Mr. Miao: Drawing The Complicated Boundary Between Good And Evil

In 2017, bu sifan became popular with a great Dharma protector. Although the 80 million box office is not a surprising number in the whole summer season, as an animated film, it is still quite gratifying. After a few years of marvelous technology, Ma Xingren has set up a wonderful world. Subsequently, the producer of "Dharma protector" Fang caitiaohu created a miracle in the history of Chinese box office with the achievement of 5 billion last year with the birth of Nezha's Devil boy. There are two pieces of Zhuyu that have caused a stir in the market. As a sister piece of "Dharma protector", Mr. Miao wants to make a breakthrough again, which is even more difficult. Sure enough, the film's market road can be described as a lot of setbacks. In December last year, the film company had a small-scale screening, and was withdrawn from the archives because of its poor reputation. After that, when the epidemic hit, the cinema closed down and the show suddenly became remote. After the restart of cinemas in July, "Mr. Miao" seized the first wave of film watching and appeared on the big screen, becoming the first cartoon to meet the audience. However, the audience who didn't go to the cinema for more than half a year still didn't buy it. In the end, the film only closed at 13 million box office. The general view of the audience is that the split mirror and production are relatively rough, and the creators like to preach by the mouth of the characters.

However, is Mr. Miao really a disappointing film that can't hold on to the wall? I'm afraid that's not the case.

The story of Mr. Miao is based on Bu sifan's short film works. It also gathers the team of Dharma protector to polish it. Although the director changes, the film inherits the spirit of the previous work, and explores the complicated aspects of the social rights relationship and the impact of this subtle game on human nature. During the publicity period, the film side clearly marked on the poster that this work is suitable for audiences over 13 years old, and the depth of the film is not "alarmist".

As soon as the film opened, the film offered an ultimate setting: "kill the good and save the bad", which is also the moral dilemma that the protagonist always faces. This seemingly unreasonable demand has brought great confusion to the audience. Until the film has been moving for about 15 minutes, the puzzle is gradually solved. There is a mysterious plant called the other shore flower flooding in the world, which will call up the evil side of human nature, and many villages and towns have been destroyed because of it. Dingguo and laoliang are the "seeker" with magic. Their duty is to explore the secret of the earth and spread it to the world. By chance, Ding Guo, on the verge of death, learned from Mr. Miao, the watcher of the earth, the method of eradicating the flower on the other side -- to let its host willingly pay his life. Paradoxically, the other shore flower will only choose a pure soul to live in, which means that we should let good people die to save people's lives.

At this point, the film constructs its own world outlook through a very harsh and even challenging conventional logic. You can expect a lot of viewers to be offended. However, the follow-up interpretation of the film is still ironed. Through the fate of the three good hosts, it further shows the influence of the other shore flower on different social groups. The characters are different. Xiao Du, a young man with a flexible mind, even becomes Ding Guo's partner and promotes the development of the plot as the protagonist. On the way, the seeker met a woman, Yin Feng, who was "murderous". Later, she found that she was not vicious, but was using her own way to remove the flowers on the other side. At this time, the two sides had a fierce confrontation on how to deal with "evil", and worked together to fight against the spread of the other side of the flower spores in the state of both enemies and friends.

It is true that Ding Guo, who was appointed at the critical moment, is a type of martial arts role that the audience is quite familiar with. As a female role, Yin Feng, though somewhat determined, has always been led by a sense of righteous mission. They have different views on how to deal with the other side flowers. The game between them about "killing" or "not killing" reflects the tangled emotions of individuals in the face of complex situations. At the end of the film, the protagonist and the villain are still discussing this issue.

"Mr. super hero" in the end ushered in a better film, as the main line of the film "evil men", as the creation of a bad society. But the protagonist is not perfect. The gentleman of the other side, the creator of the supreme flower, once again warned that there was no such thing as his own creation in the society. The brilliant thing about Mr. Miao is that it doesn't give an answer, which may be offensive to the audience. The narrative of the film is always carried out under a tension, the source of which is the existence of choice. It has to be said that such a non binary world view is rare in Chinese films. In recent years, it is animated films that have raised more possibilities.