As the 23rd Pixar film, "Soul" has kept its warming style and won a lot of audiences' tears again. The film is about a man named Joe who dreams about becoming a professional musician. After getting his big break, he suddenly dies and ends up in the Great Beyond. Refusing to accept his death, Joe meets the soul "22" who has been reluctant to live on Earth for thousands of years. They together have the adventure to help each other find out the meaning of life and a soul.
The cycle of Existence and Zone
Souls prepare themselves to live on Earth in a place called "The Great Before". After struggling to live on Earth, they will head to "The Great Beyond" when their bodies are dead. It is not directly shown in the film, but The Sheep believes in the cycle of existence between "The Great Before", Earth, and "The Great Beyond". Souls in "The Great Beyond" shall follow some specific filtering or rebuilding process, and move to "The Great Before", and then the whole process keeps on cycling. This also echoes to the cycle of death and rebirth rooted in Buddhism.
Another place referred to in the film is "Zone". Two types of souls are wandering here. The first type is people who concentrate so much on what they are doing that their souls are deprived of the bodies, such as musicians and basketball players; The other ones are disconnected from the humanity, like the hedge fund manager obsessed with making a trade. The line between those talented and lost souls is pretty thin and it's highly possible for them to turn into each other. When the determination turns into the obsessiveness, a lost soul will appear.
The Meaning/Completion of A Soul
In "The Great Before", a group of souls preparing to be born jump into a big pot to obtain common personalities such as excitable or anxious. The last thing required is a "spark" which turns them into a complete soul and a unique individual.
"22" is a special soul who has refused to be born for a very long time. She has trouble finding out what her spark is, so she feels unconfident about living life. However, after accidentally jumping into Joe's body and living on Earth for a few hours, 22 feels a change. She experiences the simple pleasures of life by eating a slice of pizza and feeling the wind on her face. Sitting on a step in front of the Jazz bar, she stared at a falling leaf. At that moment, The Sheep thinks 22 has found her spark.
The spark that completes a soul does not have to contain great dreams of fame and fortune but can simply be the desire of living. The beauty of life hides in a falling leaf in Autumn; In knowing more about a friend in the barbershop; In a slice of pizza! The secret to finding them out is to pay attention to what is around and use the heart to feel it.
Dreams and Compromises
Dreams are one of the biggest motivations of life. As the main character in Steve Cho's film King of Comedy claims, a man without a dream is not different from a dead fish. For Joe, his dream and passion is jazz music. After witnessing the magic of jazz music as a kid, Joe fell in love with jazz and dreamt to be a successful jazz player. This love drove him to stick with his jazz career despite not being successful. It is also this dream that makes him reject death.
"You cannot eat dreams for breakfast", Joe's mom argues so. She reckons a good job should be something like a teacher, with stability and insurance. Dreams keep us moving on our life's journey. But life is not a straight line in which we have to head to one place. People may set one destination as the goal but end up staying in another place on the way. As such, we need to learn how to compromise with ourselves. The barber Dez was dreaming to be a veterinarian but ending up in a barbershop because of his daughter. This does not make him a self-pitying barber. Instead, he is very proud and happy to give customers a good haircut. Not everyone is Einstein and not everyone is Beethoven. Heroes also need audiences to clap for them. Compromising with ourselves does not mean we will live in a dull and meaningless life. The pursuit of happiness is still the main theme, and happiness is like a tail which will follow us if we just keep moving on.
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