The Beauty of "Killing": Where does Soul of Tsushima's understanding of "Kurosawa-style aesthetics" come from? Staged battle scenes, all "killing" kills and "Seven Samurai": Kurosawa's immortal works In addition to "Seven Samurai", what other "killings" of Akira Kurosawa are worth watching? Each has its own advantages: the beauty of the "killing array" essence of other sword and halberd films that are worth recommending is not easy to understand, and it is even more difficult to pass on

Author: Monsterday

Last year, when "Only Wolf" was on fire, the machine core produced an issue from "Only Wolf Shadow Passed Away twice", talking about the swordsman image in cultural works | The radio program of GCORES mentioned the "Killing Array", a rather Japanese form of confrontation mode, but it is a pity that several teachers did not expand on this topic at that time.

In fact, "killing" can be said to be a very important link in Japanese period dramas and sword and sword films, and its concept is probably equivalent to Chinese's dedication to martial arts scenes. In the Japanese film industry, there is a special position called "陣師(たてし)", which is basically equivalent to the "martial arts director" of domestic action movies, specializing in the design and arrangement of actor action and slashing scenes in sword and sword films and other films related to costume martial arts. There is no "killing" in the period drama, just as it is inconceivable that there is no song and dance in the Bollywood film, and at the same time, it is also one of the symbols of cultural export.

In the recent Souls of Tsushima, there is a special "Kurosawa mode" to allow players to experience the "killing look and feel from the era of black and white films of the last century" in the game. From this point of view, the core of the machine in the game's forward period to give the scale of evaluation restraint, details carefully, "Soul of Tsushima" with a limited volume to express the understanding of the sword blade | The core GCORES is indeed in place. As a low-end layman of the "Killing Array", I also intend to talk about the connection between "Tsushima" and "Killing Array" without my own strength.

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >what is a "kill"? Staged battle scenes are all "killing squads"</h1>

If the term 陣 (たて) is to be traced back, it probably can be traced back to the development of Noh drama in the Edo period. However, when it comes to war scenes in Kabuki, it is necessary for the actors to show various forms on the stage, such as one husband and wife, one enemy and many enemies, group fighting, etc., which is similar to the "fighting" of "singing and doing fighting" in Peking Opera.

Stills of peking opera "Changsakapo", the pursuit of martial arts forms is also an important part of Peking opera

The eleventh generation of Ichikawa Kailaozo performed "Humpback City", and the scene of the killing was also very exciting

According to records, the use of "殺陣(たて)" to indicate a martial arts scene was probably in Edo in 1820, and "立ち回り" or "殺陣" gradually became a proper noun for describing martial arts scenes in drama. According to personal understanding, "立ち回り" is mostly used to represent a 1V1 duel between samurai, with the meaning of testing each other and circling each other, and it is more suitable for drawing a sword to determine life and death, and a five-step scene of blood spattering with one blow; "killing" is used to represent the scene where the protagonist faces a large number of enemies, usually accompanied by dazzling sword skills, and killing many people between lightning stones and fires, which makes the audience shout and cheer. However, there is no essential difference between the two in terms of meaning, so there is nothing wrong with a pure duel between two people called a killing.

After the Meiji Restoration, with the rapid modernization of Japan, the "era novel" featuring the ronin heroes of the shogunate period became a hot form of cultural and entertainment consumption in society. From Taisho to the early Showa period, with the release and serialization of swordsman novels such as Nakasato Sukezan's "Great Bodhisattva Ridge" and Lin Bu's "Tenshita Left Meal", people lingered on the killing stories full of swords and light sword shadows for a while. At that time, film companies such as Dongya, Nihwa, Toho, etc. were looking for such themes, and the action scenes with rich dramas were even more addictive. As a result, the tradition of "killing the array" performance in Japanese sword and halberd films has been rooted and has continued to improve with the evolution of the times.

"Tange Zuo Shan" was more popular than imagined at the time, and there were three film companies that shot more than a dozen films at the same time, after the war

Limited to the film shooting techniques and performance methods at that time, the performance of "killing" at that time was still very rough. At the same time, due to the maturity of the actor team and the inheritance of the scene mobilization methodology, the grasp of "killing" is obviously better than that of the film. In 1936, the performance of the new national drama "Killing The Village" marked the peak of the killing art of stage drama. To this day, it is still one of the classic plays in Japan.

Toei Kenkai's "Killing The Village of The Array" is a reserved play, which can be seen in the Taiqin Ying Painting Village

After Japan's defeat in the war, stage dramas gradually declined due to the withering of talent, while sword and sword films flourished because a group of directors who had experienced war and had reflected on the art and humanity of film came into the room. This must mention director Akira Kurosawa, who brought Japanese sword films to the world stage, and many of the scenes we see in "Soul of Tsushima" are SP's acts of paying tribute to Japanese sword and blade culture through his understanding of sword and blade films.

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > kills with Seven Samurai: Akira Kurosawa's immortal work</h1>

Although the elements of the early sword and sword films basically came from Hollywood at that time, after the war, Japanese creators recognized the characteristics of their own people, and then combined historical characteristics and cultural symbols into the era drama, but created a unique taste, and then the world to imitate the style. Akira Kurosawa's achievements as a director are beyond doubt, and more importantly, he has integrated Japanese cultural elements into modern forms of expression through his works, making the whole world realize the charm of Japanese sword and sword films, the first of which is the famous "Seven Samurai".

If one ignores the first killing scene taken from the story of Sword Saint Izumi Nobutsune saving children (because it is a samurai who uses a scheme to kill thieves, not a showdown), the use of the killing array in "Seven Samurai" can be said to be very restrained, and it is not until the 45th minute of the whole film, when Kuzo, the highest of the seven martial artists, appears, showing the samurai's understanding of the realm of swordplay with a very standard "Tachibana Hui" (立ち回り).

Throughout the ages, people who do not measure up to their own strength and die have always been the successors of the servants

It's cold

Like the main theme of the film, although "Seven Samurai" is based on the fate of the samurai, its core is to fall on the era and history, rather than indulging in the indiscriminate pursuit of samurai and sword skills, which is very different from the goals of many pre-war sword films. It is precisely for this reason that the limited killing scenes in "Seven Samurai", due to its careful choreography and design, its rationality, the fluency and tension of the battle have become classics beyond the times.

The scene of the duel between Kuzo and the Ronin Swordsman we mentioned above may look slightly old or even not surprising to today's audience, but if you look closely, you will find that it uses a large number of interspersed lenses of different camera positions, and has an extremely rich and evocative portrayal of the panorama, the middle scene, the two sides of the duel, the audience, and the action details, which invisibly brings the audience a strong and tense sense of oppression, and is also full of curiosity and expectation for this duel. This also makes the original often reduced to "the layman can't see the bustle, the insider can't see the doorway" has become a famous scene that people constantly recall and deserve to experience repeatedly.

True sword battle, the beginning of tragedy

Challenges that do not measure up to their own strength, especially the use of panoramic views to collect all the people in the scene, can pay attention to the reaction of the spectators behind

A bystander's perspective

From the middle scene to one of them, the color of the inner circle and the actual heart are revealed without a doubt

The young people who were watching the battle were still ignorant and ignorant, and the elderly had already seen the end

One hit! The moment of lightning stone fire in the killing array determines fate

Katsushiro (Little Five), a young man who had never seen life or death, was shocked

The aftermath of the duel, running to see the lively people, the side sets off the power of this elaborate "killing"

This classic "kill storytelling" method has been used continuously since

If you look closely at "Seven Samurai", you will find that in the film, most of the scenes about the display of martial arts are completed by Kuzo, not only because he is strong in martial arts in the setting, which is a representative of traditional samurai virtues, but also because the design of a large number of duel scenes focuses on the typical Japanese combat beauty of rabbits rising and falling, instantly dividing victory and defeat. For example, after the mountain thief was killed for a period of time, it took a very long time to lay out the tense atmosphere of "mountain rain coming" before the battle, but the final outcome was also completed in a split second.

Meditation between the flowers before the killing, typical Japanese aesthetic

Ignoring the monkey Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), Kuzo took the knife and fell as a result of the two of them for two seconds (including chase)

But on the large-scale "killing" initiative, the most exciting scene of "Seven Samurai" is undoubtedly the final thirteen horsemen who are lured into the village and fight a great showdown in the fierce wind and rain. Different from the traditional samurai duel scene, among the desperate mountain thieves and disorganized villagers, the old samurai who stood firmly was the old samurai who was calm and old, and he who commanded Ruo Ding finally decided the success or failure of the battle. The death of Kuzo and Kikuchiyo in battle is also quite tragic, but it is very different from the traditional way of dying "like cherry blossoms scattered".

Akira Kurosawa's greatest contribution to "killing" is his extremely rigorous scheduling and scene control capabilities. The setting of artificial rain and muddy scenes makes the film completely surpass the stage play in the expressiveness of the killing array. At the same time, the big scene seems to be disorganized, but in fact it is orderly, and the scene of the annihilation of the thirteen horses is divided into several paragraphs, each of which is dominated by a samurai as the core character, starting with the chase and ending with the killing of the mountain thief, completely connecting the entire huge "killing array", interspersed with the ups and downs of the samurai's fate, tightly holding the attention of all the audience, and the tension is so tight that it is impossible to breathe.

These outstanding performance abilities are completely impossible for the art form of stage plays, and they also make "Seven Samurai" an immortal masterpiece passed down from generation to generation.

The final killing squad in the rain begins with six knives on the mound, plus the Notai knife in Kikuchiyo's hand, heralding the final showdown between the seven

Thirteen rides into the village, and Kikuchiyo slashes and kills three people and breaks the knife, opening the prelude to the killing

The shooting of the two men by the guards in the killing center is a beautiful highlight moment

Shimura Joe's calm and calm spirit is the atmospheric tone of the whole film

The young samurai Xiao Wu went to battle for the first time to kill people, and his mentality was on the verge of collapse

Shichiroji assassinates the Fallen Mountain Thief and lights up the lucky gunners

Kuzo, the highest martial artist, killed the deputy chief of the mountain thief

Kuzo was shot, and before he died, he threw his knife to indicate the enemy's position, pushing the tragic feeling of killing the array to a climax

Kikuchiyo was shot, but still struggled to assassinate the enemy chieftain, and died with the enemy

In the end, the unmounted warhorse galloped through the rain, ending the entire killing

The final killing design of "Seven Samurai" can be called unprecedented, and the latecomers have all hit the knot

The slaughter ended, with only three of the seven samurai remaining, and the mountain thieves were annihilated

The success of "Seven Samurai" not only laid the tone of the sword and sword film in the new era, but also made the Western film industry realize the unique beauty and grandeur of the samurai theme. As a result, Samurai and Katana have become one of the favorite topics of the filmmakers, just like "Westerns", as if they have unlimited magic, tempting people to constantly explore the value contained in them. The design philosophy and aesthetic concept of "killing" have also spread and are constantly being carried forward.

Interestingly, when Japanese sword films began to develop, it was Westerns that guided the concept of the Japanese film industry forward; in Kurosawa's time, sword films in turn created decisive conceptual inputs to Westerns. Leaving aside for a moment a series of storms such as the infringement of "Heart Stick", even after Akira Kurosawa, the Western reference to samurai themes and the study of "killing" are still innumerable.

In "Soul of Tsushima", the producer Sucker Punch made it clear that the player's uncle, the character of "Shimura" (pronounced Shimura in English, the pronunciation of Shimura's surname) in Tsushima, is paying tribute to the great actor Mr. Shimura Joe.

Your uncle

The appearance of Shimura Qiao (Kanbei) in "Seven Samurai", the comparison between the two can be said to be quite impressive

<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > What other "kills" of Akira Kurosawa are worth watching in addition to Seven Samurai? </h1>

As we all know, in addition to "Seven Samurai", "Tsubaki Sanjuro", "Rashomon", "Heart Stick", "Spider's Nest City", "Shadow Warrior" and so on are all famous articles by Akira Kurosawa. If you just want to tell the story of a pure samurai warrior, how would Akira Kurosawa choose between "killing"? The answer is that different protagonists will have different approaches, but the scenes are all equally classic and impressive.

If you only watch the first 90 minutes of "Tsubaki Sanjuro", you may think of this story as a comedy, the ronin samurai Tsubaki Sanro played by Toshiro Mifune, although carrying a knife is very similar, the whole film has been using pits to deceive and do things, and it is full of joy, it is simply a textbook scum in the name of a samurai.

However, in the final minutes, his duel with Tatsuya Nakadai completely overturns all the impressions that the audience has made in front of him, and his martial arts are beyond imagination. The killing was a standard "Tachibana Hui" design, and the two were only half an arm apart, and Mifune Toshiro's left hand drawing the knife and his right hand pushing the blade needed to be played back frame by frame to see. The boldness of "one blow must be killed" and the massive amount of blood spurted by Zhongdai Da ya made this duel so thrilling. The whole process of "killing" is completed with a medium-shot long shot, and the actor's skills and the director's design ability are vividly displayed.

In "Heart Stick", the first "killing trap" between heart stick and rogue came without warning and was cleanly received. After the two sides mouthed trolls at each other, they threw a sentence with a stick, "It hurts to be cut", and then suddenly the sword fell in their hands, showing the characteristics of this fallen samurai's fierce mouth. Three knives down, took two and a half lives, and turned around and even did things in the underworld, which can be said to be the ultimate bridge section in the "Japanese Western".

In the end, the duel between the heart stick and the ugly Yin gang is full of ritual and fatalism, so that the design of this "killing squad" has been repeatedly studied and borrowed by almost all films with heroic chivalry at home and abroad. The so-called "noon has arrived" is probably this feeling. Facing the opponent's pistol with a stick of heart (it is Also Nakadai Tatsuya, it is simply a professional cut), first throwing out the rib difference and stabbing the wrist, and then like a tiger into the flock, chopping melons and cutting vegetables, it results in all opponents, which is very addictive. After explaining the fate of all the characters in the play, he cut the rope that bound the old man with a knife with a stick, and the knife flew away into the sheath, just in response to "killing one person in ten steps, not staying for a thousand miles; the matter was whisked away, and the merit and name were hidden."

Therefore, it is no wonder that "Red Dead Redemption" has to copy "Heart Stick" from beginning to end not only the story but also the story and composition, because it is true that these two words are written like this.

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > have their own advantages: other sword pieces are recommended "kill" essences</h1>

In the heyday of Japanese sword and sword films, in addition to Akira Kurosawa, the "killing squad" scene design of other directors also showed a profound aesthetic foundation and design ideas, so that later Generations of Western films, Hong Kong films and other genre films continue to learn and emulate.

Unlike Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi is a very typical director who expresses Japanese aesthetics with Japanese thinking. The killing scenes he designed for Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakayo in The Sword of Death portray the persistence, concentration, and martial arts of the two samurai in the constant transitions between mid-shots, panoramas, and close-ups.

In "Cut belly", which reveals the hypocrisy and hollowness of the concept of "Bushido", tatsuya Nakayo and Tetsuro Tanba's "killing" design is equally thrilling. Through the dead and silent cemetery, stepping on the deserted country road, Xiao Xiao's desolate ridge, the wind and strong grass, the old ronin Jinyun Hanshiro and the young and vigorous opponent White Blade intersected, but did not meet his sharp edge, but used his rich experience in the battle to interrupt the opponent's blade to determine victory or defeat, laying a surprising ending.

This face design actually has the taste of Tatsuya Nakadai...

Of course, with the development of the times, the old-fashioned sword and sword films have become more and more unable to meet the standards of moviegoers who pursue fresh excitement. As a result, the need for innovation in "killing" has become increasingly urgent. Here I especially agree with the concept of "entertainment inflation" mentioned by the teacher of "Only Wolf" radio: when people see knives and blood, they have to see more knives and more blood, so that the stimulation comes faster, the frequency is higher, and the content is more exciting. Under the stimulation of this constantly raising threshold, the sword blade also has to take its own life. As a result, "killing" also developed rapidly from one-to-one to one-to-many or many-to-many. Of course, the ability to dispatch and control like Akira Kurosawa is not available to everyone, but to make the scene look good, it is still a good trick.

As Japan's "preserved legend", the blind humpback market is almost always a popular theme for oral performances, stages, and films and television. Here it is necessary to mention the "Humpback City Story" series, "blind professional" Katsu Shintaro has basically tried all types of "killing" in 26 movies, interpreting a blind swordsman with a cane hiding a knife and a counter-hand. Deep streets and alleys, high moon black wind, geisha red face, sword light sword shadow, the head of the enemy in the big battle is like probing the bag, making the "Humpback City Story" completely become a unique branch of Japanese sword and sword films.

In addition, in some genre films that are not sword and halberd films, the interesting scenes that can reflect the characteristics of the times are not only more than more than some sword and blade films. I would like to mention the Kamata March directed by Shinji Fukasaku. Its story is a "forget him, I (steal the electric car) run the dragon to raise you" laughing and tearful script, but the performance and filming of the era drama are really original, and the design of "Killing Array" is also a hard bridge and hard horse. Although the protagonist Anji always plays some box lunch characters who are beaten and thrown out, if we really look at it as a period drama production scene, then its "killing" design is indeed quite ancient, and the title of "New Selection Group Magic Sword" is really decent.

After entering the 21st century, the model of traditional sword and halberd films has been unable to meet the needs of modern people to a certain extent, and "killing" has been innovating with the evolution of photography, scripting and stunts, but realized that the simple pursuit of visual stimulation effects is not the way out of sword and blade films. Represented by Yoji Yamada's "Historical Trilogy", "Samurai's One Point", "Dusk Kiyobei", and "Hidden Sword Ghost Claw", the design of "Killing Array" returns to the "Tao" that the samurai themselves focus on. These three films cannot even be said to be sword and sword films known for their scenes, but their "killing" intentions are equally wonderful.

In "A Point of the Samurai", Mimura Shinnobu blinded but won with the "heart eye"

In "Dusk Qingbing Guard", Qingbing Wei is highly skilled in martial arts, but he is unwilling to use it to gain fame and wealth, and silently endures a hard life

In "Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw", Zongzang is patient and pathetic, witnessing unrighteous things in the world, but not losing the responsibility of "righteousness"

During the same period, Takeshi Kitano's remake of "Blind Man Humpback City" did not receive due praise because of the excessive influence of Shintaro Katsu, but the "violent aesthetics" implemented by Takeshi Kitano still made the "killing" scene shine. Flowers, swords, rain, blood, these elements are not many in it, and the "killing squad" of the fallen samurai Asano Tadanobu is even more exciting than Humpback City.

Personal favorite is the one that has not seen blood in the tavern

The most striking "killing" design in recent times is "Tsubaki Scattered". The sadness and nostalgia for the lonely samurai in the traditional sword-and-sword films, the blood-boiling sword-drawing and slashing in modern movies, friendship and love, and the crusade against injustice are condensed in one film. The two "killing squads" are fully committed to the disciple Okada Junichi and his partner Hidetoshi Nishijima, who are fully engaged by Katori Shintoshi, and their quality is beyond doubt, and the form, qi, intention, and god condensed in the "killing" scene in the early sword and halberd films all return to it.

The duel design under the Tsubaki tree is nearly perfect, and Okada Junichi takes the initiative to redesign the killing action in order to obtain the perfect location, and the two test their kung fu extremely

The recruit guard lost his best friend and went on a killing spree in the rain like a Shura

<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the beauty of "killing", which is not easy to understand, and it is even more difficult to pass on</h1>

As a game with extreme volume and production, Soul of Tsushima has made great efforts to restore the "killing" experience based on its own understanding of Japanese sword and sword films. Whether it is the scene, the action or the system, the feeling of its creation is also very close to the original meaning conveyed by the "killing".

Interestingly, "killing" has also developed into a kind of "tao" in Japan. Located in Tokyo, the Japan Killing Society is a serious corporate corporation whose duty and vision is to promote the culture of "Killing" to all those who want to know about Japan, and to let foreigners learn everything about the design of "Killing" and other cultural symbols.

only...... Or to make money

This article is limited in space, but only briefly listed some of the more prominent "killing" design and related films and television in personal memory, and did not make more discussions on the requirements and forms of "killing" itself, such as the type of knife, drawing the knife, position, combat, blood vibration, knife, etc. I hope that there will be more exchanges in the core of the machine later, and I hope that friends who like sword and blade films can enjoy "The Soul of Tsushima" more.