This article is from WeChat official account:Watching movies and magazines (ID: momview_weekly), author: moon night, drawing from the title: “Love and Honor” stills
On April 30 last year, the Heisei was officially withdrawn from the stage of history. The 30-year span is enough to leave a distinctive image mark.
Although the film industry in the Heisei era has experienced vicissitudes, the work level has generally followed the old Japanese film’s approach.
Although it is not like the gathering of masters and the blowout of masterpieces like in the 1950s and 1960s, it still holds an important place in the world film scene tenaciously.
1. The end of an era
Samurai and Bushido spirits have always been stereotypes of foreigners towards Japanese people.
In Classical Japan, most of the time the emperor’s power was left behind. The actual authority was the samurai—the vassals were loyal to the lord, the names were surrendered to the generals, and the samurai class was superior to the common people and became the de facto noble class.
So it is inappropriate to say that Bushido is the national spirit of the Japanese, just like the spirit of the Europeans, it is generalized.
The big river drama of NHK TV in 2018 is “Saigoden”, which tells the life of Takamori Saigo, a samurai from the Satsuma clan at the end of the Bakumatsu.
Xixiang is known as the last samurai. The lower-ranking warriors headed by him are the main force of the downfall movement. However, after the establishment of the new government and deprivation of the samurai privileges, Xixiang became the banner of the samurai class who did not want to die.
The Xixiang army was defeated in the Southwest War, and Xixiang himself committed suicide. This marked the event that the era of the Japanese samurai for more than a thousand years came to an end.
In the last Heisei years, NHK used the story of Takamori Saigo to say goodbye to the old age, which is quite meaningful.
Actually, in the second year of Heisei (1990), Takamori Nishigo and Toshitsu Okubo were the protagonists of the big river drama that year(“Like Flying”), which means that the rivers of Heisei are spent in turbulent tragedy.
To keep up with the general trend of the world and welcome the new era, is it necessary to separate the self from the past?
At least for more than a thousand years under the rule of the samurai, Japan has been a poor, weak and divided small country, but after being completely Westernized, it has become a capitalist power.
Whether to abide by Bushido and wait for death, or embrace Western civilization to welcome the new life, is an easy multiple choice for the common people-all the common people want is to eat a meal, and in Japan before the Meiji Restoration, even the life of the lower-level samurai was difficult.
The so-called samurai spirit is nonsense to say that it goes deep into the bones of every nation, but the foundation of the millennium has affected the nationality of the Japanese to some extent. If you say it better, it is the popular craftsman spirit. It can also be said that the axis does not hit the south wall. Look back.
Once you look for something, you must do it to the end, unless there is another Southwest War if you want to interrupt it.
NHK, as Japan’s largest state-run television station, broadcasts a Dahe drama every year. The themes are taken from various heroes of Genpei, Sengoku, and Shogunate.
The culmination of Dahe drama was “Cyclops Masamune” in the first year of Heisei. After entering the 2000s, the ratings went from bad to worse.
Since then, NHK changed its strategy and filmed a large number of Dahe dramas featuring female protagonists. (“Atsuhime”’s high ratings are indispensable), This year, the theme of modern Olympics has been started.
Of course, it’s impossible to interrupt NHK’s heroic history view. Although the samurai-themed period dramas are less and less popular with audiences.
As for the samurai movie, it is completely the product of the last century.
People who are still making samurai movies today are either the older generation directors doing the restoration of the ruins, or the directors who have never made this type of film before want to play a vote-Tsukamoto Shinya’s 2018 “Slash “,” was shortlisted in Venice, but it is not even a drop in the ocean when it is included in the once glorious Japanese samurai film.
Second, for the memory of forgetting
The golden age of Japanese movies was in the 1950s and 1960s, and samurai movies/halberd movies occupied an important place among them.
When it comes to samurai films and halberd films, Akira Kurosawa is often mentioned, but this subject is only a small part of Akira Kurosawa’s films.
What’s more, Kurosawa is good at telling Eastern stories using Western logic. The samurai he created are more like rangers and cowboys.
Compared with the westernized Kurosawa Akira, talents such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Masaki Kobayashi are more “Japanese”.
So Sergio LeoneThe remake of Akira Kurosawa’s film can be seamlessly integrated. (Whether “Red Dead Redemption” is a tribute or the remake has caused an international lawsuit), George Lucas also made Western faces dance a lightsaber like a decent.
In the previous years, when Takashi Miike became addicted to the remake of a samurai movie, he chose Eiichi Kudo and Masaki Kobayashi.
Mike is indeed among the directors of Heisei, the lens language can make people feel the character of samurai most.
The abdomen of “Yi Ming” makes people unbearable to look directly at it. The group battle of “Thirteen Assassins” also fought hard with cold weapons, and used gunpowder to narrow the gap in the number of warring parties.
In addition, Miike has also filmed “Sukiyaki Westerns” and other magical films, using the background of period dramas to set the story of western cowboys, which is really evil.
Lee Sang-il’s “Unforgivable” is a remake of the Western film of the same name by Clint Eastwood. It is also a movie that uses Western logic to tell the Eastern story. In that hotel massacre, Watanabe Ken was out A musket was raised in front of the sword.
“Unforgivable” is considered a high-quality samurai film in recent years, but it is still empty.
Mike Takashi and Lee Sang-il’s doctrine of use, although at certain moments let people feel the pleasure of fighting, the lack of original movies can not be said to be a continuation of the dying samurai film.
“Kyobei at Twilight” was one of the only two Oscar nominations for best foreign language film in Japanese films in the 2000s. It can be seen that although Japanese people no longer make samurai movies, European and American film circles This type of film is still bought.
Yuji Yamada’s “Samurai Trilogy” is not so much a samurai movie, as it is an anti-samurai movie.
In Yamada Yoji’s view, before being a class and profession, a samurai is first of all a person. They have individual dignity, rather than a chess piece that the uppermost can arbitrarily arbitrarily.
The protagonists of “Seibing at Twilight” and “One Point of the Samurai” are all fighting for the self-esteem of the warrior at the end of their lives. They are small and poor, but still live with dignity.
Yuji Yamada has made a life-long folk drama, and the samurai movies he made after more than a few years ago are also very ordinary. The “samurais” he portrays are closer to the “people”, and the fighting scenes in a few places are simple and simple.Except for the “Hidden Sword” in “Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw”, most of them failed to stimulate the audience’s adrenaline.
The contribution of the “Samurai Trilogy” is that it has awakened the audience’s memory of samurai movies in the new millennium. “One Point of the Samurai” hit 4.1 billion at the box office, and it was the most popular period drama for a long time.
Oshima Nagisa’s “Gofado” is also an anti-samurai movie. The Shinsengumi organization is composed of a group of Nojiko samurai from the country hall. In history, they fought for the loyal Shogunate to the last person, and it is very popular among the people.
In the well-known story, however, Nagisa Oshima had a blue face and a misfortune, which made a group of great masters go crazy for a beautiful young man.
This movie that subverts most people’s perceptions is Oshima Nagisa’s swan song, and only the lawless Oshima Nagisa can seriously use Mibu wolf to make fanarts.
Three, the dream of a golden horse and iron horse
In 2003, the Hollywood movie “The Last Samurai” swept Japan, winning 13.7 billion (yen) at the box office. To this day, many people The impression of Takamori Nishigo is Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe(in “The Last Samurai”Mori Katsumoto who plays the prototype of Xixiang in the middle).
This box office performance and topicality prove that the few samurai films in the Heisei era are not the audience’s pot. The main reason may be that Japanese filmmakers can no longer produce exciting sword and halberd films.
The end of the big studio system and the collapse of the bubble economy have allowed Japanese movies in the Heisei era to live a life of tightening their belts. This year, one billion yen upwards can be considered a big production.
Japanese commercial film directors are extremely envious of the US and China’s film investment, claiming that they will never be able to make a big scene movie like “Red Cliff”.
Actually, even Kurosawa has been plagued by filming funding issues and has to go overseas to attract investment. A big deal like “Kagemusha” was completed thanks to the investment of 20th Century Fox.
Looking at it this way,