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For People Who Need Courage to Move on in This World
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  • 등록 2022-11-30 15:18:19
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 The movie Jojo Rabbit is a comedy film set in World War II. Unlike the original novel, which heavily expresses the theme of the relationship between a German boy and a Jewish girl during the war, the film was successfully adapted as a comedy and won an Academy Award. Jojo Rabbit ostensibly deals with a young boy's first love story, but if you look deeper, it also deals with family love, friendship, romantic love, and even humanity on a person-to-person level.

 

 Johannes Betzler (Jojo), a child who is a member of the Nazi youth group "Hitler Youth," finds Elsa Korr, a Jewish girl living behind the walls of his house. Jojo could not bear to report Elsa because she was a friend of his dead sister, so he spends time together with her under the pretext of investigating and studying Jews. In the process, Jojo begins to realize the problems of his ideology, Nazism, and begins to get close to Elsa, and he then witnesses the death of his mother, Rosie, who was helping Jews and campaigning for the end of the war.

 


 The movie depicts Jojo's growth through the experience of war and losing his family. Dance and shoes are mentioned as very important subjects in the movie. There are countless scenes in the movie that emphasize the image of shoes, such as when Rosie ties Jojo's shoestrings instead of him and when Rosie's shoes are shown from Jojo's eye level. There is also a focus on the shoes of his sister Inge, who was executed after participating in student protests. In the movie, Rosie told Jojo, “Dancing is for people who are free,” and she suggests they dance together. He knew Nazism was wrong but he just looks at Rosie and can't dance with her. The place where the dance begins is the feet. The feet and shoes standing on the ground symbolize freedom, love, and humanity. This is emphasized by the appearance of his sister’s pointe shoes, which are used for ballet.

 

 Director Taika Waititi expressed that Jojo’s family is moving toward the future only with their costumes and art. According to his interview, Rosie is a secret spy, but she has no shame and is proud of her behavior, so she walks around the streets showing off her proud character in colorful clothes. At this time, not only Rosie’s costume but also Jojo’s house has a typical color palate of the interior style of the 50s that came after the war. This direction of art conveys its meaning more intensely on the screen, contrasting with the low-colored and rugged costumes of their neighbors who are indicative of Germany losing the war and Elsa who had been hiding at home and hating the Nazis. However, the director was not satisfied with just the screen catching the audience’s attention with its pictorial direction. Taika Waititi’s use of music is a means of more clearly expressing what the director wants to say through the scene while taking advantage of the genre’s characteristics. For example, the song "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" by the Ramones, which is used in the scene of the Hitler Youth camp where the youth are brainwashed, means that the future of children who grow up as soldiers will not be happy, even though the song itself has a cheerful sound. In addition, David Bowie's "Helden" (the German version of "Heroes") in the ending scene intuitively indicates that Elsa and Jojo, victims of the war, were reborn as heroes who won by surviving. The song, which is from Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, was actually a catalyst for the fall of the Berlin Wall and this suggests that there is a hopeful future for them.

 


 Director Taika Waititi described his script as “a love letter for my mother.” As you can see, this film is not just about the first love of young Jojo. It shows Rosie’s hoping that Jojo won’t go down the wrong path; his father who wants to save people from the war; a protector’s love that embraces and hides her daughter’s friend, Elsa; the love story of Elsa and her lost fiancé; the love of people who love those of the same gender; and furthermore the love for our life even though there is not only happiness but also terror. You can see all of these types of love while both laughing and shedding a few tears. 

 



 This film is sad, but at the same time you can’t stop smiling. Maybe we’ve just ignored and avoided hideous truths on the grounds that we didn’t want to gaze upon them with our own eyes. The director used the comedy genre as a good wrapping paper and presented the heavy story to the audience with splendid skill. The present in the wrapping paper is not only the opportunity to think about heavy issues. After you’ve seen this movie, you will not be afraid of looking at the hideous truth anymore. I hope that readers will also be encouraged to move on in this world through this film, and I would like to end this review with a poem by Maria Lilke that appeared in the film:

 

 “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. 

  Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

 

78th Cub Reporter • KANG SEE EUNks3en29@gmail.com 

78th Cub Reporter • LEE HYEON SEO • zzhs00@naver.com

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