Published on December 29, 2021| No. 2736
"The future of Japanese cinema depends on you." This is Akira Kurosawa's evaluation of Japanese director Takeshi Kitano.
At the age of 20, he dropped out of school and worked odd jobs in a jazz bar in Shinjuku; at the age of 26, he and Kenko Jiro formed the manga (Japanese platform comedy, similar to China's counterparts) group "Two Beats", which was all the rage; 42 years old became famous for his self-directed debut film "The Fierce Man"; 47-year-old suddenly had a car accident and was painful; 50-year-old won the Golden Lion Award in the main competition unit of the 54th Venice Film Festival for the movie "Hanabi"...
Kitano Takeshi's legend is not only in his career, but also his emotional life and attitude towards life have been "worshipped" many times. The 72-year-old Takeshi Kitano divorced his original wife, and after leaving the house, remarried with an 18-year-old woman who was 18 years younger; the 74-year-old scolded the opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games as "no need for a director"; in the variety show, he also wore women's clothing and cos into an anime character.
Men are teenagers to death, and they are still rebellious after they are old. This is the most appropriate phrase to describe Takeshi Kitano.
Takeshi Kitano
Kitano Takeshi's film style is very similar to his life characteristics: there are "knife" qualities such as belligerence, martial arts, arrogance, and stubbornness, and there are "chrysanthemum" rhymes such as peace, beauty, reverence, and purity. "Humpback City" and "Extremely Evil" define violence with swords and guns, and "Kikujiro's Summer" and "That Summer, Quiet Sea" accompany and make up for the crippled life.
Although Kitano's playmates as a teenager were all low-level workers, taxi drivers, and gangsters, there were soft parts of his life. These experiences became the main content of the movie "Asakusa Kid".
"Asano Kid" is adapted from Takeshi Kitano's autobiography of the same name, with the troupe as director and screenwriter, Yumi Yanagi as Takeshi Kitano, and Hiroshi Oizumi as Takeshi Kitano's master and legendary stage comedian Chisaburo Fukami. Set in Asakusa, Tokyo, the film tells the story of the protagonist Abu who drops out of school and goes to Asakusa to visit Chisaburo Fukami to learn skills and grow up.
Compared with the panoramic presentation of Takeshi Kitano's life, "Asakusa Kid" focuses on the love affair between Takeshi Kitano and Chisaburo Fukami: from the first time she appeared on stage to appear in a funny short drama, to becoming a manga artist, to saying goodbye to her master Tenjin forever... However, the film is not an intimate personal memoir, but a ukiyo-e with laughter and tears.
At the heart of comedy is tragedy
In the 1960s, asakusa, fish and dragons were mixed, and theater comedy became increasingly tired. Times have changed, stage comedy needs to survive in the cracks, there is no independent performance venue of its own, but to share the Asakusa France seat with the strippers.
One second, the dancer was on stage doing her best to tease people; the next second, Chisaburo Fukami dressed up as a different character to make people laugh. It seems to be singing and dancing, but in fact it is exhausted. In the film, a girl said: "Even the striptease is a form of performance, only the elderly will come to watch." And the stage comedy interspersed with it, there are fewer audiences to echo it.
In the film, there is a parallel set of clips, the dancers on the stage dance for their livelihood, and the backstage Awu is busy stealing "idle" and practicing tap dancing skills. Although life is not easy, they deal with all kinds of misfortunes with a positive and optimistic attitude.
In search of a better life, Abu, who dropped out of school, became an apprentice to Chisaburo Fukami. Fukami had no interest in television performances and only believed in live stage performances. Whether it's tap dancing, improvisation, or on-the-spot resilience, Fukami Taught Awu a brain.
Chiharu, who was forced to become a stripper in order to make a living, was a professional dancer who toured all of Japan with the troupe. Today, singing is just a distant dream for her. Two people who have not changed their original intentions, inspire each other and move towards the goal.
Awu, who has learned a lot of art, decides to go to the TV station to perform manga, and Chiharu also shows his singing voice in his daily performances. But the journey to their dreams didn't go as smoothly as they thought. Theater comics can do whatever they want, and once they arrive at the TV station, they are bound everywhere; no matter how well Chiharu sings, the audience still wants to watch a stripping performance.
Still, they had to be miserable. For example, in stage performance, all the baggage and passages are obtained through the "offense" and jokes between the master and the apprentice.
The reason why Master Fukami's left hand was always wrapped in gauze was because he was injured in the munitions factory during the war, and the other four fingers except for the thumb were rolled up by the production belt. After learning of this, Ah Wu made up a joke about Fukami's left hand, who knew that Master was not only not angry, but also interacted with him.
As a master, Fukami is generous; as a comedian, Fukami can accept "offense" and find inspiration and fun from it.
Improvisation is based on the details of life. Fukami also pretended to wear the wrong lady's high heels just to confront Abu for a while; he also teased himself for not understanding the principles of the TV screen, lying under the TV set and trying to peek at the female performers. The chaff in life became the source of comedy performance.
Even if a tragedy occurs, they have to face it with a smile. The master was killed by an accidental fire, and at the funeral, Awu stood alone in front of Fukami's statue and said a paragraph. The bitterness of the comedians is self-evident, but this is also their belief: even if they are in tears, they must finish the joke. This is also the best tribute of the apprentice Ah Wu to the master.
The death of the Master symbolizes the end of an era, but the seat of France is like a beacon of dreams that will never collapse, illuminating the way for the rest of Awu's life.
I'm a comedian, you idiot
Comedians also have dignity. The first lesson master Fukami taught Ah Wu was to respect his profession: a comedian should not be laughed at, but should be laughed at (through a satin, a body performance).
On the stage, Ah Wu needed a man to dress as a woman and play a female publicist. To this end, he dressed himself up as a "flower", which made the master very dissatisfied: "The comedian should rely on performance to win laughter, not use ugly makeup to make others laugh." Where in the world is there a female publicist who puts on ugly makeup for herself? You have to wear makeup with the mentality of 'make yourself the most beautiful woman in the world'. ”
Put yourself in the shoes of a character and perform with a character mindset, rather than acting with some kind of grandstanding purpose.
The performer's control is in his own hands, and he cannot lose his objective standard because of the subjective judgment of the audience.
When Ah Wu first took the stage, he was a little nervous, and he attracted a round of applause from the audience. In this regard, Fukami directly stopped the performance, accusing the audience: "He acted so badly, do you still applaud?" It only hurt him. The audience who was taught to be a man was naturally impatient, and the deep view was not willing to show weakness, a sentence of "I am a comedian, you stupid", making the other party dumbfounded.
When the real-life Takeshi Kitano and the characters in his works speak, they always like to add a sentence "You are stupid" at the end, and this mantra also appears in this film, becoming a symbol of the inheritance of the personality of the master and apprentice. In the film, when Ah Wu performs manga and is ignored by the audience, he also says the same thing. This is not to deny the audience, but to be strict with oneself and guard the dignity of the stage.
"Even if you haven't eaten for three days, you have to get dressed and show people." Master's deep understanding is so decent and confident.
I think back then, Fumimi wore a top hat, a dress, and a pair of pointed leather shoes on her feet, which was very eye-catching wherever she went. Although the audience gradually decreased and the French seat was dissolved, he went to the factory to find a job, and he still wore politeness during the interview. Even if you are poor, you have to live decently.
The master's respect for the profession is exchanged for the apprentice's dedication to his dreams. After deciding to perform manga, Awu left the French seat. When parting, Chiharu hugs him and jokes that she won't sleep with Awu. Because both are the same kind of people, both have pure ideals, which is different from the superficial audience.
Life cannot be lived and passed, only to keep moving forward. At the same time, the respect for the profession makes others respect Ah Wu and Shen Zhi.
At the 70th Red and White Song Festival in 2019, Takeshi Kitano took the stage to sing the song "Asakusa Kid". At that time, Takeshi Kitano wrote this song because he saw the popularity of his friend Mancai fall and felt it.
When he sang "Don't say we have abandoned our dreams, we obviously have no other way to choose two people", Kitano Tookshi choked up a little. In the face of his former friends who have gone down in the river, Kitano Takeshi has some self-blame: if he had not left, perhaps it would have been a different situation.
But fate is so impermanent: everyone has a different path to go, and each art has a unique life cycle. We can do nothing but sigh and hold our duty morally.
This song is not only Kitano Takeshi's thoughts and encouragement to his former friends, but also a review and summary of himself. After all, without the "Asakusa Kid" of that year, there would be no Kitano Takeshi today.
As the last long shot of the movie "Asakusa Kid" shows: the adult Awu returns to the Seat of France, and the past is vividly remembered. The stage is no more, the old people are no more, only the laughter in the dream is always accompanied.
【Text/He Thought】