The exertion of self-worth lies in whether you can control your own destiny? Is it possible to see the present and have the hope of looking forward to the future? I think that once a unique individual is integrated into a mixed group and is firmly bound by some kind of distorted "collective interest", it is not easy to continue to maintain a persistent self-spirit and simple self-worth.
From the moment of attachment to external objects to satisfy inner fantasies, the individual has become a puppet manipulated by life. I think that director Akira Kurosawa's understanding of this is extremely profound, which is why he has shown his enthusiasm for the traditional samurai spirit more than once in his films, and there is disappointment and hope hidden in it.
If "Seven Samurai" is Kurosawa's appreciation and affirmation of the fearless and selfless spirit of the samurai at the peak of his early years, then "Shadow Samurai" is Kurosawa's infinite lament for the ultimate loneliness of the samurai spirit in his later years.
The content of the story alludes to the real dilemma, when Kurosawa Akira shrinks the former samurai's feelings of home and country into the exploration of personal value, even if there is a grand historical background as the narrative structure, he still chooses to take the living individuals as the core of the story, so as to chase the individual from the individual to the group and society, and even the country, and finally extends a lot of thinking about the power system, the bureaucratic system, the individual spirit and value.
A thief who is forced to act as a stand-in has to temporarily succumb to the threat of power, but with the arrogance of the pretense, he actually becomes obsessed with power, and even wants to change from a stand-in to a true lord, but unfortunately, the form of the right lord alone does not have the god of the right lord, and in the end, with the decline of the Takeda family, he buried his life.
Although the film is tragic, director Akira Kurosawa still has a hint of optimism, because he knows the trend of the times, so he will slowly spy on the samurai spirit possessed by the main lord Takeda Shingen through the behavior of the stand-in thief.
Therefore, this movie actually has two narrative threads, which on the surface follow the trajectory of how the shadow can do a good job of the puppet's action, but secretly it is
Shadow warriors are the shadow of Takeda Shingen, and Takeda Shingen is not the shadow of traditional heroes in people's eyes? However, Takeda Shingen is more intelligent, and he lives as he sees himself, not as others see him. When you can independently control your own destiny and always uphold the most authentic samurai spirit, in addition to the traction of responsibility and mission, there is more to the pursuit of some value of life.
Released in 1980, Shadow Samurai is an important work by Akira Kurosawa when he is desperate. If there is any film that can represent the last glory of the traditional samurai spirit, I think it is probably this one, because this is not only a commercial film with historical themes, but also an art film that explores self-worth and self-spirit in depth.
Although In 2018, Zhang Yimou shot the same theme of the film "Shadow", but in addition to the use of splashed ink landscape painting shooting style can be praised, the form is greater than the content of the problem is still the same, after all, can not highlight the individual in the whole film should be the position and value.
Returning to the film "Shadow Samurai" directed by Akira Kurosawa, from the beginning of the film, in the long shot of nearly 7 minutes, we can clearly feel the director's biased focus.
In front of a lit candle, Takeda Shingen and his two stand-ins sat in turn, the dark and gloomy room was slightly depressed, and if we looked closely at the picture, we would find that except for the shadow cast by the candlelight behind Takeda Shingen, there was no shadow from his younger brother Shinren and the Thief Shadow Warrior. This shows that from the beginning of becoming a stand-in, the two of them have lost control of their own destiny and have completely become vassals of others.
Feeling takeda Shingen's respect for himself, the thief agreed to become a stand-in for Shingen, because he was shocked by the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers, and the thief sat in front of the mission in the desperate situation of siege on all sides, which were the factors that affected his serious shadow.
Therefore, in the process of playing Takeda Shingen for a long time, the thief actually regarded the soldier's recognition of Takeda Shingen's authority as his own recognition, and instead wanted to become the real Takeda Shingen. But he forgot that in the era of war and turmoil, Takeda Shingen himself had transcended the category of the individual and become a symbol of the national spirit, including the recognition of rights and the fulfillment of obligations, the shouldering of responsibilities and the completion of missions, which was the core of Takeda Shingen's ability to command the national army.
Becoming yourself in your own eyes is always much more difficult than becoming yourself in the eyes of others, the former lies in transcendence, the latter lies in imitation, the premise of transcendence is the continuous pursuit of self-worth and the improvement of self-spirit, and the premise of imitation is the use of falsehood as a disguise to satisfy personal selfish desires.
In the movie, everyone begins to get confused after losing Takeda Shingen.
Xinxuan's younger brother Xinlian and a group of old courtiers followed Xinxuan's will and did not take the initiative to attack the enemy for three years, and these people had long become machines that would only obey orders rather than thinking humans under Xinxuan's long-term control. The same is true of the Thief Shadow Warrior, who acts in a way that cannot be broken free, and wants to replace the true lord but lacks the spirit.
In my opinion,
Therefore, this movie has only one shadow on the surface of the shadow warrior, in fact, basically all people are shadows. Director Akira Kurosawa has already revealed his original intention in filming this film after the early design of Takeda Shingen was shot, that is, when those who have a real samurai spirit disappear, who else can continue to inherit and carry forward the samurai spirit?
"Shadow Samurai" is like Akira Kurosawa composing a sad ending song for the last samurai spirit. Through the magnificent war scenes, he mixes the samurai spirit into the powerful system, and then tries to tear open the mouth of an individual's self-spiritual return in it. Therefore, while we feel the disappearance of the final samurai world, we can faintly see the existence of some hope in the flag of the wind forest volcano that the shadow warrior tries to carry from the river. The Shadow Warrior finally awakened, and he made himself back while facing death.
It is worth noting that in the movie "Shadow Samurai",
In the huge war at the end of the film, the Takeda army, which adopts traditional military strategies, uses cold weapons against the enemy's guns, and the traditional methods of reckless attack can not resist the fate of being suppressed by Western-style weapons. Here, Akira Kurosawa does not direct the camera directly at the cruel war scene, but replaces it with the sound of gunfire and screams, and finally, sweeps the battlefield full of corpses with the camera, which is shocking enough to the audience's psychology.
I've always wondered why there are Westerners around Oda Nobunaga in the movie. It wasn't until I saw the last war that I understood that this was no longer a confrontation between countries, but more of a confrontation between tradition and modernity, which seemed to imply the invasion of Western culture into Eastern culture, so that the film as a whole revealed a faint sense of loneliness.
Before filming Shadow Samurai, Akira Kurosawa was rejected by many investment firms due to the successive box office failures of the first two films, which was his low point. When the dream had to be put on hold in the face of the impact of reality, the spirit of stubbornness always refused to compromise the obscenity of capital, and finally, with the help of directors Coppola and George Lucas, he returned to the peak of his life.
Perhaps, the ups and downs of Kurosawa Akira understand the importance of adhering to the spirit of self and self-worth, so he wants to re-establish the traditional samurai spirit in the movie "Shadow Samurai" where it is worth affirming, of course, there is also a criticism of the part that does not conform to the development of the times.
Akira Kurosawa is like the awakened warrior in the movie, even at the risk of his life, he has to hold up the fallen flag, because this is not only a flag, but also a spirit.
In real life, we are always trying to rely on external objects to obtain the enrichment of our own spirit, but never think about it, spiritual things are won by ourselves, if you always hide behind others, you will no longer be you, and the body and soul will also be misplaced.
The film is not so much about the story of the shadow warriors as it is about the spiritual influence of Takeda Shingen. In the movie, we see the two sides of the traditional samurai spirit.
How to continue to inherit the spirit of traditional samurai, Kurosawa Akira did not give a clear answer, because everything he had to say was in the story. Sometimes it's better to ask questions for people to explore than to give answers and fix your mind, which is an important reason why his films can maintain lasting vitality.
Zhang Yimou's film uses the real body to say the shadow, Kurosawa's film uses the shadow to say the real body, can not say who is more intelligent, can only say that Kurosawa Akira is more able to highlight the exploration of individual spirit and value in the context of the big era. Whether it is the internal influence of the self or the influence of the external environment, people should always be the main body of the movie, even if there is no love talk, even if there is no deception, but it can also play a profound wake-up call.