Animation supported the sluggish domestic theaters.
First there is "Journey to the Bell Bud", Xinhai Cheng has absolute appeal to the current two-dimensional yuan, and the current box office is 770 million, which is the best result after the Spring Festival.
This week's "Slam Dunk", rekindle the youth dream of 80 and 90, and the male (old) boys (big) children (buddies) movie theaters reunite, so that this film breaks 300 million in three days, surpassing "Journey to the Bell Buds" is only a matter of time.
△ The premiere scene of "Slam Dunk", source: Weibo video number @Zuoshouhan
But.
The animation feast at the same time is actually not only this "Bell Bud" and "Slam Dunk".
There is another one, Cat's Eye 9.1, which is more avant-garde, deeper, and even higher.
And you probably won't find it in the cinema anymore.
Sir certainly can't ignore it.
There must always be an animation that can break through your imagination of animation:
Heike Monogatari: Inuwang
The director is Masaaki Yuasa, who was praised by Miyazaki as a "once-in-a-century genius", and almost every work is called a masterpiece, "Mind Game" and "Spring Night is Short, Girls Go Forward!" "Four and a Half Stacks of Mythology"...
The animation design is Matsumoto Oyang, who collaborated with Masaaki Yuasa on "Ping Pong".
The screenwriters are Akiko Noki, who has written well-known Japanese dramas such as "Unnatural Death" and "Escape is Shameful but Useful", and Furukawa Hinodeo, author of the original novel "Inuwang".
However, the popularity of the same period is far from the other two new films, with a box office of only 3.676 million, and the current arrangement of films has been below 0.2%.
△ Today's box office is 142,000 yuan, source: Maoyan Professional Edition
The immortal lineup also missed?
After reading it, Sir decided that this was a work of great dedication.
According to Masaaki Yuasa in an interview with Variety magazine, after "The King of Dogs", he may take a break, although not retired, we may not see Masaaki Yuasa's works for a long time.
This unique and strange animation may be a more complex historical background for today's audience.
After removing that threshold, King of Dogs will definitely amaze you.
Today's article is relatively long.
Sir tried to be as detailed as possible, because the film itself is concise and left blank.
Almost all the focus is on the two protagonist forms and music:
Dazzling stars should not be erased by the torrent of history, but should be discovered, recorded, told, and singing and dancing on the stage and radiating light.
01
At first glance, I was very confused about "The Dog King".
This film involves a lot of Japanese history and traditional art knowledge.
Based on Furukawa Hinodeo's novel Heike Monogatari: Inuo no Scroll, the film tells the friendship story of Inu-chan (voiced by Avu-chan), an alien son born in a Sarutaka theater troupe in Kyoto, Muromachi, and Yuyu (voiced by Mirai Moriyama), a pipa mage who is blind due to a curse.
The history of this story can be traced back to the Heian period more than 600 years ago.
That said.
This anime is about history within history, stories within stories.
The Tale of Heike is a classic Japanese book written in the 13th century, known as Japan's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which tells the story of Japan's civil war at the end of the 12th century, the "Genpei Combined War", that is, the six-year civil war between the two aristocratic samurai groups of the Genji Heipa clan for power.
The last battle of this civil war took place in "Tanaurura", yes, the hometown of Tomoyu in the film, and this Battle of Tanoura ended in the defeat of the Heike.
△ The contrast between red and white is a Japanese characteristic contained in "The Inu King", red represents the Heike family, and white represents Genji
It was also from the end of this Genpei War that Japan developed a political system similar to "respecting the king and destroying the country", with military attachés ruling and the establishment of the highest command body, the shogunate, under the emperor, the shogunate ruled.
After the defeat of the Heike, Genji became the person in charge of the samurai regime, and Japan entered the Kamakura period (not directly shown in the film).
Then, Emperor Go-Daigo and the samurai Ashikaga Tsuneji (that is, the grandfather of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who appears later in the film), Japan split into two emperors, the North and South, and entered the era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
By the time Ashikaga Yoshimitsu came to power in the story, more than one hundred and eighty years had passed since the Battle of Tanoura.
Why is there a reference to the Battle of Tanoura almost two hundred years ago?
Because after the defeat that year, the generals of the Heike family saw that the general trend had passed, and they all threw themselves into the sea and committed suicide. Emperor Antoku, who was only 8 years old at the time, was also carried by his grandmother into the ocean, and sank to the bottom of the sea with the three artifacts that symbolized the "legitimacy" of the emperor.
The three artifacts that symbolize the "legitimacy" of the emperor are the Tiancong Cloud Sword, the Eight-foot Qionggou Jade, and the Eight Mirrors, which are treasures inherited from generation to generation by the Japanese emperor and are the symbol of the emperor.
Tomoyu and his father of Tanoura make a living by salvaging the relics of the Heike family.
At that time, two of the three artifacts were in the hands of Emperor Daigo (Southern Dynasty), and several emperors supported by the Northern Dynasty, which was ruled by General Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, were all in place without artifacts. Therefore, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu wanted to collect the three artifacts and justify his unification of the northern and southern dynasties.
What brought the curse to Youyu and his father was the Tiancong Cloud Sword they salvaged at the beginning of the movie.
This artifact caused the father of the friend fish to lose his life and made the friend fish lose his eyesight.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, the head of a Saru troupe in Kyoto made a deal with the devil in order to maintain his creativity and retain the audience, and exchanged his son, who was still in the womb, for a steady stream of inspiration.
So, as soon as his son was born, he became an ugly monster with strange limbs, scales on his back, and asymmetrical eyes:
King of Dogs.
This brings us to the most important cultural element in the film - ape music.
Sarugaku, also known as shinraku, is a performing art in medieval Japan, derived from the "scattered music" introduced in the Han Dynasty in China in the 8th century AD.
As the times changed, Saruraku developed into Noh and Kyogen, mainly wearing masks and performing cabaret on stage.
In the Muromachi era in the film, this form of performance was also called "ape music", with a special artistic organization and a certain monopoly power, that is, the "seat" composed of different orchestra organizations in the film.
Inuo's father was the leader of Kyoto's famous Omi school "Hieiza", and Inuwang is also a genius ape-musician who actually existed in history.
However, at that time, the more famous ape musicians were the father and son of Kanami and Se Ami (Fujiwaka) of the "Kanseza", who are key figures recorded in the official history. In contrast, the dog king is almost rarely recorded, and the songs he composed have not been handed down.
△ The movie shows the scene of Kan Ami and Se Ami performing ape music for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Sarugaku has been closely associated with political power since its birth, and the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who was in power at the time, was fascinated by Sarugaku, and the development of Sarugaku could not be separated from the support of the regime.
When translating "Heike Monogatari", Furukawa Hinode discovered the Inuwang, because "Heike Monogatari" comes from the street pipa storytelling and does not have an authoritative version, many people have created various forms of derivative and fanworks based on "Heike Monogatari", so Furukawa Hibichio also decided to create the novel "Heike Monogatari: Inuwang no Scroll" based on the prototype of Inuo.
Why can't a single work of a genius ape musician be preserved? At the end of the film, it is revealed that Inuo and Tomoya's pioneering artistic creation was loved by the people of the time, but was feared by the conservative shogunate, and they were removed from the canon.
This is where director Masaaki Yuasa and Furukawa Hinode hit it off: "There are some things in Furukawa's novels that I think need to be seen and read. For me, it means a lot to make a film that shows how these people existed in the Muromachi period. ”
Even powerful and talented people may not be recognized and rewarded by society
I think this is true in real life
But one's achievements will eventually be noticed by someone somewhere
Those achievements will be passed on and remembered
That's the theme of the film
After understanding this, we can watch the movie "Dog King", and we can feel the shock, tragedy and beauty in it.
02
"The Dog King" is a complex and diverse work, we can see many elements in it, history, politics, art, culture, destiny...
But in the end, its main line is still about friendship:
I think the theme of this work is to find friends who can move forward with, and to have friends who know how to survive.
- Director Masaaki Yuasa
The dog king is a victim of his father's desires and patriarchal oppression, and he is an ugly and deformed monster from birth; Youyu is a victim of the curse of history, and is blinded by the sword of the Tiancong Cloud Sword.
Unable to see and not be frightened by the face of the dog king, this became the basis for the friendship between the two.
After the two met each other, the film tells the story of that era through their singing songs, while pushing their friendship deeper step by step.
As the director said, Inuwang is a person who is still optimistic despite the trials and tribulations of fate.
King Inu is a struggle to overcome adversity
And create a future role for yourself
He never complained about his predicament
It's about trying to live your life to the fullest
I admire that
He's a character I admire, and I want to be like him
The light on his body illuminates the friend fish who wants revenge in his gray life.
So, we saw the story of the name of the friendfish.
The name, which represents identity, also represents the existence of the self.
As emphasized in Spirited Away, don't forget your name, and when you find your true name, you can get self-liberation.
There are three names in the film:
Tomoyu, Tomoyi, Tomoyou.
Each represents his three identities.
"Friend fish" is his origin.
The father constantly stressed that he could not change his name, he was Tanouraura's friend fish, his son, and he wanted to avenge the family. If he changed his name, his father would not find him.
"Yuichi" is his division.
After meeting the pipa mage Guichi, Yuyu joins the dangza and becomes a pipa mage.
In order to confirm his position in the dangdō, Yuyu obeyed the division and changed his name to Yuichi, which was the beginning of his position in society, and also obtained the status of Kyokichi's apprentice and pipa mage.
"Youyou" represents his ego and is his ultimate pursuit.
"Yes" is the opposite of "nothing", which means existence.
And as a creator of a story, it is to let the forgotten be remembered, and let what does not exist exist because of telling.
He continued to write songs that were revolutionary for his time, and found his own style and artistic pursuits, so he decided to start his own door and make a name for himself.
From Yuyu to Yuyu to Yuyou, he found himself in the darkness.
The same is true of the dog king, as an abandoned son of the family, he has no name, so he chooses his own name.
My name is King Inu
An ape genius and a pipa mage supported each other, not only found themselves, but also created a large number of groundbreaking works, leading the trend of the times.
The film presents four Heike songs, namely "Shigemori", "Brachi Tsuka", "Whale" and "Lieutenant General Dragon".
The anime adapts three songs "Wrist Tsuka", "Whale" and "Dragon Lieutenant General", all three songs are derived from "Heike Monogatari", but the content is original.
The movie uses these three songs as the key to unlocking the curse on Inuo, and every time he completes a performance that tells the story of the revenant of the Heike samurai who cannot ascend to heaven, his hands, feet, chest, abdomen, and face will gradually recover.
"Wrist Tsuka" means "the grave where the arm is buried" and tells the story of Taira Tadado, the sixth brother of the head of the Hei family, Taira Kiyomori.
The stage had the effect of chopping off the arms of thousands of soldiers of the Heike family, and the scene was grand and novel.
"Whale", also known as "Thousand Tails", refers to a thousand dolphins, telling the story of the victory and defeat of the Yuanping battle by the swimming direction of this thousand dolphins in the Battle of Tannoura.
The performance of "Whale" has the most spectacular scene in the whole film, and watching the movie on the big screen will definitely get the experience of a rock band concert live.
The last track, "Lieutenant General Dragon", tells the dream of a lieutenant general of the Heike family. The film is adapted to let people see the origin of the dog king from this dream.
The conspiracy of the dog king's father was thus revealed and was cursed.
After singing the four songs, the dog king gradually transformed from a monster into a stunning man - it turned out that helping the revenants who wandered around and could not ascend to heaven and sing their stories could lift the curse on his body.
By telling the stories of ordinary people who have not been recorded in history, the Inu King liberates their souls and also liberates himself and finds himself.
In this way, the director once again deepened his point of view: although the story and song of Inuwang in "Heike Monogatari" are not recorded in detail, his story is still worth imagining and telling; Similarly, the stories of those unknown soldiers and ordinary people of the Heike family are also worth recording.
They just want the world to know their story
As long as someone knows, so it is satisfied
So I'm going to use songs
Tell their story
And in the final ending, the director raised this expression to a higher level, from self-realization to the relationship between history and power.
What happens when art is so revolutionary that conservative regimes are so scared that they want to ban it?
From now on, Youyouza must be disbanded!
The new "flat song" undermines the majesty of the general's ban
In order to protect the life of his confidant, the dog king gave up his freedom to create.
- Inuwang, your Heike is too free-spirited
Stop singing it later
The Heike story has been unified by the original
Yuiza has been forced to disband
The evaluation story of the dog king was also banned
Master Wakapipa tells about the forbidden content
It will disrupt the world
After all, order needs to be established after unification
-Let's say I don't want to give up the previous Heike story ...
- Do you want to see the head of the pipa mage by the river?
-I would be happy to put the previous stories on the water
There will be no more involvement with the pipa mage
But Tomoyou doesn't think so, in his opinion, his name and the power to create are more precious things than life, and the real people and stories that have been removed from the canon must also be remembered.
In order to hold on to this bottom line, he paid with his life.
03
Of course, this is destined to be a controversial work.
Many people said that they originally had the expectation of watching Masaaki Yuasa's fancy brain hole tell history, but instead watched the MV for an hour.
In fact, Masaaki Yuasa gave the audience a "preventive shot" at last year's North Film Festival: the second half is like a concert, and everyone can sway to the music.
Looking at the Douban score of 7.9 points, "The Dog King" is indeed relatively low compared with Yuasa's previous work, which was repeatedly called a god by fans.
But this does not mean that "The King of Dogs" is a failure.
In fact, Masaaki Yuasa still uses animation to do things that other media, such as movies and manga, cannot.
Masaaki Yuasa once said, "The most important thing for animation is movement, which cannot be expressed in movies or manga." ”
In "The King of Dogs", he used a large number of wide-angle lenses, perspective, distorted lines, etc., to present the flying posture of the King of Dogs in the dance, and also gave the audience a unique visual experience.
Especially when the Inuwang's arm has not yet recovered, Masaaki Yuasa used that long arm to design countless wonderful movements, which instantly gave the Inuwang great charm.
When showing how blind people "see", Masaaki Yuasa uses sound effects and shadows to present the world through the eyes of Yuyu.
Just like in "Tuina", Lou Ye uses special photographic effects to express "blind vision".
How does animation use "drawing" to draw invisible things?
Masaaki Yuasa shapes a time trajectory triggered by a voice:
Passing horses, making the sound of "answering" horses' hooves.
Shaking rice, "rustling".
Rice grains fall, silently.
But how can silence be perceived? It turned out to be a trajectory passed along the way, with "chirping" sparrows.
In the distance, there were shouting and chasing sounds.
At first it is a blur, then gradually getting closer and bigger.
Red represents danger or passion.
But what is even more difficult for this movie is how to present the musical works of King Inu and Yuyu, which is earth-shattering for people of that era?
Masaaki Yuasa's idea of creating the atmosphere of a historical film in front of the movie, when the audience thinks that this is the style of the movie, suddenly let the protagonist sing modern rock, the audience will definitely feel discordant, shocked, and mixed with freshness and irresistible feelings, which is how people at that time felt when they heard the songs of Inuwang and Yuyu.
Using the sense of contrast formed by the sudden change in style, we have obtained a wonderful co-frequency resonance with them in history.
△ The dazzling lighting and dance beauty that can only be found in the modern rock music scene
What's more, in addition to the visual effects, the text thickness and depth of thought of "The Dog King" also have a lot of room for interpretation, and the several songs he sang contain the story he wants to tell, and the scene of the "concert" itself is also an important style of this animation.
As a director with a distinctive style and beyond ordinary imagination, Masaaki Yuasa is always trying new things, while maintaining his own authorial style while ensuring innovation.
Speaking of which, Masaaki Yuasa himself is a polarized director, and it is natural that his work is controversial.
In "Mind Game" "Spring Night is short, the girl goes forward!" In classic works such as "Four and a Half Stacks of Mythology", he can always present strange but subtle metaphors, and his painting style is also bright, rich and diverse, some people say they can't understand and persuade, and some people love crazy.
△ The upper part is the collage realistic painting style in "Mind Game", and the lower is "Spring Night is Short, Girls Go Forward!" ", a small fresh and weird painting style
"The King of Dogs" while maintaining Yuasa's whimsy, it also creates new characteristics.
The hazy subjective shots that show the invisible of the blind, the fast rhythmic movement shots, and the stunning stage design of several performances, such as the arm, giant whale, underwater dragon palace and other elements, combined with bizarre but beautiful music, is really an audio-visual feast.
As Masaaki Yuasa's last work before his break, "The Dog King" deserves and should be watched on the big screen.
It is worth mentioning that "Heike Monogatari" is about a fateful tragedy.
The bell rings at the Gion Seisha
All things in the world are always impermanent
The Legend of the Twin Tree Flowers
Prosperity is bound to decline, and it is vicissitudes
These opening sentences refer to the impermanence of the world, and even the most beautiful flowers have a time to wither.
And Masaaki Yuasa adds a touch of brightness that breaks fate to the tragedy of "The Dog King", and also gives the protagonist the courage to find and insist on himself, and the friendship to each other in the chaotic world.
In the original work of Furukawa Hinodeo, the friendship between Inuo and Yuyu is touching.
Years later, when the dog king died, a purple cloud rose in the sky, and the dog king was going to take the purple cloud and many bodhisattvas to die together, but suddenly said, I want to go back, there is a guy over there who has not yet become a Buddha, he is bound, he is a friend, no, it is a friend, no, it is a friendfish. He's my only friend, we're going to lift each other's curses, and finally, we're going to say, you see, that's the light.
In fate.
Curse and let two lonely souls cling to each other.
The dog king was taken by his father to make a deal with the devil, which was extremely ugly and disliked by the family; Yuyu was cursed and blinded because he and his father salvaged the Tiancong Cloud Sword, which represented the royal power.
Because the friend fish cannot see, he has no fear of the dog king;
Because of the singing of the Yuyu, Inuwang can also use his dance to take the stage.
But their parting of ways also lies in this.
In each performance, the dog king gradually regained his appearance, from the hands, to the back and abdomen, and finally to the face.
Finally, become a perfect little fresh meat and become a royal court dancer.
The dog king who was disliked by his family.
Finally received the highest level of recognition.
And what about Friends?
He remains blind, unwilling to give up creative freedom and his mission to speak on behalf of the dead, unwilling to accept official censorship and so-called "correct versions."
He sacrificed his ideals with his life.
"The Dog King" expresses here in addition to the author's irony about history:
The curse of the lone soul and wild ghost can be lifted, but the curse of power cannot be lifted, spanning thousands of years.
The dog king and the friend fish are like metamorphoses, completing the exchange of fates:
The dog king, cursed by the loser, became a tool for the victor to smear history;
The Friends Fish, who was cursed by the royal artifact, in turn became the unswerving narrator of those who were erased by history.
Lost history cannot be said automatically.
It needs future generations to excavate and rehabilitate in order to regain the day.
It's like the weight of the words that the Inu's wandering soul finally said when he finally found the friend fish on the bridge of first encounter 600 years later:
I've been looking for you for a long time
Looking for 600 years
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial Assistant: Doraemon