On July 13, 2017, the milestone of Chinese adult animation "The Great Guardian" was a blockbuster. The landscape painting style combined with the heavy ink and color is unforgettable, and the metaphor of satire and criticism hits people's hearts directly, and many fans have expressed their expectations for the sequel.
Three years later, on July 31, the sequel "Mr. Miao" also appeared in the summer file, continuing to reflect on human nature and face the truth.
"Mr. Miao" is 1.5 points lower than the "Great Guardian" Douban score.
Faced with the decline in word-of-mouth, "Mr. Miao" suddenly announced yesterday that it will be on the morning of August 7th. Log on to the online video platform to broadcast at 10 o'clock.
You read that right, just one week after the release, "Mr. Miao" started the rhythm of simultaneous broadcasting on theatrical website. This practice is very rare for new films and is obviously aimed at the beginning of the film. A wise choice made by the box office word-of-mouth performance on the weekend-in the face of the flood of new films, the audience diverted by the online platform will free the film from the embarrassment of fewer and fewer films, and gain a wider audience in more media , To extend a longer IP life for the "Da Protector" series.
Get back to the subject, next, let’s talk to you about where the 1.5 points of "Mr. Miao" (the Douban score lower than that of "The Guardian") was lost.
01
Preaching——The biggest taboo of adult animation
When we start to compare adult animation with children’s animation, we tend to pay attention to the former’s deeper themes, larger scales, and its reflection on reality And the mapping of human nature. Japanese director Ima Toshi’s "The House of Mima", Otomo Katsuhiro’s "Akira", Oshii Mamoru’s "Ghost in the Shell", Takasama’s "Firefly Grave", American director David Swarman’s "The Simpsons" and so on are all well-known masterpieces of adult animation movies.
Poster
Looking domestically, in 2017, two adult animation films shortlisted for well-known film festivals at home and abroad have deeply implanted this concept in the mainland film market , They are "The Great Protector" and "The Great World."
One is the ink painting style of oriental aesthetics, the other is postmodern pop art combining simple strokes and gaudy colors; the other is the classic dystopian narrative, the other is Wong Kar Wai and Quentin One is the origin of independent thinking, the other is the group image of underground crime... What is more worth mentioning is that the two works with completely different styles have the same absurdity and freedom, both full of reflection and irony of reality. Hand in hand opened the door to the real Chinese adult animation film.
Both films have scored 7 points or more on Douban. Behind the success of word-of-mouth is the audience's recognition of the stories and themes-therefore, it is not difficult for us to find the missing points of "Mr. Miao".
"Mr. Miao" continued the theme of "The Great Protector", and added the discussion of human nature good and evil and right and wrong on the basis of dystopia. The two thoughts are in the same line, so it is obvious that the problem has nothing to do with the theme. At the story level.
even the protagonist’s personality and line style are very similar.
also tells the truth through the story, "The Guardian" is the protagonist unveiling the coat of the mysterious town layer by layer The appearance can glimpse the amazing secrets, and naturally begin to reflect and expose the truth; while "Mr. Miao" presents the truth prematurely, and then uses the fate of the other side flower host to prove the truth that the protagonist has identified, and repeat this process again and again .
Obviously, the perspective of the protagonist and the cognitive rhythm of the former is consistent with the audience, which is more in line with the audience’s acceptance and appreciation level; the latter allows the protagonist and the audience to be in different perspectives, that is, the protagonist is higher than the audience, over and over again It is not surprising that the box office loses and the reputation declines by instilling his own principles into the audience and strayed into the cramming-style preaching.
Compared with "Mr. Miao" who always draws conclusions, the method of "asking" while walking is more in line with audience psychology.Rhythm
It can be seen that no matter how good the plot, no matter how great the theme, the method of telling the story is wrong, the order of reasoning is reversed, the effect will be very different-in other words, the truth in adult animation is of course better Speak, but don't preach for the sake of preaching.
02
Tradition-the ultimate future of adult animation
Although there are obvious flaws, "Mr. Miao" is definitely not without its advantages.
is first of all a more flexible and colorful style. Compared with the story of "The Great Guardian" which revolves around a single scene in Peanut Town, "Mr. Miao" adopts the rhythm of a road film, passing through villages, towns, forests, canyons, secrets... the freshness and impact of the pictures are overwhelming. Coupled with more fantastic settings, the visual effect will naturally go to the next level.
followed by more fierce and changeable action scenes. Compared with the single move of "Mr. Miao", each character in "Mr. Miao" has a unique weapon and corresponding martial arts design. Coupled with the plot arrangement, almost every two "masters" in the film have to fight at least one , We can appreciate the visual pleasure brought by the gorgeous collision of multiple weapons, and the setting of fantasy abilities greatly upgrades the fighting effect.
The first preview of "Mr. Miao" shows exciting fighting scenes.
is once again a more ingenious soundtrack. Compared with the soundtrack of "The Great Guardian", the Suzhou Pingtan "The Passion of a Green Plum", which sounded vividly when Yun Xiang's heart collapsed with her childhood sweetheart in the film "Mr. Miao", surprised the audience. Lu's various "Answers That Can Answer Everything" combined with Zhou Shen's affectionate singing is even more teary.
"Mr. Miao" episode "The green plum is gone"
"Mr. Miao" ending song "Answer to Everything"
Finally, and most importantly, the film is rooted in it Eastern thought.
Let’s start with the title, what is "Mr. Miao"?
The official answer is this: it is neither good nor bad, neither good nor bad, the sound can be long or young, just like the Taoist "elephant invisible", compatible with all kinds of conditions, and formulating the rules of man and nature.
Obviously, Mr. Miao’s prototype is the "Tao" in traditional Chinese culture: For Taoists, good and evil are relative concepts. If there is a good, there is a corresponding evil. Lao Tzu said: "The world knows that what is good is good, and what is bad is what is bad." This means that human beings know what is good because of the existence of badness-which corresponds to badness, no evil, no bad, or bad; the following description is a one-to-one correspondence Taoist concepts such as loud sound, intangible avenues, and naturalness of Taoism; and the homophony of "miao" and "dao" also implies this point.
Therefore, several of the protagonists in the film followed Mr. Miao’s revelation, which is to do things in accordance with Taoist methods. Even the male number one Ding Guo was once "resurrected" by Mr. Miao. After the final sacrifice, Mr. Miao said to him again, "Wake up you when the time comes." This corresponds to the Taoist thinker Zhuang Zhou's "Zhuangzi · A Journey to the North". It is said that "life and death are the beginning of life", that is, life is the same kind of death, death is the beginning of life, life and death are just different states of existence, and only conformity to nature can transcend life and death and be in the same body with Tao.
In addition to Tao, another traditional idea in the film is Buddha.
The names of the heroes and heroines of the film are Ding Guo and Yin Feng, and they are "cause" and "fruit" together.
is the so-called "all dharma is empty, cause and effect are not empty", that is, what kind of cause is planted, once the fate is mature, it will be rewarded. This is the law of heaven and earth. This law coincides with the clues that the three protagonists of "Mr. Miao" are exploring all the way-in the Qianfo Caves that reveals the mystery, the protagonist finally discovers that greedy humans have planted evil causes, breaking the three of the other side flowers, ice jade, and fire cicada. The natural balance between them has caused the over-reproduction of Higan flowers, which has led to more depravity of human beings, thus reaping evil results.
The short stories of the three golden flowers host in the film further reflect the "Diamond Sutra" "All appearances are false"-meaning everything you can see Appearance,All are false and untrue. In the first story, the filial son's poor adoptive father, who seemed dying, swallowed it after he became a golden hibiscus flower for the whole village, because he heard the rumor that eating the hibiscus flower can achieve his wishes; in the second story, during the day The gambler who sneaks and skids has great love, and becomes a dad who adopts a bunch of orphans at night. In the third story, the husband can hardly change the gambling habit and even force Yunxiang to sell his life to support his family and pay his gambling debts. Xiang but wishful thinking was kept in the drum by the mountain alliance and each other, unable to see through, couldn't let go, and finally ended up with a fragrant disappearance...
In addition to the Buddha and the Tao, there is another person who is the finishing touch— -Wusheng, his life can be condensed into one sentence, "The Analects of Confucius · Liren", his later sacrifice and Yin Feng's "Killing the body into benevolence (from "The Analects of Confucius, Wei Linggong") ")" and Ding Guo's "Leaving one's life for righteousness (from "Mengzi·Gaozi")" together reflect the spirit of not afraid of sacrifice for the way of benevolence and justice in traditional Chinese Confucianism. And the "Book of Changes" that he has studied for a lifetime is called "the source of the great avenues, the head of the scriptures", and is the crystallization of five thousand years of wisdom of the Chinese nation.
It is not difficult to see that despite the obvious flaws, the biggest breakthrough of the adult animation "Mr. Miao" lies in the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in traditional Chinese culture. Ingeniously integrated with the movie theme, character setting and plot clues, it is no longer limited to small fights and small loves, but also emphasizes national identity in expression, more oriental in aesthetics, and more open in artistic conception Far-reaching-just like the classic line in "Nezha's Demon Boy Comes to the World" "My life is my fate, I can't help it." It comes from "My fate is in the inner part of Baopuzi" by Ge Hong, a Taoist teacher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. ; Just as the character setting of "Big Fish and Begonia" originated from "Zhuangzi·Xiaoyaoyou" by Zhuang Zhou, the thinker of the Warring States Period, "There are fish in the North Ming, whose name is Kun". Spring, eight thousand years old is autumn"...
And this step-by-step breakthrough will undoubtedly create the most oriental and most Chinese adult animation scene, and it will certainly represent Chinese adult animation. The future direction of development-writing is to convey Tao, that is, the road of Chinese adult animation that carries five thousand years of splendid civilization and the trinity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
Because the national is the world; the traditional is the future.
Text/Mainland
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