Hayao Miyazaki's video for "On Your Mark" by Chage and Aska

A life is born. Whether biological or imaginary. And you cherish the life. That's, I guess, what this video is about.



On Your Mark 投稿者 _Nessim_


The video depicts three versions of reality of an angel girl seen by protagonists, two policemen in the anti-terrorist squad. The squad breaks into the tower occupied by cultists. They exchange fires and the squad controls the situation. As the two men searches in the area together with other members of the squad, one of them checks a dead body of a young women and sees her face.

After that, the two find a winged girl, who only looks like an angel, lying on the floor chained and unconscious. The scene suddenly changes and the two are with the angel girl, driving an open car in the open field. As they drive, they encourage the girl to fly, who opens her wings and begins to fly in the sky where she probably belongs -- or so goes the first version of reality.

The scene of the video suddenly goes back to the scene where the angel girl is found. The two hold her carefully and offer something to drink. As she sips, they feel deep delight. But she is soon taken away, shielded completely, by the authorities wearing radiation suits.

The next scene depicts the two drinking in a bar. There is a sudden flashback of the image of the angel girl, and they decide to risk their career to rescue her. After preparation, they intrude into the laboratory where the angel girl is captured and take her away to escape in an armored vehicle. They are soon chased by police hovercrafts. The highway road is destroyed, and the vehicle falls. As they fall, one of the man tries to release his hands from the hands of the angel girl to let her fly alone and survive, but she refuses and the three fall down further, probably to the ground, completely dead -- or so goes the second version of reality.

The scene goes back to the vehicle on the highway. The vehicle falls as the highway is destroyed. But this time, the vehicle hovers with jet engines and they somehow escape. They take an open car, go through a long tunnel, ignoring warning signs that say "Survival Not Guaranteed" or "Extreme Danger, and finally find themselves in the open field, the forbidden area presumably because of radiation emitted before this episode. They enjoy driving for a while and the angel girl is ready to fly. One of the men winks at her and the other kisses the hand of the girl. She hovers, begins to fly, and goes up into the blue sky, higher and higher -- or so goes the third version of reality.


The video stops there, and the audience are not exactly sure what really happened. Probably the third version must be the reality, for it is the last one we saw. But it's not a good reason. The second version, the falling to the ground, may be the reality, and the third version could be a fantasy that one of the two men (or both two) had as they fall, wishing the reality as he wanted.

But this second version could be a daydream that one of the two had as they drank in the bar. The two may have just let her go to an institution.

Or did they really meet the angel girl? The first version of reality, finding the angel girl and releasing her immediately in the blue sky, could be an entire delusion. The fact could only be that one of them just saw the face of a dead woman lying on the floor. He may just have had the delusion to deny the brutal fact of mass slaughter that he just witnessed. There may not have been any angle girl. She may not have been there at all.


Who knows? The audience are clueless.


But who cares? (Or do you?)


We see the reality as we see it. That's how we live. The angel girl may have been a real life, or just an illusion. But does it matter? The two protagonists saw the girl, touched her, helped her and saw her smile -- or they imagined that way. That's what they needed. They needed a life, another life, biological or otherwise, to care for. If only you have one life besides your own that you care about so much, your life is blessed. If we meet such a life, if only for a short time, you may call your life a happy one.

Or so goes my interpretation -- my reality -- of the video Hayao Miyazaki provides.


Long live the angel.




http://abemasato.com/memo/ghibli/onyourmark/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Your_Mark

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