First, the story of "If you feel happy, clap your hands"
revolves around a group of "underachievers" in the third year of Asahi High School: On the campus where cherry blossoms are blooming, the teenagers do nothing all day, fighting, skipping classes, and mixing with gangs to kill time. The first main plot of the film is that the teenagers "clap their hands on the roof to choose the big guy": the rule is that the contestant stands on the suspended part of the roof, grabs the railing with both hands on the outside, and the referee starts to count. During the interval between counting the numbers, the contestants give high fives before grabbing the railing. For example, when the referee counts three, the contestant must hold the railing after high fives with both hands to avoid falling off the roof, and so on. The last nine shots in a row (played by Matsuda Ryuhei) became a well-deserved boss. In the empty and lonely spiritual life of a teenager, he can only rely on such a thrilling life and death game to find a little stimulation, and use a little heartbeat to try to find a meaning of existence. At the beginning of the film, the sky behind the teenagers is dyed in such a dark background. The BG (background music) at this time is also worth pondering: the thick-line electric guitar single sound is quietly beating like a war drum, sometimes accompanied by broken chords, and finally the band accompanies the music. All sounded, completely in the style of youth rock. The rendering, which seems to be out of interest, brings out a kind of tragedy that deconstructs the grand narrative and focuses on me. Here, it seems not difficult for us to feel that the creators are not pointing with a "critical eye", because fans know well: in youth films, only when the storyteller is integrated into the hearts of the people in the story can it be possible A glimpse of the tip of the iceberg in the hearts of teenagers, as written in the poster of Shunji Iwai's "All About Lily Zhou": "The thirteen-year-old world can only be read here." Philistines, leaning over to listen, can win a little chance for the audience who are trying to get closer to the hearts of marginalized teenagers.
2. The main line of friendship, love and hate: Kujo and Aoki
After Kujo Jun landed at Asahi High School, his best friend Aoki became the "top horse" and the number two character as it should have. In the beginning, the roles of leaders and executors were perfectly matched, perfectly matched and flawless. However, because of disagreement over trivial matters, Kujo started a cold war against Aoki. The usual class greetings turned into Aoki's cold face and hot ass, and Kujo ignored and responded, turning a deaf ear. What made it even more difficult for Aoki to understand and imagine was that the school gang boss actually "abandoned Rong to write", and began to study seriously and immaculately to prepare for the college entrance examination. Jiujo, who has always been gloomy, melancholy and taciturn, is even more puzzling and difficult to understand. You must know that the Jiutiao at that time was also betrayed and isolated like never before. He must have been in a mess himself, so he had to shoot frantically on the football field to vent. Even the head of a teenage gang is troubled by the future, whether to go to school or find a job. I once thought that youth meant unbridled profligacy and tyranny, only to find out that "good days" will come to an end as graduation approaches. At every point of youth, stress will always lead to hysteria to varying degrees. Growing pains lie in the unsuspecting underbelly of teenagers: the fragility and unease of youth. Therefore, it is not just Kutiao who is at a loss, the former close comrade-in-arms, brother, and small partner, Aoki-kun, who is kind and honest in nature, could not bear Kutiao's cold reception, shaved off his hair and grew "Moxigan", picked up the guy and announced his relationship with Kutiao. The complete break is not over, he is trying to destroy its prestige and squeeze its sphere of influence in order to grab the top spot. In the end, he even decided to use the "Asahi High School"-style method to compete with Kujo: the rooftop clap match. As a result, Aoki, who knew that his skills were not as good as others, really surpassed Jiujo after the 8th shot - but in exchange, he returned to the west. The young man returned with the wind, leaving the young man alone to guard the rooftop. Who can understand the disappointment of Jiutiao.
3. Yukino's PEACE dream and the ending of the blade friend
It can be said that Xue Nan is the most tense character in the film: maybe no one can match a man wearing half-rimmed glasses, practicing classical guitar music unhurriedly, and saying that his dream is "Olympic" all day long. The funny tall boy who maintains world peace like Terman is associated with the cold-blooded killer who stabbed to death his former brother with a knife in his hand. The violence hidden in the hearts of seemingly ordinary teenagers is sometimes so terrifying that adults can't imagine it. This scene of Yukino's hand-knuckle classmate can't help but remind us of Gas Van Sant's "The Elephant". It is also the aesthetics of extreme violence and indiscriminate killing in silence. The styles of the background music are also quite similar. The piano music "To Alice" in "The Elephant" and the classical guitar music in "Blue Youth" are the simplest melody similar to boring, but the most suitable for boring The teenager can only stimulate his numb nerves by killing people.
On the other hand, I wonder if the creator of the film, who designed such a character, also reflects a certain nationality of Japan, as American cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict wrote in her "Chrysanthemum and the Sword". As pointed out in the book: "The sword and the chrysanthemum are both components of this picture. Japanese people are both aggressive and kind, both martial and beautiful, both arrogant and polite..." Inspecting and summarizing in the book "An Investigation of Human Studies": "The quiet passion, the fighting-like tranquility".
Fourth, Kimura's dream of Jiaziyuan and his return to the underworld.
Kimura is a senior in the school baseball team. He has always dreamed of leading the team to enter the National High School Baseball League - Jiaziyuan. But he missed his dream because of a crucial pitch. After the defeat, Kimura gave up on himself and spent all day playing mahjong and hanging out with bad boys. Finally, he was invited by the underworld elder brother and officially joined the underworld organization. Kimura's last monologue is worth pondering: "In the carnival crowd, a glimpse of my mother's face, only a mother would spoil a fool like me, always smiling at me, I really love you, even if my My body is broken, my tears and sweat have dried up, but my dream still exists: Jiaziyuan. I won't regret my youth. I, the loser." A quasi-underworld general has attachment and hope to his mother in his heart. We don't know the Japanese "pampering psychology" that Kenro Doi said, but this monologue with some Oedipus complex finally gave us a sigh of relief: teenagers are children after all, and there is always an unknown weakness hidden in the heart .
Fifth, the small people are all living things
There are also many little characters in the film who are not much inked, but have their own characteristics. For example, the teacher who was chased by the students at the beginning, the dwarf gardener, the demented student who recited ancient texts like obsessive-compulsive disorder, the strange student who helped the cherry tree to catch insects every day, and treated the cherry blossom like a lover. The existence of these little people accentuates the weirdness of the entire campus. Specifically, Mr. Gardener is a dwarf who has a lot of interesting interactions with the teenagers. For example, I usually remind teenagers who skip school to study hard, and teach them to grow a potted flower. It’s just that the seeds of the flowers are buried in the flowerpots, and what kind of flowers will bear what kind of fruit, Mr. Gardener deliberately sells off, so that the teenagers can experience the whole process of planting flowers: from the daily hard work of watering, fertilizing, and waiting for time to expect the reward you deserve. The warmth between Mr. Gardener and the teenagers makes the whole movie full of emotions. In the hearts of the teenagers, Mr. Gardener may be the most secure existence. Secondly, whether the obsessive-compulsive reciters in the film are satirizing the "learners" who only read sage books. Excessive graduation pressure has alienated students and turned them into machines for chanting sutras and chanting Buddhists, reflecting on whether the contemporary Japanese education system has stifled people's initiative. And the cherry blossom guardian, who has nothing else to focus on, only sees cherry blossoms in his eyes. He talks to him, helps him catch bugs, and treats him like a lover. It seems like the "fetish" of contemporary people, but more of the feeling is that the creator actually cares more about the cherry blossom guardian. More often than not, it shows understanding of each person's pursuits, and defends the individual's freedom to pursue their core values, even if they seem a little offbeat.
This film is regarded as the earlier work of the male No. 1 Matsuda Ryuhei. Similar to his excellent performance in "The Imperial Law", Matsuda's delicate face, melancholy temperament and a hidden explosive force make him the best choice for the role of Kujo.
Nincheng Xiuwu plays a small valet who swallows his voice. Combined with Hoshino in "Everything About Lily Zhou", we can see that he is changeable in the play.
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