The characters in Song of the Sea can be divided into two camps: humans and nature. So I think the contradiction between man and nature should be the main conflict of this film. The main characters on the human side are the father, Ben, the big dog (although it is an animal, but it is indeed portrayed as a human), and grandma. On the natural side there are elves, macha, giants, and mothers. Cher is both human and elf (before the ending happens), so she's a paradoxical intersection between man and nature.
The human side also has contradictions with each other: Father, Ben, and Big Dog represent nature-loving human beings, while grandma represents human beings who oppose nature and live in man-made cities. The conflict between the two camps made Grandma take Ben and Cher, which made the bright line of the story become "going home", which promoted the development of the plot; and there was also a contradiction between the nature-loving humans. Big Dog is always on Ben's side (it's mostly a plot prop), so leave that aside. The conflict arises mainly between the father and Ben: the father is emotionally obsessed with the past, and he sees nature as an object of possession (I believe his feelings for Ben's mother are also "possessive"); Ben is a symbol of hope and a future Yes, he wants to blend in with nature. Their conflict was most evident after Cher returned to the lighthouse weakly: they both knew Cher was half-human, half-elf, but his father wanted to take Cher to the hospital in order not to lose Cher; Ben wanted to find the seal coat by Let her heal, which means: Ben thinks Cher belongs to the ocean.
The natural camp also has contradictions: the most obvious is the contradiction between Macha and the elves.
These contradictions can be established. Such contradictions (man and nature, or people and the ethnic group representing nature) have produced very famous stories, such as Legend of the White Snake, Dong Yong and the Seven Fairies, Legend of Sword and Fairy (one of my favorite stories) one!). But "Song of the Sea" neither expresses the contradictions well, nor does it shape the characters well (this is terrible), so it is not fun.
Let's talk about conflict first.
The core conflict of "Song of the Sea" is the conflict between man and nature. Of course, in order to develop the plot, there are also small conflicts. The story begins on the lighthouse, which symbolizes being far away from the world, which is one of the intersections of the conflict between man and nature, and emotionally represents loneliness. This loneliness is pain for the father, and the joy of the earth for the child. The story begins with Mom "leaving" Dad and Ben, leaving Cher behind. This is the first skirmish in the story: Ben, father misses mother, but can't see each other. Specifically, Ben doesn't like Cher on the surface. But the way this conflict is handled is a bit inexplicable. If a boy loses his mother at an early age, he should pin his mother's love elsewhere, such as his love for his father, and more likely his sister who "represents his mother" Love. But Ben was the exact opposite, and he took (at least ostensibly) anger at Cher. It's a strange way of expressing conflict.
Then the grandmother came aggressively. Grandma represents the human beings in the city and wants to bring this group of "human rebels" back to the city. It's a good deal of conflict, but it's not a serious conflict. We've all experienced things that change our living environment (at least everyone has moved), and it doesn't have to be anything serious. Compared to the life-and-death conflict in which the monastery in "The Secret of the Book of Kells" faced the slaughter of the Vikings, it was too easy. Then Cher discovered the seal coat incident, which promoted the continued development of the plot, which led to grandma taking the two children back to the city, and the conflict was resolved. Then the conflict turns into Ben and Cher wanting to go home and Grandma wanting them to stay in the city.
This conflict begins with Ben drawing maps on the road. This is a good idea in the story, on the one hand, it shows the mileage to the city, so that the rhythm of the plot is slow; The big dog jumps into the water. The big dog is the main prop for Ben and Cher to get home). When I came to the city, it happened to be Halloween in the city, and all the children wore masks. This shows that Ben and Cher can't fit into the kid circle in the city, and it's also an interesting detail. However, the conflict was not lethal enough.
Then Ben and Cher fled and came into contact with three gags from the elves. This allows the story to bring out the internal contradictions of the natural camp, but also to explain Cher's life experience. However, the explanation is not clear, and I don't know what the relationship between the seal elves and the land elves is in the end, and whether Cher has a special position in the seal elves. Knowing that Cher is an elf, and learning Macha's name, Ben and Cher continue to run away.
On the way, Cher inexplicably weakened. Why? It couldn't be that Ben and the big dog were walking too fast and she was tired. If it was because she was too far away from the sea, but then she was already on the edge of the sea, and she still didn't recover. If it was because she didn't have a seal coat, then she found that the days before the seal coat were fine, and it was only a few days after losing the seal coat? Is wearing a seal coat an addiction? It doesn't make sense either.
Then it rained, and Ben was carrying Cher to the Temple of the Earth - ah no, the Temple of Holy Water to hide from the rain. There were stinging nettles all around the Holy Water Temple. Ben hesitated for a while, then told his sister on his back to "raise your feet a little bit", and endured the pain of being constantly stabbed by the nettles and walked into the Holy Water Temple. At this time, it is shown that Ben actually loves his sister very much, and I think this detail is very well portrayed. Unfortunately, there are so few details like this!
Then both jump into the well, and Ben meets "The Recorder", the show's number one gag character, and learns more about the Elf clan and Cher's crisis, while the audience knows Cher has been captured by Macha. The conflict that the director wants to create here is: Cher and the elves are in danger of life. This is probably the worst conflict in the movie. However, it's still a bit baffling that we only have one side of the recorder's words "Cher wouldn't have survived tonight without the seal coat", but we don't understand why she couldn't survive tonight, even though she is very weak. I can only understand that the director wants to create tension, but the logic of this tension is not sufficient. Also, why did Macha take Cher? According to Macha's usual style of dealing with elves, it's enough to turn Cher into a stone on the spot. It takes an extra process to capture her. It can only be understood that this is because the director wants Ben to go deep into the tiger's den to save his sister, but the logic still not enough. In other words, the fatal conflict between "Macha and Cher" was not handled properly.
Ben then rescues Cher, and by the way captures Macha, who sends the hound bus to take them back to the lighthouse. So far, the "going home" conflict in the open thread has ended. The story begins with its final and most important conflict: Cher's "going home", which contains the conflict between Cher's returning to the ocean or the human world. This conflict reflects the main conflict between man and nature. Its resolution will mark the end of the story.
Regrettably, however, there is too little foreshadowing for the resolution of this conflict. After her mother appeared, Cher easily chose to "stay in the world". This choice should only be for a happy (except for Dad's) ending, just because all the people watching the movie in the cinema are humans. If it was a group of seals watching the movie, then I think the director would have put Cher back in the sea. Anyway, the story ended so weakly.
Then there are the characters.
Most of the characters in the story are one-strands, as Foster calls "flat characters." Cher, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Big Dog, Elf, and more. Mom is a stubborn wanting to go back to the ocean, Dad is a stubborn sadness, and so on. And Cher, who is the number one protagonist in the show, turned out to be the worst character ever created. She has little self-expression and is so passively receptive throughout the film that we can't even generalize her character. This may have something to do with the director's setting that she can't speak at first. In that case, this setting is a serious mistake.
The only two characters who will change are Ben and Macha, but Macha's change is a bit inexplicable - if all my emotions are released, I should be very emotional, but Macha has become Quiet as a kitten, incomprehensible. Only Ben is left, and I think he's the only decent character in the whole film. His development is more logical and cute, but it's just so-so.
I wanted to highlight the tragic love affair of Ben's mom and dad - the setting was so badly framed that I didn't even feel it was tragic. Think of the Legend of the White Snake and the Seven Fairies, and even Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The tragedies of love all arise in two people who have different identities and cannot (or are difficult) to combine, but why are these three stories so contagious? The story of "Song" is almost absent? I think it's because of the "group". Bai Niangniang is not alone, there is a green snake next to her, which is called a group. Xiaoqi also has her six fairy sisters, these seven people represent the "fairy clan". With opposing ethnic groups, the meaning of tragedy is real and tenable. As for the ethnic groups on the mother's family side in "Song of the Sea", the story is not clear. There are only a few round-faced seals selling and showing their faces, which are not symbolic at all, so it is difficult to reflect the fire and water between the two groups. No, so there is no tragedy to speak of.
Overall the movie has good inspiration, but it doesn't organize into a good story. Unfortunately. "The Secret of the Book of Kells" has much better conflicts and characters. I also watched "Ocean Home" because I liked "The Secret of the Book of Kells", but "Ocean Home" has no beautiful paintings. Wind, the story is too bad.
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