There are problems with all Chinese translations, either mistranslation or random translation. A more accurate translation is actually "Kubo and his two strings", or straightforward - "Kubo's two strings" (translation is Zhang Yimou's that "My Father and Mother"), the existing Chinese translation has lost the ambiguous connotation of the English title.
Highlights:
The musical instrument shamisen originally meant the harmony of a family of three, and the title alludes to kubo and his parents who died early;
You are willing to believe in the power of memory and storytelling, and you have it;
In the end, the villagers inherited kubo's "storytelling" and the amnesiac villain "storytelling" is the embodiment of this power, and it also shows the pedagogical "charm" and dissemination attributes of folk stories;
It is very imaginative to turn parents into adult worms and monkeys, and it comes from the coats and toys that accompany him around kubo (the ambiguity is that it can be either the objective reality in animation dramas, or the legends narrated by kubo as a folk storyteller, more It is the mourning in Kubo's dream - the deceased family accompanies and protects themselves in another way);
At first kubo was reluctant to accept his mother's death and didn't understand the true meaning of (father's) death (so he would blurt out "I hope you're well" to his father's tomb), then he said "I don't know what's real anymore", which is also his biggest knot, he was immersed in his mother's "not dying" and his father's "going away (death)" in his dreams and stories;
But just as all nostalgia must be let go, all life/drama stories ultimately need and have an ending "The End", and kubo finally gave the The outlet of his own (death) story (the storytelling/life skill 1 learned by kubo from the old woman - courage);
The appearance of the beetle warrior has the effect of "a touch of comedy to balance the whole things out" to the seriousness of the monkey master (the storytelling / life skill 2 learned by kubo from the old woman - optimism);
And he finally accepted his loneliness, accepted the fact that his parents had passed away, and at the same time faced his own life with a grateful and positive attitude, he came out and saw it, just like the paper lantern at the end finally turned into an illusion Became his father and mother, just like his mother opened the bangs that covered his left eye, like his blind left eye that was covered saw the world again;
The narrative of the film constantly jumps the boundary between reality and fiction, exploring what is true and what is false; ADC) can truly preserve the bond of love forever; the "reality" of postmortem communication is not just the objective existence of the physical world, but the product of the interaction between the inner and outer environment when people participate in the world, in other words, All these ADC experiences are subjective and real experiences to the living]
The combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation is extremely difficult (origami is the art of turning a plane into a three-dimensional, and it is a wonderful metaphor), and the freeze-frame effect of the sea is especially amazing. A stop-motion animation that represents the next generation;
The cultural connotation of the Japanese folk custom Obon Festival (that is, the Qingming Festival in Japan) is not superficially integrated into the film, and Japanese folk crafts such as origami, Japanese shapes, paper lanterns, ukiyo-e, samurai armor, Katana, etc. are organically integrated into the production of stop-motion animation, which is worth learning by Chinese animators;
On the one hand, it is a play within a play, and on the other hand, it is media reflexivity, which is reminiscent of Art House Films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Burning. Unfortunately, the packaging of its family-friendly commercial film conceals its ambition for artistic expression.
limitation:
The three combat paragraphs (the highlight are the freeze-frame technology of the land, sea and air environments respectively), apart from the motivation for finding equipment, lacks a deeper plot necessity and a leap forward in the character's inner growth (the last three armors were also discarded, of course, this may Symbolizing that this kubo is self-reliant from now on, but still vague);
The battle scenes lack carving, and the action design lacks highlights;
At the end, the design of kubo to form the third string still uses hair, and lacks the design ingenuity of the first two strings, which are taken from the mother's long hair and the father's bowstring, which fit the character's characteristics;
The values of the villain's grandfather fall into the stereotype, and the reason for his hatred and opposition to Kubo's parents is unclear;
The love bridge it portrays is not as convincing and touching as family affection;
Although he has a deep understanding of Japanese and Confucian culture and is full of emotions, in the final analysis, this is an American story, and the Kubo family is also an American family (reminiscent of the Minnesota family in "Inside Out"); (this Of course not necessarily a disadvantage)
Small question: Why do you call your father by the first name Hanzo and your son by the last name Kubo?
Summarize:
"Kubo and the Two Strings" is one of the most underrated animations of the 2010s, and it probably all started with the title.
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