...the roots must be rooted in the soil / live with the wind / winter with the bamboo / sing the spring with the birds ...
1. The city of the sky and the city of the earth and the
sky Puda is the opportunity for the hero and heroine to meet: Baloo's father once saw the Sky City in the sky, and Shida is the princess of Lapuda. Due to the action plan of pirates and the government against Laputa, Xida relies on the protection of flying stones to fall into the mining town. The whole story revolves around the pursuit of the sky city by different characters. It can be said that "Lapuda" is a variant of the legend or literary image of "Great West Island" (that is, Atlantis). According to legend, Daxi Island is an ancient city-state with a highly developed prehistoric civilization, which was destroyed by natural disasters and eventually sank into the sea. In the film, the characteristics of Laputa are very similar to the legendary mysterious island: (1) Laputa itself is a continent floating in the air (as opposed to an island); (2) Baru and Hida have just entered Laputa At the time, there was a scene in the film where Balu looked at the fish in the water and found that the entire city was buried under the water (mapping the sunken Daxi Island); (3) Laputa is highly developed in technology, especially the energy system (flying stone).
The brilliant part of "City in the Sky" is to change the legendary image of "Daxi Island" into a continent floating in the sky, thus closely linking to the theme of the film. So what is this subject? An ongoing theme in Miyazaki's animation is dealing with the relationship between man and nature. In "City in the Sky", the meaning of this theme is very clear, and it was spoken by Hida in the film: people's survival must be rooted in the earth. As a symbol of the whole nature, "earth" means the foundation of human existence. Laputa, floating in the air, was created by relying on big trees, and even built a garden. Everything is in pursuit of the breath of the earth. But for Laputans, the foundation of existence has always been lost. It is conceivable that this is the reason why the Laputa royal family fell to the earth, thus beginning the decline and disappearance of the Laputa Kingdom for seven hundred years.
2. Two Aspects of Sky City
The film presents us with two aspects of the city in the sky-destruction and life, which are revealed by Baru, Shida and Musca respectively. When Baru and Hida enter Laputa, the first place they go is the garden at the top. Here, robots, flowers, trees, and birds coexist harmoniously, filled with the rich flavor of life and nature; while Musca enters Laputa, the first thing he looks for is the energy system and weapons. For Musca, Laputa simply means the power to conquer.
When Balu and Shida decided to utter the spell of destruction, Balu and Shida truly understood the essence of life and existence, and accordingly, the bottom weapon of Laputa, which symbolized destruction, collapsed and fell off. In the end, the trees and gardens of Laputa always float above the sky, permanently watching the people on the ground.
3. Innocence and Evil The hero and
heroine are both teenagers for more than ten years. Their lives were originally extremely ordinary, but their fates were changed by Laputa. At the beginning, the film is a contest of three forces: Balu and Shida (plus the residents of the mining town) - the Bado clan (pirates) - the government and the army. In the second half of the film, it is transformed into a contest between two forces: Baloo, Shida and the pirates - the government/military. That is, from the three-party struggle at the beginning to the binary opposition of good and evil. But good and evil are not clearly defined here in the everyday sense: the pirate family is disgusting and good-natured (the setting of the female leader is opposite to the heroine), but the government and the army that should protect the common people are constantly doing evil.
We can also distinguish different characteristics of Laputa in the feelings and assumptions of different characters: the army and pirates are only interested in gold and silver treasures, although they are good and evil, but they are ordinary people; (Actually, he is also a descendant of the royal family) who intends to encroach on the destructive power of Laputa. He is a tyrant who has the desire to conquer and pursue power; while Balu and Shida represent the innocence of children. In their eyes, Laputa is a world of birds and flowers. Ultimately, the innocence of children overcomes all evil, and this is the essence of fairy tales.
Finally, I want to say that the music of Castle in the Sky is far more familiar to people than the film itself, and Joe Hisaishi's music enriches the thickness of the whole film. The theme music of "City in the Sky" is like a key. Whenever I hear it, I instantly open up the feelings and memories hidden in my heart...
"In the city in the sky, there are small wild flowers, fragrant birds, and melodious songs"...
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