Despite the cloak of science fiction and the gloomy wasteland worldview of the 1980s, the town is an independent overhead unit, there is no doubt about it. It is either a virtual experiment field composed of pieces of code (similar to "Hack from Different Dimension"), or it is simply an artificially set behavioral utopia. All these are not surprising. What really shocks people is the philosophical thinking about time, life and destiny brought by the painful struggle and helplessness in the time trickle of "stagnation".
The history of human civilization for thousands of years is actually a history of technological changes based on natural laws. And it is certain that the arrow of time will continue to break through in the future. People's life is getting more and more comfortable, but I dare not assert that this is progress. Who knows whether the arrival of the nuclear age means conquest or destruction? As for the exploration of the more basic life, life, and time under the cloak of civilization, we, like primitive people, have been unable to move a single step—at most, a few hypotheses have been accumulated.
"Ring Story" did not give an answer, but what is valuable is that it tells the story with heart, and leaves the thinking to the audience through the fateful loops of big and small.
1. Time
Time in the town is messed up. It allows characters to traverse, not only can it overlap with the stories of characters in different timelines, but even talk to "self" of different personalities; it can artificially set "still" and live in the "cracks" of time; it can also use river ice Sealing and thawing are the carriers, allowing people to experience the rapid changes of "a thousand years at a glance".
There is only one point, no matter how chaotic the time, always follow the basic laws of physics - forward, always forward. It seems irreversible, but it is staged through the same story of different characters, completing the loop of time (Little girl Lolita meets her future self and her family, Cole at the top of the tower meets her future self and family, Big Cole sees The pair of brothers who came to school were like myself and my brother many years ago, and Big Cole and the child were very similar to my father and myself.)
What is the time? It is the deep sky, the gentle wind in the forest, the dismantling of soaring houses, the silent trees and suffocating huge buildings, the invisible gears that push all the rolling forward, and the struggle of life to climb. A bottomless whirlpool that keeps going back and forth.
2. Life
Life is simply out of nothing, and so far there is no set of theoretical mechanisms to demonstrate the rationality of its existence.
But, it just stands there.
Accompanied by the drowsy piano music, a small grass, a birch tree, a stream that thaws when it freezes, and a rusted machine seem to have life. And the robot into which Jacopo's soul was transferred, not to mention the ageless robot teacher who has lived through the generations.
Some of them are amazed by their own existence (such as Lolita who travels through time and space, Jacob, Danny and the robot who exchange three souls, and black people who travel in parallel time and space), and some choose it because of habit. A robotic female teacher who accepts and wants to discuss with Cole Jr. The stream seems to control the speed of time by thawing and freezing (or does the acceleration and deceleration of time control the stream?), does it have life? The robot Jacopo fell down, and the "soul" of Jacopo hidden inside slowly disappeared in the depths of the forest. Which is the death of life?
There is no answer. Yes, but the wind rustled through the forest slightly.
When Lolita grew up from a young and innocent child to a workaholic she once hated, and then when she was old, she burst into tears when she saw little Cole returning home after a long absence;
When little Cole crossed the stream of time, he came home to find that his mother, who was a workaholic, was married and had a child because he missed his gray-haired "brother" with Danny's soul;
When little Cole at the top of the tower looked at the front of the house from afar, the grown-up self was disappointed when another pair of brothers went to school, and pressed the shutter of the old camera;
In another form, life has completed the loop under the torrent of time.
3. Fate
Humans are all creatures, and although all living beings are equal, no one denies their superiority in the great world.
So, what is the meaning of life? Will the trajectory be different with exploration and effort?
Some people live for work.
Some people work for a living.
Living and living are different. The former is like a machine, while the latter has humanistic attributes. Fortunately, the people in the town belonged to the latter, or eventually became the latter. No matter how poor they are, they still think.
When she was a teenager, Lolita was naive and intelligent. She originally hated that her mother was always busy with work and had no time to take care of her, and she didn't understand that her mother had stolen the underground dark core characteristics for science and went home to do experiments. But when she came to the future and saw that when she grew up, she was as zealous as her mother was at work and ignored her family. The loss of body and mind made her despair. In the end, it was finally said that the reconciliation should return to everyone, and the little Lolita returned to her own world. The old Lolita awakened her original "self" and began to care for her children - Jacob and Cole.
In reality, Mei lamented that the beautiful things in the world are always impermanent, and she is strictly controlled by her mother. She accidentally turned on a machine that could make time stand still and wear a bracelet to be free, so she pulled her lover and escaped to the paradise of time. It's a pity that even if time is squashed, the relationship between men and women can't escape and can only maintain the love at first sight, and it can't be maintained for a long time. Finally turned off the machine and became strangers with her boyfriend.
Danny's father was always troubled by the mute daughter and family chores, and Danny became a vegetable after replacing the "soul" of the robot, which made it even worse. His life was not decent and his child was being bullied. He should have understood the reality and made compromises, but paranoia and anger made him go to extremes. He bought a steel machine with money from the family in advance, which attracted the attention of neighbors, and even more because of the brutal "anti-theft". He almost accidentally injured his daughter, causing his wife and daughter to leave home. Finally, in front of his vegetative son, he lowered his stubborn head and returned to the path that seemed to have been predetermined.
In the play, all the stories of everyone are variable, but they all reveal the shadow of fate. If you want to break free from fate, you can only go back to the original point and think about the proposition of life.
The same is true from the overall point of view. The story of the entire eight episodes is a large closed loop. Little Lolita will eventually live to be middle-aged (like Lolita's mother) and old Lolita (little Cole's grandmother), and finally die in relief and helplessness. Little Cole will eventually live as a middle-aged father and old grandfather, and eventually die with mental insight and physical pain. Finally, the pair of school-going brothers appeared, and there was a faint shadow of the little Cole brothers. Think of other family figures, and the same is generally true. The ring world is a postmodern utopia, with several preset storylines, which are repeated on different people in chronological order.
This reminds me of the receptionist in "Westworld", who deals with tourists every day in the park according to the preset story line. Although some branch lines may be derived from the interaction in the middle, when night falls and the stop button is pressed, they are initialized to their original state, waiting for the rising of the sun the next day.
They are beings who have always been confused about their existence, and they are also a group of dolls under the control panel of others.
There are still some doubts in the play:
Before Jacob's soul entered the robot, does the robot have a soul? If there is, then no matter how stupid it is, it will not become a vegetative state when it enters Danny's body. If not, why didn't Jacob's soul change to a tree? Does the tree have a soul Jacob?
After Jacob's "death", where did his soul hide in the shade? Did it disappear or find a new "host" to integrate?
There are obviously dangerous robots (that can attack Cole) in the woods, and the adults are so comfortable with them roaming around?
How did the young Lolita "go back" in the end? Go back to the "before" of the same time and space, or jump to another parallel universe?
...
Maybe I missed something in the show, or I look forward to the second season to answer.
Think these easy to sink in.
In front of him, the world of flowers faded into a velvet-colored starry sky. In the secluded and empty space, all the flies and dogs in the mortal world are dust.
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