In general, this is a stop-motion animation that is quite worth seeing, and it is not without inspiration for our country’s children’s fantasy literary creations. It breaks through various barriers—these barriers are often conceived—after that. Presenting a unique style is not found in Chinese movies.
The grotesque style of the film reminds me of Tim Burton's "Zombie Bride" subconsciously, but this style seems to be more ancient to Henry Selick, the screenwriter and director of "Mama Ghost"-in 1993 he directed " The Nightmare Before Christmas can basically be regarded as a preview of "Mother Ghost" (Tim Bolton is the producer of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and provided the overall story idea of the film, which makes this work more Was dubbed "Tim Bolton Works").
The Gothic aesthetic style runs through the whole "Ghost Mother". From beginning to end, the heroine Caroline lives in a foggy, sunless, mysterious and strange town everywhere, and even her house has a house. Many centuries of ancient history-the old mansion is almost a basic element of ghost movies all over the world. This small town is easy to compare with the "Sleeping Valley" in "The Headless Horseman", but when I watched the movie, it was The small town in "Silent Hill" that is always falling like snow and ashes emerged-the thick fog in "Mama Ghost" further deepened this impression of me, especially the little boy Wabi in the thick fog Catch the "banana slug" scene. However, "Mother Ghost" did not focus on creating a horror story. When Caroline realized that the secret doorway in the corner led to a more weird world, the film actually created a kind of warm atmosphere-here, little Caroline's All dreams were realized, her parents even had a copy, and the parents of the copy were obedient to Caroline.
The seduction of "Mother Ghost" to my childhood memory comes from the "Mr. Bobinsky" (Mr. Bobinsky) above Caroline. Mr. B is the only adult who identifies with Caroline's supernatural experience. He even directly acted as a megaphone between Caroline and the dancing mouse-of course Mr. B always shuffled and made mysteries like a fortune teller. In my opinion, this Mr. B, who looks similar to a mantis, is undoubtedly the "Weird Old Man" in American children's literature-do you remember the puppet show from Shanghai Meiying Studio? After Zheng Yuanjie's "Shu Ke and Beta" and "The Adventures of the Banner" were quickly vulgarized when they were put on the screen, "Strange Old Man" became a rare treasure in my childhood memory. After careful study, "Strange Old Man" has a rare and unique temperament like "Ghost Mother": it does not treat child readers (audiences) as stupid idiots, thus giving up false moral preaching and simple and rude high, big, and simple to the outside world. Full-frontal depiction-This kind of depiction is unanimously believed by Taoists to have a powerful constructive effect on children’s "correct understanding" of truth, goodness, and beauty, but the actual effect is often the opposite. Specious life experiences are more fatal to children-isn't this world like this? And once the creators do this, the attractiveness of the work will affect adults. In this sense, it is unfair to frame "Mother Ghost" only in the category of "children's literature and art". And the reason why China's cartoons always stay in the "low-age stage" may also be derived from this. The world of children is completely different from that of adults. Children will always find mysterious and unknown powers. Generally these powers come from a certain geographic space that is dismissed by adults-remember that there are also in "Chibi Maruko" An episode of "Little Maruko's Secret Base", that mysterious mansion will undoubtedly become a life experience that Xiao Maruko will never understand and unforgettable when she grows up, and the ancient well that Caroline looked for at the beginning of "Mama Ghost" It also has the same meaning.
It is worth noting that when Caroline climbed into that grotesque world, she passed through a long human organ-like pipeline. From a psychoanalytic point of view, this should be a symbol of the birth canal of the mother (so the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel) The design is very silly X), that is to say, Caroline has a certain inner yearning for "childhood"-although she is still a child, in a sense, Caroline refuses to grow up (or It is said that she is not adapted to growing up): Growing up means that she can no longer do as she did when she was a baby, and will no longer be held in the palm of her parents' hands to care for her. When she grows up, Caroline will most likely be rejected. Therefore, the interpretation of "Ghost Mother" at the psychological level is actually quite the same as the Oscar nomination of David Fincher + Brad Pitt + Fitzgerald, except that Celik is better than Vinci was more successful.
The gender setting in "Mama Ghost" is also interesting. The biggest demon is actually Caroline's mother-the witch's control is just a blindfold, and what she tells is the rapid demonization of the image of the mother after the lack of maternal affection. In terms of age, Caroline should be in the future of adolescence. According to Freud's teaching, the tendency of "Electra and motherhood" caused by the Electra complex became Caroline's subconscious mind at this time. Therefore, father In the film is a puppet under the control of his mother. Although her father often rejects and ignores Caroline’s feelings, Caroline will attribute it to the strong mother who is at work. In the words of her father, the mother is the family. "Boss". And the refusal to buy Caroline beautiful clothes and gloves can be interpreted as a crude suppression of Caroline’s female image (sexual attraction)-so the mother was transformed into a witch, Caroline and the copy of the mother’s The battle also symbolized the growth of her sexual consciousness. In addition, the images of two obese mermaids also confirm this. The scene of their regaining youth can be regarded as Caroline's subconscious desire for a sexually mature body-in fact, when this scene appeared, Caroline Immediately they were invited on the stage to dance with them.
We can even see that the aversion to mothers in "Mother Ghost" led to the "respect" of men-the male (male) image in the film is not absolutely negative, from father to copy father (the latter wants to tell Caroline’s truth was actually covered by the anthropomorphic piano, and the piano was obviously controlled by the magic of the “mother”. Even in the grotesque world, it was a copy of the father who took Caroline around the garden on a mantis. Fun in the world), from Mr. B to Wabi, and even the black cat-the black cat was regarded as a female cat by Caroline at first, so it is "evil". Once the black cat speaks and makes a male voice, it\he Became a messenger of justice.
Of course, the more interesting character is Wabi. As a male, he is also under the control of some kind of "evil" women (including his grandma who showed up last and the twin sisters whose grandma has mysteriously disappeared), and in the evil world , Warby became Caroline's most reliable assistant, and Warby even abandoned herself to rescue Caroline. However, Wabi did not invite Caroline to see him at first. She hated the boy’s constant chatter, and Wabi looked rather stubborn and his head was always drooping, but this image finally won Caroline and Audience’s favor-I see it as a cartoon condensed version of women’s mentality of male partners: in the eyes of women, their boyfriends/husbands always have unbearable shortcomings, but in the end, he still Acceptable\Lovely (this is obviously based on a more adult view of marriage and family as a whole: it is neither a thorough worship of male idols nor a pure dislike of secular men).
In the end, Caroline’s rescue of her parents can also be compared to "Spirited Away". An interesting detail is: the trapped soul in "Mother Ghost" also forgot his name (of course there is also a prominent The representation is buttons as eyes), which symbolizes the loss of the innocent nature (humanity). The adults represented by Caroline’s parents have been lost in the external world without mystery, no awe, no interest in life, and even indifferent family affection (in Spirited Away, the external world is described as materialistic and without environmental awareness. The filthy place, the two have the same effect), so Caroline assumed the responsibility of saving. Of course, in the end, like Chihiro, she retrieved her name (getting rid of the button eyes) and saved it. Parents and family-the endings of the two films are also very similar. Chihiro's parents were rescued just like Caroline's parents without knowing it. Of course, this can also add a more fantastic and supernatural artistic color to the story.
In short, "Ghost Mother" shows the thrilling process of a girl becoming a woman, and as a man, this story reminds me: raising an adolescent daughter is more troublesome than raising an adolescent son, but at a critical moment, the daughter Often more useful than sons.
(Published in "Oxygen Life" October 2009)
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