What's the secret of the little black dirty cat in Ghost Mom? E.g., why does it talk?

It's worth noting that as Caroline crawls into the grotesque world, she passes through a long human organ-like tube, which from a psychoanalytic point of view is supposed to symbolize the mother's birth canal (hence the silly design of the Bund's sightseeing tunnels), i.e., there is some kind of longing for childhood in Caroline's heart - even though she is still a child. In other words, Caroline has some kind of longing for "childhood" in her heart - even though she's still a child, in a sense Caroline refuses to grow up (or is uncomfortable with growing up): growing up means that she won't be able to do whatever she wanted as a baby, and she won't be pampered by her parents, and most of the requests she makes of her parents will be refused. Thus, a psychological reading of Ghost Mom is not far removed from the Oscar-nominated David Fincher + Brad Pitt + Fitzgerald film, except that Selick did it more successfully than Fincher.

The gender setup in Ghost Mom is also interesting. The biggest demon is Caroline's mother - the witch's control is just a trick, but it's also about the rapid demonization of the mother figure after the loss of maternal bonding. In terms of age, Caroline should be in the future of puberty, according to Freud's teachings, the Elektra complex caused by the "Oedipus Rex" tendency to become Caroline's subconscious, so the father in the film is a puppet under the control of the mother, although the father also often rejected and ignored Caroline's feelings, but Caroline would Although the father also often rejects and ignores Caroline's feelings, Caroline attributes this to her strong mother, who, in her father's words, is the "boss" of the family. The refusal to buy Caroline beautiful clothes and gloves can be interpreted as a brutal suppression of Caroline's femininity (sexual attraction) - thus, her mother is transformed into a witch, and Caroline's battles with the replica of her mother symbolize the growth of her sexuality. Furthermore, this is borne out by the portrayal of the two obese mermaids, and the scene in which they revert to youth can be seen entirely as Caroline's subconscious desire for a sexually mature body - in fact, when this scene occurs, Caroline is immediately asked by the duo to get on the stage and **** dance with them.

We can even see that the aversion to motherhood leads to a "promotion" of masculinity in Ghost Mother - there is no absolute negative male (androgynous) figure in the film, from the father to the replica father (who tries to tell Caroline the truth). (who tries to tell Caroline the truth, but is muffled by the anthropomorphic piano, which is clearly under the magical control of the "mother", and even in Weirdland, where the replica father takes Caroline on a praying mantis ride through the garden and enjoys the pleasures of the world), from Mr. B., to the Wabbit, and even the black cat... The black cat, which Caroline initially thinks of as a she-cat and therefore "evil," becomes the bringer of justice once the black cat speaks in a male voice.

Of course, the more interesting character is Wabi, who, as a man, is also under the control of a certain number of "evil" women (including his grandmother, who shows up at the end, and his grandmother's twin sister, who mysteriously disappeared), and who, in the world of evil, becomes Caroline's most reliable assistant, and who even gives up his own life to get Caroline out of trouble. Caroline's rescue. However, Wabbit does not appeal to Caroline at first, she hates the boy's chatter, and Wabbit is a rather shabby-looking boy with a droopy head, but this image wins Caroline over in the end, as well as the audience - I see it as a cartoonishly condensed version of how women view their male partners: in the eyes of a woman, their boyfriends/husbands are always the same as their male counterparts. In the eyes of women, their boyfriends/husbands are always insufferably flawed, but at the end of the day, he's still acceptable and lovable (which is obviously a more adult view based on a holistic understanding of marriage and the family: neither outright adoration of the male icon nor sheer disgust with the worldly man).

Finally Caroline's rescue of her parents can also be compared to "The Thousand and One", and it is interesting to note that the trapped souls in "Ghost Mother" also forget their own names (and of course there is the striking representation of buttons for eyes), which symbolizes the loss of a child's innocence (humanity). The adults represented by Caroline's parents are lost in the outside world where there is no mystery, no awe, no joie de vivre, and even no affection (the outside world is depicted in A Thousand and One as a materialistic, environmentally insensitive place of filth, which is similar to the outside world in A Thousand and One Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred Hundred). Button Eyes), and saves her parents and family - and both films end similarly, with Chihiro's parents being saved without her knowing it, just like Caroline's parents, which of course could have colored the story with a more fantastical supernatural artistry.

All in all, Ghost Mom shows the thrilling process of a girl becoming a woman, and as a male, what this story reminded me was that raising an adolescent daughter is a lot more trouble than raising an adolescent son, but that daughters are often more useful than sons when it counts.