parents represents greed in human nature. And draw the whole adventure story with the help of the key plot of "greedy pig"
The white dragon was originally the god of the river, so he saw the amber river as soon as possible. He was the first key figure to lead Chihiro into the soup house in the hidden world. As a "river god", he represents nature, and his friendship with Chihiro symbolizes the relationship between nature and human beings that Miyazaki Hayao yearns for. White dragon also embodies a kind of self-loss. After his "noumenon"-river was replaced by human architecture, he exchanged his name for learning magic from Tang, so that he lost his past and himself.
Tang and Qian formed a pair of contrasts. As twins, they have different personalities and different pursuits. Qian lives in a humble cottage similar to a farm at the bottom of the swamp, works hard and lives a simple life. Tang runs a soup restaurant, and his desire for money can never be satisfied. But she also affirmed the labor and received the "rotten god" well, and Tang didn't spare the praise. Although these reflected her greed and greed, Miyazaki Hayao did not portray her as a "Huang Shiren" who oppressed the working people. Therefore, I don't think Tang is an absolute villain. Tang's care for the baby shows a hilarious and lovely side.
Kaonashi is the most tasteful figure in Spirited Away. His first appearance was on the bridge where Chihiro met Bailong. He quietly appeared and disappeared. This encounter made Kaonashi feel a strange affection for Chihiro. When Chihiro met him for the second time, Chihiro left a door for Kaonashi who got wet in the rain. Out of gratitude and ingratiation, Kaonashi stole the brand of Chihiro medicated bath. Later, following the example of the river god, he rewarded people in the soup house with fake gold for eating, drinking and bathing, and Chihiro used the ball of the river god to make him spit out food, servants and frogs. After the recovery, the follower came to Qian's residence, silently finished the spinning work and agreed to stay with Qian.
Kaonashi's stealing famous brands and rewarding fake money is actually a naive act of pleasing others. He is actually the most innocent. If he represents greed, it is illogical for Chihiro to make him realize this by making friends with him. He courted others for care and companionship, and money gave him a warm home. Therefore, I think Kaonashi represents the eternal loneliness in human hearts without a sense of belonging.
The protagonist Chihiro is no different from the real 10-year-old girl when she first appeared, not even so cute. She grumbles willfully and relies too much on her parents. But compared with her parents, she has the qualities of obeying the rules and not being greedy for petty gains. In the adventure of saving her parents, she gradually became brave, understood the sense of responsibility and gratitude, gained friendship, was recognized by everyone, and grew into a role model for teenagers.
These rich corner colors together create a wonderful adventure story. Although the director adopts a single-line sequential narrative, it still makes the plot tense and exciting, and the straightforward narrative makes the theme more prominent. Compared with My Neighbor Totoro's Innocence, The Witch's Family is more relaxed, while Spirited Away's theme is more profound and complex, but it is different from Princess Ghost. Through a child's adventure story in a foreign country, Miyazaki Hayao has completed the expression of multi-level themes, which still makes the audience enjoy it. To sum up, Spirited Away mainly has the following theme connotations:
Theme 1: Advocating the harmony between man and nature.
Throughout Miyazaki Hayao's films, we can find that environmental protection is the director's favorite theme. Japanese traditional national religion is the shinto of nature and pantheism, and Yamato's reverence for nature is reflected in many aspects of its art. Taking literature as an example, Japanese writers prefer to put characters in the natural background and describe them in a far-sighted way, which is different from western literature's emphasis on individuals. For example, Yasunari Kawabata turned the foal into a vast snowfield in the Snow Country, and the four seasons scenery of China's ancient twin sisters in Kyoto towns and Shan Ye.
Miyazaki Hayao's films inherited the Japanese national tradition and carried the director's own lofty beliefs. Anyone who studies Miyazaki Hayao's films knows that Miyazaki Hayao hates the destruction of nature by modern society. This is most prominent in The Valley of the Wind and The Ghost Princess, and environmental protection has become the most important theme. The ghost princess even showed the director's pessimistic tendency.
However, when Spirited Away advocated harmony between man and nature, he avoided radical arguments and expressed it in a more peaceful way.
The river god is the first representative of the destroyed nature. Due to the large amount of garbage deposited in the body, the river god stinks all over and is misunderstood by the people in the soup house as a rotten god. It was not until Chihiro helped him get rid of the dirt that he recovered his true self. The White Dragon was originally the God of Amber River. Judging from the plot, the Amber River was replaced by human buildings, which forced him to become a juvenile Bailong and Tang to learn magic. When Chihiro first walked into the soup house, the smell of human beings was easily recognized. In that world, the smell of human beings is described as "bad smell", and this setting is also the director's ridicule of human beings.
Miyazaki Hayao criticized human's destruction of nature, and advocated the harmony between man and nature with the help of Chihiro's friendship with Bailong. Chihiro drowned when he was young, and the magical power of the Amber River did not die. Many years later, as a white dragon, Amber Chuan forgot his name, but still knew Chihiro and helped Chihiro save his parents. The white dragon was cursed, and Chihiro bravely stood up to repay his kindness. Bailong was forgiven by money and remembered his name. Their precious friendship saved each other.
In "Spirited Away", Miyazaki Hayao did not put human beings and nature in absolute opposition, nor did he intensify the conflict between them as in "The Ghost Princess", which made the contradictory ending irreconcilable. On the contrary, he made Chihiro (the representative of human beings), River God and White Dragon (the representative of nature) friends who understood and helped each other. The director gave up the pessimistic expression and looked forward to the reconciliation between nature and human beings, leaving a more positive ending for the audience. Maybe he still has a glimmer of hope for mankind.
Theme 2: satirize human greed and emphasize the value of labor.
This theme is very obvious in the film. Chihiro's parents became pigs because of greed, and employees in Tang Wu were greedy, and all they got was gold turned from dirt. Tang is a "typical" greedy person and the object of deliberate criticism. In contrast, Chihiro, without greed, kept her human form and saved her parents. Her refusal to accept Kaonashi's gold finally brought Kaonashi to his senses.
Miyazaki Hayao denied human greed and desire. Many of his films show naive children and reject the realistic materialistic society. In City in the Sky, Musca, seduced by power, becomes the biggest villain in Miyazaki Hayao's films, which undoubtedly shows the director's contempt for greedy humanity.
While satirizing greed, Miyazaki Hayao affirmed the value of labor. When she first arrived at Tang's house, Bailong asked her to ask Tang for a job. "You have to say that no matter how hard you work, you are willing to wait for the opportunity to work, so she can't start with you." Tang also said, "If you complain and want to go back, I will turn you into a pig." Hard work in Tang Wu made Chihiro grow faster, and her earnest work was rewarded by the river god. That meatball also became the key to save Kaonashi and White Dragon. Insist on simple living's money and ask a group of people to help her spin, saying that things made by magic are useless, and the headrope made by friends' labor can bring strength.
In "The House of the Witch", the witch Kiki has to work with her own hands and earn her own living before she can really grow into a witch. Balu, a young girl in City in the Sky, works in a mine to support herself ... Miyazaki Hayao believes that only through labor can human beings realize their meaning and growth.
Theme 3: Let children grow up independently and affirm "peer spirit"
Anyone who cares about Japanese anime knows that there is a kind of "juvenile anime" in Japan, and the most representative one is Kishimoto Masashi's Naruto. Its story is simply summarized as "Hewei" made unremitting efforts and eventually grew into a hero. It can be seen that the values that the Japanese believe in will be successful and recognized through unremitting efforts. Growth is another key word in Miyazaki Hayao's films.
Most of the protagonists in Miyazaki Hayao's films are also boys and girls. He will not set the protagonist as a perfect and powerful existence, and the role of parents is often missing. For example, Kiki in The Witch's House wants to leave her parents to practice alone, which puts the child's protagonist in an independent position. Miyazaki Hayao will make the protagonist experience difficulties in the story, and finally improve his ability and mature his mind.
At first, Chihiro was a wayward, crying and rude girl. Working in Tang Wu helped her learn independence and respect, saved her parents and Bailong through her kindness and determination, and won everyone's love, recognition and respect. The director set an example for teenagers to learn from.
Chihiro grew up without his parents and saved them with his own strength. In many of Miyazaki Hayao's films, we can feel his criticism of the adult world and his preference for children's independent growth.
At the same time, Miyazaki Hayao also pays attention to showing friendship in movies. Let's start with Naruto. Naruto, the hero of Naruto, was originally a "crane tail" with the lowest score, but the support and encouragement of teachers and partners around him was the driving force for his growth. The "will of fire" advocated by Naruto also emphasizes "companion spirit". Similarly, in The Witch's House, the bakery couple and the glasses boy helped Kiki grow up, and Kiki also saved her friend in the crisis. Balu of Sky City is an important friend who protects Sida and helps her return to Sky City. In Spirited Away, with the help of Bailong, Grandpa Boiler and Xiaoling, Chihiro lived in the soup house safely and completed his adventures again and again. After that, Chihiro got the friendship with Fang, but also changed the peace and saved the White Dragon. Miyazaki Hayao affirmed the important role of friendship in growth.
Theme 4: Know yourself and seek your own meaning and value.
When you come to the hidden world at the other end of the tunnel, people will become transparent and even money will inevitably use magic. I think this implies that in a world full of temptation and happiness, people will lose themselves.
Bailong told Chihiro that if you don't eat things in this world, you won't become transparent. Does it mean that you can stay true to yourself by resisting the temptation of the outside world? Chihiro and Bailong "found themselves" in the story. As Bailong said, Tang likes to use other people's names. If you forget them, you will never find your way home. This may mean that only by knowing yourself can we get a sense of direction in life.
In the past, I didn't like making animations with too deep or heavy themes. I hope all cartoons are as warm, innocent and happy as My Neighbor Totoro. There are too many movies that reflect the real society and the evil of human nature. Sometimes I really want to breathe a sigh of relief in fresh cartoons, but Miyazaki Hayao will never be like Disney DreamWorks. Such a filmmaker who has a sense of social responsibility and cares for all beings will use his film works as a sword to publicize his beliefs and even fight.
Spirited Away may not reflect the core of Miyazaki Hayao's belief, but I still think it is Miyazaki Hayao's best work. No matter how many times you watch it, you can gain pure emotion, remind yourself not to lose yourself and get a little comfort in the secular world.