So at 3 in the morning I'm writing my entry on Tezuka Osamu's "Mermaid".
I actually really liked that video, and I looked it up on youtube and I've been watching it over and over for the last few days, haha.
This story is obviously set in the past where rules of individuality were much more strict. This kind of plot has many similarities with old animation films as there were many situations (not necessarily Japan) where some beliefs were just not acceptable.
The film is created in a basic third-person point of view, but as the story continues on we are able to tell that the P.O.V switches between the boy and the antagonists. The antagonists of the story are believed to be the parents and the nations' people. The boy sees the fish as a mermaid whilst everybody else sees the fish as what it is. The boy starts to doubt his mind when the people around him starts accusing him of mistaking reality as an illusion. He is put into an asylum and 'cured' of his fantasies. Though the irony of it all is that in the end we see the nations' people watching the boy and the mermaid. I take it as if the people are seeing the mermaid; or is re-thinking the whole concept of 'not being able to have an imagination'.
As for symbols, the mermaid itself is a symbol. Symbol of youth and imagination. The people against the boy could represent imprisonment. It could be that the nations' people are preventing one from obtaining what is rightfully free and controlling too much of what is not their own in the first place. Then the boy himself is a symbol of freedom and individuality.
I first took this film as "Children have big imaginations" but as the plot progressed and as I watched it a number of times; I saw it in a different light. I don't know, this film gave me a nostalgic feeling-- and made me think a little. I enjoyed it and it made me want to understand the messages behind the pictures.
