In the 1950s, the Western world mentioned Japan with only three words: Sony, Honda, and Akira Kurosawa. Spielberg said: "Akira Kurosawa was my initiator, shakespeare in film. Coppola said: "If I could make a movie with Akira Kurosawa, I'd rather be a little assistant." Márquez said: "Only Akira Kurosawa in the world can adapt 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'. ”
However, without those two people, Akira Kurosawa would most likely not have embarked on the path of cinema.
From left: Coppola, Akira Kurosawa, Spielberg
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Akira Kurosawa was born into a samurai family to an army instructor and a mother from a Osaka merchant. There are four older sisters and three older brothers, and he is the oldest in the family. Because of his weak physique and mental retardation, he is often bullied.
In elementary school, his classmates liked to pull his hair, stab him in the back, or wipe his nose on his suit, torturing him and crying many times. Seeing him crying, his classmates gave him a nickname: Shortening. Because there is a nursery rhyme in Japanese folklore: "The crispy candy in my family is too embarrassing for people, he goes from morning to night, and his tears do not dry." ”
Not only his classmates, but also his teachers made fun of him, deliberately using questions to make him difficult: "This should be difficult for Kurosawa Jun to answer, right?" It caused the whole class to snicker. Once in art class, the teacher asked everyone to sketch cosmos in a ceramic bottle. On a whim, he decided to ignore the cosmos, focusing on depicting the vase and emphasizing its shadow with a thick purple color, and then depicting the cosmos's light leaves as green smoke pellets.
After reading the homework, the teacher picked out Akira Kurosawa's drawing and pasted it next to the blackboard. He thought that the teacher wanted to praise him, and he was a little proud, but he did not expect the teacher to scold: "What is this shadow like?" Where is the shadow of this color? If someone says it's a cosmos leaf, he's either an asshole or a lunatic. ”
Akira Kurosawa froze, as if he had been hit hard.
Seeing that his brother was always shy, his brother Kurosawa couldn't help but count him down: "You guy is cowardly and incompetent, like a girl, it's really a waste." He was about to tell his mother about his brother's bullying, but he was stopped by his brother and was frightened: "If you dare to sue, I will be more energetic!" ”
But whenever a classmate bullied himself, his brother would catch up when he saw it and shouted: "Xiaoming! ”
As soon as the lower students saw Kurosawa Bingwu, they immediately retreated in fright. With his brother to support him, Kurosawa was very happy, and ran over to him and asked, "What's the matter?" Unexpectedly, my brother threw down the sentence "Nothing" and strode away.
Similar things happened repeatedly, and Kurosawa's confused brain began to think: What is the intention of his brother to count himself mercilessly on the road and actively protect himself in school? Soon after, he felt that his brother's sarcasm was no longer so harsh and could be listened to.
With his brother as the backing, Kurosawa cried less often, and his classmates gradually stopped calling him "crispy candy" and changed his name to "Little Black".
In addition to schoolwork, my father also let the brothers go outside to practice swimming. However, Akira Kurosawa was very afraid of the water, and it took several days to go down to the navel, which made the swimming teacher very angry.
Compared with the timid Kurosawa Akira, the brother is very brave and has first-class swimming results. One day, his brother came to Akira Kurosawa with a small boat and asked him to get on the boat. When Kurosawa got on the boat, his brother shook vigorously toward the river, and then coldly pushed him into the water.
Akira Kurosawa rowed desperately, trying to get close to the boat. When he rowed to the front of the boat, but his brother rowed the boat away, and when he saw that he was about to sink to the bottom, the brother grabbed his crotch cloth and pulled him to the boat. After repeating this several times, Akira Kurosawa was no longer afraid of the water and liked swimming.
Right: Akira Kurosawa, left: Kurosawa
At the end of elementary school, Akira Kurosawa was selected to read the graduation speech on behalf of the boys in the class. The content is written by the teacher, and the whole text praises the teacher's grace with flowery words.
Akira Kurosawa went home with mixed feelings and showed his brother the reply. After the brother read it, he kneaded it into a ball and threw it out: "Xiaoming, don't read it." Akira Kurosawa was taken aback and was about to speak. The brother said, "Isn't it just an answer?" I'll write it to you, and you read this I wrote. ”
The content of the reply written by the brother was extremely spicy, not only scolding the hard-to-change primary school education, but also mocking the mechanical stereotyped teacher, saying that Akira Kurosawa's days in elementary school were like a nightmare, and he could freely have funny dreams in the future.
Kurosawa felt extremely happy to read it, but at the graduation ceremony, seeing the crowd of people and the solemn father, he pinched the answer written by his brother in his pocket, and did not have the courage to take it out.
Back at home after the ceremony, my father said, "Xiaoming, today's answer is quite good." From this sentence, the brother guessed how Kurosawa Akira did it, and smiled at him slightly. Kurosawa was embarrassed and thought, "I'm such a coward." ”
Soon after, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck Japan. As soon as the fire caused by the earthquake was brought under control, his brother dragged Akira Kurosawa to see the scene of the disaster area. Initially, only a few charred bodies were seen occasionally, but the closer you got to the civilian area, the more horrible the bodies became. There were burned, half-charred, dead in the gutters, floating on the river, and some sitting on the bridge cuddling each other.
Akira Kurosawa was in pain and weak. When he was about to fall, he was grabbed by his brother and lifted up: "Take a good look at it, Xiaoming!" ”
He had to grit his teeth and look. There was a charred corpse sitting quietly, like a Buddha statue. The brother stood for a long time, looked at it intently, and said to himself, "Death is solemn!" Akira Kurosawa nodded silently.
At the end of this terrible hike, Akira Kurosawa thought that night he would have trouble falling asleep or having nightmares. But unexpectedly, as soon as the head touched the pillow, it was the next morning. He slept soundly, not even dreaming, let alone nightmares.
Kurosawa thought this was strange and asked his brother what the reason was. The brother said: "In the face of terrible things, if you close your eyes and dare not look at it, you will feel that it is terrible." ”
Young Akira Kurosawa
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Kurosawa was a film fan, and when he was a student, he used various pseudonyms to submit articles to film publications. He was particularly interested in foreign films, and often dragged Akira Kurosawa along to a cinema far away in Asakusa.
In order to wait for the preferential fare at night, the two saw that it was very late before returning home. After returning home, he was inevitably reprimanded by his father. After graduating, Kurosawa became a professional narrator for silent films. Akira Kurosawa often sees his brother's name in newspaper movie theater advertisements.
Later, with the advent of sound films, the era of silent films came to an end, and the narrator's job was threatened. In order to survive, as the chairman of the strike committee, Kurosawa often had to organize parades. He gradually developed a world-weary mood: "I will die before the age of thirty, and once I am thirty years old, people can only become ugly." ”
His mother was worried about Kurosawa and asked Kurosawa to comfort him. But Kurosawa Akira did not do the same thing: "The more people who can't move to mention death, the more they can't die." ”
Unexpectedly, a few months later, my brother committed suicide in the compartment of a hot spring hotel. Kurosawa regrets it and scolds himself as an out-and-out idiot.
After the death of his brother, in order to take on the responsibilities of his children, Kurosawa ended his idle life and began to consider serious work. He was 26 years old and saw in the newspaper that P. C.L Film Studios (the predecessor of Toho Film Company) recruited an advertisement for an assistant director and went to apply.
In the first round of the exam, candidates submit a thesis entitled "Enumerating and Discussing the Fundamental Flaws of Japanese Cinema and How to Correct Them." Akira Kurosawa found this topic interesting, and under the influence of his brother, he felt that European and American films were more playful and chewy than Japanese films, so he wrote out his dissatisfaction with Japanese films.
A few months later, he received a reply that he had passed the exam and could go to the second round of the test. The studio's yard was packed with hundreds of candidates, but only five people were finally admitted. Seeing that the exam content was a movie script, Akira Kurosawa felt that he had no hope of being selected.
He never wrote a script, but used it as a way to paint, presenting the plot and atmosphere he wanted to express.
At lunchtime, he made small talk with a man next to him. From the film to painting and music, from Van Gogh to Haydn and Tetsuzai. Unconsciously, the sky darkened, and Kurosawa hurried to catch the bus home.
A month later, he unexpectedly received an acceptance letter and became an assistant director of Kajiro Yamamoto, with a salary of 28 yuan per month. Seeing Mr. Yamamoto himself, he suddenly realized that the other party was the object of small talk at lunch that day.
The assistant director admitted this time, one graduate of Tokyo University, Beijing University, Kyoda University, and Early University, and one is a "strange" person, Akira Kurosawa. Maybe it was Mr. Yamamoto who secretly tested him that day, and he was lucky enough to pass the level.
Left: Makiaki, Right: Kajiro Yamamoto
The assistant director's work is very hard, often working until late at night, and when Kurosawa feels sleepy, he wets his eyelids with saliva and keeps himself going.
Despite his hard work, he was disciplined by Mr. Yamamoto from time to time. Once, a sign hanging on a certain set had a strange character on it. An actor asked Akira Kurosawa what the word was. Kurosawa didn't recognize it either, so he casually said, "It's selling medicine." ”
Kajiro Yamamoto angrily corrected him: "That's a sign selling incense bags, you can't talk casually!" Akira Kurosawa froze.
Another time, Kurosawa forgot the names of the extras and shouted, "Hey, that girl in red come over." ”
Mr. Yamamoto snapped again, "Kurosawa Jun, that's not okay." ”
At this time, Kurosawa Akira found that every time Mr. Yamamoto wanted to make a request to the extras, he would check the name of the other party in advance, and then said: "So-and-so Jun, please how." ”
In this way, the unknown young actor will also feel that he is valued, and then redouble his efforts to perform. Akira Kurosawa was impressed and determined to learn from Kajiro Yamamoto.
Once, Yamamoto asked Akira Kurosawa to write a scene in which the protagonist told his friends about the contents of the billboard. Kurosawa writes that the protagonist himself reads the text on the decree and then turns to his friends to tell the story.
Yamamoto read it and immediately changed it to: The protagonist pulled out the billboard and carried it back, threw it at his partner, and said: Look at this!
Akira Kurosawa was surprised to read it. Yamamoto warned Akira Kurosawa that if he wanted to be a director, he would have to learn to write a script first. After that, even if he was busy at work, every night before lying down, Kurosawa would pick up a pen and paper. "Even if you can only write one page a day, you can write a three-hundred-and-sixty-five-page script in a year."
When Akira Kurosawa was able to write a script, Yamamoto asked him to edit it. Kurosawa always reluctantly cut the film he had worked hard to make, but Yamamoto always happily walked into the editing room and said, "Kurosawa Jun, I thought about it last night, and the front half of the scene can be removed." ”
Akira Kurosawa was upset and felt that Mr. Yamamoto, who was in the editing room, was no different from a murderer. But he also gradually understood that movies are the art of time, so useless time should be deleted.
Once, he was trying to edit a movie in which a mare rushed out of the stable like a madman in search of a foal that had been sold by its owner. Akira Kurosawa was distressed by the mare, and retained its movements and looks when editing. However, when I watched it again, I couldn't achieve the desired effect.
Just when Kurosawa was feeling annoyed, Yamamoto said, "Kurosawa Jun, what you want here is not a plot, it should be a feeling of sorrow." Kurosawa woke up and immediately removed the movements and expressions, just connecting the long-range shots together to present a mare running aimlessly in the cold moonlight.
As he gradually mastered editing, Yamamoto told him that the film was the result of multiplying images and sounds, and then gave all the post-dubbing work for the movie "Love of Fujishiro" to Akira Kurosawa.
Kurosawa worked hard, but after handing over the results, he was beaten back by Yamamoto and returned to work from scratch. He felt that he had made trouble in public, and after calming down, he picked up a roll of film and looked at it over and over again, fixing it one by one.
Yamamoto looked at the revised sample and just said plainly, "OK." ”
Akira Kurosawa was disappointed that he did not receive the award. Who knew that when the film reception was held, Yamamoto's wife said to Akira Kurosawa: "He is very happy, saying that Kurosawa Jun can write a script, and he can entrust the director's work, editing, post-dubbing, all the lines, you can rest assured." ”
Akira Kurosawa blushed and thought, "For Mr. Yamamoto, I will continue to fight!" ”
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During the years he followed Kajiro Yamamoto, Akira Kurosawa was promoted from third deputy director to first deputy director and was able to work in various departments. He felt like he was running uphill in one sitting.
After graduating from Yamamoto, Akira Kurosawa began preparing for his directorial debut, Zi Sanshiro. The first time he became a director, he was a little frightened, so he took the finished script and went to visit Yamamoto.
At that time, Yamamoto Kajiro was working on another film, and his work was very intense. After knowing Kurosawa's intentions, he simply said two words of greeting and let him go back to the dormitory to wait. Soon, he was told that he would not come back until late.
Kurosawa waited until eleven o'clock in the night, and when he was tired, he lay down and fell asleep. When he woke up in the middle of the night and found that the lights in Yamamoto's room were on, he looked through the gap: Mr. Yamamoto was sitting on a futon, reading his script one by one, and from time to time turning back the parts he had read and rereading them.
The scene was very quiet, only the sound of turning the book rustled. Akira Kurosawa wanted to knock on the door and said, "Tomorrow morning you still have work, you are tired enough, please rest." "But without knowing why, he didn't do it.
In hindsight, it was probably because "Mr. Yamamoto's demeanor was so solemn that no one dared to come near it." With this "Zi Sanshiro", Akira Kurosawa officially embarked on the road of directing.
Soon, Toho recruited a new actor, and Kajiro Yamamoto dug up a new man named Toshiro Mifune. Mifune plays a rogue leader in Yamamoto's "The Age of The New Bastards", revealing his fierceness in his dashing. After watching this film, Kurosawa admired Mifune's acting skills and simply chose him as the protagonist of his director's "Drunken Angel".
Left: Akira Kurosawa, Right: Toshiro Mifune
The attempt was so successful that Mifune became Akira Kurosawa's muse.
The duo's subsequent collaboration, Rashomon, won the Venice Golden Lion, the first time an Asian film had won the honor, and the following year won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune became Japan's most successful golden duo. In the following years, the two successively filmed movies such as "Seven Samurai", "Spider's Nest City", "Warring States Heroes", "Heaven and Hell", and launched the name of "Kurosawa of the World, the Three Ships of the World".
Others say that Kurosawa is wise and knows pearls, but Kurosawa does not think so. "It was Mr. Yamamoto who found Mifune's piece of material, but I just saw this and let Mifune give full play to his talents."
Toshiro Mifune in Rashomon
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Akira Kurosawa is known as the Emperor of Japanese Cinema, but his glory did not last. In the 1960s, when the Japanese economy recovered, television sets entered the homes of ordinary people, causing a huge impact on the film industry.
In 1965, Japanese cinemas were only one-third as many as they were in their heyday. That year, Akira Kurosawa's filming of "Red Beard" was seriously overspended, and he had to sell his family's antiques, jewelry, and land to barely finish the film, resulting in a dismal box office.
Many Japanese directors know they can no longer count on the domestic market and start looking for foreign investors. As it happens, Twentieth Century Fox Pictures is preparing to shoot the war blockbuster Tiger! tiger! tiger! , an invitation was issued to Akira Kurosawa.
Akira Kurosawa gladly accepted, and vowed at the launch press conference: "I want to make an enduring movie that will be left for future generations." ”
After the press conference, many friends, family and industry insiders came to visit Akira Kurosawa's mansion in Tokyo. Akira Kurosawa was in a very good mood, taking a big drink and talking until late at night. "If I don't shoot well, I'll smash the window of the plane and jump into the Hawaiian sea."
A year and eight months later, Akira Kurosawa revised it 27 times and finally finished the script. He called it his "Sisyphus asceticism."
Unexpectedly, after the official start of filming, he has always been fine-grained in the rhythm of filming, and the fast pace of Hollywood industrialization is difficult to run. Many Akira Kurosawa's insistence on film quality is seen as unreasonable.
Akira Kurosawa wanted to give the role of a senior admiral to a man from the Navy to maximize the realism of the film. In order to let the ordinary actors find their feelings, he asked the staff to make musical and salutation gestures when the actors entered the studio. The staff felt superfluous and showed strong dissatisfaction.
This was Akira Kurosawa's first time shooting a large-scale color film, and he always felt that the color of the background wall was wrong, so he asked the staff to paint it repeatedly. The staff brushed several times but it was not in line with Kurosawa's wishes, so he simply picked up the pick and did not dry, kurosawa had to pick up the brush and dry it himself.
When I used to be an assistant director, if the film didn't go well, Yamamoto would invite him out for a drink. In a shop where you can overlook the harbor in the distance, stay until dawn. When the sun rises the next day, the bitterness in my heart will be reduced a little.
But at this time, Kurosawa Akira had no friend who could borrow wine to pour sorrow, so he had to drink alone.
In the fast-paced work mode, he is mentally stressed. Sometimes they would come to the shooting scene with a hangover and play with the staff. On one occasion, he fired the staff for not wearing overalls, leading to a collective strike on the set.
In fact, from the beginning of being an assistant director, Kurosawa's temper was very hot. At one point, because the actors were late, the film couldn't start on time. When the actors rushed to the scene, before Yamamoto Couldjiro could say anything, Akira Kurosawa unceremoniously fired: "The schedule is not set to make everyone late!" "Scared the other party's atmosphere also dare not come out."
Another time, the sound recordist wanted to record the sound of hitting people's heads, but the crew tried to hit a lot of things, and it was always not OK. Akira Kurosawa, who was anxious to wait, was furious and punched the microphone hard. At this time, the blue light that showed OK actually lit up.
Kajiro Yamamoto was very worried about this, and called Akira Kurosawa to teach: "You must not be angry, you must not be stubborn to the end." Akira Kurosawa ostensibly agreed, but in fact he couldn't do it. After taking an X-ray of the cerebral blood vessels, I learned that his cerebral arteries were curved. This abnormality is congenital, and doctors diagnose it as a kind of epilepsy.
Tiger! tiger! tiger! During the filming of the film, Akira Kurosawa's illness became more severe. Many people say that he has paranoia about being persecuted. Seeing the extras wandering around the set, he feared that the other side would attack his hooligans, asked the crew to equip themselves with helmets and bodyguards, and also implemented a 24-hour vigil in the lounge. When he woke up in the middle of the night and found that there was no bodyguard, he ordered his assistant to break the glass window of the photography studio to show his anger, and all kinds of actions made Fox feel embarrassed.
One morning, Akira Kurosawa suddenly fainted on the shooting scene and was urgently admitted to the Kyoto University Hospital, resulting in a delay in filming. When the delay reached day 10, Fox decided to fire Akira Kurosawa.
Kurosawa listened to the notice conveyed by the interpreter, was silent for a long time, slowly got up, muttered something at the corner of his mouth, and disappeared behind the room curtain.
The translator looked at Akira Kurosawa's back, froze for a long time, and then reacted and translated Akira Kurosawa's words to Fox's people: "If you want to fire me no matter what, then I will cut my stomach and die." ”
Fox did not change his decision, or dismissed him.
Disappointed, Akira Kurosawa used his mansion as collateral to shoot the color film "TramMania", but the box office results were a failure. People say that Akira Kurosawa's era is over, and newspapers have published news that Akira Kurosawa is "crazy" and "difficult to return to the peak".
In the darkness, Akira Kurosawa seems to have followed the old path of his brother Kurosawa. None of them can find their place in the turn of the times.
In 1971, Akira Kurosawa, 61, attempted suicide at home. When he was found in the bathroom, he had 5 cuts on his neck, 6 cuts on his right hand, and 10 cuts on his left hand. The news shocked the world.
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Kurosawa, who attempted suicide, received an olive branch from the Soviet Union the following year, Delsu Uzara. The Soviet producers agreed to pay a hefty budget of $4 million, unlike Tiger! tiger! tiger! They were willing to give Akira Kurosawa enough leadership.
Akira Kurosawa, who had walked through the ghost gate, decided to take advantage of this opportunity. However, this trip will work in the Soviet Union for at least more than a year.
He was worried that the elderly and sick Mr. Yamamoto would not be able to get out of his way if he had a good villain, so he went to see him with a heavy heart.
Kajiro Yamamoto, who was sick on his sickbed, raised his spirits and asked, "How about the assistant director on the Soviet side?" ”
Kurosawa's heart tightened, and he did not expect that Mr. Yamamoto was still thinking about the assistant director's question at this time, and quickly replied: "Good man, he wrote everything I said in the book, he will do a good job." ”
Kajiro Yamamoto smiled, "It's not enough to just write your words down in the book as an assistant director." ”
In order to reassure the teacher, Kurosawa Akira told a little lie: "Sir, although rest assured, people seem to be too good, and the work is quite serious." ”
After asking the assistant director's question, Yamamoto Kajiro suddenly talked about a nearby restaurant that specializes in traditional chicken vegetarian yaki, so Akira Kurosawa must try it and tell him the detailed address of the restaurant. Then I remembered that when they used to work together, they used to go to the restaurant where they used to eat goulash.
Akira Kurosawa thought to himself: Mr. Yamamoto obviously has no appetite, but he is excited to talk about these things, probably hoping to send me away happily.
Later, while filming Delsu Uzara in the Soviet Union, Akira Kurosawa did receive an obituary from Kajiro Yamamoto.
When the funeral took place, he was unable to rush back to Japan. I could only shoot a movie while thinking, "If I were in Japan, I would write a heavy eulogy."
Perhaps in honor of Yamamoto, Akira Kurosawa worked harder to make movies. Delsu Uzara won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, giving Akira Kurosawa a new international reputation.
In the next few years, he ushered in another peak of his life with a series of movies such as "Shadow Warrior", "Chaos" and "Dream". Not only did it win the Cannes Palme d'Or, but it also broke the Japanese box office record at the time.
In 1990, the Oscars awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Akira Kurosawa. He is the first Asian filmmaker to win this award and the third in the world. He should have been very happy, looking around and feeling that someone was missing from the audience.
Akira Kurosawa received the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement
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Until the age of Hanako, Kurosawa would still think about a problem: if his brother did not commit suicide and entered the film industry like him, he would not be worse than himself.
Three days before his brother committed suicide, he invited Akira Kurosawa to a meal. The impact of his brother's death on Akira Kurosawa was so great that he could not remember where he had eaten the meal. But the scene of saying goodbye to his brother that day, he remembered it clearly.
They broke up at Shin-Okubo Station.
"Take a taxi home." After the brother said this, he walked up the steps of the station, and Akira Kurosawa got into a taxi.
The car was just about to leave when my brother ran down the steps again and stopped the car. Akira Kurosawa got out of the car, walked up to him and asked, "What's the matter?" ”
The brother looked at him intently for a moment, then said, "Nothing.
......
Some references:
[1] "The Oil of the Toad", Akira Kurosawa
[2] Akira Kurosawa vs. Hollywood, Hiroshi Tabakusa
[3] 110 Years of Japanese Cinema, Shikatada Inuhiko
[4] Akira Kurosawa and Fate, Southern People Weekly
#Akira Kurosawa Movie # # Japanese Navy # Toshiro Mifune # # Showa Monogatari # #莎士比亚 #