Today, I'd like to talk about the movie "Downsizing" that I watched recently.
As expected, this movie stars Matt Damon, one of my favorite actors.
Matt Damon, although he dropped out, is someone I consider to be an intellectual from Harvard University,
one of the best universities in the US.
The movies he's appeared in seem to reflect that aspect of him quite a bit.
For example, in movies like "The Martian," "Interstellar," and "Good Will Hunting."
Before watching this movie, just looking at the poster, I was suddenly reminded of a fairy tale I read as a child,
"Gulliver's Travels."
The story of giants and Lilliputians... I wonder if the director also drew inspiration from that fairy tale...
Anyway, I thought the concept was quite novel.
What if humans could shrink??
In the movie, it's set up that in order to solve resource depletion and environmental problems due to overpopulation,
to prevent the end of the Earth caused by humans, 36 Lilliputians
produced less trash than a single plastic bag in four years,
as explained in the movie.
However, it is mentioned in the middle of the movie that only 3% of the entire population chose to shrink,
and that this was insignificant for solving such environmental problems.
To add appeal to shrinking,
it's shown that 100 million becomes worth 1.2 billion, and
even if you get a diamond bracelet, necklace, and the whole set, it wouldn't even cost 100 dollars,
so seeing that scene,
I thought, with that kind of appeal, I would gladly choose to shrink too.
That was my feeling.
The person introducing the appeal of shrinking is Neil Patrick Harris, who was famous for the drama "Dr. Doogie" in our country.
It was him, that Dr. Doogie.
The early part of the movie unfolds the appeal of shrinking in a novel way.
It's the story of Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), who is contemplating this after hearing about his classmate's satisfaction with shrinking and that life.
In the middle of the movie, his wife refuses to shrink and leaves,
and Paul Safranek lives alone, and I think the themes the director is trying to convey
are coming out. By introducing Ngoc Lan (Hong Chau), a Vietnamese refugee,
it seems he wanted to express that the gap between the rich and the poor is the same whether you are a Lilliputian or a giant.
That seems to be the intention.
It seems there are a lot of differing opinions on this movie.
I thought it had a novel concept, and it made me wonder what choice I would make
if I had that option.
Also, it made me think that if the whole human race became small, we could improve various aspects of the Earth's environment,
It was a refreshing movie.
Personally, when the technology to shrink people is shown on the news worldwide,
it was nice to see our country included, but I wish it was somewhere other than the fish market.
There's a bit of that kind of cute humor, so check it out....
And it's probably better to see the ending yourself.
I don't know if I've spoiled too much,
but I think it's a good movie with the novel concept of shrinking.
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