When I saw this poster, I decided to watch the show.
The poster is beautiful, and the content is my favorite genre, science fiction.
Knowing the original book comes from my favorite place, Northern Europe.
When opening this show, every shot is extremely elegant, symmetrical, golden section, frame, point composition, diagonal...
This is film aesthetics, photography aesthetics, or science fiction aesthetics.
Through the rigorous composition, I feel the grand and complicated thinking in it, about science and philosophy.
The vision is clean and the hearing is quiet.
The whole show is silent and mysterious.
There is a lot of blank space in the audio-visual, but it is not deliberate, the connotation is infinite, and the atmosphere is stretched.
The colors are too fancy and the lines are too piled up, which will be life-like and easy to become popular.
The real advanced level seems to say nothing, but it makes people feel a lot of things.
There are eight episodes in the whole play. Each episode seems to be an independent short story, but in fact, each story is intertwined.
The first episode is time travel, the second episode is soul replacement, the third episode is time suspension, the fourth episode is life limitation, the fifth episode is the unknown fear, the sixth episode is interactive coherence, and the seventh episode is the combination of human and machine. Episode eight is the ultimate loopback.
The point of view of the first episode is little Loretta.
Little Loretta cooks by herself, takes out the trash, and no one cares. Her mother said she didn't like being called mother.
Little Loretta's mother disappeared. She had been looking for her mother, calling her mother's name countless times: Alma.
When she got the "stone", little Loretta saw Cole and her home was gone.
It turned out that Cole's mother was Loretta when he grew up, and his home was little Loretta's home.
Little Loretta travels through time and meets her grown-up self.
Interlacing time and space will cause ethical chaos, so Loretta still has to return to her own time and space. It's just that when she grows up, she will meet a little girl who will come to her, and the loop will never end.
Loretta is looping, so is "Mom". "My mom doesn't want to be a mom either," Cole said.
Loretta's mother, Alma, why did she disappear? Maybe it's because she's tired of looping back.
Alma gave the "stone" to little Loretta, as if hoping that little Loretta would understand that she was looping back and let little Loretta understand her disappearance.
Little Loretta came to her grown-up self and told herself that she didn't want her mother to disappear. So the big Loretta accepted the loop and decided to accompany Cole.
Loretta is repeating her life, and the world is repeating itself. A loopback is forever repeating.
It's just, it seems that everything on the earth is related to something called a "dark core", which is the "stone" at the beginning.
The perspective of the second episode is Loretta's eldest son, Jakob.
Jakob and Danny unexpectedly switch roles.
Humanity is selfish, Danny wants Jakob's future, replaces his body, Jakob becomes a robot.
No wonder in the first episode, the robot was secretly watching Loretta and Cole, it turned out to be the older brother watching the younger brother. Does Jakob know that the little girl is the mother?
The human will can be separated from the physical body, but there will be legal and moral issues, such as exams, such as emotions.
Swapping bodies seems to be beneficial, but everything is one and two sides.
Danny thought it would be nice for Jakob to go to work with his grandpa, but Jakob really wanted to paint. Everyone has their own troubles, and everyone has to do something they don't like.
Jakob can stop going to work, but he also lost his body. Danny gets Jakob's job, but also has something to lose.
In reality, Danny was the one who fainted, and the pain of Mom and Dad had already happened. Maybe one day in the future, Mom and Dad will understand this, but how will the pain disappear?
The perspective of the third episode is May, the girl Jakob once had a crush on.
Danny is in Jakob's body, with May. But May was looking for something timeless.
So the first episode of episode 3 touched me instantly, and I was looking for this kind of thing.
May is nostalgic for the good, but no matter how good the moment is, it will pass away and cannot be retained.
People living near the ring, as grandpa said, can make the impossible possible.
May wants to stop the beautiful moment, and really stops time.
May has time and freedom because she can be with Ethan unscrupulously.
"Inception" also has to work hard to go to the dream, in order to live "falsely", here, you can live in "reality".
People, it seems that if you have time, you really have everything.
However, what if you can only pause the time, but there is no way to lift the pause?
Then, the thing is no longer that I pause other people's time, it's that I'm stuck in the paused time.
Time is gained and time is lost.
Well, I went back.
Otherwise, no matter how beautiful it is, it will turn into boredom and resentment. The initial love will wear off because there will always be friction between people, and no one can avoid it.
It's like seeing the actual mom, not the mom in your heart, after time pauses.
The moment when Ethan took off the bracelet and there was only May in the world, she was so sad, she didn't want to stop for a moment, she wanted to restore everything as soon as possible.
May had a hard time understanding all of this, and Dad said, "It's special because it's short."
What kind of philosophy is this! "Special" is never gone, but because it has been too long, it has become no longer special.
Now is eternity. This was a recurring thought when I read The Moon and Sixpence. I feel more and more like this, enjoying the moment is enjoying the eternity.
In addition, this episode also illustrates another truth: everyone is someone else's supporting role, their own protagonist.
Danny and Jakob have a secret, Jakob and May are together, actually Danny and May are together. But although May was with Danny, he was actually with Ethan during the pause.
Of course, May finally chose to leave Ethan. Is it because of his feet?
The perspective of the fourth episode is Loretta's youngest son, Cole.
Grandpa received a call from the doctor, and his days are running out.
Grandpa took Cole and shouted at a spherical object that can tell people how long life is. Cole shouted, there were many echoes, and Grandpa shouted, no. Time is up.
When grandpa and grandma informed the family, they were very calm and didn't need everyone to do anything, just let everyone know about it. But in fact, grandpa cried a lot at the door before returning home. After grandpa left, grandma was lost in the empty room.
It's hard for Cole to accept that the grandpa who played games with him will never die. After death, where did you go?
Grandpa thinks there is nothing, Cole said that Grandpa can make the impossible possible.
This is an unsolvable mystery. If it is gone, is it really gone?
In the last days of grandpa, it seemed that he lost consciousness. Is that person still the original grandfather? Maybe it's the most original of him. In my heart, there is only the back of that young girl.
Grandpa finally merged into the "dark core", so are people also part of the "dark core"? Into it, and again to form the world.
After Grandpa left, his place was empty, but what about the traces of him here? Time is passing, is space superimposing? Why did they disappear together?
In the sphere, Cole could hear many echoes, where he could see his whole life. Knowing how long you will live reminds me of "Arrival". If you know the journey of your life, do you still want to go on like this?
From the perspective of the fifth episode, it's Danny's dad.
Danny wants to have a "better" future, but his family is already poor, because his treatment costs can't even light the lights.
Where did the soul go to the fainted? no one knows. This drama has given a space for reverie, will it be like Jakob, among some foreign objects?
Even in deep trouble, Danny's father still wants to give his deaf daughter a better world, but she doesn't know that her daughter can tell the real brother. The first time Jakob yelled at her at home, she already knew it wasn't her brother.
Danny often came back to see his sister, but Dad thought he was a bad guy. Thinking of the situation caused by May before, the fear in my heart reached the extreme.
Why don't you feel safe in your own home?
Humans have never been able to imagine the four-dimensional space. In fact, May's "time pause" is a manifestation, because time can be controlled, and then all human "limitations" can be controlled. Walls are useless, locks are useless, human beings in the third dimension, effort is useless. With freedom of time, there is freedom of space.
People represented by Danny's father do not understand, so they are inexplicably afraid of the unknown. Bought a robot, thinking it could protect my family. It is touching, bitter, helpless, and a little ridiculous.
The sci-fi color of this episode is only in the synchronization of Danny's father and the robot. More of a sense of helplessness. People are too weak, and robots are a reflection of people wanting to be strong.
Even if others think that Danny's father is abnormal, he should guard him, even if his family is not at home, he should guard him. Getting used to it and finding sustenance is the only thing that can be done.
Fortunately, finally Danny's father understood something and returned to his current life.
The perspective of the sixth episode is Gaddis, the security guard who has often appeared in the previous episodes.
Gaddis has been looking at a photo of someone he doesn't know, but has a special feeling.
He saw the instant change and recovery of the object - a hole, appearing and disappearing in the ground.
Gaddis met a guy in a bar and even picked up the pool he was playing, so nervous, he seemed to like him.
The little expert May has come to intervene again. Gaddis and the Loretta family are also on good terms.
This drama once again proves that no one is a supporting role in life, everyone has their own story, one person and one episode is enough, which is both concise and rich.
According to the setting of this play, everyone can realize their own ideas.
Gaddis went to a parallel time and space, and finally met the man of his dreams, Alex. At the same time, I also saw another self.
The three people talked and deduced that the intertwining of parallel spaces was caused by the closure of the loop in their world.
No wonder Gaddis has feelings for Alex even if he has never met, because he has met in another world. In real life, why do you occasionally like strangers inexplicably? Will he be his companion in another dimension?
Love this, very selfish. Even if the person you like is with "you", you will be jealous.
"Gaddis" let Gaddis stay, and that's bound to have bad results. Gaddis has been deceiving since he said "I didn't see the photo."
Everyone likes freshness, Alex likes to be with Gaddis, but there will be quarrels and boredom after a long time, so another him who is a little fresh has become the best supplement.
Gaddis wants to be with Alex, which seems to be the realization of his own ideas, but it is actually a betrayal of himself.
Gaddis wrote to Alex expressing that the process of waiting was painful and happy, but it turned out that "Gaddis" came over and shattered his dream.
Alex is not as perfect as Gaddis imagined. No matter how good people are, there will be friction after getting along for a long time.
"Gaddis" doesn't want to let Gaddis go, everyone actually loves themselves in the bottom of their hearts, and it's a good thing to have another self to accompany them.
But in Gaddis's point of view, this is definitely not the case. Even if "Gaddis" is himself, he will never continue to hide himself and suppress himself as a supplement to "Gaddis".
Finally, Gaddis met the man at the bar again. It turned out that the destined people will meet everywhere.
The sci-fi part of this episode is not special, and it is not as extreme as "The Night of the Comet" to kill yourself. But when it comes to homosexuality, it is a richness, a presentation of complex human emotions. At the same time, there are also conjectures of deja vu.
The seventh episode's perspective is Loretta's husband, George.
George has liked to study instruments since he was a child, which should be influenced by his father.
Abandoned by two partners on the "monster" island, he caught snakes with them before, was bitten by a snake on the island, and then had an arm amputated.
George installed the robotic arm developed by his father, and the man and the machine have been integrated since then.
Only then did I realize that this little boy was Cole's father. When little Loretta arrives at Cole's house in the first episode, she notices Cole's dad's arm.
Loretta and George were classmates and asked him, "Are you a robot?" It was because Loretta was also interested in technology since childhood that he and George came together. Danny's sister, like Loretta, was interested in George's arm.
Humans can replace their bodies with various machines, extending more and more. Until "Westworld", the will can be carried by machines. So what is the difference between humans and machines?
So, George went back to the island, this time, not with fear, but with conversation.
After all, Dad once sent him to the island to protect this "monster", so how could he hurt it again? It is also dad's child. This kind of robot is not a traditional robot, it is really a "robot-human".
The perspective of the eighth episode is everyone's perspective.
Cole is going to middle school, his brother is going to work, and his grandfather is gone. Dad said that when people grow up, they will need their own space.
Cole wonders: Why can't things stay the same? Mom said: Because of time.
Among the books that Cole borrowed, there were records of books borrowed by my mother.
Cole asks mom: Do you think it's been a long time? Mom said: In an instant.
Time is the most amazing thing in this world, you can't tell if it's fast or slow. You thought it was unclear when you were young, but in fact, when you grew up, it became even more unclear.
This year's season-ending real-life drama "Modern Family", the once lovely children grew up one by one, and encountered a lot of troubles. The middle-aged became old and the elderly left. It was as if everything I had had disappeared in an instant.
Cole, Loretta, George, never noticed Jakob's strangeness. Is it the soul or the body that matters?
Danny finally told Cole the secret of his identity, and Cole went to the forest to find Jakob.
Cole recognized Jakob and his brother was able to play football with him again, and after a brief hilarity, Jakob died in a battle with another robot that popped up.
In childhood, the older brother is often the tall and mysterious image in the younger brother's heart, and the robot is an incarnation. The robot fell, and the brother's body disappeared in the image, this time it was completely gone.
It was weird enough to freeze in the summer, but when Cole tried to leave, the ice melted again.
The ball went down the stream and reappeared. A stream is not a stream, it is a ring.
When Cole stepped over, the ice instantly froze again.
Then Cole, like little Loretta in the first episode, travels through time. This is another loopback.
However, his is a leap, he crossed time and space.
Cole, as usual, called security to find his mother. Of course, the security guard is no longer Gaddis. I don't know if Gaddis stayed in another time and space, or is also old.
Yes, the mother Cole saw was an elderly mother.
Cole thought he was just here to find his mother, but she had waited for him all his life.
Mom said: I said, I will always be with you.
A lot has happened in the world where Cole disappeared.
Danny told Loretta and George that he was not Jakob. Loretta and George know that Jakob is dead.
The two sons were gone, the grandmother was gone, and George was gone.
In this world, it seems that only Loretta is left. How lonely and powerless it must be.
She was pulling the litter box again, wearing a pale pink top again, and life was like a loop.
How should I feel when I receive a call from my son looking for her.
Loretta lived a "long" life and finally got to Cole.
She did what she promised.
She did not let the children find their mother like her mother.
Cole is even more confused. Before he can get over the sadness of his brother leaving, his mother is old, his father and grandmother are gone, everything has changed, it is not fair.
It doesn't feel like it's been a long time.
In "Interstellar", it was an adult father who came back, but here, a child who only liked to play football came back.
Cole told Danny that Jakob wasn't mad at him.
Cole will also slowly let go. In the first episode, her mother said to her childhood self: "Not everything in life is logical."
Jakob is gone, Danny's daughter, and can play with Cole as well.
Cole went to return the book to the teacher, life was like the book he read, sad and beautiful. He saw sadness, and the teacher saw beauty.
Cole has spanned so much time, but the teacher is not old because the teacher is the second robot that Grandpa created.
Change is part of nature, and Cole doesn't like change, so, like robots?
We want eternity, just like robots.
Cole took a picture of his mother, and he saw that it was little Loretta in a trance.
What is the difference between change and change?
Grandma once said she saw someone climb up.
Yeah, the future Cole is going to climb.
Cole has grown up too, and in the show, it's pretty quick.
Reality, in fact.
A friend asks Cole: Does it feel like a long time? Cole said: In an instant.
After Cole lost her mother, she was alone, just like her mother when she was a child, and it was another journey alone.
A lot of ring shots are used in this play, turning and turning and turning and turning.
There are also many ring designs, such as the "dark core" that appeared in the first episode, such as the spherical object in the second episode, such as the bracelet in the third episode...
Looking back at the title "Ring Story", it is not the Japanese genre, but another meaning - materialization. The relationship between things and people is science fiction, but also philosophical.
"Ring Story", a very clean, very abstract name, I like it very much.
The sci-fi part of "Ring Story" actually doesn't have too much exaggeration, but it feels very deep and far away, because it uses ideas and unknown things more, making you feel that it is untouchable.
Do you want to meet your childhood self?
View more about Tales from the Loop reviews
