Text | Late summer evening sunny day ZMH
The well-known Austrian writer Franz Kafka wrote a world-renowned novella - "The Metamorphosis" in 1912. The protagonist of the story, Gregor, wakes up and finds himself transformed into a beetle. Despite being a worm, Gregor still has a human mind and can still understand other people's words.
After turning into a beetle, Gregor still cares about his father's debt, his sister's future, and even all kinds of chores at home. However, his family regarded him as a burden, and their attitude towards him changed from praise and love to disgust and disgust. The indifference of the family made Gregor become hungry and cold, and in the end, he died silently with full of worry and guilt.
In the novel, Gregor's transformation is a symbol of his inability to control his own destiny, and his tragic experience also allows us to see the destruction of human beings by alienated human nature.
If Gregor's transformation was a ruthless trick of fate on him, Miyo's transformation was the result of self-selection.
Miyo is the heroine of the movie "Infinite", she is a middle school student nicknamed Infinite. Due to the breakdown of her original family and a series of encounters in her life, she felt that she was dispensable and lost interest in being a human being. In order to be with the boy she likes, she abandoned her human identity and chose to become a cat.
As a Japanese fantasy animation film, the production of "Infinite" shows the consistently high level of Japanese animation: smooth character movements, gorgeous and beautiful scenery, fantastic plot settings, and delicate and entangled character emotions.
In addition to the warm feelings brought by conscience production and Japanese-style pure love, "Infinite" actually contains profound thoughts on being a human being and the meaning of life.
1. Under the mask of optimism and liveliness hides a pessimistic world-weary heart
In the film, Miyo is a nervous and carefree middle school student. She makes no secret of her admiration for her classmate Hinode, and often makes various deceptive gestures to him in public, which is ridiculed by classmates as "mystery". Infinite Humanity", which earned her the nickname "Infinite".
Hinode didn't care about Miyo's various gestures, and he often looked coldly or even ignored Miyo's existence. Despite this, Miyo still looks like an optimist, happily chasing Hinode, and even fantasizes about growing up faster and becoming Hinode's wife.
Miyo, who is so optimistic and lively and has a beautiful vision for the future, is actually a sensitive and lonely person. Her appearance is giggling and carefree, but it is just a coat she uses to cover up her inner fragility and loneliness.
Miyo comes from a divorced family. When she was young, her mother abandoned her family and left her. The family change made the young Miyo shunned by her classmates. She was ridiculed and isolated by her peers. Even her best friend was forced to stand in line and leave her. The broken parental relationship and the ruthless ridicule of her peers all hit the young Miyo deeply.
Later, my father made a new girlfriend and brought them home to live with. Although her stepmother took great care of Miyo, Miyo always had a grudge. She was polite to her stepmother, but never accepted any kindness from the other party. At the same time, Miyo's mother reappeared and wanted to return to the family, but was rejected by her father. For this, she found Miyo, hoping that Miyo could intercede with her father on her behalf.
The constant and chaotic emotional entanglement between adults made Miyo distressed, and she was upset but had nowhere to tell. On the one hand, she has always been haunted by her mother's running away from home, and felt that she was not worthy of being loved until she was abandoned. On the other hand, she kept her father and stepmother at a distance.
In her opinion, adults are all selfish, they only care about their own feelings and never ask her what she thinks. In this family, Miyo felt that she was not loved or valued, and that she was dispensable. She always felt that she did not belong here.
At the beginning of the film, a little girl asks "where have everyone gone?" This fantasy is actually a true portrayal of Miyo's helplessness and loneliness in the depths of her heart when facing her family.
Family changes and childhood experiences left a psychological shadow on Miyo. She learned to force a smile, and learned to use a heartless and joking attitude to cover up her inner fragility. Hidden in a pessimistic world-weary heart.
2. Transforming into a cat is a yearning for love and an escape from reality
At the beginning of the film, Miyo's mother rambles on Miyo, who is catching fish, at the temple fair, and keeps asking her to persuade her father to reconcile with her. Miyo is so upset by her mother's harassment that she has to turn and run away to avoid her mother.
Annoyed, she met a "person" (actually a cat) who sold a cat-shaped mask on a secluded path. Keep a human mind and understand what others say.
Miyo, who was very tired of the world, put on a cat-shaped mask and turned into a lively and cute little female cat. She hid in a small corner of the ruins, lying on her back and enjoying the rare tranquility.
At this time, Hinode was overwhelmed by his mother's high hopes. He used the temple fair to escape the cram school and went to the silent ruins alone. Here, he saw the little female cat lying lazily on the ground, and he felt pity and love.
On the night of the temple fair, gorgeous fireworks bloom in the night sky, showing the prosperity and liveliness of the world. In a quiet place in the distance, one person and one cat sit in an embrace, watching this noisy world with cold eyes.
Miyo, who turned into a cat, saw Hinode's unknown, loving, kind and tender side as a cat, and in his self-talk, learned that he was also tired of this world. Miyo, who was also deeply lonely and bored, drew Hiroichi as a bosom friend, and under his love and affection, she began to fall into her admiration for him and couldn't extricate herself.
When she was at school during the day, she would use various deceptive behaviors to attract Sunrise's attention, and would be excited by each other's frowns, smiles, and every move. She doesn't care about others' evaluation and smearing of her, but she will never allow anyone to speak ill of Sunrise. In the dead of night, she put on a cat-shaped mask and turned into a cat to go to Sunrise's house, enjoying his caress and care.
Hinode loves only a little female cat. But for Miyo, this love is the only consolation she can get in this noisy world. When transformed into a cat, not only can she be with Hinode at all times and enjoy his love above all else, but she can also escape a family that makes her feel upset and out of place.
When the mask-selling cat reappeared, it repeatedly encouraged Miyo to exchange her life for a cat, and become a real cat, who could enjoy the love of the sun forever and get rid of the troubles of life completely.
At first, Miyo was quite contradictory, but she publicly expressed her hatred for her that day. After her stepmother removed the mask of her forced smile, Miyo finally chose to give up her life and completely turned into a cat.
On the surface, Miyo transforms into a cat out of desire and yearning for love, but in fact, she is out of escape from family, from the reality full of troubles and life, and this is why she chooses cat students. .
3. Facing the hardships of life, escape is not the way out, but facing the hardships is the real warrior
Miyo, who has become a cat queen forever, hopes that she can live a happy life with Hinode. However, the seemingly happy and free cat life is not as beautiful as she imagined.
She always thought that she was not loved by her parents in the family, but when she returned home as a cat, she found that her parents were worried because of her sudden disappearance, and her mother and stepmother fought even more.
At this time, Miyo was still unwilling to face the troubles of life, so she turned around and left. Later, she saw her friend Xiao Lai anxiously looking for her on the street. Even Hinode, who had always treated her coldly, hurriedly went out after school to help in the search, and regretted that she had hurt Miyo in public.
Seeing that her family and friends were worried about her, and the cat's characteristics became more obvious, and she began to hear people's words clearly, Miyo began to want to be a human again. However, at this time, her desire to be a human again was not enough. Not strong.
Until another Miyo appeared, until she realized that another Miyo was completely replacing her life, she had an urgent desire to change her life back. She began to look around for the cat who sold the mask, in an attempt to get her life back. To this end, she did not hesitate to embark on an unknown journey to the world of cats.
At the same time, with the help of another Miyo, Hinode gradually learned that the little female cat that accompanied him was actually Miyo. In order to save Miyo, he also went to the world of cats.
After a series of difficulties and obstacles, Miyo finally regained her human mask with the help of everyone. However, she never changed. The reason is that Miyo only said on the surface that she wants to be a new person, but deep down, she is still escaping the troubles and sufferings of life that she was born to face.
In the end, on the way back, when Miyo realized that being a person is to encounter all kinds of troubles and hardships, and she had to face these hardships bravely, she transformed into a successful person and became a new person.
Miyo's cat life journey is actually a journey to escape the hardships of life. She doesn't want to face the troubles and hardships that must be faced by being a human being, she just wants to enjoy love and a life without sorrow. As everyone knows, there is no perfect life in this world. When she abandoned her life full of hardships, she also lost the opportunity to become a human being.
Facing the hardships of life, escaping is not the way out. The real warriors in life are those who dare to face the hardships of life and dare to challenge.
We often say that life is often unhappy, whether we want it or not, there will always be all kinds of troubles and hardships in life. When faced with these ordeals, we inevitably want to escape.
However, as human beings, suffering is a part of our lives, an inseparable part of life. Without suffering, human life is incomplete. In Living the Meaning of Life, Frankel pointed out: For us, the meaning of life involves the broader cycle of suffering and suffering from birth to death.
Life is alive, hardships are unavoidable and unavoidable, but we can always choose a positive attitude to face it and bravely meet the challenges of life. Let each ordeal be an opportunity for us to give a deeper meaning to our lives.
Maybe your life is full of dark clouds like Miyo, but please don't give up, don't run away. No matter how hard and lonely the days are, please muster up your courage and face the hardships of life. You must firmly believe that above the dark clouds, there will be bright sunshine and clear skies that you have never seen before.
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