Wen 丨 Indifferent One
Recently, The Movie Magazine selected the top ten Japanese films of the 1990s.
The most professional Japanese film magazines have selected their own lists, and no one can be more authoritative than them, and their choice is the following films -
1. "Where the Moon Rises" (Choi Yang-il)
2. "Sotokyoku" (Takeshi Kitano)
3. "The Porter" (Shinji Aimai)
4. "X-Shoji" (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
5. "Five Sumo Wrestling Boys" (Zhou Fang Zhengxing)
5. "Talk about love dancing" (Zhou Fang Zhengxing)
7. "Tokalev" (Shunji Sakamoto)
7. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
7. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
10. "3 ratio 4x October" (Takeshi Kitano)
10. "Dead without Regrets" (Takashi Ishii)
An outsider to Japan
The list includes a juxtaposition of eleven films, the top three of which are all 1993 works, all of which share a common theme: the state of life of immigrants in Japan.
This is actually the best reflection of Japanese society in the 1990s.
Since the 1980s, the number of foreign workers in Japan has been increasing, and changes in the socio-demographic structure and the composition of the labor force have also directly brought about issues of public concern. Since this time, social topics featuring Chinese Japanese and Korean Japanese have gradually begun to receive attention, and these foreign populations have participated in the changes in the social process, and have also entered japan's social relations and family relations, which will inevitably bring about the problem of ethnic relations.
Therefore, in 1984, in Oguri Yasuhei's "For Gayako", we saw the expression of these issues, from the perspective of reflecting on the war, describing the life crisis encountered by the Japanese and Korean people whose emotions were severed by the war.
"For Gayazi"
And the director Cui Yangyi, who was at the top of the list of the top ten Japanese films in the 1990s, was one of the more than 800,000 Japanese Koreans at that time, and the chinese audience was most familiar with his directorial work may be "Guide Dog Little Q".
In the early years, Choi Yoichi began to show his prominence as an assistant director to director Nagisa Oshima, and in 1993, he directed the "Where the Moon Rises", which was put to the top of the list, which was the most closely related to himself, and placed in the context of Japanese cinema, "Where the Moon Rises" was also an important film for Koreans in Japan after Nagisa Oshima's "Hanging Death Sentence".
Where the Moon Rises
For Japanese films in the 1990s, outsiders can be said to be a common theme, the early years of "Tokyo Love Story" or "Love in Tokyo", are the outsiders' vision of the modern metropolis, "Where the Moon Rises" uses real and humorous language, reinforcing the differences between different ethnic groups and social classes.
Whenever a new driver gets lost asking for help, he is always reminded to "see where the moon comes from", and for these foreign minorities living in Japan, "finding the way" can also be seen as a desire to find an identity.
In the same year, Takeshi Kitano directed "Sonata", and Shinji Somi made "Moving", and this topic later became more familiar to the audience in 1996, "Swallowtail Butterfly", which achieved both commercial and artistic success.
Sonata
The films on this list are dramatic records of a Japanese society that is undergoing great changes.
Interestingly, you'll find that some of the Japanese films that gained international fame in that decade were not included in this list, such as "Eel" in 1997, when Masahira Imamura won the Palme d'Or.
From this, we can also glimpse the historical viewpoint of the Xun bao's choice of these films.
"Moving"
The great change of the production system
Japanese films before the 1990s, experienced a period of downturn and chaos, although there were many Japanese films in the 1970s and 1980s that won international awards, such as "The Undead of Love", "The Examination of the Mountain Festival", etc., but these world-class recognitions did not bring prosperity to the Japanese film market, the local domestic film market is still dominated by gangster films, pink films, but also to face the strong attack of Hollywood, in this state of local creative decline, a new stage of development has arrived.
The closure of major studios of the old system, such as Nisso, has provided new space and possibilities for changes in the Japanese film industry.
《楢山節考》
In the early years, most of the works in the golden period of Japanese cinema came from the four major film companies of Shochiku, Daiei, Toho and Toei, and several large companies with a total production volume of more than 500 films in the 1960s were only three after twenty years, and the total number of productions also plummeted to only more than 20 films a year.
At that time, Shochiku mainly relied on the "Injiro's Story" series, but later the lead actor Atsumi Kiyoshi died, and the problem of Shochiku's over-dependence became apparent, making it difficult to have core works to support.
"The Story of Injiro: Injiro Hibiscus Flower Special"
However, there are also exceptions, when large companies are in a stalemate, there are also like Guoying and New Toho that use pink movies to beat Rihuo with low-cost, low-budget, short-term ways.
At that time, in addition to the impact of television sets, with the popularity of video tapes, the use of home video recorders, and the new way of renting and selling video tapes, watching movies at home has become a common way of life, and the hardware and content and demand have expanded dramatically.
In this way, the impact on the film industry is on the one hand the rapid development of adult video and the growth of stores dedicated to videotape. Video films that are not released in theaters and are exclusively available for the videotape market can be completed at low cost, which also provides more opportunities for new directors.
"Perverted Family"
In the early nineties, more than half of the total number of films produced were pink films, and this kind of film with erotic themes has been supporting the film industry to some extent.
Although this film genre was once criticized in the critics, there are also many new directors who have accumulated experience in this genre, in fact, many directors who later switched to ordinary film production, the first work can be seen as a broad pink film, such as Zhou Fang Masayuki's "Perverted Family", or Kurosawa Kiyoshi's "Kandagawa Fornication War".
And they happen to be representatives of another trend in Japanese cinema in this decade.
The rise of new directors
For Japanese cinema, the 1990s were also a year of rise for new directors, with young directors beginning to make appearances in the international film world. In 1991, Naoto Takenaka's debut film The Incompetent Man won the Venice Fabisi Prize. In 1995, it was Kore-eda's "Illusory Light" that won the Venice Golden Camera Award. Takeshi Kitano, Naomi Kawase, and Shunji Iwai were also recognized by the international festival. And Zhou Fang Masayuki and Kurosawa Kiyoshi on the list are also rookies who can't get around in this decade.
Director Zhou Fang's "Five Sumo Boys" won several Japanese film awards that year, and the story of this university sumo club is inspirational and enthusiastic about sports. The film also gave rise to the sporty theme of Japanese cinema at the time.
The problem of Japanese traditional culture, represented by sumo wrestling, is that it is ignored by contemporary people, and Zhou Fang Zhengxing uses a relaxed and humorous style to rekindle the interest of the younger generation, and in the process regain the value of tradition.
The later "Talk About Love Dancing" can be said to be about a man's midlife crisis, although the word is common today, but at that time there was not much of a middle-aged man with no style. Zhou Fang Zhengxing can always maintain a maverick with gentleness, and when he can meet the needs of mass entertainment, he seems to be outside the public, kindly reminding middle-aged people who are a little weak to cheer up.
"Talk about love dancing"
The "Rikkyo faction" represented by his friend Kiyoshi Kurosawa and others is in the same vein as the early Japanese New Wave, and the way of cooperation between them is a strong agent for Japanese art films.
The large studio system collapsed in the 1990s, and with the policy support of the Japan Arts and Culture Promotion Fund, as well as the investment of large enterprises such as insurance and banks, many cutting-edge small independent production companies developed, which also brought more fresh blood to the film industry.
Emerging directors have emerged from the world of television, documentary, literature and manga, and Takeshi Kitano, who has switched from a cross-talk actor, is best at describing violence in a lyrical way.
3 to 4x10 Month
Most of Kitano's works are self-written and self-directed, and many of them are self-edited, according to him, only he knows the rhythm of his walking.
Sonata, Hanabi, and 3 to 4x10 All show brutal violence and fear of death. He is a disruptor of order and a marginal figure struggling with chaos.
"Hanabi"
Takeshi Kitano's films include the defense of dignity and the struggle in helplessness, but they are also a mirror of the turmoil and spiritual crisis in Japan at that time.
In the 30s and 40 years after the war, Japan was transitioning to a welfare-oriented society, but with the collapse of the economic bubble, the murders of Aum Shinrikyo, and the Great Hanshin Earthquake, people were worried about their living environment.
Violence is also a consistent theme of other directors, takashi Miike, Shunji Sakamoto, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, all of whom show the impact of violence on individuals and society.
"X Holy Rule"
Kitano is difficult to summarize him in a style, he seems to be light on the topic of life and death, the most tense is to intertwine the tension of violence, suddenness and warmth of restraint and subtlety, forming a sharp contrast.
1997, when "Hanabi" won the Golden Lion, was a year of revival in Japanese cinema, and the predecessor Shohei Imamura's "Eel" won the Cannes Palme d'Or. With frequent appearances at the three major film festivals, there is no doubt that Japanese cinema reached a climax in the year.
At the same time, during this period, two directors, Mori Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki, won praise for Japanese animation in the world. Of course, at that time, they were not new people. However, as representatives of animated film creators in Japanese films, they are also important representatives of Japanese film culture and even show Japan's unique history through movies.
Oshii uses a paintbrush to show his philosophy of life and human nature, permeating the sense of citizenship without borders. Miyazaki's style is highly unified, one is post-war reflection, one is environmental protection, the list of 1997 "Princess Mononoke" belongs to the latter, human beings use science and technology to explore nature, but everything in the world is an independent individual, in the face of nature, should also be in awe.
Princess Mononoke
The young authors on this list at that time have now become masters. This also proves that the 1990s were indeed a remarkable period of development for Japanese cinema.
The choice of The Shunbao not only covers a group of the most representative directors in Japan, but also reflects the characteristics of diversity in the style of the work, good at using lyrical depictions of violence, high attention to ethnic minorities and so on.
During this period, Japanese cinema seems to be taking a more open attitude, while looking at traditional culture, but also reflecting the tendency of citizens to transcend national boundaries in nature and the world. These films are all representations of Japan's ups and downs in this decade of self-positioning, not geographically, but psychologically.
It is undoubtedly the decade that has determined the face of Japanese cinema today.
For those problems that cannot be answered inward, this is the only way to solve it.