The film Fine Snow (1983) American Standard Collection The Criterion Collection Blu-ray Edition Cover
"Fine Snow" is a masterpiece of novels by Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki, which mainly describes the life stories of the four sisters of the Osaka wealthy merchant Okuoka family on the eve of the Pacific War, Tsuruko, Sachiko, Yukiko, and Myoko after their separation. The novel takes the marriage of the beautiful and delicate Yukiko as the main line, and describes the changes in the lives of the four sisters and the conflict of thoughts.
Although "Fine Snow" is a life novel, next to the local customs and customs, social events, foreign exchanges, etc., you can also see how a large family under the old system has changed under the impact of capitalism, and the change of the Igaki family can also be seen as a microcosm of the changes in the old Japanese family.
The film edition of Junichiro Tanizaki's Fine Snow (1983), published by Kadokawa Bunko in Japan, is a three-volume book cover
Junichiro Tanizaki was a master of Japanese aesthetic literature who was awarded the Cultural Medal by the Japanese government in 1949 and served as an advisor to the Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange Association during his lifetime. "Fine Snow" is not only the peak of his personal creative career, but also one of the outstanding masterpieces of the entire Showa literary world. The French writer Sartre praised the work as "the highest masterpiece of modern Japanese literature."< The work is like a long scroll of paintings with bright colors and elegant style, showing the whole picture of the life of the upper class in the Kansai region of modern Japan, and is known as the best genre novel with a classical style.
This version of Fine Snow (1983), directed by Kun Ichikawa, is a commemorative work for the 50th anniversary of Toho's paintings. The film tells the different life trajectories of four intellectual women in the transition between the old and the new in a parallel way, showing the contradictions and conflicts between feudal ideas and new ideas. He won the second place in the 1983 Film Shunbun Top Ten Film Award and was named the ninth place in Japan's Top Ten Films of the 1980s.
Stills from the movie Fine Snow (1983).
With the advent of the new era, the once-prominent Kyoto Kagaoka family slowly began to decline, while the family's four daughters are still a beautiful scenery in the city. The eldest sister, Tsuruko (Kishi Tsuneko), clings to the ancestral house and maintains the family's reputation at all times; the second sister, Sachiko (Ryoko Sakuma), has a strong and strong personality, dwarfing her son-in-law Sanosuke (Koji Ishizaka), the gentle and virtuous Son-Yukiko (Yoshinaga Koyuri), but always delays her marriage; and the elder Myoko (Furutagawa Yuko) has an open personality and is a relatively Westernized girl.
Myoko's scandal is full of storms in the city, and the troubled Tsuruko consults with her family and decides to find Ruyi Langjun for Yukiko as soon as possible to maintain the door wind. However, it is easy to say, but Yukiko, who has always been silent, has rejected several marriages in succession, which makes Sadasuke who admires Yukiko secretly rejoice...
Ichikawa Kun's shot is steady, following the scenery and characters around, like Junichiro Tanizaki's sharp and beautiful words. "Fine Snow" shows a complex and emotional charm like the original. Many big productions are more form than content, but this movie branded with the big label of "Toho Yinghua 50th Anniversary" is very large and beautiful. Large sections of the space dwell on the scattered cherry blossoms and maple leaves, as well as the gorgeous and intricate kimonos, which are certainly exaggerated, but just as the exaggeration of the rules of the rich house and the exaggeration of all ethics and human feelings, it is inevitable.
Director Kun Ichikawa was filmed on location in the film Fine Snow (1983).
In "Fine Snow", the contrast between Yukiko and Myoko is particularly obvious in terms of personality. If Yukiko's personality is cultivated in a completely closed environment with no contact with modern times, then Myoko seems to be wrapped in modern fashion elements. The work gives Myoko the character of an open woman in modern times, who tries her best to escape from the old family system, but is punished. Myoko does not want to be attached to others, she wants to be able to stand on her own, she opens her own doll exhibition, practices dance, wants to be a dance teacher, learns to make suits, wants to become a professional woman. However, they experienced setbacks, first floods, dysentery, and even unmarried pregnancies and stillbirths.
Movie "Fine Snow" (1983) Japanese movie ticket stub
It can be said that she is the representative of some young Japanese women in the early showa years, who are at the forefront of society, and first challenge the patriarchal society, fully demonstrating the awakening of women's self-awareness. When women who have been marginalized for a long time begin to re-examine the concept of inheritance, social system and family roles with a "gender" perspective, young women's view of marriage changes from personal dependence to shared love, and they hope to participate in society with their husbands. The meaning of life they pursue shifts from their former families and children to work and hobbies.
The film "Fine Snow" (1983) Hong Kong DVD version of the cover
As a new woman of the era who grew up in the Taisho period, Myoko has a strong sense of self, and the open atmosphere also gives her the courage to liberate herself and subvert tradition. However, this awakening of consciousness has been strongly criticized by traditional consciousness since its inception. After being reprimanded by Nagabo, Myoko strongly resisted: "What's so bad about being a working woman?" Up to now, my sister and brother-in-law still can't get rid of the old brains of the door and pomp, thinking that it is a great shame to have a female tailor in the family, which is a complete prejudice and a backward idea that is ridiculed by people. But in the end, Myoko still failed, under the legal principles of the family.
"Law" refers to morality, etiquette and order, which belongs to the category of morality and ethics, and is also one of the principles that must be observed in the paternal system. In line with the formation of the family system under the Meiji Civil Law was the Meiji government's policy of educating women, the so-called "virtuous wife and mother doctrine." Women are natural teachers, and good wives and good mothers make talent training not only the ultimate goal of women's education, but also the key to whether the national policy of rich countries and strong soldiers can be realized.
This policy clearly reflects utilitarian strategies and gender differences, with the aim of educating women on the one hand to better prepare the next generation, while educated women ironically deconstruct the nation-state's expectation that they will play good wives and mothers and dedicate themselves to male citizens. Therefore, when they behave slightly contrary to traditional requirements, the surrounding society will ruthlessly criticize them. This was also the contradiction of the society at that time, on the one hand, it vigorously promoted the feminist movement and called for equality between men and women, but at the same time, it was necessary to erase the newly developed female personal consciousness.
Adaptation of famous works is very difficult, and it is difficult to present the twists and turns of a genre novel in a two-hour play, which is difficult to achieve in rhythm. Because there are not so many small plots in the movie - only important plots can be picked to shoot, so the breathing is always stagnant and not so vivid. For example, when Hou Xiaoxian filmed "Flowers on the Sea" (1998), he also did his best to restore the scene costumes and speech smiles, but he could not do the dexterity of a small plot and a small plot in the original work, and the dedication to the camera position especially made the movie look dull.
Ichikawa Kun did not have the personal stylistic pursuit of Hou Xiaoxian, he focused on the most interesting places in the original work, so that the scenery and kimono occupied the same important position as the characters, and emphasized the "Japanese taste" of the work. Yukiko becomes thinner in his films, where Junichiro Tanizaki writes about her cuteness and tenacity outside of introverted quietness with great love for her (such as the opening paragraph about her using her feet to pluck rabbit ears), which is difficult to unfold in the film, but the film actually spends a lot of time describing the ambiguous feelings of the second brother-in-law Sanosuke towards her.
Cover of the film "Fine Snow" (1959), directed by Koji Shima and starring Kikuko Hiroshi, Kyo Machiko, Fujiko Yamamoto and Junko Ha (1959), Japanese brochure
This treatment is a bit puzzling, because this part of the plot is added, and there is no cross-boundary relationship between Sanosuke and Yukiko in the original book. Of course, adding this part of the plot can also find the origin, Tanizaki Junichiro's novel is very closely related to his life, he did have an ambiguous relationship with his sister-in-law in his first marriage, and this sister-in-law is considered to be the prototype of Onami in the novel "Foolish Love" (completely different from Yukiko, a very Westernized girl, "Foolish Love" is a novel that is very well written about lust).
And The Lady Matsuko, whom he married in his third marriage, does have several sisters with outstanding appearances, but the Sachiko in "Fine Snow" is based on Matsuko, and the two are harmonious, and there is a sweet plot of Washishi in the novel. Is Ichikawa Kun's adaptation meant to add to the drama of the film? Or after Yukiko gets married, let Sadanosuke's borrowing wine pour out of sorrow, which can make the movie have a nostalgic sense of melancholy?
It should be said that the triangular relationship between Sanosuke, Yukiko and Sachiko increases the spatial tension of the film, which does not exist in the novel, in the novel, there is a sense of time tension brought about by Yukiko's delay in marrying, but this tension is also very weak, and in Yukiko's own "indifference", it is also deliberately weakened.
And the end of the novel is also very "detailed", Yukiko is finally going to get married, and it is married to someone who is satisfied with all parties, but Sachiko is immersed in emotion at every turn, and Yukiko is even more depressed. The ending is not a lively wedding (there is no wedding in the movie, but let Tsuruko dry the beautiful kimono that was prepared for Yukiko's wedding many years ago), but about Yukiko having diarrhea and taking medicine is not very effective.
Advertisement for the Japanese content version of the movie "Fine Snow" (1983).
The last sentence of this elegant and beautiful novel is actually: "That day, Xuezi's diarrhea was not good, and she was still pulling on the train." When I read this ending the first time, I felt that it was a natural ending; and when I read this novel the second time, I felt funny, Tanizaki Junichiro always had something unexpected, how "modern" this ending was, just like the end of Han Bangqing's "Tale of flowers on the sea" that Zhang Ailing admired.
Director Ichikawa Kun shot this film in a classical style, the scenes and characters are beautiful, and the emotional depiction and character portrayal between the four sisters in the play are also delicate and subtle, vivid and moving. With the change of seasons, the traditional flavor of Japanese culture is expressed in the different kimonos of the four seasons, which is a major feature of this film.
In "Fine Snow", the customs and traditional beauty of Kansai are embodied from beginning to end, and the Osaka dialect is adopted, and the daily life scenes such as catching fireflies by the river, cherry blossom viewing, and watching Noh are constructed, and the unique customs of the Kansai Keihan region are conveyed beautifully. "Fine Snow" portrays four women with very different styles in daily life: the eldest daughter who contains poignancy and sadness, Tsuruko, the second daughter who is sound and perfect, Sachiko, the third daughter who embodies all traditional beauty, and the fourth daughter who is independent and self-reliant.
Through its delicate techniques and superb skills, the film shows us vivid female figures, and the four sisters in "Fine Snow" are all the embodiments of traditional beauty, but at the same time, they cannot get rid of the shackles of the times and fate, and their bodies are full of a faint sad beauty.
Stills from the movie "Fine Snow" (1950) - directed by Toyo Abe, starring Shouko Yamane (second from left) and Hideko Takayama (first from left).
In addition, "Fine Snow" is considered to be the gathering of Japan's top filmmakers in the 1980s, including Kishi Keiko, Yoshinaga Sayuri, Yuko Furutegawa, and Ryoko Sakuma. Yukiko is played by Yoshinaga Koyuri, it is indeed the most beautiful, Tsuruko is played by Kishi Keiko, even better than the description in the book, Kishi Keiko's eyes are so powerful, her style overwhelms all the sisters who are much younger than her, Myoko is played by Yuko Furutegawa, it is also very appropriate, but playing Sachiko Sakuma Ryoko makes people feel that they are not beautiful enough, think about the description in the book: When the matchmaker always asks Sachiko not to wear makeup or even appear, because she is worried that the other party ignores her sister - Sachiko has a healthy and bright beauty, More in line with the aesthetics of the public, and the beauty of the wind is weak, and in the end can only find a descendant of the nobility to appreciate. Sachiko's appearance in the movie is too ordinary, so the scene where the puff powder is not brilliant enough.
To this day, the film has been hailed by generations of young people as one of the "most popular Japanese films". In the film, Tatsuo Ogoka is a famous Japanese director Itami Thirteen, in this movie he grasps the two sides of a son-in-law very well, and several female protagonists are combined, making people feel the elegance and modern atmosphere of Japanese women's tradition.
In the history of social development, the confrontation between tradition and modernity is eternal, and how to find a point of convergence between the two is also an eternal problem. Japan's Meiji Restoration put the state system on the road of capitalism, but people's ideological civilization was many years behind, and in the contradiction between modernity and tradition, the ordinary people of Japan experienced a process of exclusion, acceptance, and assimilation. Junichiro Tanizaki once claimed that his work had nothing to do with politics, but a writer who was detached from society could not write good works. On the surface, "Fine Snow" only seems to describe the parents of the four sisters, but behind it reflects the social landscape of Japan from The Taisho to the early Showa period and the changes in people's family concepts and ideological consciousness at that time.
Poster of the Japanese version of the movie "Fine Snow" (1983).