In this not-so-good 2020, Pixar's annual giant "Spiritual Journey" brought me the best movie viewing experience this year and the most healing spiritual feeling. After watching this movie for Christmas, I feel like I can put an ellipsis (not a full stop) on all the despair in 2020 in its happy ending, and then take them into 2021 with an open mind.
The story tells about a "life and death" adventure of a middle school music teacher with a dull life. The protagonist Gardner likes jazz since he was a child, and is infected by the freedom and casualness of jazz. His lifelong pursuit is to join a jazz band and become a jazz player. By chance, he got the chance to perform, but on the way home, due to excessive "excitement", he fell into the sewer and "died". When he opened his eyes, he found that his soul had entered another level, and he, who was just about to realize his dream of life, must not die easily. In another soul dimension, under the boundary of "death", he accidentally became a soul teacher, looking for the "spark of life" for the souls who are about to enter the earth to make them more complete. Here he met 22 who had been trying repeatedly for thousands of years, but 22 never found the "spark" that inspired his life motivation. 22 felt that life was tasteless and "mourned" to the extreme, and there was really no need to walk around the earth. The whole movie revolves around the protagonist who never wants to "die" and 22 who doesn't want to "live" at all, and starts a journey of adventure of life experience. You can find a similar viewing experience to Inside Out and Dreamcatcher in this movie. "Inside Out" cleverly and scientifically explains the reasons for emotions. It uses animation to present people's emotions and emotions in a fun and intuitive way. It is more rational and more scientific. It's like a psychological science fiction fantasy. "Dream-hunting Travel Notes" explains the meaning of life and growth, and is the involvement and warmth of family affection. It is said in the movie that as long as someone remembers you, your soul in another world will not disappear. If "Inside Out" is a psychologically visualized emotional journey, then "Spiritual Journey" is more inclined to be a metaphysical philosophical torture of life between the mind and the soul. The emotional implication of "Dream Travel" is to be remembered as "Rember me", while the center of "Spiritual Journey" is to live blandly and briefly, to feel the present, and it does not need to be great and immortal. The film repeatedly emphasizes that every life entering a new world needs a "spark" that can ignite and inspire and make them more whole. Some people love sports, some people have a talent for drawing, and everyone's "Sparks" need to be guided and inspired by the soul guide... These moments that make you happy, these beliefs that let you enter the earth with a "alive" attitude are probably the things that each of us can focus on and love. These loves make us passionate and energetic, and live with purpose for our love. But many times these passions and sparks will also become the source of people's blind struggle and loss of self. After staying in the soul world for thousands of years, 22 has never found the spark that inspired him to go to the world, the spark that made people "live". In the change of time, countless great people have become his "soul mentors". Copernicus, Mother Teresa, Lincoln... but none of them gave this poor soul any real guidance. Yes, do you have to live out those mentors and great men when the spark is sparked? Do you have to be a "big guy"? 22. A trip to the "world" by yin and yang, and experienced a brief and happy life of the protagonist Gardner's ordinary and unremarkable life past, but it was better than any previous big man who gave him the inspiration to his soul. 22 I have truly experienced walking and running, touching leaves and soft fluff, listening to music playing and the smell of breathing... These real touches are all the beauty in the world, which makes this soul without desire to live. power. And what about the protagonist Gardner? After the complicated and difficult death journey, he finally returned to the world, returned to his body, and fulfilled his lifelong wish to become a jazz musician. After the successful performance, Gardner asked the band leader: "Then what?" The leader said: "Tomorrow is still the same time, and we still perform here." The psychological activity of the protagonist at that time was probably: "What? That's all?" When you realize your lifelong wish, you realize that your lifelong pursuit of goals seems to be nothing but elusive. The so-called greatness and the so-called success also have a dull side behind them that we cannot see.Achieving greatness is not our goal in life, discovering the beauty of life is the meaning of living. Just like 22, the "spark" he found after pursuing for a long time is not necessarily a talent that can be praised. Perhaps what he is good at and loves is nothing more than actually walking, feeling the wind, the food, the air. Feeling "alive" is what it means to be "alive". That spark that sparks your life isn't your whole purpose in life. Your life is about learning to discover new sparks.
One of the things that attracts me most about this film is that the protagonist has been exploring the meaning of his life around jazz. A happy life may be just like jazz, it is free, casual, open and inclusive. Saxophone master Sidney Schebe said in "Jazz":
"I'll give you a note today and see how many ways you can play it - growl, twist, flatten, sharpen if you want. That's how you express emotion in music. It's like a People are talking."
The "spark" that really lives is to feel the natural and flat colors. A note, a leaf, a meal, all the seemingly inconspicuous trivialities of life can constitute a "spark" that is full of enthusiasm. You may feel sorry for being a human being, but those mediocrity and indifference are the meaning of your existence. The soul will never be overwhelmed, only the dull life without sparks will be overwhelmed.
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