It is estimated that no Japanese can think that the masterpiece of their own national spiritual literature was written by a "foreigner", Koizumi Yakumo as an Irish Greek, only later joined the Japanese nationality, he lived in Japan for fourteen years is extremely obsessed with Japanese culture, in-depth study of folk traditions and national humanity, after collecting a large number of folk ghost stories to create a book handed down, that is, "Strange Talk", but what I want to say is not the original work, but the adaptation of the video work of the same name, directed by Masaki Kobayashi, "Strange Talk" released in 1964.
Poster of Strange Talk
Mention of Japanese ghost films, I believe that many small partners will have a kind of trembling from the depths of the soul, especially the Japanese horror films represented by "The Grudge" and "Midnight Bells" have become the childhood shadows of countless Chinese people, due to the long age, resulting in the 1964 version of "Strange Talk" in The popularity in China is far less than the first two, but it is really necessary to compare from the status of film history and artistic achievements, the first two must be called "Strange Talk" as a big brother.
The two honors of winning the Best Foreign Language Film (nominated) at the 38th Academy Awards and the Palme d'Or (nominated) in the main competition unit of the 18th Cannes Film Festival are enough to enter the annals of world horror films and deserve to be studied and referenced by all horror films, while Douban 8.5, IMDb 8.0, Rotten Tomatoes Freshness 88%/Popcorn Index 90% can also prove that the film has been highly recognized by contemporary film critics and ordinary audiences, in short, for the horror film field, which has always been harsh in wind reviews. It's unbelievable to get such a blown-up reputation.
Stills from Strange Talk
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > what's so good about Weird Talk? </h1>
I can only say that this movie is too special, special to a bit of literary and artistic temperament, its success is not dependent on flesh and blood, nor on a surprise at first, in fact, I myself have always refused to watch that kind of routine rotten street horror film, but after watching "Strange Talk" directed by Masaki Kobayashi, I had a completely different experience:
The film is in an extremely gentle, extremely silent tone of the four stories to tell the story, like a slow drama, the initial will make people feel the waves, the rhythm is indeed dull, but the more you look at it, you can gradually feel the essence of it: the sensory shock is only the surface, it allows us to appreciate the content of Japanese folklore and art, richly showing the Oriental aesthetics of the mysterious, slaughtering, and mourning, especially the third story "Earless Fangyi", which is the most ambitious and most shaky chapter of director Masaki Kobayashi. From the three aspects of war painting, blind music art, and human body calligraphy, the audience popularized some Japanese classical culture, some national history and exotic customs, especially in the atmosphere of a chilling thriller, so that the audience was nervous, so it would not be as rigid and boring as popular science works.
The first story, "Black Hair", expresses the humanistic care for women and the irony of the patriarchal social era of lack of affection and different thoughts, and it is with such a deep cultural heritage, humanistic care and absurd and bizarre dramatic reversal that "Strange Talk" can write a strong and colorful stroke, which is of landmark significance in the history of Japanese horror films.
Speaking of "Strange Talk", I have to briefly mention "The Tale of the Rainy Moon".
Masaki Kobayashi and Kenji Mizoguchi are two directors who are quite oriental in terms of shooting, they are a bit similar in the techniques and techniques of expressing the meaning of the film, these two films are the same fantasy ghost story, different "Rain Moon Story" is more realistic criticism, obviously, whether from the story itself or the release date (1953) to analyze, "Rain Moon Story" has indelible traces of anti-war ideas, the intention will be more social significance, so the impact is much greater than "Strange Talk", Kenji Mizoguchi's "The Tale of the Rain Moon", "Nishitsuru Generation Girl", and "Kinmatsu Monogatari" are representative works of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.
Stills from "The Tale of the Rainy Moon"
It is precisely because of the collapse of The Second World War that Japan was dismantled by the old order and system by Western countries, and inevitably affected in the field of spiritual culture, so it will be found that the film and television works of Masaki Kobayashi and Kenji Mizoguchi in the 50s and 60s have incorporated a large number of Western lens language techniques, especially Masaki Kobayashi's "Strange Talk", when many media believed that this film was specially made for Westerners, and was called "the most beautiful Japanese film" by Westerners, so it could be favored by the judges.
As for whether I don't want to explore, I would like to say that this is a surrealist work, extremely elaborate set, art and composition, illusion of a strange "reality", it is easy to make people immersive, anyway, I saw the whole time nervous, rapid heartbeat, and even have a large mouth does not dare to take a breath of suffocation, it is difficult to be afraid, but this fear is not to be dissuaded, but get a rich, quite authentic Japanese flavor, coupled with a large number of empty shots, in the narrative of the strange scene to statically drive , often swirling, supplemented by a silent, deep wind and light string soundtrack, the artistic flow of the film is born.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the four elements of the success of Strange Talk</h1>
1, stage drama-like photographic set, exquisite art composition
The photography and set of "Strange Talk" obviously looks a bit simple and primitive, there is almost no fancy stuff, but because of the sense of ukiyo-e vision, just the right lens operation and switching, so it can produce a fantastic sense of beauty, especially the second story "Snow Girl", it is almost like sitting under the stage watching the stage drama performance, take a few screenshots:
In particular, the opening chapter shows a large number of huge "eyes" in the sky, which makes the story of "Snow Girl" full of strange and bizarre tones.
And the flaming red lips of the rainbow and the brilliant and bright sunset, there is a dreamlike intoxicating beauty at the same time.
The location of the characters in the film is also quite emphasis on the composition of the camera, visually not messy and not verbose, the lines are clear, neat and unified, after all, this film won the daily film best art direction and best cinematography in 1966 two awards, you know that Kobayashi Masaki did work hard in this regard, such as "No Ear Fang One" in which Fang Yi met the group of ghosts of the symmetrical composition, it is very rigorous and solemn beauty:
2, truly restore the historical culture of the Fuhua Dao
Japanese kimono as a major feature of the nation, in the "Strange Talk" is naturally everywhere, because of the occurrence of the Japanese feudal era (Heian period, Edo period, etc.), not only women but also men, have deduced the unique etiquette beauty of that era, a smile is quite expressive, the woman's shyness and affection, the man's majestic ability, even the samurai costume is also a liso mighty style, in addition to the image design of the snow girl in "Snow Girl", the white face, the tightening of the clothes and a small step like a smoke, It should be Japanese Kabuki or Noh as the prototype, in fact, there are many small details that reflect Japanese culture in the film, weaving, tea ceremony, kendo, in the three aspects of clothing and living, extremely restore the truth, not sloppy at all, carefully designed and dressed everywhere, so I said that it is easy to misunderstand that this movie is a literary science film, not a horror and spiritual film.
3, a far-reaching, Zen soundtrack
The soundtrack part that Takemitsu is responsible for controlling is also a highlight of the film, also pure to the extreme, "Black Hair" is occasionally sounded in the silence of the drums, "Snow Girl" is ethereal and strange mixed with whistling and mourning, "Earless Fang I" is even more "heavy head", the pipa chant is wonderful, composed, played and chanted by the Japanese pipa giant Tsuruta Nishi, the majestic and rough voice line will be the tragic and magnificent performance of the Battle of Tan no Ura at that time, let me unforgettable, no rumbling nor uncomfortable harshness, point to the end, the artistic conception is far-reaching, The beauty of the strings can also be expressed in a thriller movie with such a deep zen meaning, admiration and admiration, in this regard, Masaki Kobayashi and the soundtrack musician seem to be a devout believer, playing a wonderful song for the audience that is like a water stopper and can be thrilling at the climax.
4, create a multi-segment, simple and straightforward narrative technique
To tell ghost stories in a multi-paragraph manner, "Strange Talk" should be one of the earliest practical products, making the film script rich in content and colorful, each story has its own focus, and the length is moderate, it will not let the audience fall into a dull state for a long time, in terms of narrative skills to flat directly narrate, in fact, in that era, it does not need to be too obscure, the important thing is to make most audiences easy to understand and accept, at best it is more than some auxiliary means, such as the flashback fragment of "Black Hair", "In the Tea Bowl" Echoing from the beginning to the end, it is worth mentioning the enjoyable use of painted scrolls in "Earless FangYi".
The so-called scroll painting, is to paint on the horizontally unfolded scrolls, through continuous picture changes to express a complete story, Kobayashi Masaki restored the Heishi and Genji's Tannoura naval battle, through the painting as a guide through the entire story, the ghosts that appeared in the back, one by one sad and indignant grievances, corresponding to the fierce war scenes in front, from the three points of painting scrolls, naval battles, ghosts to jointly set off that tragic history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > some impressions</h1>
It is said that this is a Japanese version of "Liaozhai Zhiyi", indeed many chapters of the original book are about the poignant love story of the narrator ghost, I think That China's Liaozhai if you want to make a movie is very recommended to learn from "Strange Talk", of course, the two "Painted Skins" released before are not bad, but there is room for improvement, such as less than some of China's unique classical charm, a little floating on the surface, fortunately, it is not by a surprise at first, a large number of flesh and blood shots to produce a vulgar fright effect, in fact, you can learn kobayashi Masaki "Strange Talk" The expression skills and the wonderful mood of ethereal nothingness, under the surface of the supernatural horror, let the audience still have some feelings and gains, if a balance point can be achieved, I think even horror films can produce explosive word of mouth.
(There is also an original video commentary version, like watching videos can click below to watch)
Commentary version of Strange Talk