On January 1, 2022, my boyfriend and I went to see the movie "The Young Lion". At first I wanted to watch "Manslaughter 2", but my boyfriend didn't agree. He said that "Manslaughter 2" was rated too low, so I chose "The Young Man". I was quite resistant at first because the name sounded like the kind of cliche hot-blooded movie, and it was also a cartoon. But I saw that the Douban score was quite high, so I went to watch it anyway. After watching it, I think Douban’s score of 8.5 is really worth it!
(The following contains some spoilers, please do not read if you mind)
The overall plot of the film is actually nothing special. In a village in Shunde, Guangdong, a weak boy becomes a disciple. A passionate youth story about learning lion dance, participating in a provincial lion dance competition and finally winning the championship.
The painting style and expression techniques of the entire movie, as well as some exquisite designs, add a lot of points to the movie. First, there’s the look of the film. Although this movie is a 2D animation, the scenes in the movie are very beautiful, including the natural scenery, customs and customs in rural Guangdong. When the young lion boy met a girl for the first time, the mountains full of kapok were particularly beautiful. The props for the lion dance in the film are also very exquisite, and the beard and hair of the lion's head are realistic and lifelike.
In terms of plot design, there are two scenes that particularly touched me and made me cry. One is that when a young man was apprenticed to a teacher, he was stimulated by his master. He shouted out some of Li Bai's poems: "There will be strong winds and waves, and I will hang up my cloud sails to help the sea; I am born with talents that will be useful, and I will come back after all my money is gone; look up to the sky Go out laughing, how can we be from Penghao?" These lines are familiar to us in primary school or middle school. Our minds have long been desensitized and it is difficult to realize the truth and power in them. But when the boy shouted these lines of poetry, I burst into tears. In this world, the most watery-sounding words are precisely the truth. There is such a comment on Douban: "How silly, how can there be fools who can read Li Bai these days? It's great, there are still people who are willing to believe in poetry these days."
Another scene is that the boy has to die because of his father's illness. Don’t go to Guangzhou to work. Since his father's illness required money, the boy worked several jobs a day and sent all the money he earned home to his parents. At first, I thought he had given up practicing lion dance. But when he was about to leave Guangzhou, he went to the roof to practice the last lion dance. I saw on the wall of the roof, there were rows of chalk written on the back of "Horse Steps, Squats, Lion Dance..." Ticked a lot of little boxes. I suddenly realized that the boy had never stopped practicing. Instead, he practiced every day and recorded the number of times he practiced. He worked several jobs a day. His feet were injured, his arms were injured, and he was bruised all over because of working too many jobs. But he still gets up early every morning to practice lion dance. Start practicing in the early morning and start working at sunrise. I cried again when I saw this. We thought that there were many geniuses in the world, and we thought that some people would achieve success effortlessly. However, the so-called "genius" is made of a lot of sweat. Kobe has seen Los Angeles at 4 a.m., but most of us find it difficult to get up at 8 a.m.
The ending of the movie is also very cleverly designed. The junior lion dance team advanced to the finals in the provincial lion dance competition. He successfully completed the pile jump in the final and reached the finish line. In front of the finish line, stood the tall Optimus Prime. The master once told him that Optimus Prime was not for dancing, but to alert the lion dancers. Each mountain is higher than the other. In the history of lion dance, no one has ever danced over Optimus Prime. When the boy reached the finish line, he looked at Optimus Prime and jumped. At the beginning of the movie, he fell into the water, and the audience thought he had failed. He did fail. No one has ever been able to jump on Optimus Prime, and he is no exception. If he did jump on it, the halo of the protagonist would be too heavy, and the movie would look cliché and false. However, even though he fell into the water, his lion head was tied to Optimus Prime at the moment he fell into the water. The hair of the lion head swayed in the wind, majestic. The whole place was excited!
I really like this ending. First of all, it’s real. The boy fell into the water, because Optimus Prime is really tall, and so many lion dancers in history have never jumped on it. The boy just learned how to do it. After practicing lion dance for a while, it’s natural that you won’t be able to do it. But this ending also reflects the theme of this movie, which is "denial." Even though I’m covered in bruises, I don’t even recognize him! No matter how tall Optimus Prime is, I will never recognize him! The master once said that the purpose of Optimus Prime standing there is to warn the lion dancers that each mountain is higher than the other. However, I don’t admit it. No matter how high the mountain is, I still want to jump. Even if I can't jump over today, I will send the lion head over first. I will practice towards the height of Optimus Prime and jump over it one day!
On the first day of 2022, I watched this movie.
In the new year, strive to become a lion!
***Mian!