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The Red Turtle
I recently watched The Red Turtle on dvd--it's an animated movie co-produced by Studio Ghibli and Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit. It's a beautiful film, and while it doesn't have the same look as the classic Miyazaki films, there's definitely a Ghibli feel to it.
The basic plot is that an unnamed man is shipwrecked on a deserted island and tries to build a raft to escape, but a large red sea turtle attacks and destroys the raft each time he attempts to sail away. In anger and frustration, the man attacks the turtle when it comes ashore, hitting it with a stick, and when that has no effect, flips it over on its back, leaving it helpless and unable to right itself. Eventually he feels remorse and tries to turn it back over, but the turtle is too heavy and he's unable to move it. He then tries to save it by bringing it food and water, but it's too late and the turtle dies--or so it seems.
Because the next morning, there is a beautiful red-haired woman lying inside the empty turtle shell. The two fall in love, have a son, and live happily together on the island. There's some excitement and tension when a tsunami hits the island, but the family manages to survive it. When the son reaches adulthood, he decides to leave the island to see the outside world, and swims off accompanied by a few sea turtles. The man shows no indication that he wishes to accompany his son, and seem content to remain on the island with the woman. They grow old together, and eventually the man dies in his sleep. The woman lies beside him one last time, obviously mourning his loss, then transforms back into the red turtle and returns to the sea.
There is almost no dialogue in the movie, only a few words uttered by the man, which adds to the beautiful, surreal and dreamlike mood created by the animation. It has a fairy-tale like feel to it, and while the story was written by de Wit, the plot element of the turtle transforming into a woman reminds me of the Japanese folktale about the Crane Wife (also called The Crane's Gift) about a crane who is saved by man, and in gratitude, takes the form of a human woman and becomes his wife. (In other versions, she's saved by an older married man, and becomes the adopted daughter of the man and his wife.)
That folktale has a sad ending--the crane weaves her feathers into fine silk for her husband/parents to sell, but when they break their promise not to look in on her while she's weaving, she turns back into a bird and flies away. However, no such promise is made or broken in The Red Turtle, and the man and woman are happy just to spend their lives together.
It would probably spoil the dreamlike mood of the story to try to apply logic to it or question it too closely, but my fanfic writer's brain couldn't help wondering, why did the turtle attack the raft? Was she trying to prevent him from leaving because she had already fallen in love with him? Or was she just fascinated by the curious creature who washed up on her island? Or was it simply an animal's instinct to attack because the raft appeared to be intruding on her territory? If she fell in love with him as a turtle, what caused her to fall in love with a human? Or perhaps she was touched by his remorse and his attempts to save her in her turtle form, and fell in love with him because of that? And what happened to their son? I'm assuming he reached land somehow, but was he able to fit into human society, or did he always feel different from everyone else? Did he settle down somewhere, or did he spend his life wandering from place to place? Did he keep a connection to the sea, or did it gradually fade away as he lived a normal human life?
So many questions! I don't really want the movie to answer them, but it's fun to think about it, and wonder "what if" and "what happened next?"
It was really a beautiful movie, and highly recommended to Ghibli fans--or to anyone, actually.
The basic plot is that an unnamed man is shipwrecked on a deserted island and tries to build a raft to escape, but a large red sea turtle attacks and destroys the raft each time he attempts to sail away. In anger and frustration, the man attacks the turtle when it comes ashore, hitting it with a stick, and when that has no effect, flips it over on its back, leaving it helpless and unable to right itself. Eventually he feels remorse and tries to turn it back over, but the turtle is too heavy and he's unable to move it. He then tries to save it by bringing it food and water, but it's too late and the turtle dies--or so it seems.
Because the next morning, there is a beautiful red-haired woman lying inside the empty turtle shell. The two fall in love, have a son, and live happily together on the island. There's some excitement and tension when a tsunami hits the island, but the family manages to survive it. When the son reaches adulthood, he decides to leave the island to see the outside world, and swims off accompanied by a few sea turtles. The man shows no indication that he wishes to accompany his son, and seem content to remain on the island with the woman. They grow old together, and eventually the man dies in his sleep. The woman lies beside him one last time, obviously mourning his loss, then transforms back into the red turtle and returns to the sea.
There is almost no dialogue in the movie, only a few words uttered by the man, which adds to the beautiful, surreal and dreamlike mood created by the animation. It has a fairy-tale like feel to it, and while the story was written by de Wit, the plot element of the turtle transforming into a woman reminds me of the Japanese folktale about the Crane Wife (also called The Crane's Gift) about a crane who is saved by man, and in gratitude, takes the form of a human woman and becomes his wife. (In other versions, she's saved by an older married man, and becomes the adopted daughter of the man and his wife.)
That folktale has a sad ending--the crane weaves her feathers into fine silk for her husband/parents to sell, but when they break their promise not to look in on her while she's weaving, she turns back into a bird and flies away. However, no such promise is made or broken in The Red Turtle, and the man and woman are happy just to spend their lives together.
It would probably spoil the dreamlike mood of the story to try to apply logic to it or question it too closely, but my fanfic writer's brain couldn't help wondering, why did the turtle attack the raft? Was she trying to prevent him from leaving because she had already fallen in love with him? Or was she just fascinated by the curious creature who washed up on her island? Or was it simply an animal's instinct to attack because the raft appeared to be intruding on her territory? If she fell in love with him as a turtle, what caused her to fall in love with a human? Or perhaps she was touched by his remorse and his attempts to save her in her turtle form, and fell in love with him because of that? And what happened to their son? I'm assuming he reached land somehow, but was he able to fit into human society, or did he always feel different from everyone else? Did he settle down somewhere, or did he spend his life wandering from place to place? Did he keep a connection to the sea, or did it gradually fade away as he lived a normal human life?
So many questions! I don't really want the movie to answer them, but it's fun to think about it, and wonder "what if" and "what happened next?"
It was really a beautiful movie, and highly recommended to Ghibli fans--or to anyone, actually.