Podcast

The speaker discusses the movie "Barbie" released in 2023. They mention that the film is not intended to create nostalgia like "Toy Story," but instead tackles various societal issues. The movie attempts to build a bridge for dialogue between genders and within the same gender. The speaker poses three questions: how the movie constructs the definition of Barbie, the significance of the music in relation to Barbie's growth, and why power imbalances result in dire consequences. They believe that despite some disharmony, movies like Barbie can help us think about difficult issues. If we discuss my favorite movies, I want to highlight a very special one, Barbie, the one that was released in 2023. Many people might have watched Barbie for nostalgic reason, try to reminiscing about their childhood memory. However, this movie has no intention for creating a nostalgic mood like Toy Story. Instead, it is a profound film with highly speculated porn as what Dr. K's podcast mentioned. Its narrative closely linked to various issues in today's society. Although feminist films often feature a high-pitched declaration and ridicule for patriarchy, Barbie sincerely attempts to build a bridge for dialogue between different genders and within the same gender. I would like to share a few questions and explain some of my thoughts on these questions. So the first one, I think that Barbie reconstructs the meaning for Barbie to some extent, making the feminism that reveals more rage and censorship. For example, the movie tells the story of Barbie's transformation from a naive and simple mind assembling doll to a flesh-and-blood human being with the gaining of self-worth that makes her share taste for beautiful things. So my question is here, in what aspect do you think the movie constructs the definition of Barbie? And here's the second one. I don't know if anyone is interested in the music in this film, but the what-was-I-made-for at the end of the film really touched me. In the ending scene, Barbie's creator, her name is Ruth Handler, has a talk with Barbie, and they have a conversation that crosses the distance of time and space that makes them come to each other. I think the music represents the first and the last lesson that Ruth wants to give Barbie. She wants to give her a deep thinking about her own life, and just like what the lyrics say, I used to know, but I'm not sure now. So how do you think the lyrics describe and correspond to Barbie's personality's growth? And here is my third question. I want to bring some deep thinking in this one. So in Barbie's land, Barbie has absolute dominance in social, political, economy, and cultural aspects. The night carnival is always Barbie's capital, and kids can only go through the motions. But after that, in Kingdom, all power structures are reserved, and Barbie becomes a waitress who only serves kids. So right here, it seems that whenever the power flows to another group of people, both of them are inevitably aligned into objects that they choose to seek for their own value from others. And when this happens, none of them are able to be themselves. So why does this power imbalance result in such dire consequences? So I've given all three questions. I know that most people will have a sense of disharmony when watching this movie, just like I do, as if we were expecting a simple comedy. But I think that movies with a comedy tone like Barbie help us think about some issues that are difficult to bring into and discuss in reality. Therefore, I like the movie Barbie very much.