The Adventures of Remi: A Hero's Journey and Salvation Theme

Author: Zhang Yiwen

Literature has always been a bonanza of film adaptations compared to games, comics, and other forms, stemming from the natural advantages of the two arts over "storytelling." Nineteenth-century French writer Ekdo Marlowe's novel "The Wanderings of the Bitter Child" has been adapted and remade several times, but it has always maintained the innocence and dream of the original book, and the movie "The Adventures of Remi" is the latest adaptation of it, telling the story of the protagonist Remy from being abandoned to being raised, to following the acrobatic old man around Europe, and finally finding his birth mother and becoming a musician. As far as the narrative itself is concerned, the film is particularly in line with the theory of the "heroic journey" proposed by the mythological scholar Joseph Campbell in his book "Heroes with a Thousand Faces", that is, Remy's "adventure" process is the process of the hero's journey, and the story is filled with the theme of salvation.

A heroic journey from an outcast to a singer

Before the film unfolds the narrative of the "hero journey", it is necessary to first create the protagonists with heroic characteristics, who often show different appearances, personalities, identities, abilities, etc. different from ordinary people to highlight the uniqueness of the "heroes". As far as this film is concerned, the heroic qualities of the protagonist Remy are portrayed in a potential and explicit way, respectively: the potential is his unspoken experience of abandonment, his identity from the aristocratic class, etc.; what is obvious is the directly named "the most beautiful voice and the most true heart". The two ways create a unique image of Remy and complete the premise of embarking on the "hero's journey".

Campbell argues that "the standard path of the heroic adventure in mythology is the amplification of the ritual principle of growth, that is, the departure- enlightenment- return." "Remy's journey from abandonment to becoming a singer is a hero's growth ceremony. In the departure stage, Remy is told the truth about abandonment by her adoptive father and is in danger of being sent to an orphanage; in the enlightenment stage, it is Remy who encounters the acrobat Vitalis when he encounters danger, who plays the role of a mentor in mythological theory and completes the hero's enlightenment for Remy; the return stage is remy who goes through hardships, finally finds his biological mother, and becomes a singer because of his excellent singing skills (thanks to the help of the mentor). From being a weak and helpless outcast to being adopted by the poor, to meeting the enlightened and going through the tribulations together, and finally completing the ceremony of recognition and becoming a celebrity, which is the same as the mythological archetype of the hero from being trapped to experiencing disaster to nirvana rebirth, Remy's growth ceremony is the hero's return ceremony.

In order to increase the credibility of this legendary experience, the film deliberately chooses a first-person perspective to narrate, and strives to restore the sense of scene. The film begins with the elderly Remy telling stories to the children on a thunderstorm night, and then the image shifts to the young Remy, and the ending returns to the scene where the elderly Remy tells the story, and the audience learns that the old man is telling his past. Just as in "Titanic", the elderly Ruth recalls the love experience with Jack when she was young, and the memories of the elderly Remy can also stimulate the sympathy and reverence of the audience to a greater extent, because the "hero" does not live in history, but survives to tell the story to the children/audience who listen to the story about the past of the "hero", which undoubtedly increases the sense of presence of the "hero's journey".

The theme of salvation between different characters

If you only change from the weak to the strong, he can only be his own hero, and the real hero must introduce the theme of salvation. In the film, Remy undergoes hardships and completes the transformation from an outcast to a singer, undoubtedly his own hero, and at the same time, he also contains the act of saving others and animals, making him a true hero. Specifically, first of all, the mentor Vitalis certainly played the role of an enlightener, but at the same time he was also unable to face his victims because of the accidental killing of his son, Remy became his emotional sustenance and relieved his heart; secondly, among the group portraits, the impoverished adoptive mother was eventually taken over by Remy to live a rich life, the biological mother who lived in the pain of losing her son was no longer painful because of Remy's return, and the flawed and depressed Lisse gradually became cheerful and eventually became his wife after meeting Remy, and Remy undertook the rescue of many characters Again, Remy also maintains enough love for animals, singing lullabies for the cows that have been whipped, trying his best to cure the acrobatic monkeys, and sharing the mood with the accompanying shepherds at any time... Remy's character is not so much a hero as more like a "god" created by the film, he has a natural good singing voice, loves/saves everything around him indiscriminately, and the character is perfect but not falsely criticized, which is not unrelated to the audience's pursuit of the movie's "dream-making", because everyone is eager to be saved.

At the same time, the film's rescue theme is not focused on Remy alone, but is reflected in different people and animals, which shows that the film's generalization of the theme of salvation aims to establish an ethical concept of "good and good reward". For Remy, the birth mother and adoptive mother gave him life and growth, Vitalis played the role of mentor, Liz made a key contribution to her search for her birth mother, and the shepherd dog risked freezing to death on a snowy night to call someone to save the dying Remy. The theme of salvation changes from the one-dimensional relationship of the hero saving others to the two-way relationship of mutual salvation, and therefore, the hero's growth ceremony is not only the process of saving others, but also the process of being saved by others and shaped into a hero, and the result ultimately leads to the ethical destination of "planting good causes and producing good results", which is also in line with the audience's consistent psychology.

"The Adventures of Remy" once again interprets the "family story" in "Wanderings of the Bitter Child", the film takes the "hero's journey" in mythology as the narrative prototype, constructs the growth ceremony of the hero Remy, and at the same time uses remy's mouth to narrate itself, "disenchantment" for the legendary story; in the story telling and character shaping, by showing the theme of salvation between the characters, the ethical purpose of "good is rewarded". Overall, the film is in line with the "dream-making" characteristics of Hollywood movies, like an adult fairy tale that makes people temporarily forget the troubles of reality. (Zhang Yiwen)