Aoi Yu got married, and the object was the funny artist Ryota Yamazato - for a time, she rarely became the focus of public attention, and suddenly rushed to the top of the Weibo hot search list. Netizens expressed shock at this, but most of them still offered their blessings in time.
Yu Aoi is married to funny entertainer Ryota Yamazato
Was her decision a surprise? Yes, but in a way, Aoi Yu is always elusive. We can see her cheering for sumo wrestlers on the sumo wrestling arena, and we can also see her ever-changing screen image in the movie.
Yu Aoi, who is obsessed with sumo wrestling
Perhaps in most people's minds, Yu Aoi is still the same look in "Flowers and Alice" and "All About Lily Week". In fact, her role spans far beyond our imagination.
This article reviewing Aoi's work may give us a better understanding of the actress, whose characters have become an indispensable part of the history of modern and contemporary Japanese cinema.
Director Mitaka Nakano and starring Yu Aoi and Yuko Takeuchi, "The Long Farewell" is perhaps one of the most precious new Japanese works of the year. For Japanese film fans, this moving family drama with the theme of Alzheimer's disease is destined to be a work that cannot be missed.
In fact, for our regular visitors to the North Film Festival, You Aoi is already an old face, and previous films such as "Crossing the Fence" (2016) and "Family Suffering 2" (2017) have her presence, I don't know when Ge Ge will be able to invite her to Beijing (what?). ）。
And in this year's "The Long Goodbye", she once again brought us a new role. In the film, she plays the daughter of a dementia patient, chasing her ideal of opening a small restaurant while taking care of her father who suffers from dementia.
Today, Aoi Yu has become a representative figure of the post-85 generation of actresses. At the 2017 Tokyo International Film Festival, there was a special screening unit entitled "Muse on the Japanese Screen", which focused on the works of four post-85 actresses, Yu Aoi, Mitsushima, Aoi Miyazaki and Sakura Ando. Unlike those idol screen stars, they have a highly recognizable image and increasingly sophisticated acting skills.
Thirty-three-year-old Yu Aoi is no longer the girl that many people think of as the young girl in Shunji Iwai's youth films. In fact, she has been experimenting with many different roles since a long time ago. I will use this article to review the ever-changing acting career of Yuna Aoi.
For many fans, the first time they met Yu Aoi must have been in the shocking "All About Lily Week" (2001). Yu Aoi played a young girl who was forced to make love in Shunji Iwai's extremely stylized youth film.
I think that people who have seen this movie will not forget her mobile phone full of charms in the film. At first glance, the phone was hilariously exaggerated, but when Shiori, played by Yu Aoi, committed suicide, it became the wreckage of youth.
All About Lily Week
In fact, at the beginning of Aoi's career, we can see her ability to control a variety of roles. In 2001, she starred in three films, in addition to Lily Week, as well as her collaboration with Aoi Miyazaki on Blue and White and Vermin.
Although Aoi Yu plays a female student, these three roles have completely different positions. In "Lily Week", Yu Aoi plays the role of a victim, while in "Blue and White", You Aoi uses the image of a sister to play the perpetrator of school violence. Her image in "Vermin" is more complicated — she appears to be an innocent girl, but in a way, she has also become an accomplice to rumors of violence.
Pest
Of course, among The first few works by Yu Aoi, the most moving is still Shunji Iwai's "Flowers and Alice" (2004). She plays the role of a cheerful girl and has an extraordinary friendship with Hana played by Suzuki Apricot.
The minute-long paper cup ballet scene in the film has also become one of the most classic passages in Iwai's youth films.
Flowers and Alice
As he grew older, Yu Aoi gradually evolved from middle school student to college student. But whether it's honey and clover (2006) adapted from the hit manga or Rainbow Goddess (2006), written by Shunji Iwai, we can see the almost transparent girl characters of "Flowers and Alice".
However, as Blue and White and Vermin prove, even Aoi Yu, a girl, was a "girl with a thousand faces". Teenage girls don't have to be a blank slate —she injects her own wild imagination into many of her films.
"Fuso Flower Girl"
In Ueno Shuri's Turtle Accident Speed Ride (2005), she played a pompously dressed punk girl; in Welcome to the Isolation Ward (2007), she was a psychopath with a wild hairstyle; and in Lee Sang-il's Fuso Flower Girl (2006), she became a hula dancer full of youthful vitality.
"Welcome to the Isolation Ward"
As a young girl, Aoi Yu is not just Shiori or Alice. Her extremely rich roles at the beginning of her career also provided many options for her subsequent acting career.
When Aoi was nearly twenty-five years old and stepped into the adult world, she also began to try some more mature roles.
Perhaps the most representative work of this period is the work of Japanese female director Yuki Tanada, "Million Yuan and the Bitter Worm Girl" (2008). The film tells the story of a girl who has just graduated from college, is very confused about her future, and tries different things everywhere. Yu Aoi, who is about to say goodbye to her career as a teenage actress, is perfectly appropriate to star in this very realistic film.
Million Dollar and the Bitter Worm Girl
In the genre of "professional films", which has Japanese characteristics, Aoi Yu as a worker has also begun to appear. In the Japanese drama "Cooking Senji" (2008), Yu Aoi plays a hostess who adheres to traditional Japanese cuisine. Her Yamato-like image, along with Japanese cuisine, forms a set of antagonisms with modern Western culture.
However, in "The Corner Fruit Shop" (2011), she became a follower of Western-style pastries. In this film, she plays the image of an urban strivers, and modern Western-style pastries have become a symbol of urban culture.
《Cooking Senji》
She has made wonderful interpretations of these two essentially contradictory characters, which reflects her further broadening of the adult world. The episode "Yu Aoi X4 Lies" (2008), which features her as the protagonist, further proves this point - In this episode, You Aoi plays four characters with completely different personalities and living environments.
In addition to the above works, perhaps the most important attempt of Yu Aoi in this stage is to appear in the family drama "Brother" (2010) by Japanese film master Yoji Yamada. In fact, this is not the first time that Aoi yu has starred in a family drama, early in her career, she starred in the family drama "Seven Sons and Seven Lives" directed by Hisaishi Jean (2004).
"Brother"
However, the theme of "Seven Sons and Seven Lives" is relatively simple, and it is about the single-line relationship that occurs between a pair of siblings. Beginning with Younger Brother, Aoi, as the daughter of an elder, begins to deal with relationships with different family members in more complex family relationships.
During this phase, Yu Aoi gradually broke away from the "limitations" of youth films and began to deal with more complex characters. She began experimenting with more realistic works, including the most representative of Japanese films, professional films and family dramas.
If we know that she has tried so many different kinds of roles before, then her "breakthroughs" and "transformations" in recent years are not so shocking.
First of all, she continues to try more deeply in the genre of family drama. Her long-term collaboration as a director began to change from Shunji Iwai to Yoji Yamada – following "Brother", she starred in Yoji Yamada's Tokyo Family (2013), a tribute to Yasuji Ozu, and the outstanding family comedy "Family Suffering" trilogy (2016, 2017, 2018).
Family Affliction 2
With the passage of time, the most representative screen image of Aoi Yu has gradually changed from a "school girl" to a "daughter in the family". In this year's "The Long Farewell", Aoi's positioning in the family is also very similar to Yoji Yamada's film. But in this film, she has to deal with many heavy issues such as Alzheimer's disease, foreign affection, and professional difficulties at the same time.
Of course, in addition to the main line of the family drama, she is still in the wider field, carrying out never-ending exploration. Her attempts at comic book adaptations are no longer limited to the transparent girlish characters in Honey and Clover or Bugs. Nowadays, before we have seen the movie, it is often difficult to associate Yu Aoi's name with the character she plays.
"The Heart of the Ranger Sword"
The most representative of these are, of course, the Royal Sister Takaho in the "Rover Kenshin" (2012) series, or the terrible Kaoru God Rishi in Tokyo Ghoul (2017). In the reviews of these films, we can often see people marveling at Yushin Aoi's image.
Tokyo Ghoul
Even in the more realistic films, Aoi's role in recent years has been extremely difficult and complex. Her two roles in "Crossing the Fence" (2016) and "Those Birds She Doesn't Know WhoSe Names" (2017) require very precise emotional control.
In the Japanese drama "Dr. Rentaro" (2015), which helped her absorb countless fans in previous years, Yu Aoi played a geisha with a dual personality. Her superb acting skills of switching personalities within the camera have impressed a large number of audiences.
"Dr. Rentaro"
From 2001 to 2019, in this nearly two decades of performance career, Aoi Yu completed an amazing transformation and also dedicated many wonderful works to the audience. In part, she was able to make so many attempts, but also thanks to the very inclusive genre composition of Japanese films.
Yu Aoi's performance makes us always look forward to her next role. She also has a new film in 2019, "Love Dolls" by Yuki Taneda, a female director she has worked with, which tells the story of a professional (Played by Issei Takahashi) who makes sex dolls, and Yu Aoi plays his wife.
We should have believed that she would continue to try more new characters and constantly surprise us on the screen. Eventually, perhaps she will truly become the "muse" in the history of Japanese cinema.