Michael Jackson Below the Ankles

Michael Jackson below the ankles.

That name popped into my head in the theater, at the scene where Michael walks into a recording studio for the first time.

Today I saw Michael, a biopic about the first half of his life. While I was still watching, I'd already decided what to call this post.

Why "below the ankles"?

Because in that studio scene, the producer tells young Michael twice to keep his feet still. Little Michael holds himself in with all his might until the recording is done.

Those feet wanted to move.

Later in the film, as Michael becomes famous, the camera keeps flashing to shots of him below the calf. On the set of the "Thriller" video, Michael tells the cinematographer he wants his feet fully in frame, so the audience can feel the grace and charm of the dancing.

That's when I realized that Michael Jackson's feet, from the ankle down, are instantly recognizable.

In this post I won't judge whether the movie is good or bad. I'll just share, from my own point of view, a few things I took from it.

The film covers the first half of his life. The final scene is his 1988 London concert. His later life is the part people like me, born in the 2000s, know better. But the first half? Honestly, I knew very little.

For one thing, I didn't know Michael had been making music since he was a kid. He performed with his father and four brothers from an early age, and he was the lead singer from the start.

Think about it. A child as lead singer of a band is already unusual. And what set Michael apart from his four brothers is that even after he grew up, he kept a childlike heart.

The film repeatedly shows Michael reading Peter Pan. It's a novel adapted from the play The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, by the British author J.M. Barrie.

As the play's title says, the core of Peter Pan is refusing to become an adult, protecting childhood innocence, and using imagination to fight time.

Rather than saying Michael has a kind of feminine beauty, I'd say he's someone who kept his innocence for a long time. The books he read prove it, and so does the fact that he loved all kinds of animals from childhood.

At least, that's how I see it.

When do most people love the zoo the most? For me it was childhood. I don't dislike it now that I'm grown, but I rarely go. After Michael became famous, he kept chimpanzees, giraffes, llamas, and a whole bunch of other animals on his estate. He said they were his friends, not his pets.

Friends.

And when Michael was hospitalized after an accident onstage, the only one who came to visit was his manager, who brought a Mickey Mouse doll.

Honestly, I'm not really a Michael Jackson fan, and I don't know him well. I've just heard some of his songs and read a bit about him. But from those brief, deep impressions, I think he was a person with great love in his heart.

All his life he wrote countless songs about peace, children, the Earth, and equality, the best known being "We Are the World" and "Heal the World."

After the film, I realized that what kept Michael's great love alive may have been the innocence he never lost.

That reminds me of a line from The Little Prince.

All grown-ups were once children, but only a few of them remember it.

Maybe Michael used his creative work to remind those who've forgotten this truth.

Speaking of which, the film spends a lot of time on the conflict between Michael and his father.

His father did lead the family out of poverty. But years later, he didn't realize things had changed. With the albums Off the Wall and Thriller, Michael had reached a height they couldn't match.

He tried to use Michael's fame to revive the band of the five Jackson brothers. He never imagined that doing so would not only hold Michael back but also open a rift between them that couldn't be erased.

Just like those feet at the start, not allowed to move.

It's not that Michael didn't want to move. It's that he loved his family too much, and he was willing to put up with them.

A lot of people may think Michael was afraid of his father deep down, but I think it's the opposite. He loved his father so much he couldn't bear to tear things apart. Instead he went his own way in the gentlest manner, going along with the Victory Tour his father wanted, then announcing to the world at the right moment that the tour was over.

Then those feet could finally move freely.

For me, born in 2002, Michael Jackson is more of a historical figure. By the time I had memories, he was already dead, leaving behind only timeless classics.

And now, more than ten years later, I'm grown up, sitting in a theater, watching the parts of his first half I never knew.

What can I say?

How to put it. All I can do is sit in the dark theater, watch those feet on the screen finally move free, and quietly take it in.

Oh, and if you're interested in this movie, definitely see it in Dolby Cinema. It's no different from being at a concert.

One last small discovery. While watching I kept wondering where they found an actor who looks so much like Michael and moves so well.

When I looked it up, I found out the actor playing Michael is also named Jackson, and his father is Michael Jackson's third brother.

In other words, the actor is Michael Jackson's own nephew.

Ha.