As a fantasy film, "Mirror Mask" does not have the conventional epic story, but very simply put the story on a little girl who is only fifteen years old.
Helen hates daily performances, and always wants to live a new life away from the family. This is a very common adolescent reaction. But his mother's illness caused Helen to fall into deep self-blame. On the night of her mother's surgery, Helen stepped into a dreamlike world she had constructed.
In this world, the Queen of Light could not wake up for a long time, as if she was Helen's mother, so naturally, Helen began to save her mother.
The mirror mask is the biggest metaphor in the film, because on one side of this mask is Helen and the other side is the dark princess who is very similar to Helen.
And the plot clearly tells you that this fantasy world all comes from Helen's pen and is completely constructed by her, so it is not difficult to imagine that the dark princess is actually the other side of Helen.
What is the other side of Helen, that is, willfulness and recklessness.
The dark princess disrupted the balance in the fantasy world, making the dark goddess power far beyond the light goddess, which means that the mother in the real world is about to die. For the two goddesses, light means life and darkness means death. .
In order to save the goddess of light, Helen looked for the mirror mask, which was actually looking for the other side of herself, the wayward dark princess.
In the real world, the dark princess continued the act of destruction. She tore up the paintings Helen left behind, which meant that the fantasy world would slowly fall away.
The balance continues into the real world, and the dark princess will replace Helen in the real world. For the Dark Princess, the fantasy world is her reality, and the real world is her imagination, and Helen is just the opposite.
Thus, the battle between reality and illusion began.
For any person, leaving his real world, the so-called real world constructed can only be illusory. Helen understood this truth in the contest with the dark princess. She can only return to her world and exchange the dark princess to keep everything in balance. Therefore, the reality and the illusion about the responsibility are placed before her eyes.
Helen won. She left the real world she had conceived (actually the fantasy world in the painting), returned to the real world, and assumed her own responsibilities, so that her mother's surgery went smoothly.
Throughout the story, the two queens represent life and death, while Helen and the dark princess reflect the gap between responsibility and willfulness, and the so-called balance is reality itself. A dreamlike world can only exist in Helen's reverie, it is by no means equivalent to the real world. Helen finally returned to reality itself, marking her maturity. Some people compare this film to the modern version of "Alice in Wonderland", but unfortunately, this film is by no means a fairy tale, it is a declaration of goodbye to youth.
Any radical youth, any teenager in the rebellious period, after his efforts, they will eventually find that the world they dream of is still such a reality in the final analysis, so they grow up, they become responsible, and even have to do their best. Do your best to maintain the balance of this real world.
Fairy tales should not be like this, but reality will always be like this. From a certain perspective, the author reveals a little helplessness and pessimism. Although the story itself verifies the relationship between life and death, responsibility and willfulness, This kind of non-fairy-tale fairy tale still gives people a head.
The story of the film is very simple, but the internal logic of the film is extremely complicated, as if it is a math problem that makes many people look at it somewhat.
But these do not matter, because life always triumphs over death, responsibility always triumphs over capriciousness, and reality is always the most powerful. These principles are still obvious.
However, the biggest contribution of this film is undoubtedly the constructed fantasy world. Because I don't know anything about painting, although I am full of respect for the mixed, strange world, I can only express it verbally. It seems to me that this extraordinary imagination can only be experienced on the screen. From this perspective, the film story itself seems insignificant.
This is a film whose typical form is not greater than the content, but the form is extremely nostalgic. It is worth collecting!
2006-9-20
Han Xi, Yutong County
View more about Mirrormask reviews
