"Zombie Shaun" was born seventeen years ago. Unexpectedly, with the turbulent situation in the British Isles under the epidemic, this old film once again attracted people's attention. It is interesting not only in the combination of zombie genre and humorous comedy, but also in the fusion of Hollywood templates and black humor, creating a radically changed and stagnant absurd world, and it retains a lot of lingering charm under the packaging of positive energy stories. The core of absurdity.
Life crisis
Leaving aside the type of zombie, looking at the whole film from the perspective of characters, "Zombie Shaun" tells a popular plot type: life crisis.
The life crisis faced by the protagonist, Sean, is actually very typical: the confusion and pressure of the young working-class people at the bottom of the year when they approached their standing. Not long after graduation, my career was mediocre, living on shared housing, the crisis of marriage and family relations was looming, and my life began to change from a carefree youth who can freely try and make mistakes to a middle age who shoulders various responsibilities. This is an inevitable life stage. It is the panic of waking up in the morning and touching thin hair, and suddenly realized that there is no longer a lot of time to squander, and it is time to "settle down" but fail to do it well. Panic and helplessness in preparation.
And Sean and his roommate just symbolize the three attitudes to face this kind of crisis.
Roommate Peter belongs to the kind of "live" characters who have already completed the transformation, that is, people who live completely in reality. His line "We are no longer students" lifted up the depressive atmosphere that enveloped the film. Peter has long accepted the rules of reality and relied on Puritan spirit of struggle and self-discipline to deal with. He has a neat suit on weekdays, and works overtime on weekends when he is injured. It can be said that Peter symbolizes the diligent villain in our inner conflict, human rationality and executive function, focusing on long-term goals and task progress, but because there is no way to enjoy the happiness of the moment, it will also bring anxiety and anger, often ranting and ranting. It is the source of human stress.
And the second roommate, Ed, belongs to the giant baby who refuses to grow and change, a hedonist and hippie, the spokesperson of the house and funeral culture. Ed is a fat house in the true sense. You can be very satisfied with eating and drinking. He can be completely out of touch with reality, not only does not make any long-term planning, but also refuses to take any responsibility. Ed represents the lazy villain in people’s hearts. He only pays attention to the immediate pleasures in front of him, such as food, games and sex, which can bring pleasure and joy, but it is the destroyer of long-term goals and the chief culprit of corrupting will. Let Xiao En loves and hates him.
Unlike the two extreme roommates, the protagonist, Sean, is actually an ordinary person, caught between the two kinds of life, with split thoughts and a dilemma. On the one hand, he is faced with the great responsibilities of marriage and life, but he does not have the current work enthusiasm to face it; on the other hand, he is full of innocence and likes to play, but he cannot ignore the reality like a dead house. In other words, Sean belongs to the kind of Peter Pan that is common in modern society: a man on the surface, a boy on the inside. His girlfriend worries about the future, friends buy a house and other clues create a stimulating atmosphere, but Sean's mind is always stagnant, and his daily happiness is still playing games with housemates and going to the same bar to drink and eat snacks. In this kind of escape life in disguise, he became mentally numb and lived in a zombie state: mechanically going out every day, buying drinks, getting on the bus, mechanically entertaining, dating, meeting his parents, mechanically working as a high school student. In a capable sales job, his hair is getting thinner and his face is getting older, and the conflicts with his stepfather, mother, girlfriend and friends are gradually escalating. This is also the reason why his girlfriend broke up with him-evading change and responsibility in the numbness, a life without motivation is no different from a zombie.
If there is a defect in the protagonist's body in the first act, then he will have to fight to overcome this defect in subsequent films. This is actually a typical Hollywood routine: a flawed, immature protagonist (usually a young white guy) finally matures after facing challenges, and he is on his own, which is also the plot after this film.
What is unique about "Shaun the Zombie" compared with ordinary scripts?
This may be the real core of this work-black humor and irony.
Adult fairy tale
The first irony is the self-deconstruction and mockery of otaku culture.
What is the difference between Sean and the protagonist of the ordinary orthodox hero's journey?
It may be that he is an otaku. Like to play games, collect records, and don't like to travel. He represented the non-mainstream niche culture at the time, and it was also the reason why he and his housemates were incompatible with his girlfriend. From this perspective, Sean the Zombie is an adult fairy tale exclusively for otaku.
The popular point of adult fairy tales is Shuangwen. Its characteristic is that it is not obsessed with solving crises with realistic and reasonable methods, but uses coincidences and adventures. So this film looks like a zombie film, but it's actually closer to a romantic comedy that dreams come true: the protagonist is an unknown and marginal person until he gets a god-given opportunity to fulfil his potential, kill the Quartet, and embark on the pinnacle of life. Similarly, Shaun who has been unlucky and depressed has a perfect opportunity to realize his potential, which is the zombie crisis.
The zombie crisis makes the depressed and frustrated dead house Sean suddenly become a leader and a hero. This is largely due to the fact that his team is not old, weak, women, children, or idiots. Despite being unsatisfactory in work and life, Sean became tenacious and decisive when faced with zombies, with amazing combat power, unfavorable history, and strong leadership. He was recognized by his girlfriend, received the affirmation of his love rival and stepfather, and unlocked his mother’s relationship. Didi, also reconciled with good friends after the quarrel. And this process is the protagonist’s awakening and socialization, walking out of his own small room to meet new challenges. It can also be said to be an ultimate otaku fantasy-defeating the current person in the supernatural fantasy field that he is good at, and reaching the pinnacle of life. . This contrast between the wretched dead house and the heroic image has also become the source of the film's comedy.
Black hero
Another common element that is deconstructed is personal heroism. Sean is indeed the hero in the film, but his image and deeds are not stellar enough, and even a bit funny. The interweaving elements of heroism, selfishness and stupidity present a strong sense of absurdity.
Courage is knowing it is impossible, but so is stupidity. This is why the heroic behavior of the protagonist in the film can also bring joy to people. For example, the two did not listen to the advice of experts to isolate them at home, and they insisted on running out of the house with their relatives and friends and rushing to the hotel because it was safe and familiar, and they could smoke and drink beer. The group endured countless exposure risks and contacted countless sources of infection. Although they achieved a glorious "victory" in the end, only two people survived. The reason why the two protagonists survived was ultimately settled by the government army. So looking back, is this plan really reasonable? The last two faced a friend who was alone, and the tacit look of the other when they learned that "there were only two people left" was also an irony of this routine.
Then why is there such a plot?
Because opposing the public is the characteristic of personal heroism: a hero is to be different, and the essence of heroic behavior is to never cooperate with the government and experts. If you are as obedient as others, you will not be a hero, even if the expert’s advice is correct ( Of course not in the movie), even if your personal thoughts are of little value. As a result, although many people were killed indirectly, Sean eventually stimulated his potential and led a better life, which was a happy ending. This ending is not only black and humorous, but also quite reflective of reality, that is, the rule of inaction and the survival of the fittest advocated by Anglo-American neoliberal values. In the end, the ending must be happy, because the unhappy people are already dead. Who can deny this moving logic?
But is this ending really happy ending?
In other words, going back to the life crisis at the beginning, did the protagonist really complete the crisis at the end and realize the changes for himself and the world?
Zombie life
In response to this question, my answer is "yes and no".
The ending is undoubtedly on the side of growth and progress. On the surface, it is neat and closed: every problem of the protagonist has been solved, including the contradiction with the stepfather, the contradiction with the mother, the contradiction with the rival, the contradiction with the girlfriend, and the conflict with the protagonist. The contradiction of the dead fat house friend is a complete heroic journey, which satisfies a script rule-your protagonist must be different before and after the beginning of the story.
But the ending also has a static side. Not only is the protagonist's life gradually returning to the ordinary and ordinary, but also because of the weird hint of the ending: zombies and humans seem to be indistinguishable from each other.
In the beginning of the movie, we saw a group of walking corpses queuing, working, and rushing like a machine, but in the ending, after becoming zombies, they are still doing the same thing. After the death of the dead fat house, Ed is still playing the game of his life, which makes people suspect that if another zombie roommate, Peter, had not been headshot, he might have been fighting overtime as he did before his death.
This may be the protagonist's inability to improve, and it is another truth of the whole film metaphor: the alienation of human nature in industrial society.
Since the emergence of capitalism, it has promoted the tremendous development of production and promoted the enrichment and refinement of the social division of labor, but the price is to gradually deprive human beings of dignity and autonomy, and alienate human beings into screws on machines. For example, in the agricultural era, shoemaking is a craft. Workers can enjoy the happiness and sense of accomplishment of conception, practice, finished products, and refined skills. However, with the development of production, the craftsmen are only left in the shoemaking assembly line. Mechanical action, daily work has changed from making a shoe to screwing a day's screws. This division of labor and standardized operations have greatly improved production efficiency, but also deprived of the joy and sense of accomplishment of labor. This is also why many young people are reluctant to work in factories even if they are well paid: like machinery wears down their lives in exchange for money, which is a huge devastation to human nature.
However, mechanical, repetitive, tedious and complicated work not only exists on the assembly line, but is also the norm in modern life. Relying on inertial actions like zombies, being locked into a set of work every day from 9 to 5 and exhausted physically and mentally, it has gradually become the reality of modern people. It makes people wonder whether there is free will at all? If I become a zombie that can repeat the cycle of work and leisure during my lifetime, will my social value be higher? And even if I don’t work, can I really be free from society if I play games with a regular pattern? Or just become another kind of zombies and slaves?
This is why this ending is considered to be the unity of stagnation and change: what remains unchanged is the world where "zombies" are rampant, but what changes is the maturity of the protagonist's strategy. The sign of a person's maturity is to tolerate the existence of two sets of conflicting values at the same time. This is the change of Sean: he can act like a solid and reliable man in front of his girlfriend, and can secretly enjoy the otaku game with his fat housemate. The fun, real life and personal interests have been balanced and unified. I like this ending very much, because it is both realistic and Zen-like: most of the time, you can’t change your life, but you can only adapt to it; similarly, you can’t really change yourself for others, such as women and bosses, so only in front of them. Present the illusion of self-change. You may say that life under this disguise is like a zombie, but who is not a zombie? A sense of humor and self-deprecating may not change the world, but they can still make people fight against it spiritually and feel more relaxed and happy. This reason alone is enough to keep them alive in human society.
Author: 丘贝贝 Kyubei
https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv9132216
Source: bilibili
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