Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.
There is a kind of movie called a tribute movie. There is a kind of director, a director's director. A good tribute film is not simply an imitation, but more like a reinterpretation of the self-style of the same essay.
Text/Cusso
For young directors, trying a "tribute film" at the beginning may be the least intelligent option, because if you don't prevent it, you will be labeled as a "copycat" and "plagiarism". But for Yoji Yamada, who is 81 years old, such concerns do not exist: "It is like imitating the paintings of Michelangelo and Da Vinci, and it is not shameful at all." Some things can only be truly experienced after imitation, aren't they? ”
Yoji Yamada dedicated the 50th anniversary of his act of directing to Yasujiro Ozu, who celebrated his 110th birthday: Tokyo Family, released on January 19, 2013, is a complete remake of Ozu's 1953 tokyo monogatari.
Tokyo Story and Tokyo Family.
Same story, same family, but Tokyo is no longer the Tokyo of the past. In 1953, in Japan, eight years after the defeat of the war, society has not yet healed from its wounds, and the film presents a pessimistic tone, as Ozu said: "I want to describe how the traditional Japanese family fell apart through the interaction between parents and children." ”
In 2013, Japan, which coincided with the second anniversary of the earthquake, in order to rebuild social confidence and the usual warmth of Yamada Yoji, the style of the film is optimistic and cheerful, Yamada said: "Maybe it is because director Ozu and I have a slightly different outlook on life." Director Ozu is still a little indifferent, and there is an element of resignation in his personality. And I never give up hope, even though hope itself is hard to find. ”
The excellent tribute film is not just imitation, but more like a reinterpretation of the self-style of the same-titled essay, which is why when the izakaya with posters of "Tokyo Story" appears in "Tokyo Family", we can understand: Yes, this is Yoji Yamada Ozu Yasujiro.
Tribute to Ozu and Ozu to tribute
In fact, "Tokyo Family" is not Yoji Yamada's first tribute to Ozu. In 2010 and 2012, he brought Ozu's "Mai Qiu" and "Tokyo Story" to the stage, which was also his first time as a screenwriter and director of a stage play. These two stage plays are just warm-up activities for the 110th anniversary of Ozu's birth, but Yoji Yamada has a deeper consideration: "It was an era when old life and old culture were alive." The agreement between the family and the land, the rules of conduct, the morality... I want to tell people how important these things that have disappeared are. ”
"Tokyo Family" is a tribute to "Tokyo Story".
Yoji Yamada is regarded as the best contemporary Japanese director of family themes, and it will not be surprising to him to recreate Ozu, who also focuses the camera on the family. But 10 years ago, 100 years after Ozu's birth, Japan's Shochiku Film Company unexpectedly hired Taiwanese director Hou Xiaoxian to shoot "Coffee Time". Hou Xiaoxian, who has always thought that "my movie is not at all like Ozu", took up the film and thought, "You all think I'm like Ozu, don't you?" It's very similar, I'll show you. ”
Of course, the directors who are more "like" Ozu than Hou Xiaoxian are numerous, from Ichikawa Jun and Urayama Kiriro to Oguri Yasuhei and Zhou Fang Masayuki, and the style techniques are almost completely copied from Ozu. In 2008, Kore-eda's "Taste of Yokoyama Family", based on his parents, was also regarded as a tribute to Tokyo Story. Unexpectedly, it was another person who was in charge of The Edoshi: "The characters in the Naruse Films are cunning, some are bad, and there is no growth in the film." So I think if my parents did become movie characters, they would be more suitable for Naruse's movies than Ozu's movies. ”
Twenty years ago, Japanese directors paid tribute to Ozu as lively as they do today, and the first to follow Ozu was a German: director Wim Wenders. In 1983, Wenders began traveling around Japan to explore Ozu's footprints and make a film In Search of Ozu. Wenders, who regards Ozu as the "spiritual father" of his film career, is not just making a documentary.
Japanese cultural studies scholar Tang Zhenzhao analyzed: "Wim Wenders' works are often colored around the conflict between the individual and the family can not be integrated - whether it is the little Alice abandoned by the mother, or the two men in "The Flow of Time", not to mention the male protagonist in "Paris, Texas" who dare not communicate with his wife and children head-on. However, I would like to mention that Wim Wenders' "The State of Things" made after his first trip to the United States is slightly different from the usual 'wandering' color of Wim Wenders's works, and the characters are only entangled in the tedious details of life, and the dream-making people are also subject to the laws of nature, and here I see an echo of Ozu tones. ”
Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece "The Taste of Saury".
And Ozu? Did he just stand quietly on the altar of "being saluted"?
Kihisa Yamamoto, who worked at Shochiku Film Company, said in his essay "Yasujiro Ozu's Work and Foreign Cinema: As of 1941" that Ozu's "Evil Thoughts", filmed in 1933, is actually a tribute to the American director Kim Victor's 1932 Film "Champion" released in Japan. The film "Champion" tells the story of a former boxing champion who was abandoned by his wife and drunk to support his children, rose up to win the championship, but died of heart paralysis. "Evil Thoughts" depicts a wife who runs away and some idle workers decide to go to Hokkaido to work as porters in order to earn money to heal their son's injuries, and it is also a drama depicting the father's love. ”
Japanese film historian Tadao Sato pointed out that from his debut film "Blade of Confession" borrowed the story basis of "Breaking through the Door", Ozu paid more tribute to the American director George Fitz morris. Ozu Yasujiro has said that his "Jianghu Drama Class" (aka "Floating Grass Story"), and the renamed "Jianghu Artist" (aka "Floating Grass"), which was renamed after the remake of this film, were actually inspired by the film "The Man Who Attracts the Audience". What surprised me after watching it was that Ozu got more from this film than the level of revelation, which should almost be called a remake. Of course, Ozu's homage is also full of strong personal colors: "The desolate loneliness of "The Man Who Attracts the Audience" is manly, and the tears are the tears of tough men." And in "Jianghu Drama Class", it is a lament for the children's love. It can be seen that such a change is a key part of the time when American films were adapted to the Japanese screen. ”
It is said that when Ozu talks about movies with his colleagues, he never mentions Japanese movies, but talks about American movies, and he does not leave David Griffiths in three sentences, and admires Ernst Liu Beiqian." Ozu also repeatedly said in interviews that he was deeply baptized by American movies when he was young. Fans familiar with Ozu know that he paid tribute to at least two other American films: 1933's Daughter of the Extraordinary Line, which has traces of William Wellman's Lady of the Lower Class, and the post-war filmed Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, whose plot was heavily influenced by Harry Milat's Over the Mountain.
Directors of the directors
In 2009, on the 90th anniversary of the founding of Japan's "Movie Shunbun", the first place in the "Best Japanese Film" was awarded to Ozu's "Tokyo Story", which made some movie fans dissatisfied: Why not Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai"?
No matter how many people pay tribute to Ozu, there will definitely be more directors paying tribute to Akira Kurosawa.
Japanese film master Akira Kurosawa.
In 1999, Akira Kurosawa was selected by Time magazine as one of the "Most Influential Figures in Asia in the 20th Century", and his review was written by two of his biggest fans, Zhang Yimou and Spielberg. Zhang Yimou wrote: "Before I was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy in 1978, I knew nothing about the art of film... A year later I saw Akira Kurosawa's film for the first time, Rashomon. I was hooked by it. A few years later, in Cannes, I sat in an obscure position and witnessed Akira Kurosawa receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was loved and revered by the peoples of both the East and the West. I never met him, despite having had one chance. Once, when I was going to Tokyo to run an errand, a Japanese friend suggested that I go and meet Akira Kurosawa. I didn't dare go. In any case, he is a world-renowned master. In the kingdom of cinema, I am just a small person. ”
Three years after writing these words, Zhang Yimou's martial arts film "Hero" was released, like a pot of Kurosawa Akira's smorgasbord: a story narrated from three angles, apparently from "Rashomon"; the color and the construction of the arrow array, obviously borrowed from "Chaos"; and others found that "the image of Qin Shi Huang, who sits still, is imitating the immovable Takeda Shingen in "Shadow Warrior". Some viewers have examined that Zhang Yimou's tribute to Akira Kurosawa began almost from the beginning of his directing career: "Do you remember Gong Li running in the sorghum field in "Red Sorghum", and Jiang Wen chased the smooth and urgent moving shot behind him, which is simply a copy of the section when the woodcutter began to walk in the forest in "Rashomon". ”
The film Hero's bold use of color is considered a tribute to Akira Kurosawa.
Almost all contemporary directors who shoot martial arts or gangster themes have paid tribute to Akira Kurosawa. Hu Jinquan, the founder of Hong Kong-style martial arts films, in the early days of "Drunken Man" and "Dragon Gate Inn", traces of "Seven Samurai" can be seen everywhere, which makes him known as "Akira Kurosawa of Hong Kong" by the Japanese media; Zhang Che's "Ranger" is considered to be similar to "Stick with Heart"; Xu Ke once said that because of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", he has always been very interested in the martial arts story of the seven people, "When filming "Seven Swords", it was like walking the road of director Akira Kurosawa, and I enjoyed this feeling."
As for Wu Yusen, when he was filming "Sword Rain", he said that it was "a martial arts film that pays tribute to Kurosawa Ming, Hu Qingquan, and Zhang Che"; even Du Qifeng also said that "Kurosawa Akira is the source of my wisdom", "Gunfire" from the arrangement of the opening subtitles to the layout of the film, the aesthetic origin, are the same as "Seven Samurai", and the later "Judo Dragon and Tiger List", Du Qifeng more clearly said that this is a tribute film: "I have always liked Kurosawa's director's "Zi Sanshiro", and the TV series "Judo Dragon and Tiger List" in the 1970s. It can be said that I was infected by this judo spirit. This is a work that I personally pay tribute to director Akira Kurosawa. ”
Can't science fiction movies pay homage to Akira Kurosawa? George Lucas, the director of the "Star Wars" series, is an iron fan of Akira Kurosawa, and he once said that the creation of "Star Wars" was inspired by the release of "Three Evil Men in the Dark Castle" released in 1958, a tall and thin robot character setting, which is actually based on the two peasant partners in Akira Kurosawa's film.
Robot characters from Star Wars.
Another fan of Akira Kurosawa is Martin Scorsese, who pays homage to his idol in an enviable way: in Akira Kurosawa's autobiographical film Dream, he plays an idol of an idol, Van Gogh. In 2012, Scorsese won the Oscar for "Hugo", which was inspired by the visual style of this "Dream". Hugo is a typical tribute to filmmakers: Harold Lloyd's The Last Safety, Lumiere Brothers' Train Stop, Fritz Long's Metropolis, chaplin's Modern Times all appear as Easter eggs, but Scorsese this time focuses on the film's godfather George Mérieux and his Circus of the Moon. Remember the ending scene? Back on stage, Mérieux stood in the spotlight and shouted the sensational "Dream with me" to the audience— as if to all filmmakers.
Classic sci-fi movie "Journey to the Moon".
There is a kind of director called a tribute director
There is one person who must never forget to pay tribute to this: Quentin Tarantino. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a typical homage director, and in an interview with the British magazine Empire more than 20 years ago, he has admitted: "All the movies in the world are the objects of my stealing." ”
In Django Liberated, Quentin pays tribute to the classic Italian Western "Django" directed by Ségio Kaubsi in 1966. It is said that he inspired him when he wrote a film appreciation about Sergio Kaubsi, and this time he succeeded, otherwise how could a remake win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay?
Stills from "Django Don't Rescue".
There are countless films that pay tribute to Ségio Kabushi, and Takashi Miike tried it six years ago. In the "Sukiyaki Western" full of Oriental flavor, he cunningly cooks Italian macaroni into a Japanese hot pot, the protagonists hold guns and speak "Japanese English", but the background of the story is that after the end of the Battle of Genpei Tanpo, Hei Kiyomori and Genyoshi Yoshiyoshi are engaged in a series of scuffles over the treasure. By the way, in the movie, Quentin also came to run back to the dragon set and also read "The Tale of the Pingjia Story".
Quentin has also paid tribute to countless films, and the famous "Falling Water Dog" was once considered to be a copy of Kubrick's "Killer", and he also said: "Every director will have a killer dream in his heart, and "Falling Water Dog" is my "Killer". In fact, fans who are really familiar with "Falling Dogs" will know that whether it is the storyline or action design, Quentin borrows more from Hong Kong director Lin Lingdong's "Dragon and Tiger Storm" - almost a complete copy. The Hong Kong films of the 80s were Quentin's biggest tributes, and Bruce Lee, Liu Jialiang and Zhang Che were his idols.
In 2003's "Kill Bill", the tribute to Hong Kong films reached a climax, and when the opening music of the film sounded, the first thing that popped out was the "Shaw Variety Body Arc Wide Screen" and the familiar "SB" Logo of Shaw Films. In the famous "Battle of Aobaya", Uma Thurman wears Bruce Lee's black striped battle suit on a yellow background in Game of Death, and most of the moves are from Bruce Lee's "Jingwumen". Quentin is said to have given photographers a must-see catalogue of Zhang's must-see works, half of which were directed by Zhang Che — and he also invented a way to shoot action scenes from rooftops, which he called it: "Zhang Che's Perspective Lens".
The famous Shaw Film Company logo.
Because of Shaw's "Thirty-Six Rooms of Shaolin", in 2004's "Kill Bill 2", Quentin found Liu Jiahui to make a cameo appearance as Uma Thurman's master "White Brow Daochang". There is also a widely circulated passage: Quentin once wanted to put the set of "Kill Bill 2" in The Shaw Studios, but the venue was too small to give up, and when he sat in Run Run Shaw's private screening hall, he "thought that Shaw had sat here to witness those great films, and I felt a huge emotional energy in the theater." ”
Maybe the future is the world of tribute directors. More and more people are already paying tribute to Quentin. In 2013, "I heard that Kirishima is going to retire" swept the Japanese Oscars, the director Yoshida Daihachi, who only made three films, not only paid tribute to George Romero, the originator of zombie films, but also the plasma-filled B-grade fan was deeply impressed by Quentin, and by the way, he did not forget to spit out a groove -
"What's quentin's movie you like the most?"
"It's the one that killed a lot of people."
"Please, he kills a lot of people in every movie."