The funny and slightly sad Japanese comedy film Silent Film Narrator

For me, it is more like a popular science movie, and I have a certain understanding of Japanese silent film commentators. The overall evaluation of the movie is a mixture of sad and happy, originally thought it would be a talented and beautiful trend, but the end is towards reality. There are many details in the movie, such as the poster that the male protagonist has been carrying around, and the milk candy that the female protagonist can't forget.

The first ten minutes of the film tell the story of Toshitaro and Umeko as teenagers who meet while watching the film, and then slowly become friends. Plum's mother is in and out of the wind and dust, so the mother and daughter often move to make a living. The difference between Umeko and Shuntaro when they were teenagers seemed to be doomed to the outcome of the two as adults. The plum under the sunset silently waits for Shuntaro on the steps, but shuntaro misses the final goodbye by stealing milk candy for plums.

Ten years later, Shuntaro grows up to be a handsome guy, but mistakenly joins the gang of thieves and becomes a wanted man. Later, Yin Andyang mistakenly entered a silent film screening theater and became a handyman. The screening theater is not in a recession, many powerful employees have been poached by opponents, there are only three commentators, one is a popular student, because of the vividness of the commentary, he has become a girl killer, a tepid middle-aged black uncle, and a big guy Yamaoka. When the red boy and the black man with the belly are not much to say, talk about Yamaoka, Shuntaro's idol when he was a teenager, but now he has become a muddy drunkard, although he still serves as a silent film narrator, but because of his negative attitude, the audience has been very small.

There is a very interesting place to describe Yamaoka, when Yamaoka finished the silent film "La Traviata", the sparse crowd left in disappointment, but one of them stood up and applauded. This person's name is Erchuan, a director, although there are not many scenes, but he can also be regarded as a key figure in the movie. Nikawa's applause for Yamaoka should be because the two have a common understanding of movies. Although when explaining "La Traviata", Yamaoka did not make a long speech like other commentators, but only explained it where necessary, as if to narrate the movie. Yamaoka is full of pessimism about the profession of narrator, and it is clear from the dialogue with Shuntaro at the tavern that he feels that movies can exist independently without a narrator, while the narrator cannot do without movies. The more he understands the movie, the more serious this pessimism becomes, and it's no wonder he keeps getting drunk.

The dialogue in the tavern solved a problem that has always plagued my mind, when watching Akira Kurosawa's "Toad's Oil", there was a passage in which Akira Kurosawa introduced himself as a silent film narrator's brother, who lost his job and committed suicide because of the sound film occupying the market. At that time, I didn't understand it, mainly because I didn't know what the silent film narrator did, and I always thought it was a film critic, so I thought his brother was really unnecessary. It is now understandable that the silent film narrator at that time was no less than the status of the current film and television star. Therefore, when audio films enter the market, the living conditions of such professionals can be imagined. The gap in life causes a spiritual blow, and it is not easy for a person who makes a living to accept it at once.

Shuntaro completes his transformation in the cinema, becomes a hot silent film narrator, and meets Plum, who broke off contact when he was a teenager, and is also loved by the daughter of the rival boss, how to say that he is a winner in life. If you continue according to this plot, it is likely to be a good happy ending. However, the magical director finally arranged a more bizarre chase scene, and directly threw the male protagonist into prison, and the female protagonist followed the director named Erchuan to Kyoto, seemingly becoming an actor.

The movie ends with Shuntaro telling a group of inmates in prison about "Strange Thief Gigma", and Umeko listens quietly to the prison department. "Strange Thief Gigma" is a movie that Shuntaro promised to tell her when she was a teenager, but because Shuntaro was caught stealing sugar at that time, the two never saw each other again. The guards next to him listened to Shuntaro with great interest while flipping through the magazine, and the camera stayed in the magazine for a few seconds, which was to explain some of the other people's situations: the burned movie theater was being rebuilt, and Meizi became an actress and filmed the movie "Rogue Man". (Guess it should be a big hit, I can't understand Japanese, and the subtitles have not been translated.) ）

Finally, to say a little personal speculation, the heroine was wearing a mesh hat at the time, which should indicate the arrival of the sound movie. (Japanese sound films began in 1931, and mesh hats were popular in the 1930s.) There should be a lot of details like this in the movie, but there is no understanding of Japanese history, and many places can't get the points.