Underplayed Gems

The Fool Buy Shoes (1979)

The Fool Buy Shoes poster
Original title
愚人买鞋
Genre
animation
Country
People's Republic of China
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A bookish man in ancient China refuses to trust anything not written down. When his shoe burns, he insists on buying the exact size recorded in an old note from his childhood, even though the shoes are painfully too small. The film adapts a classical Chinese parable about blind reliance on texts.

whimsicalabsurdsatiricallighthearteddidacticfairy-tale-likeplayfulold-fashioned

What happens

愚人买鞋,是中国大陆上海美术电影制片厂拍摄的的木偶戏动画作品。该片根据《韩非子·外储说左上》郑人买履的一段小故事改编而成,于1979年上映。 在很久很久以前,郑国有位足不出户,饱学诗书的读书人:“两耳不闻窗外事,一心只读圣贤书”,自号“全信书”。宁可三餐不食,不可一日无书。 一日读书时不慎将鞋子烧着了 ,不知如何是好。情急之下拿起一本医书,书曰:“橘子性温凉,多食可以败火”。读书人拿起橘子就啃,滴下的汁水果然把鞋上的火灭了。但是鞋子却烧破了一个大洞,书生无奈上街买鞋。鞋店掌柜问他穿多大尺寸,书生不知。掌柜为他拿了一双十寸的鞋让他试穿,可是书生认为没有书面依据。于是跑回家中从书箱里找出其父留下的书简,上面写着他穿六寸鞋子。于是决定卖六寸的鞋子,掌柜无奈,给他拿了六寸鞋子。结果出生穿上之后竟把鞋子撑破了,脚趾露在外面。掌柜劝他买十寸鞋子,书生怒斥掌柜曰:“胡说,从小父亲教我着鞋六寸”。掌柜好奇,拿过书简一看,上书:“吾儿七岁,着鞋六寸,脚随人长,步步前进。”掌柜劝他买十寸鞋子,书生认则反讥曰:“书上所写,岂能违背?”依旧穿着六寸小鞋回去了.... (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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