Every movie actually has two eras, one is the era of the character, and the other is the era of the director.
The era that belongs to the role is either history or the future.
And the era that belongs to the director can only be now.
Watching Kurosawa's movie "Red Beard" is even more so.
The role background is in the Edo period, which is also called the Tokugawa period. It lasted 264 years and was the last period of the feudal era of the samurai rule in Japanese history.
In Japanese history, the Edo period was a prosperous era. Ieyasu Tokugawa established the spiritual fortress of the Yamato nation in Japanese history.
In 1867, the Tokugawa dynasty was destroyed by the huge artillery of the British, French, American, and Dutch fleets, and had to return to the emperor.
In 1868, the People's Government Reform began.
Doctor Red Beard lives in this era background.
The film was shot in the 1960s.
Since 1964, many things have overlapped, and Japan has undergone earth-shaking changes.
The government collapsed due to corruption;
Emperor Hirohito died, the new Emperor came to the throne, and the "Heisei" era began.
financial crisis;
Sarin gas incident.
These events made 1964 a landmark year for modern Japan to complete the transition between the old and the new.
For Kurosawa Akira, this "Red Beard", which was born in 1964, was a farewell work for him and black-and-white movies. Since then, Kurosawa started shooting color movies.
The special timeliness makes the role of this movie carry the director’s strong subjective consciousness. As a master of Xinglin, Akira Kurosawa practises medicine silently. He is not for the nobles and is not paid. In addition to playing the role of a doctor, he is also a relative and friend of the patient. And spiritual mentor.
The whole character is full of utopian temperament.
The newly-graduated medical school guaranteed a student in the clinic of Doctor Red Beard under the arrangement of his father. At the beginning, he was full of disgust for the clinic and the surrounding environment.
In the process of saving the dying and healing the wounded with Red Beard, Baoben gradually revised his views and found a reason for persistence.
Red Beard is one of the most complicated roles in Kurosawa's movies. He plays the role of a humanoid god, and he is also a paranoid and excessive hardcore.
In Japanese culture, stories, movies, or comics about heroes are collectively referred to as "genital things", that is, spiritual things.
The red beard is the heroic practitioner set by Akira Kurosawa. Such a role setting often requires Zen-style suppression of rationality and personal sensibility, as well as passion for direct action and infinite tolerance for hardships.
At the same time, Red Beard is also a very hardcore character. The typical characteristics of hardcore are to believe in Stoicism, love hardship, hate love, be upright, and have a hot temper. Such people need to prove their masculinity in battle, so they have The scene where Red Beard fights with the brothel gangsters.
Japan’s hero worship complex is quite special. It has neither the American-style openness nor the European-style desperate effort.
Japanese hero worship often needs to take into account two aspects, not only to maintain the stability of a closed social system, but also to allow heroes outside the society to live in an environment of extreme individualism.
In order to comply with this cultural concept, the role of the "red beard" doctor has a lot of deliberate elements.
Because of this, the movie "Red Beard" is not very good compared with Akira Kurosawa's past movies because it is too personal.
Kurosawa created a character he thought was almost perfect, and such a character was exactly the kind of person he wanted to be.
Kurosawa used to be a liaison officer for left-wing organizations and was a typical radical youth.
The radical youth of the 1960s grew up in the post-war "Democratic" environment, but they never experienced true democracy.
These young people are deeply confused about their identity and role in society, so they try to imitate their heroes in various ways.
Some people chose fanaticism and sacrifice, while others chose deduction and expression.
As a director, Kurosawa is naturally the second type of person.
In the period of black and white films, commercial films that conform to the mainstream will get attention.
"Red Beard" is very mature and smooth in artistic expression, but it is not a mainstream commercial film.
Because a role like "Red Beard" did not conform to the prevailing values at the time, such a role was just a wishful design by director Akira Kurosawa, and it also represented a "hero" above reality.
Such movies have strong personal emotions, often the director's own emotions.
Of course, any era needs a doctor like "Red Beard". Although he is not realistic enough, he represents a good quality, and such a quality is a guiding light, pointing towards a bright future.
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