Kurosawa
Today marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa was born on March 23, 1910, to a samurai family in Tokyo, Japan, to a strict parent, but also encouraged children to watch movies, a fledgling art, and Akira Kurosawa eventually became a master of film.
"If the world's most famous Japanese director is Akira Kurosawa, then the most well-known Japanese screenwriter is Hashimoto Shinobu", Hashimoto Shinobi, known as "Japan's first post-war screenwriter", has long served as the royal screenwriter of Akira Kurosawa since 1950, and the two jointly created classic works such as "Rashomon", "Seven Samurai", and "Desire for Life", which pushed Japanese films to the world at the same time, but also opened the prelude to the golden age of Japanese cinema. When He was in his eighties, He wrote the memoir "The Reflection of the Compound Eye", which not only recalled the bits and pieces of the film with Akira Kurosawa, but also recorded the golden years when many talented filmmakers jointly pushed Japanese cinema to the peak. The following is compiled from this book in honor of Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa: The autobiography should have been the man's suicide note
Some of the words that Mr. Kurosawa and I have said have impressed me and are still in my heart.
"Hashimoto, let's talk about the author's autobiographical works."
"Yes, there is."
"Whoeverse autobiography it is is interesting to read. There are many things that people have to go through in their lives. But I still think that the autobiography should be written when I have no more works to write... That is, to write at the end. ”
I felt the same way and nodded to him.
Kurosawa said: "So I think the autobiography should be the man's suicide note." ”
When Akira Kurosawa began writing Dream, I don't know. But I think it should be that after more than forty years of collaborative scripts ending in "Chaos", no, it ended in "Shadow Warrior", and when he had to write the script alone in the future, he may be the first to start this work.
"Dream" is a short collection of eight dreams that Akira Kurosawa began to make as a child, and can also be said to be Akira Kurosawa's autobiography.
Directing is a profession that requires physical strength, and Akira Kurosawa is nearly eighty years old at this time, so it is not surprising that he would think that this might be his last work. I can imagine that he was prepared to write the script, to go to the set, to finish the film with such a mood and psychology.
Dreams (1990)
The film test screening of "Dream" was coincidentally the same as the test screening of "Chaos", at the Toho Theater in Ginza. It's been another five years since the release of "Chaos."
I usually read the script and don't watch the movie it makes. For me, reading a script is the same as watching a movie, and there's no need to watch the same movie twice. However, although I had read the script for Dream, I attended the test screening. Because "Dream" is Mr. Akira Kurosawa's autobiography, in other words, his last work — to me, it is also Mr. Akira Kurosawa's suicide note.
After Akira Kurosawa's five-year-old movie came out, everyone watched the test screening and felt bored and tired. But this is the long-awaited work of Akira Kurosawa, and both newspapers and weekly magazines have to write something on the literary and artistic pages. People can't directly write "it's boring, exhausting, and a failed work", so they search for praise, even if they make it up. For "Shadow Warrior", it is a sea of praise: "The sense of fullness after watching the movie!" "Gripping, touching!" "Vivid warrior painting, the ultimate in the beauty of form and image!" Overwhelming praise. Even more so than "Chaos," film journalists and critics collectively sang their odes.
However, having to praise the "Shadow Warrior" that looks so tired, and having to praise the more boring and tedious "Chaos", reporters and critics can't calm down in their hearts, fight indignantly in their minds, and accumulate depression that cannot be released. So, as soon as you see the failed passage of the interstitial story in "Dream", someone shoots the first shot, and others immediately echo the "this is a failed work" argument and attack it en masse.
Perhaps this is in line with the saying that "the father repays the debt" and "the Edo's revenge Nagasaki newspaper". I feel that they have recorded the failures of "Shadow Warrior" and "Chaos" that they have touted in Chinese words and beautiful sentences, and let the innocent "Dream" bear and repay.
I have reservations about such an interdependent and hostage-taking relationship between the media and filmmakers. I think, as critics, I hope they can give a more definite judgment of whether the work is positive or not.
For example, for Akira Kurosawa's "Chaos" and "Shadow Warrior", even if critics judge that this is a failed work, the general audience will understand "Ah, it is so", creating so many excellent works, it is not surprising that there are two failures once or twice, and still look forward to his next film.
However, the work that he finds boring and boring, and praises how interesting it is a masterpiece, the audience will not buy it, but will be extremely disappointed, will take such critics' praise as a flattery of Kurosawa, and the critic's defense of Kurosawa's ming dialect will cause the audience to dislike Kurosawa more strongly. The media had a great influence on Akira Kurosawa's work. The media trend around "Chaos" and "Shadow Warrior" has pushed a large number of Kurosawa film lovers to the side of Akira Kurosawa? I also have fans around me who like Akira Kurosawa, but it is really regrettable and frustrating that they have turned to anti-Kurosawa because of the relationship between these two films!
Shinobu Hashimoto (left) poses with Akira Kurosawa at the Hot Spring Inn in Atami in 1960
If you ask me which is the most interesting Akira Kurosawa movie, I will answer Seven Samurai without hesitation. If you ask me about my favorite Akira Kurosawa movie, I'll answer "Dream" without thinking, and I'll say:
"This work, as a suicide note from the film director, is unparalleled!"
From filmmaker to artist
In March 1995 ( Heisei 7 ) , Mr. Kurosawa fell ill while writing the screenplay for the film "The Rain Stopped" at the Kyoto Inn , and died on September 6 , 1000 .
In the process of writing the script, it can also be said that the artist has achieved what he wants, and he has no regrets.
Mr. Kurosawa died in the early autumn two years after the death of Master Kokoku, just like following in the footsteps of Master Shi to other realms.
So what kind of existence does Akira Kurosawa have for me?
Before summarizing this topic, let me list the works that document his footprints across fifty years.
Kurosawa has a total of thirty works, except for the early "Zi Sanshiro" and the sequel "Zi Sanshiro Sequel", each of which is very different, and there is no repetition or similarity at all. It's amazing that a director can make such a colorful and varied film. Each work has its own taste, and when viewed in its entirety, it is like a gorgeous and changeable kaleidoscope.
Akira Kurosawa's colorful sequence of works and the variety of different works show that as a film director and playwright, he has made a thorough attempt and full breakthrough in the diversification of his own works.
He would never have written two similar works. In order to implement the principle of diversity of works in this way, there is a need for many different drama teams, and the creative mode of "screenwriter first" and the opposite "one shot finalization" has been formed. It can even be said that Akira Kurosawa's transformation from a filmmaker to an artist is ultimately the result of his pursuit of the diversity of his works.
Like him, he bet all his bets on the material for each work with different interests, spared no effort to give it a go, and firmly and persistently pursued the diversity of works - these accumulations have formed his directorial path for nearly half a century, and finally reached the realm of "Dream" at the age of eighty.
Rashomon (1950)
In addition, the length of "Rashomon" is one hour and twenty-seven minutes, and "Seven Samurai" is three hours and twenty-seven minutes. The former is a short film of less than an hour and a half, and the latter is a feature film of more than three hours. Akira Kurosawa, who pursues diversity, breaks out of the framework of novella works (stories that begin and close) and has a more free vision. If the film industry itself had a strong and specific understanding of this sense of liberalization, his work history would have been more staggered, presenting a combination as gorgeous as a treasure inlay and a three-dimensional combination like a mountain and a low mountain.
The purpose of the national studio and the national cinema that I dreamed of was to wholeheartedly pursue the diversification and liberalization of cinema – this is my own thinking and desire to enter the film industry and after ten or twenty years of research. Perhaps to a large extent, this kind of thinking and longing stems from the influence of Akira Kurosawa's creative style.
There is only one Akira Kurosawa
I was at home in Tokyo, watching Chinese movies on TV, and my eldest daughter, who lived in an apartment, happened to come over to see me, and she told me:
"Dad, the director of this film, is known as Akira Kurosawa of China."
"Akira Kurosawa of China?"
At this time, the voice of the second daughter came from behind.
I live with my second daughter and their children.
"There are also directors in the Korean film industry who are known as Akira Kurosawa of South Korea."
"South Korea has it too." So Japan should also have Akira Kurosawa first and Akira Kurosawa second, right? ”
The two daughters looked at each other for a moment and tilted their heads to think. "Japan? Seems to have heard of... I can't remember, who is coming? There is a director who is considered to be the closest to Akira Kurosawa. ”
"It's amazing. Not only in Japan, but everywhere there are people who inherit the mantle of Akira Kurosawa. ”
Not only in Japan, but even in South Korea and China, there has been a domestic "Akira Kurosawa", which is not a small thing for the film industry. As someone who really knows Akira Kurosawa, I would like to give advice, or advice and ideas, to the shrewd producers who use this kind of kidnapping propaganda, the director himself who is revered as Akira Kurosawa's descendants, and to the people involved.
The picture composition is wonderful, the image is similar, and it will certainly make the movie attract attention. But it depends on the photographer's ability, and just a few beautiful pictures cannot be called Kurosawa Akira.
The condition for becoming Akira Kurosawa is, first of all, to have a superior sense and talent, and to be able to write a high-level film script. At the same time, there must be three or four screenwriters of the same high level around, and each work must form a team, and together with one or two of the main writers, write the same scene together on the same table, compare who writes better, and create like fierce competition. Then with this kind of script with a high degree of completion that uses a special writing method and has undergone double-eye examination, it is the basic condition for Kurosawa to be Akira Kurosawa.
It's easy to talk about it, but it's hard to achieve it. However, if we can overcome all kinds of difficulties and disadvantages, as long as the sense of trust and connection between co-creators is strong enough, it is not impossible to achieve it. But even with the hard work to overcome these things, there are still deficiencies.
This is whether each person has his own "masterpiece song".
"The song of the hand" is like the characteristic tone of the person's speech, and it is depressed. In fact, everyone has it, which refers to the same thing that the person has as if it were nature. The question is whether this "masterpiece" can be as deeply engaging, intoxicating and exciting as Akira Kurosawa's "masterpiece"?
Akira Kurosawa has his "masterpiece song".
He straightened his back and sat on the tatami mat, his eyes far away, singing while casually tapping the beat in his hand. The lyrics are in the Akita dialect with a strong local flavor, and we can't understand a word, but his voice is full of tension and texture. His words are clear, his singing voice is vivid and powerful, bright and cheerful, and the tune is good, but somewhere there is a vague sense of sorrow in the snow country - his "masterpiece" is "Akita Folk Song".
From "Zi Sanshiro" to "Sunset Love", he gave shape to the thirty works he directed, focusing on the power of life and soul - this is his "masterpiece".
There must be many people in this world who sing "Akita Folk Songs" better than him. But this has nothing to do with singing well or not, he sings "Akita Folk Songs", has his own unique "Kurosawa tune", only he can sing it.
In the future, excellent directors will continue to emerge. However, Akira Kurosawa has only one. There will never be a second or third Kurosawa Akira.
[Japanese] Shinobu Hashimoto, "The Reflection of the Compound Eye: Me and Akira Kurosawa", translated by Zhang Yanwen, Yazhong Culture, Beijing United Publishing Company, March 2020
(This article is published with the permission of the publishing house, edited / Li Yinan, reviewed / Ren Hui)