Kubo is a young luthier who has the ability to manipulate paper puppets with shamisen.
His parents were dead, he himself was blind in one eye, and it was his grandfather and aunts who hurt his family.
His task is to find a three-piece set of swords, armor and helmets (actually useless in the end) to defeat the evil grandfather.
The fact is that there is only one living person in this film, Kubo, and the others are dead. The mother died and became a white ape (because it had no tail), and the father's soul became a fighting beetle. The grandfather is the dead evil spirit, and the aunts are the minions of the evil spirit.
2.
The purpose of the evil spirit grandfather is to capture Kubo to another world. His purpose is clearly stated in his lines: "If you still stick to this stupid and useless eyes, you can't live with me in heaven. You can only be trapped in this terrible hell, and you can only use you. One of my eyes, looking at the world’s encounters, misfortune and hatred, and death, where I want to take you, there are no such things, only you and your family, this is your place."
"Kubo , As long as you are with me, you will surpass the things in the matter, you will be immortal, and you will...immortality." The
translation of this passage is, Kubo is alive to suffer (the world is hell), but , Only where you go after death is heaven. Because there "you and your family", "will be immortal", and his family is actually dead. In fact, all the cultures in the world refer to immortality after death. Those who seek eternal life by living are actually misunderstandings of the concept of the soul.
3.
How to understand the concept of "life is hell, heaven after death". In East Asia (which I am demonstrating, this is actually common to all mankind) soul concept, there is a basic view of death. People's sickness and death are not infected by viruses, but because of "the longing of ancestors". The ancestors feel lonely and lonely, so they want to take the living away and live together. As a result, the living become sick, weak, and suffer misfortune. All can be attributed to the spirit of the dead relatives.
The derivative of this concept is "ancestor worship". In fact, it is not true worship, but the spirits of ancestors who are constantly pleased. Provide food and tribute for use, provide money, and keep them in a state of comfort and warmth, so as to calm the ancestor's "missing" for the living, so as not to degenerate into the resentful spirit of the angering living, and to "take away" the living.
4.
In the movie, my grandfather became a complete resentful spirit. He sent two minions to take the lives of Kubo's parents, and these two minions were actually the sisters of Kubo's mother. This also further confirms that in ancestor worship, the death of a person is actually due to the core principle of "missing relatives".
The only way to prevent the living from being taken away by the spirits of the dead relatives is to appease the dead, in other words, to please the ancestors again. In East Asia, such things are often performed by professionals with the same name and the same name, such as shaman, master, mage, and Taoist priest.
These practitioners often enter a state of madness, and then allow their "souls" to enter the world of the dead, excuse the living from ignoring the imperfections of their ancestors, and at the same time persuade the deceased's various good deeds of loving each other with their relatives, so as to let the ancestors Zhiling feels guilty about his selfish thoughts-feeling lonely and lonely, and wants to take away the living-so as to achieve the purpose of saving the sick and renewing the lives of the living.
5.
The lines in the play also confirmed this relationship:
"You are the kindest and most amiable person in this village. You treat everyone in this village like this."
"Every day you laugh at people and give back to your children. We use pocket money, such as me."
"You...you taught my children to swim."
"And...you will give blankets to the poor."
"You are such a good person, and you even give out food. Those who are hungry."
"You will always help those in need."
"You are a good role model, yes."
"That's why we love you so much."
These are all words that people in the play are trying to please the grieving spirits, which are some of the words that people often use when commemorating their ancestors. Arouse the beautiful memories of the deceased and dispel his maliciousness.
Of course, we can also say these persuasive words in another way. We often say, "Please ancestors, please bless us, give us pocket money, blankets, food and help" when we worship our ancestors (or dead relatives).
6.
Generally speaking, the core of this play is around such a principle of ancestor worship.
And Kubo's identity is quite special, he is good at using paper puppets, and at the same time using the shamisen. In fact, paper puppets and paper ties are still common objects in East Asian funerals. Burning a paper car and house is standard when people worship their ancestors. Shamisen, a musical instrument originating from the Chinese Sanxian, is apparently related to rap. In fact, Sanxian was originally most commonly played by Jiangnan Sizhu, and Jiangnan Sizhu was more commonly seen in funerals and funerals. Sad and happy. In this way, the original form of rap art seems to have something to do with soul-calling.
Combined, as the only living in the play, Kubo enters the world of the dead, which is also obvious in the adventure scenes of the whole play. The huge skull mound where the sword is located, the "evil eye" hidden in the armor, is a popular death-related ritual in the pan-Eurasian continent. As well as the setting of the protagonist's own yin and yang eyes, it shows that he has the ability to sneak into the world of the dead.
Therefore, Kubo himself should be the incarnation of the shaman popular in North Asia (including Japan) and Pan-Asia. His two assistants, the monkey and the beetle, are not necessarily his parents, but are more similar to the role of the shaman usually called by the shaman. . In addition, the paper-folded bird he used in the play can also be regarded as a kind of soul, because it is common throughout Asia and uses birds to symbolize the soul.
7.
Therefore, the whole play can be regarded as a film about the embodiment of ancestor worship and ancestor worship. This is exactly the same as the temperament of the director who filmed "Zombie Bride" and "Mother Ghost".
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