Akira Kurosawa's love of history is there for all to see, and this has a lot to do with his experience of reading widely. He will find the shining points in history that he is interested in and become the subject of his films.
"The Man Who Stepped on the Tiger's Tail" is a poor film in Akira Kurosawa's film sequence. The display of drama in the movie is better than the movie, and in the bones it is actually a derivative of the Japanese classical noh drama. Therefore, many people think that this story is too simple, too simple to be interesting. Even the length of the film is only fifty-four minutes, which is not as long as a big domestic network movie.
Although this film is not excellent overall, it has a unique artistic charm of Akira Kurosawa. In the relationship between history and film, he found an angle of mutual care. He never made up historical common sense, but only exaggerated where it needed to be highlighted, like a master of historical freehand.
"The Man Who Stepped on the Tiger's Tail" tells the story of Yuan Yijing leading six of his cronies to flee. The porter figure in the film, like the courtiers in the court, is often a dramatic means of eliminating the big characters. At the same time, it is also a dramatic approach that distances itself from stereotypical history. I believe that those who have seen it have a deeper image of the porter.
The protagonist of the film seems to be Yuan Yijing, but it is actually benefactor Benqing, his close associate. Officially, with the help of this brave and resourceful guy, a generation of tyrants Yuan Yijing successfully escaped the pursuit and killing, and successfully exited the customs.
The story of getting out of customs, China is actually richer than Japan. Lao Tzu rode out of the customs, Wu Zixu mixed out of Shaoguan with a white head overnight, and many medieval customs stories were much more exciting than the stories of the Yuan Yijing. Unfortunately, Akira Kurosawa shot it, and we didn't.
We must first understand the general historical background before we can understand the urgency of this line of departure. At the beginning of the film, the background is also told with subtitles: in 1185, the Hei family was defeated in the West Sea, and Genkuro Yoshikō was highly honored. It could have been admired for breathing and raising an eyebrow, but suspicion is a weakness of willfulness. The elder brother of the Yuan Yijing believed the rumors of the ministers around him and went so far as to attack the Yuanyijing. Genyoshi, like a dog on bereavement, led six of his loyal monks disguised as monks to confuse the public, and they later defected to Fujiwara Hideyoshi. The story told in the movie is that the seven people who want to go to Kaga Country must pass through the Sekiguchi Anzai. At this time, Yuan Yijing's mood was trembling like stepping on the tail of a tiger.
There are countless stories of this kind of martial artist who has been suspected of his meritorious service after his achievement. The truth of rabbit dead dog cooking is full of history. Yuan Yijing is such a suspected hero. His men were loyal and tried to ensure his smooth return to kaga kingdom. Among them, Benqing played an important role. This person was like the chicken and dog thieves around Meng Tianjun, proficient in various clearance skills.
The film is divided into three acts according to the theatrical pattern. In the first act, Gen Yoshijing and six of his cronies disguise themselves as monks and are led by a porter through the mountains and forests to the Anzai Pass. In the lounge, the porter's joke actually broke the identity of the seven people, frightening the porter's head to dare not lift. Only under the fright of Ben Qing did he dare to get up again.
However, the porter gave them a wake-up call - even the porter could recognize their identities, not to mention the people who guarded the gate. So, they re-dressed Gen Yoshikasa and disguised himself as another porter on the road. The other six continued to pretend to be monks.
Continuing on the road, the director arranged three entanglements of the porter, and finally the eight of them went forward together. These three entanglements were more important than the first, and finally tied them together and became a team.
For the first time, the porter criticized Yuan Yijing as a porter, and the posture of the backpack was wrong, which was easy to be recognized. The second time, the porter expressed that he wanted to join in and help Yuan Yijing together, but was disliked by Benqing and said that he did not need his help. The third time, the porter scouted the pass and came back, saying that General Yuan Lai had learned of the movement and had been on strict guard at the pass, and the crowd even said that they would break through, but Ben Qing thought that it was better not to be too hasty.
In the second act, the eight people come to the pass and meet the owner of the pass, Fu Jian Zuowei Gate. He was suspicious of the group and put it to the test. And these tests were skillfully dealt with by Benqing one by one and successfully passed.
Fuken Zuoweimen first doubted the identity of their monks and asked Benkei to chant the sutra. Ben Qing took out a roll of white paper, and it actually looked like a decent recitation, which was actually a recitation. After winning the trust, Fujian Zuoweimen suspected that the porter was the Source Yijing, and Ben Qing staged a bitter meat plan in a hurry, and blamed the Yuanyijing. Fujian Zuoweimen thought that his subordinates would not move their masters, and if they committed the following crimes, they would let them out of the customs.
In the third act, the eight people who successfully exited the customs quickly walked forward to safety. Ben Qing asked Yuan Yijing for his sins, and Yuan Yijing not only did not blame him, but also praised him. The Fujian Left Guard Gate sent good wine, and the crowd drank and sang, and let the porters dance to help entertain. The porter ended up drunk as well.
By the time he woke up, the seven had disappeared, leaving him with their rewards and clothes.
This is the story of a customs clearance. And the excitement depends on the wits and courage of both sides. I have to say that with the schemes in the movie, the Japanese are far from being the opponents of the Chinese ancients. A passing glance, a bitter meat plan, basically got a guard general, this way of playing is a bit too simple.
Perhaps the original events in history are interesting, but Akira Kurosawa only grasped this one detail and then made it into a movie in the mode of Noh drama. Coupled with the limited space, it is really not pleasing. Benkei's wit and porter's hilarity did not save the film, and it became Kurosawa's eternal pain. He even tried to commit suicide at one point because of it.
Fortunately, his suicide did not succeed, otherwise we would have lost a real film master.