Jiu-jitsu and judo, though only a one-word difference, demonstrate Akira Kurosawa's understanding of the ordinary and the extraordinary.
In 1943, at the age of 43, Akira Kurosawa shot his first work, Zi Sanshiro, with a confident heart, and this debut work still seems to have a symphonic and exciting inspirational force. The film tells the story of a young man named Zi Sanshiro who learns judo, and after some arduous ordeal, he finally grows into a prominent figure in the judo world. The story's material, which falls within the scope of martial arts themes, is derived from the best-selling novel by Japanese writer Tomita Tomita, which Akira Kurosawa stumbled upon while passing by a book stall while he was an assistant director. The struggle between judo and jutsu depicted in the book from 1882 to 1887 and the protagonist's various magnificent legendary experiences immediately resonated violently in the heart of Akira Kurosawa, who advocated masculinity, and the spirit of fortitude, wisdom and philosophy contained in the characters in the book had a wonderful echo and answer with Akira Kurosawa's inner world, and the result of this impact made Akira Kurosawa have a creative impulse as enthusiastic as fire. This was the beginning of Akira Kurosawa's independent filming as a director. This beginning became a glorious starting point for Kurosawa's long filmmaking career after tomorrow.
Prior to this, the development of world cinema has made brilliant achievements in the shooting of silent films and black and white sound films, and many directors are engaged in the exploration and creation of color films. In terms of shaping the character image alone, a good creative situation has been formed in terms of depicting legendary or heroic characters. For example, in Japan, there is already a creative basis for shooting judo themes, and a clear sense of genre has been established, that is, shooting martial arts films. At the same time, in the Western film industry such as Hollywood in the United States, there are also similar film genres, such as Westerns. All of this had an impact on Akira Kurosawa's creations. For example, the samurai figure in Zi Sanshiro has many similarities with the cowboy character in the Western, they are all typical heroic characters, with integrity and innate spirit of helping the weak (this is even more prominent in the sequel to Zi Sanshiro, such as the opening paragraph where the protagonist bravely saves the rickshaw driver), and the theme of the film is usually how to punish the evil, and is known for creating positive characters with invincible strength and male intelligence. However, as a film giant of the future era, Kurosawa's greatness lies in the innovation of art forms, making it more aesthetic and enjoyable to the film, and raising the expressiveness of film in dealing with such characters and artistic means to a new level.
For example, the structure of "Zi Sanshiro" takes the growth of characters as a narrative clue, with the nature of a biopic, but it is different from ordinary biopics, not narrating the various extraordinary points of the characters from various angles in many ways, but only revolving around the "martial arts" thing, pursuing a concise and clear beauty. At the beginning of the film, two shots are used to explain the environment (the street scene of the town where people are moving, the vista view) and the style (the women sing a minor tune, the camera pushes forward and moves left), after which Zisaboro appears in the way of learning and is quickly involved in a dispute: a contest between jutsu (focusing on skills and skills) and judo representing the new life (focusing on morality and rational purpose). After a wonderful martial arts scene, Zi Sanshiro formally studied judo with a teacher. This "watching the battle" paragraph not only promotes the development of the plot in the direction it should be (showing the growth of the characters), avoids the protagonist going astray, but also is full of the interest of action aesthetics. The ensuing series of events is narrated as Shōshiro representing judo in various tournaments, defeating the various factions representing jiu-jitsu one by one until a complete victory. And this figurative theme expression of "victory" is actually the victory of the natural truth of heaven and earth, which has always been promoted in Akira Kurosawa's film thought.
The focus of the structure is the setting of the clues that reveal the spiritual growth of the characters, and it is a process of "seeking the Tao", "enlightening the Tao" and "attaining the Tao". As an important aesthetic object of Oriental culture, "Tao" is placed in the expression of art, which attaches great importance to depicting the spiritual realm of the characters. Zi Sanshiro uses judo (or other kung fu such as swordsmanship) as a way of learning, pursuing the cultivation of the realm, and only when he is forced to go to the world, he is used to defend himself against evil, which is a typical oriental heroic style feature. The driving force of the heroic spirit is very well portrayed in the details of the characters reciting the "Song of Righteous Qi" before the battle (a scene in the movie), which shows that in Kurosawa's artistic thought, "Tao" and "Qi" are connected, and "Qi" is also a very important aesthetic object in Eastern culture.
For another example, the portrayal of the spiritual realm of the characters is different from the portrayal of the character's personality in the Western, first of all, the conditions as a hero are different, the samurai is not full of seven passions and six desires like a cowboy, but the secular component is weaker, and the deeper ideological activities are emphasized, such as the shooting of the "enlightenment" scene of "jumping into the pool", and the symbolic meaning of the wooden stakes that appear repeatedly, especially the repeated appearances of the lotus image at the moment of the spiritual shaking of the characters at important junctures, are extremely beautiful. Using montage techniques, on the one hand, it guides the audience to associate the spiritual leap experienced by the characters, and on the other hand, it hints at the meaning of the characters' firm belief in the pursuit of high quality. Such differences in the treatment of characters in different cultural contexts illustrate the differences between the meaning and purpose of heroic actions.
The positive characters in Kurosawa's films do not show a certain heroic nature more in order to save others, but show a certain heroic nature in order to maintain their own righteous faith pursuits. However, other topics related to this, such as declaring the truth of being human and the intention to teach the wicked, are consistent. Although these two types of heroes have strong kung fu skills, because the motivations for prompting the characters to act have different starting points, the storyline and certain details deduced seem to be similar on the surface, because they belong to the same category of hero films, but in fact, the value of ideas and the taste of viewing are very different. Take the duel scene, the gun in the cowboy's hand is very important, the picture highlights the blood, pay attention to fierceness, firestorm, but the samurai, or bare-handed or knife, highlighting the force, pay attention to confrontation, silence. Although the narrative content is the same, the difference in the form of shooting gives the audience a different feeling. This is the personal charm of the art style.
In addition, there are narratives about love. For this part of the content, Kurosawa did not spend too much lens rendering, but only treated it as an "interlude", like a small flower, playing an embellishment role. For example, the description of the hero's rescue of the beautiful woman, which is highly respected by Hollywood Westerns, is only shown in a very ordinary detail in "Zi Sansilang". While walking on the stone steps, the heroine Xiao Ye's clogs laces are broken, and Zi Sanshiro leans down to put them on for her, which portrays the careful and gentle side of Zi Sanshiro. And the subsequent plots of the lost handkerchief and the return of the handkerchief, and thus the narrative of the emotional drama, such classical techniques of describing love are still common today. But among them, Kurosawa's hero's attitude towards beautiful women deserves attention. The hero does not have a redemptive responsibility, but with a sense of appreciation (such as the gesture of admiration when witnessing the night prayer), so beauty, as a narrative factor, becomes an obstacle that the hero must face to grow, a difficulty that must be overcome, and thus constitutes a narrative passage that overcomes beauty. Therefore, an important feature of the heroes in Akira Kurosawa's films is that their personalities are very noble. In addition to paying attention to the improvement and cultivation of the spiritual and intellectual aspects of the characters (such as the portrayal of the thinking process), it also attaches importance to the purity of the characters' feelings, and lacks secular color. This is where samurai and cowboys don't fit in.
After that, Akira Kurosawa seemed to be in love with the world of "samurai heroes" for ten minutes, shooting 10 martial arts films, although "Zi Sanshiro" was too simple to depict the relationship between the characters compared with the works filmed later, and the tension of the scene atmosphere was not full enough, but for the director's first work, it was particularly cherished, which is the unique thing of the debut film that exudes the director's innocent temperament. As the "farewell" scene at the end of the film shows the moral. A conversation between Zi Sanshiro and Shogoro Yano about babies and adults: "No, he will always be a baby." This childlike phrase became Akira Kurosawa's creative vow. It really means a lot. The train in the picture "booms" and "booms" forward, indicating that Kurosawa's filmmaking career has begun to move forward. And the beginning of all this is based on "Zi Sanshiro".