In the animal world, I seek my own way.
I have to say, the importance of a good name to a movie. At the beginning, almost just because of the name of "Animal World" and the same name as CCTV's science and education column, I almost missed a good domestic movie. It is very likely that "Animal World" is the first domestic film to surprise me this year. No matter the story concept, the excavation of human nature, or the degree of completion, this film is eye-catching.
But after reading it, my heart is complicated, and I don't know where to start.
A social "law of the jungle"
The "law of the jungle" does not exist in the past or now, but has always existed, ruling all living beings in human society and the natural world. "Natural selection, survival of the fittest", "big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp", this is probably what it means.
Whether it is in the movie "Animal World" or the original comic book "Gambling Apocalypse" by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, the most important thing you want to pass on to the viewers is the iron law that always affects the survival and development of human beings, that is, the "law of the jungle" . It is cold and ruthless, it has nothing to do with benevolence and tenderness, but it has something to do with ruthlessness and blood. The creatures in it are generally only a life-and-death competition. It's like an endless game, the loser will be ruthlessly judged and tortured by fate, and the lucky winner will continue to survive in this brutal and bloody arena, waiting for the next competition to come.
Therefore, the gambling game on the high seas voyage in "Animal World" is by no means a game about winning or losing, but an ultimate test and cruel wrestling of human nature. In a deep sense, it is human society and even nature. "The Law of the Jungle". What you see in the movie is actually happening every day in this bizarre society. Not only the protagonist Zheng Kaisi, but each of us as long as one day in the world, the invisible iron law of the "law of the jungle" is like a shadow.
2 Childhood Shadows and Traumatized Personalities
Zheng Kaisi, played by Li Yifeng, is irritable and always immersed in his own fantasy world. All of this stemmed from the accident he suffered when he was a child. His father was kidnapped by a group of strangers in black, and his mother became ill. Since then, that terrifying moment has been etched in his mind for a long time.
Because when the gangsters broke into his house, the famous song "La La Vie Rose" by Piaf, the French "Queen of Chanson", was playing in the corridor, and the animation of the clown's revenge was playing on the TV at the same time, so when he heard " La Vie Rose " in the future, he became nervous. He was nervous, and at the same time always imagined himself as a clown, out of tune with the real world, imagining others as terrifying monsters, and then shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the world and destroying the monsters one by one. The wound can be healed a little. He is immersed in his own world, depressed, withdrawn, and has few friends.
From a psychological point of view, this can probably be explained as, "Childhood trauma has a huge impact on the formation of human character." And fantasy can temporarily get rid of the pain of reality, as long as you enter the different dimension of the second dimension, you will become another A brand new person with a "fantasy personality" that is completely different from the real personality. It is precisely with this fantasy ability that Zheng Kaisi passed through all obstacles and turned his childhood trauma into the driving force to move forward.
Three money corrupts the heart
In the highly commercialized money society, the relationship between people is almost completely reduced to a naked interest relationship. There have been countless literary and artistic works that have reflected this kind of social problem, and this is particularly evident in "Animal World". Not only gamblers who have competing interests, but even those who grew up can make money in a blink of an eye. Turning face, it can really be described as "people die for money".
At the beginning, Zheng Kaisi still had a glimmer of hope for human nature. Even if his companion "Dead Fatty" Meng Guoxiang (pseudonym), whom he met on the boat, sold himself for money, he would not believe that the small "big shrimp" would do it for profit. Betrayed himself, and it was not until he witnessed the occurrence of that moment with his own eyes that he really opened his eyes and sighed that "I don't rely on anyone, I believe in the Tao, I will guard it". We can probably feel his sense of despair and disillusionment at that time, and that despair is even more serious than losing a bet and becoming an experimental guinea pig. After all, he encountered an unprecedented mental crisis.
In our rapidly changing material age, the importance of money has long been self-evident. However, when people are striving for fame and fortune, they also inadvertently abandon some valuable qualities, such as innocence, friendship, the bottom line of life, and adherence to morality. As a result, many things that were originally solid disappeared in an instant, in the name of financial interests.
There used to be a saying, "stab in the back for a friend", but now it's "stab in the back of a friend". Whether it is a stranger or a familiar relative, most of them are vulnerable in the face of interests. As a result, people are nervous and no longer willing to trust anyone, and even make a joke of "talking about feelings hurts money". It seems that in this era, only money is the only thing that is truly credible and gives people a sense of security, which makes people feel embarrassed.
Dilemma and Anxiety of Four Young People
Although this is not deliberately shown in the film, the plight of the protagonist Zheng Kaisi is still obvious.
In fact, he is probably what we call a "diaosi". He does not have a high salary of tens of thousands of dollars a month, a decent job, a sweet and happy love, a solid family and a prominent background, and no peace of mind. , all he had was the embarrassment that life left him. Because of his father's disappearance, he can only bear the burden of supporting the family alone. Because he can't pay the medical bills, his old mother, who has been in a coma for many years, was left out by the hospital. Even in the face of setbacks and suffering, no one supports and rescues...
He can only immerse himself in the world of fantasy, temporarily escape from reality through the incarnation of a clown.
"Animal World" makes an alternative projection of the current plight and anxiety of young people. Although it cannot be said that everyone is as unbearable as Zheng Kaisi, at least it reflects one aspect of life of young people today. That is, they are young souls who are ruthlessly crushed by reality, the living environment and competitive pressure of "high pressure", the huge deviation between dreams and reality, and the dark life where they can't see tomorrow and hope... Therefore, Zheng Kaisi is a person who is easy to let go. The role that young audiences resonate with and identify with. After all, all of what he has encountered is more or less what the young Chinese people have experienced or are experiencing.
They are anxious, helpless, confused and depressed. They want to change the reality but they can only indulge in fantasy, lacking the ability and courage to change. These are all things that we should ponder.
Realistic background with five thousand thoughts
Since joining the WTO in 2001, the speed of China's integration with the international community can be described as rapid. It can be said that China is becoming more and more like a part of the big family of the world. We are also experiencing the problems existing in the world, but there are still some problems, which are currently only exclusive to individual countries such as China, and we need to solve them urgently. For example, "seeing a doctor is difficult", such as young people's employment and pension issues, such as "overheated real estate", such as "over-urbanization", such as "interpersonal integrity crisis". These are actually the background of the story of "Animal World", and they are more or less reflected in the movie.
The original "Animal World" was adapted from the Japanese comic "Gambling Apocalypse". The protagonist of the original book is also called Kaisi. Such a "Battle Royale" style Japanese story is more special in current China. When we watch "Animal World", although the story takes place on an international cruise ship, the passengers are all from all over the world and speak different languages. The boss behind the scenes is the Oscar winner Michael Douglas from the United States. Hollywood blockbuster visual sense. But why do we not feel a sense of nondescript violation when we watch it? Because although the main creator is playing international cards, it tells a real "Chinese story". Those stories, we are experiencing first-hand, so of course not feel foreign.
The main creators are smart, and they have handled the problem of foreign stories being acclimatized very well. But it cannot be denied that there is a bit of luck in this, precisely because human nature is common, because this crazy world is becoming more unpredictable, and because the Chinese ship is sailing on this special historical node , so for this crazy "animal world" fable, we have that rare identification and empathy.
(Personal account: Baltic Sea)
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