"Infinite", like "The Hidden Corner", is a story that takes place in a hot summer.
A girl/boy growing up with trauma lives a secret inner life under the bright summer sun. Their lives are like a videotape, the sunny side A is bright, and the dark side B is gloomy.
Different from "The Hidden Corner", "Infinite" uses the form of animation to cover the rough and cruel reality with a soft light filter, and uses the cute shell of "a girl turns into a cat for love". It hides a dark story core of "trauma girls don't want to be human".
If Chaoyang/Dongsheng in "The Hidden" are mirror images of each other, "I will become you when I grow up", they are bright murderers, and Miyo/Tabbit Cat Demon in "Infinite" is a mirror of "one body and two sides". , is the dark stab of the Heart Punisher.
Below, I will take three clips from "Infinite", combined with Japan's unique monster culture, to talk about my feelings about watching this movie.
1. The exorcism fireworks of the summer festival, but fixed the inner demon of Xiaomeiyo
Summer Festival is a traditional celebration in Japan, usually held from July to August. People wear kimonos, eat snacks, fish for goldfish, and watch fireworks, which is equivalent to our summer night market.
Going to the night market with her mother is a happy and satisfying moment for the children. The mother who abandoned Xiao Miyo gave her daughter another blow at such a beautiful moment.
Miyo's mother died when Miyo was very young, and her father had a new love, Aunt Kaoru. Although Aunt Kaoru tried her best to show her kindness, and her father was careful with her daughter, Miyo still closed her heart and began to learn to conceal her inner distress and growing anger with a polite and optimistic attitude.
In fact, in this summer festival, Xiao Miyo's heart is still open, if her mother can stop being so selfish. Unfortunately, just like Zhu Chaoyang's mother Zhou Chunhong and Zhu Jingjing's mother Wang Yao, Miyo's mother is also an adult who doesn't know how to properly love her children, but regards her children as achieving a certain purpose.
On the night of the summer festival in the movie, Xiao Meidai was fishing for a little goldfish, and she heard her mother say to her: "Did your father marry her? No? I regret it now and want to go home. Go and tell him, let her go."
Such a mother, who did not ask if Miyo is doing well now, stabbed Miyo again in her heart, she threw down the small fishing net and said, "You adults are so selfish!"
remember? Zhu Chaoyang also said this familiar line to Zhou Chunhong.
Miyo angrily turned away from her mother and walked down a secluded and uninhabited path. She said bitterly, "I hope the world will be destroyed right now, and everything will be destroyed."
Dark thoughts trigger echoes from darkness. When Miyo started thinking about it, the "god lantern" (the lamp used to exorcise demons) on the roadside became a "cat lantern". Miyo came to the realm of cat demons, which is equivalent to stepping into the Greek mythology. The girl of the Styx.
The fat tabby cat demon, with a grin, sold a magical cat-shaped mask to this little girl who was too injured and tired of the world - as long as you put it on, you can turn into a cat and hand over the human soul.
There are various signs that this is a dark transaction , but it looks like a random game because of the cute attributes of "kittens".
What is even more shocking is that Miyo later told friends about the experience of this day, but it was completely distorted. In her narration, this day was the "feeling day" between her and Hinode. They were intimately attached to each other in the splendor of fireworks, and Miyo even kissed Hinode gently.
Kotaro Isaka once said: "The original pleasure brought by fireworks washed away the exhaustion and various meaningless attachments of everyone present, and brought everyone back to the most innocent childhood."
This means that since the day she sold her soul, Miyo has devoted all her feelings to Hinode, and even if she turns into an animal, she will have the opportunity to be with him. The fireworks of the summer festival have transformed the dark changes in Miyo's heart into a dreamy and sweet kiss. The unrequited love from her mother has been transferred to Hinode.
The girl Miyo has officially entered the dangerous stage of "God wandering". 2. The three "jumping off the building" in adolescence are behind the cultural prototype of "Nine Lives Cat Demon"
There are many kinds of monsters in Japan, and the number is huge. There is even a special "Yokai study" in the university. A "Japanese Monster Encyclopedia" has also rushed out of Japan to the world, and it also has good sales in China.
Among all kinds of monsters, cat monsters are also an important branch of Japanese monster culture. The image of cats has swept through almost all categories of artistic creation in Japan. The famous Japanese writer Natsume Soseki 's "I Am a Cat" sees humans through the eyes of cats. Recently, Ms. Yineng, who has become popular all over the Internet, tasted a song "I Am a Cat" when she was young , in which there are such lyrics: "If You're tired of being human, why don't you be cats with us."
For hundreds of years, the Japanese have always believed that cats have mysterious powers. Their squinting eyes are penetrating. In "Infinite", they are both tabby and soy flour, which makes people feel a sense of "becoming an essence".
Nine-life cat demon, in Japanese legends, can be transformed into an adult, and even derived from this "Cat Hua Festival", dedicated to worship cat demon, and later became a festival for cosplay lovers. The boundaries between humans and cats are melting, and there is a clear path in Japanese culture.
In "Infinite", Miyo, who put on a mask and turned into a cat, jumped lightly from the balcony, which made my back feel cold. No matter how cute the little white cat was, I was still firmly trapped in the "Girl" Jumping off the building" in this image can not extricate themselves.
Especially the second jump, which happened on the roof of Miyo's school. When Miyo heard the two boys downstairs talking bad things about Hinode, she immediately jumped down from the top of the building and rushed towards the boys.
This jump is a human-shaped jump, so it made my heart skip a beat.
Miyo, who is in her second year of junior high, is 13 or 4 years old, and she has opened up various media. The number of teenagers jumping off buildings at this age is not small, and the plot setting in "Infinite" will not be like it was exposed some time ago. A certain mainland children's literature writer, in his works, preached "how free and beautiful it is to jump from the roof", which brought some kind of dangerous misleading to adolescents? In particular, Miyo, who was injured by jumping off the building, also attracted the special attention of Hinode, which made the girl feel sweet. Is it possible for the girl in the crush to hurt herself in order to attract the attention of the other party?
The third time Miyo jumped off the building was the one that ran away from home. Because Hinode said he hated her, she once again transformed into a cat and jumped down. This time, under the leadership of the tabby cat demon, she continued to move forward in the direction of completely selling her soul.
3. Humans and cats are mutualized, love is the only channel connecting light and darkness
In "Infinite", on the dreamy cat tree island, there are a large number of "human haters" who have turned into cats. They have suffered all kinds of injuries, they have done enough, they stand on the sidelines, they are full of complaints, they seem to be detached, but in fact they are lonely and sad, they are a group of real "losers".
The place is totally dark, "the sun never rises". Although this place made Miyo feel uncomfortable, it also made her feel a certain kind of intimacy, a sense of belonging. Just as she was about to make her final decision, she heard the voice of Sunrise who came to find her. At this time, Hinode's palm and forearm had turned into fluffy cat claws, which looked cute and terrifying to think about.
Cats play a "crossover" role in Japan's polytheistic religion.
Japanese writer Akase Kawaharapira said in "The Universe of Cats", "People always think that losing a cat is no big deal, because there are dogs, birds, fish, snakes, cows and pigs. But people One thing that has been forgotten is that man is originally the cat's essence, or the cat's essence is man."
And soybean powder, who is dying and knows the secrets of Miyo, took the opportunity to transform into Miyo's appearance and tried to replace her life in order to stay by the owner's Aunt Kaoru forever.
This is another setting that seems to be full of love, but is actually dark and amazing: Miyo, through the soul transaction between soybean powder and tabby cat demon, understands the truth of being a human being, opens her heart and embraces life, and becomes a human girl again. Life.
In my opinion, "Infinite" is not as smooth and sunny as it seems on the surface, as "sweet and healing".
Its power is hidden in the bubbles of "cute love" such as summer, cat licking, pure love, and girlish hearts, waiting for the audience to burst the bubbles and touch the fragile and easy to slide into the dark hearts of adolescent girls and boys , to touch the hearts of "incapable of love" and selfish adults, so that parents and children do not have to go through any dark ways, they can embrace each other intimately under the sun, and truly communicate and communicate.
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