12 years and 2 years to grind the story will not reach such a point

Clarabelle 2022-01-23 08:05:01

Last year, "The Return of the Great Sage" caused the phenomenon of tap water. From the box office to the word of mouth, a real win-win situation was realized. A piece of joy concealed the film's biggest shortcoming: still consuming the theme of "Journey to the West". The characters are of course innovative, and the story is of course original, but from the face to the inside is still a trick of new wine in old bottles. Therefore, the expectation of "Big Fish and Begonia" is the expectation of it as a truly original animation.

With the continuous exposure of posters and trailers, criticisms of excessively imitating Japanese animations, especially Hayao Miyazaki, have continued, but the reference to the style of painting is harmless: after all, the style of Ghibli is unique in the world, and it is so beautiful. Animations have their own production concepts: most fantasy animations, the first step in production is to set the world view, what is the background of the whole story, if it is an illusory world, what is the visual appearance, how to operate, what is the social structure, etc. And so on, and then the role setting, from the short biography of the characters to the genealogical relationship, a clear and complete construction needs to be made.

To say that an animation is original, first of all, the world view must be original. "Big Fish and Begonia" obviously refers to classic Ghibli animations such as "Spirited Away", especially the characters, which can be said to be Japanese style, but as the home of "other people" in the main scene, the prototype refers to the Fujian Hakka earth building. This reference was very successful and created a scene completely different from the Japanese rural style.

The world view of "Big Fish and Begonia" is expressed through Chun's narration: "All human souls are a huge fish in the sea. When they were born, they set off from this shore of the sea. During the journey, they sometimes meet, sometimes separate, and go when they die. After reaching the other side of the sea, it becomes a sleeping fish, waiting for it to set off again after many years. This journey will never end, and life will go back and forth."

Chinese style is the trump card that attracted countless audiences in the first moment of "Big Fish and Begonia" Although the set is Japanese, the details from clothes to hairstyles are indeed traditional Chinese styles. Moreover, a lot of ancient allusions are used in the name of the character, and it is even suspected to be piled up: from the three protagonists Chun, Kun, and Qiu to Feng, Maoren, Dijiang, Deer God, Yin, Pei, Kunmei, Feng, etc. , Choose from "Zhuangzi" to "Shanhaijing", "Legend of Immortals", and "Book of Songs", using classical Chinese characters that are quite uncommon to announce to the audience: this is a completely Chinese work .

In "Zhuangzi·Xiaoyaoyou", "the ancients had big trees, eight thousand years old is spring, eight thousand years old is autumn", maybe it can be changed to "the ancient times have big trees, eight thousand years old is Kun, and eight thousand years old is Qiu" . Kun died for Tsubaki, Tsubaki retaliated to Tsubaki, Qiu loved Tsubaki, willing to give his life, send Tsubaki to the world, and reunite with the human form Kun. Regarding life and death, a large number of dialogues in the movie point out: life and death are interoperable, and even exchangeable. Both the lingon who is in charge of the souls of good people and the mouse who is in charge of the souls of bad people can make this kind of transaction. And Grandpa Chun, who is in charge of Baicao, is even more aware of life and death—at least on the surface, what the creator has set is to understand life and death, a detached image of flying immortals at any time outside the world, and say something to his granddaughter Chun to fully understand the cycle of life and death.

However, these words may be just a good-looking and bluffing cover. "Big Fish and Begonia" is like a nun who has already shaved off her hair. If the state is not reached, the body will come first. The love scene of "Big Fish and Begonia" is inseparable from the separation of life and death, but under the solemn and grand tone of the whole story's life and death view (as the core component of the "other people" ethnic world view), it seems too frivolous. Boys and girls, for the so-called love, you live and die, not to mention tragedy, not to mention tragic, it is more like a teenager's temperament.

The most annoying thing about "Big Fish and Begonia" is this. When the story is not well told, the realm of the story can't be raised to the sky. Each character is so detached and immortal, which makes people feel resistant: the young man inside is actually a pure adult in his bones, and the purity inside is the purity imagined by people who have forgotten their original intentions. .

In Japanese animation, the treatment of love between men and women is usually an understatement. Most of the animations of Hayao Miyazaki and Takada have nothing to do with love. Even if there are elements of love, they will never let boys and girls say "I love you so much." , "I regret not holding you that night" lines, even if they are ambiguous, they are very subtle, because they are frivolous to say them blatantly, because they destroy the most innocent meaning. The theme of Kondo Yoshifumi's "Looking to the ears" is the love of young people, but the expression is subtle and subtle, and the temptation of men and women's advances and retreats is full of oriental classical beauty.

The entanglement of love between Chun and Qiu is seriously lacking in convincing plot. It can be seen that the creator's intentions are not evenly exerted. The strong and colorful ones have been taken by few, but the fascinating ones have stagnated, such as Chun and Kunyi. The emotional rendering at the beginning is not enough. Kun belongs to the son of the sea and is intimate with the fish, but there is no substantial development with the Kun who turned into a red dolphin. Then the plot that jumps directly to the plot is that Kun is willing to die for the Chun, which makes people feel uncomfortable. Then Chun ignored the ethnic rules and rashly traded with Lingpo, returning half of his life to Kun. From then on, he lived and died together. Chun's idiot was almost dazed. Qiu's feelings for Tsubaki are even more willful. Seeing Tsubaki walking fast on rainy night from upstairs, he belongs to one's heart. He loves it out of control. He prefers death to perfect the beautiful woman. The rhythm of emotional development is very uneven, which embarrassed the audience several times.

Chun Kunqiu, originally belonging to the classical aesthetic world, says and does things like what the disgusting youth romance movies of our time do. This gap makes people extremely uncomfortable. The love-lost Qiu, drunk and roared on the edge of the cliff: What you refuse is the love of a god! ——How is this vulgar plot different from a domestic youth movie?

What kind of love is it, so that the chaotic waters of the world will be flooded and the race will be wiped out? For the audience, Chun's feelings for Kun are just repaying favor, saying that love is really reluctant. In order to repay the gratitude, Chun caused the disaster, so she could only apologize with death. Fortunately, with limited mana, she successfully patched the sky and blocked the sea with the power of the grandfather tree. Then she resurrected inexplicably, and continued to use the rhythm of procrastination. The love-hate dispute between Kun and Qiu. This climax scene was promising, but the plot clues were a bit confusing, especially when the disaster came and the disaster receded, and many details were not clear. —— and focused on the life and death of the three protagonists, Chun and Kun were reluctant to part with their sensational things, and finally sent Kun away, and then began the second wave of parting, Qiu secretly and Lingpo After making a deal, sacrificing himself, let Chun go to the other side of the world to meet Kun again, and start to part with greasy farewell again, and again to be sensational-they don't know that the audience is tired of stuffing two pieces of dessert.

The narrator in the whole film is an old Tsubaki, and this love-hate-separation past does not have a deep texture in her narrative, because the love drama of the three protagonists is trapped in the mud of vulgarity and cannot escape. Therefore, on the one hand, we feel the super-beautiful picture and soundtrack, on the other hand, we frown for these love scenes: we were walking deep into the majestic and majestic beauty of the sea, but we are always full of youthful love elements. Bring back to reality. At this moment we understand that the narrator is nothing but the elderly Ruth in "Titanic".

The biggest failure of this movie is that I don’t know where to learn a set of childish and ridiculous laws of youth love, and pull such magnificent pictures back to the vulgar state of "we run in the sun, and we leave in the sunset". There is a lot of discussion about "life and death" in the movie, denying oneself to save others, paying back life with gratitude, devoting oneself to love, especially Qiu, all for the beauty of adulthood with a trace of obsession.

This kind of love triangle story is a classic love if you tell it well, it is bloody if you don't tell it well. To be more serious, "Big Fish and Begonia" is an internal ulcer, ruining a good skin. As the ancients said, there is nothing but gold and jade. It's really sad. The elegant and graceful Chinese style has been ruined by the contemporary youth style.

The problem of the rhythm of the story cannot conceal the advantages of the screen. There is no doubt that "Big Fish and Begonia" is the best domestic animation in the new century. The things that have been polished in twelve years are indeed unforgettable. In animation production, there is a taboo that "fire and water are incompatible": the scenes of water and fire are the most time-consuming and labor-intensive, and "Big Fish and Begonia" is amazingly not stingy in working on this technical difficulty, and it can be done at a glance. Seeing that it was made by conscience. It is a pity that only the face of Chinese style has been polished in twelve years.

Although I have regrets, I still support "Big Fish and Begonia". It has nothing to do with feelings. As long as you have a little understanding of animation production (previously worked as an animation screenwriter), you will know that the material resources are difficult. Domestic animation has risen to unprecedented heights. However, when a movie makes people say "Oh, the picture is not bad", it really fails.

View more about Big Fish & Begonia reviews

Extended Reading

Big Fish & Begonia quotes

  • Lingpo: What brings you to the Island of Souls?

    Chun: There's a soul I'm looking for: the soul of a human boy

    Lingpo: What time was it he died?

    Chun: It was two days before the wheat harvest.

    Lingpo: You need to be sure of the date. Otherwise you're searching for a needle in a haystack. So many die every day.

    Chun: I'm sure. It was my birthday.

    Lingpo: I know what you're trying to do, girl, and it goes against the laws of nature!

    Chun: I don't care. I've got to save him!

    Lingpo: The punishment is harsh for those who defy nature, no matter who you are, so you *should* care.

    Chun: But I owe him, for saving my life.

    Lingpo: How very touching. I've been stuck here for 800 years, and I'm still not done paying penance for my sin!

    Chun: But you didn't...!

    Lingpo: Don't interrupt! Let me tell you what real tragedy is. Meeting someone you care about so much you forget yourself and make a mistake. So then you go back and try to fix it and make things right again, and then you learn that fixing it's impossible.

    [chuckles]

    Lingpo: We can never undo the wrongs we've done. This I know.

    Chun: You're saying you won't help me?

    Lingpo: I'm saying I pity you. Besides, resurrecting someone from the dead doesn't come cheap.

    Chun: What would it cost?

    Lingpo: No less than a lovely girl's loveliest features: your eyes.

    Chun: [winces]

    Lingpo: [laughing] Now she's scared.

    [chuckles]

    Lingpo: Don't want to give up your pretty eyes, eh? All right, I'll take half your life instead.

    Chun: If that'll save him, take it.