Text/Mu Qiao
Editor/Mu Qiao
preface
Looking at the entire history of Western theater, Shakespeare is undoubtedly the "crown jewel", and in the more than 400 years since its birth to the present, the study of it has long been like an ocean; It has been adapted by directors of different eras and different countries, and it has been brought to the screen, and they still shine through the years.
And one of the most satisfying and successful adaptations is none other than Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. His adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth and Chaos were both well received by Western critics, and Chaos is regarded as Kurosawa's most accomplished work in his later years.
Plot arrangement: from double line to single line
When we read the first scene of King Lear, we only know about the interconnections between the characters and their actions: father and daughter, courtiers, master and servant, husband and wife.
The basic framework of the play "King Lear" is such a relationship, and this relationship gradually disintegrates as the plot develops. However, this mere connection makes the character's behavior somewhat unconvincing.
Kurosawa also feels that understanding the most basic connections between characters is not enough. When he accepted the US premiere of "Chaos" at the New York International Film Festival, he said: "Although I like Shakespeare very much, I am very dissatisfied with the script of "King Lear". To the Japanese, Lear had little reaction to his history. At the beginning, he was very powerful, and then he was forced into a rage by two disobedient children, and there must be his reason. It's just because of what he did before. At the beginning of this play, he must be an outrageous tyrant. His two children must have studied with him. ”
"King Lear" takes two main plot lines as the main line, one with Lear and the three princesses as the main line, and the other with Gloucester and the two princes as the branch line, the two plot lines cross and reflect each other, making the content of the novel richer.
Unlike the previous "Spider's Nest City", when Kurosawa revised "King Lear", he deleted the branch line of the Gloucester family, and only used the martial arts of a writer as the main character, and added the tragic history of the collapse of the country of the two daughters-in-law of a writer - Mrs. Wind and Mrs. Mo; Adding history to the characters and their actions that Shakespeare did not mention transforms Shakespeare's parallel narrative based on contingency and subject matter into a narrative of revenge with causality.
In Japan, primogeniture laws were established in the 16th century, while women have no inheritance rights. The story of Hidetora comes from Japan's Sengoku period general Mori Genji, Kurosawa Akira once said when filming this movie:
"Maori Yuan's three sons are all very good because they make his family so prosperous. I wondered what would happen if it wasn't? It is a work that is intertwined with the storyline of King Lear. ”
In an anecdote about Māori, he asked each son to break a separate arrow, but when he asked them to break three arrows tied together, no one could do it.
This is the famous "Three Arrows Discipline". Maori yuan is to use this sentence to educate their children, it is difficult for a person to support a country, only unity can ensure the country's security.
In the book "Chaos", a character Xiuhu also asked the three children to fold the arrow, and when the three children arrived, San Lang broke the arrow in two, and he ridiculed his father for saying that both glory and loss were lost; He feels that the current society is still a world of the law of the jungle and people's hearts, and he should not expect his children to live a happy life.
In King Lear, the test of "three arrows" replaces the test of "love", but it is different from the test of "love". "The Test of Love" reminds us of the intensity of pronunciation, and also reflects Shakespeare's profound reflection on "what words are".
King Lear loved the young girl the most, and he knew very well that the young girl was the loveliest and loved him the most, but he was overly superstitious about language, and eventually he was confused by rhetoric, and the end was tragic.
When King Lear was expelled from his home by his two daughters, he asked, "What is the natural reason why their hearts become so hard?" "In Shakespeare's works, King Lear is more like a poor daddy who has been deceived and pitied. Kurosawa's novel Chaos is set in 16th-century Japan, where factional and power struggles have taken place in the Japanese military.
On the basis of connecting with the general environment of that era, he also arranged a "pre-history" for the protagonist Ichifumi Hidetora: Hidetora arranged for his two sons Taro and Jiro to marry the daughter of Su at the end of the rival clan, and then took advantage of the slack of hostile forces to kill the other family's family in the other's castle and replace it.
Through this incident, everyone knows that the reason why Yijiwen has today's status is entirely because of his killing, which is why Taro and Jiro will be so cold to their father, even at the cost of killing their own relatives.
The film opens with a boar hunt, which is not only a sign of this cruel world, but also a harbinger of Saburo's marriage, and a harbinger of the coming generation of samurai who will soon accept his tyrannical tradition.
Character setting: two women, two attitudes
From the perspective of character image, several protagonists in "Chaos" are the same as the protagonists in "King Lear", and their images are consistent with Japanese history and have distinct national characteristics.
Edmond is the most ambitious and fierce character in King Lear in stark contrast to King Lear. He was the youngest son of the Earl of Gloucester and was very popular with his father, but did not have any inheritance.
The ambitious Edmund was so dissatisfied with this that he separated his father from his brother Edgar and expelled him from the house; Then he planted the stolen goods on his father, cut his eyes out, and then he also molested the two princesses, which led to the break between Caucasus and Reagan, the last one died of poisoning, and one committed suicide.
Like Edmond, the Ichiji family ended the Ichijia because of another outsider, and that was Ms. Maple Leaf. Feng Niangzi was originally the wife of Xiaohu; After Xiuhu retreated, Feng Niangzi encouraged her husband to cut Xiuhu's subordinates to show her power, which eventually led Feng Niangzi to leave the city in anger.
Then, she creates a conflict between Taro Takatora and Jiro Masatora, causing the two of them to have infighting. After Taro's death, she wanted to stay and continue to seduce Jiro Masatora, so she coerced him into killing Sueji and made her the main house.
Many critics have compared her to Mrs. Macbeth, with Vincent Kemby describing her as a "woman who combines Gonaril, Reagan and Lady Macbeth", who combines the sinister and cunning of Mrs. Reagan with the bravery of Mrs. Macbeth.
However, she is not the same as Edmond, who is a greedy person for power, and she is a person who avenges her family. Just as Xiuhu slaughtered her entire family back then, she also endured humiliation and worked hard to prepare to destroy his family.
Xiuhu uses violence and masculinity to overcome everything she has; But in a private, feminine way, she overturned all of this.
Compared with Mrs. Feng, it is like Mrs. Mo who was killed by Xiuhu and beheaded all over the house. However, instead of taking revenge like Mrs. Feng, she converted to Buddhism and found spiritual comfort and reliance there. Xiuhu told Mo Niang that he originally wanted the benevolent Mo Niang to hate him, but Mo Niang did not remember hatred, was tolerant and generous, and did not calculate with him, only saying: "Everything is the fate of the past life, and everything is arranged by the Buddha." ”
Her personality charm gives her a stronger morality than Xiuhu, and this morality is not something that Xiuhu can control. When she greeted him, that "gentle" gaze would at least remind him of the wrong things she had done at home, if not a sign of regret, and make him feel guilty.
At the same time, her mother's resignation and docile nature make her unable to resist the demons around her. She was calculated by the head of the Feng family, not only did she have no husband, she also had no comfortable life, and she didn't even have her own family property.
When she appeared again, she and her brother Tsurumaru were living on the streets. Our last memory of Mofu is a dead body without a head, lying in the grass.
Theme: Revenge and rebirth
Mo has a tragic sense of history, and she is deeply influenced by Buddhist thought, which sees everything in the world as a cycle. Such a tragic way of looking at it is precisely the impact of Akira Kurosawa's samurai films on the "Noh drama".
After Saburo was reunited with Hidetora, he died soon after, and this effect was even more significant. Their deaths sparked a conversation between Hidetora's maniac Ami and his loyal minister Hirayama Tango; The former doubts whether the gods and Buddhas care about humans, while the latter insists that the gods and Buddhas are "crying": "Don't say it! Don't scold the gods and Buddhas! God and Buddha cry! For this kind of human evil deeds that have been repeated since ancient times, the foolishness of human beings who think they can't live without killing me and cutting me, gods and Buddhas can also save them! ”
Therefore, "Chaos" is not as tragic as "King Lear", but shows Kurosawa's deep understanding of Japanese history, that is, his self-awareness of "how people repeat themselves again and again".
The film ends tragically with Kaede and Sue, showing us that in the face of violence, neither revenge nor submission can be the best solution, so the film gives us enough time to think.
In Chaos, "Edgar" Tsurumaru is a benevolent but tragic character. He has the characteristic characteristic of Count Gloucester, that is, he was cut off by the "Xiuhuzi" and became blind. He is also a bit like Edgar, a man who lives in a hut in the middle of nowhere, a man who can play the piano. In front of this dying old man, Tsurumaru, dressed in a costume capable of playing, listened to him with a song to show that "only this heart remains".
His whistle, like crying, melodious and powerful tells all the bad things Xiuhu has done at home. Tsurumaru's whistle pierced Hidetora's protection and went straight into the depths of Hidetora's soul, causing him to roar in fright, pull out his legs and escape, and escape the door.
The flute of "Tsurumaru" represents a special meaning, a sad flute, from the beginning of the hunt, to the end, the tragic song is played again. He was pacing back and forth on the edge of the ruined castle with his crutches in hand, trying to figure out what was going on. As the sun set, he slipped under his feet and dropped the portrait of Buddha Mitabha given by his sister Mrs. Mo, and at this time, he had no way out.
The afterglow of the setting sun fell on the cliff, and Tsurumaru's petite body stood there. The fall of the statue of Amitabha tells us not to count on God, immortals, or Buddhas, but to be responsible for our own lives.
He has great expectations for Tsurumaru, whose future seems to be his responsibility, and the playing of the flute not only creates a certain connection between Tsurumaru and Hidetora, but also makes him feel a new life, a reincarnation that escapes tyranny and gains a new life.
epilogue
With his skillful directing skills, Kurosawa Akira integrated the sad elements in Shakespeare's plays into the spiritual world of the Japanese, integrating oriental aesthetics and philosophy, which can be said to be a classic.
Bibliography:
[1] Yoshio Arai "Chaos directed by the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa"
[2] Shakespeare's Complete Works of Shakespeare
[3] Zhang Qian, "On the Film and Television Adaptation Mode of "King Lear"
[4] Akira Kurosawa "Selected Screenplays of Akira Kurosawa"