Noisy cicadas, huge cumulonimbus clouds, clear blue sky, all remind me that summer is coming. When summer comes, I want to revisit this summer work that "smells like sunflowers".
The first time I watched it was when I was in college. At that time, I just watched the classic jazz hiphop soundtrack after hearing it for a long time. The focus was on the soundtrack, and I also swallowed the content. This time I revisited it, I understood many details, and I felt a lot. More than once, it resonated with the protagonist.
When it comes to Japanese aesthetics, it is inevitable to mention wabi-sabi. The wiki says: Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The beauty of wabi-sabi is sometimes described as "imperfect, impermanent, incomplete". In fact, I can't tell what wabi-sabi actually is, but this film gives me the feeling of wabi-sabi.
Even though the whole film uses a lot of funny bridges, and the hearty fighting scenes are mainly constructed, it is always inseparable from an indifferent, alienated, lonely and melancholy core. Whenever the piano melody of the Aruarian Dance is played, the wabi-sabi feeling comes to my face. The traveler's unique one-time-one-session style is free and easy, and the wandering and uncertain loneliness is vividly created.
I didn't know what champloo was before, but I checked it out today. チャンプルー is the name of a dish in Okinawa. It is a kind of stir-fry that can be put together with various ingredients. Bar. No wonder they are called "Chaos" warriors. This work is also mixed with a lot of seemingly opposite and messy elements.
In the music, there are both hip-hop and rap elements that are modern and cool. On the other hand, the use of Japanese mainland island chant and shamisen brings people back to the Edo era and the oriental world. Samurai and baseball, graffiti and Ukiyo-e... (I read the bad reviews and said that the plot is chaotic, like a hodgepodge, I want to say that this is a hodgepodge, the title is "champloo")
Feelings are also ambiguous and vague.
Western and Japanese, popular and retro, funny and wabi-sabi, these seemingly contradictory and opposite words are integrated in such a balanced, novel and natural way. This contradiction is also part of my understanding of Japanese culture.
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