Seeing the title of "Genius Girl", I thought of another film about "Genius Boy", "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly".
The little boy in the film, Witte, is a piano prodigy. He was forced by his mother to practice piano day after day.
This makes Witte feel very distressed. Although he is good at playing the piano, he doesn't like it. In his heart, he just wants to be an ordinary child.
So he took an "accident" fall from the building, pretending to be mentally impaired. He successfully deceived everyone, took off the halo of genius, and became an ordinary child.
Surprisingly, in the process of becoming an ordinary person, Witt was pleasantly surprised to find that he really fell in love with the piano. It's not because of mother's ardent expectation, or because of the call of talent, but because of the charm of music itself.
Finally, at that moment, talent and reality intersect for the first time. Witte was able to see the meaning of life.
When I watched "Genius Girl", I originally had similar expectations for watching movies. After watching it, I realized that it was a completely different movie.
The main perspective of "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly" is that of a little boy. Through Witte's eyes, he examines the world around him, examines his talents, and finally finds the best destination for his talents.
The main point of view of "Genius Girl" is Frank's, that is, the uncle of the gifted girl Mary.
The focus of the former is "the self-awakening of genius teenagers", while the latter turned to pay attention to parents and raised a problem: If you have a genius child, how should you educate him?
This is really a difficult problem, not to mention that things are far more complicated than imagined.
The genius girl Mary in the film has a mother Diane who is also a mathematical genius.
Diane was controlled by her mother Evelyn since she was a child, and was imprisoned in mathematics all day long , consuming all the youth of a young girl for problems that all mankind had never solved.
Diane did not resist like Werther, but chose to obey her mother's will. Until she became an adult, she could no longer stand the torture and chose to commit suicide.
Before committing suicide, she entrusted her daughter Mary to her brother, Frank.
Frank's actor is "Captain America" Chris Evans. In the film, he takes off his superhero's coat and shield, enters real life, but still plays the role of protector.
What he wants to protect is his niece, Mary.
After witnessing his sister's "fall of genius", Frank was discouraged and took Mary out of Boston, hiding in the town, and living the most ordinary life.
He insisted on letting Mary go to the most ordinary school, studying and having fun with her peers, and doing everything possible to make Mary live like an ordinary child.
At this moment, Evelyn came to the door in an attempt to retake her granddaughter, so as to guide her to continue completing her daughter's abandoned career.
A battle for the custody of "genius girls" kicked off.
The plot afterwards, at first glance, looks a lot like the parent-child reunion movie of " Nuan Dad defeats the evil grandmother and regains Loli ".
However, if we carefully ponder it, we will find that things are not that simple.
As the film progressed, we discovered that the family in the original film, without exception, were all mathematics geniuses.
Grandma Evelyn was, and so was Uncle Frank.
However, Evelyn gave up her talent for love when she was young . That's why she regards her daughter and granddaughter as her stand-in, forcing them to achieve extraordinary achievements in order to make up for her regrets.
After witnessing his sister's tragedy, Frank took the initiative to hide his talent . At the same time, he wants to use the same method to protect Mary, suppress her talent, let her be an ordinary child and enjoy ordinary happiness.
Therefore, it is not so much a struggle for custody rights as it is a duel of two educational concepts.
Its special place is that it is not a confrontation of righteousness and evil, but two opposite directions, both of which are slightly extreme education methods, seeking the ultimate balance in the process of pulling each other.
This is very similar to a debate in the "Wonderful Theory". In the end, it is not the pros or the opposing side that wins. Instead, the pros and cons are placed in front of the audience to inspire them to think and let them see the third possibility . That is the right spot between the pros and cons, and it's also a less extreme road that is more suitable to go. This is the greatest significance of this contest.
"Girl Genius" is like such a debate.
Evelyn’s educational view is: For a genius girl, she must firmly grasp her talent, even the slightest negligence and waste is a crime against the entire human race.
Frank's view of education is: first of all, she is a girl, whether it is a genius or not. Great achievements may also bring the same pain. It is better to suppress her talent and let her enjoy the happiness of an ordinary child.
These are the two viewpoints that the film puts in front of us. What we have to do is not simply choose which side to support, but try to find out whether there is a third possibility.
If you just look at it with tender eyes, of course you will be moved by the "father-daughter love" between Frank and Mary.
The most heart-stirring scene in the film is that in the afterglow of the setting sun, the "father and daughter" transform into two silhouettes, a big shadow and a small shadow, hugging and melting into the sunset.
From this perspective alone, Mary will eventually return to Frank, which is in line with everyone's movie-watching expectations.
However, there is another fact that cannot be ignored: Mary is a self-consciously talented girl. In other words, she is a genius, and she knows it herself.
Faced with the arithmetic question raised by the teacher, Mary seemed extremely impatient, even disdain to answer it.
She has a maturity far surpassing her peers. When she saw her classmate being taunted by a bad boy, she severely taught that child and did a calm "check" afterwards, both frankly and honestly about what was wrong with the beating. It speaks out the despicability of the mocker, and also allows the bullied boy to win back his dignity.
From the many details presented in the film, we can see that Mary was not happy at school, and Frank's so-called "ordinary life" is more like a kind of "low torture" to her.
In addition, the most important thing is that Mary loves mathematics sincerely. She studied advanced mathematics classics at home, also completely out of her own will, and no one was forced.
Therefore, Frank's "repressive talent" education method adopted by Mary for protection is also problematic.
The emergence of grandma is not so much a crisis as a positive force. It forced Frank to reflect on whether his own approach was an overcorrection compared to his mother's high-pressure education.
As a result, we see that in the whole story, it is not the children who grow up, but the adults.
Evelyn finally learned that her daughter had solved the problem a long time ago, but because of hatred, she had to wait until her mother died before publishing the results. It was me who killed my daughter.
And Frank finally realized that his efforts to escape from his mother to avoid repeating the mistakes of his sister may have become a reverse high-pressure education for Mary.
At the end of the film, after pulling in two educational concepts, Frank tried a balance: send Mary to a higher school to learn knowledge commensurate with her intelligence; in her spare time, let her play games with her peers and enjoy the children. interest.
This family has watched the fall of the genius again and again, and finally found a way to protect this youngest genius.
Many times, in order to oppose something, we unconsciously go to the opposite side of it, but ignore what we really want to protect.
After encountering several deceptions, I decided that no one in this world is kind and shut myself down; in order to oppose a so-called insult to China, he insulted the family of the person concerned; in order to oppose heresy, he slandered and even murdered. Violated my beliefs...
At this time, we just need to calm down and think about a question: did we overdo it, or did we become the one we strongly oppose for the sake of opposition.
In this way, you will come back from the brink of opposition, return to balance, and see the essence of the matter.
Back to this film, what is the essence of education?
Four words: Achieve individuality.
It is to create an environment for the educated to discover their own heart and become who they want to be.
Therefore, everything that prevents this possibility is the persecution of children. Whether your starting point is based on grabbing or protecting.
This is what "Genius Girl" wants to tell us.
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