Only Kenji Mizoguchi, he is the most Japanese, the most ethnic, the most compatible link between Toei's feelings and light and shadow technology in the black and white era, and the best spokesperson on the screen for the dazzling and perishable Japanese aesthetics like chrysanthemums and sakura. .
In 1953, Mizoguchi Kenji won the second place among the three consecutive Silver Bear Awards at the Individual Venice Film Festival by virtue of "The Story of Rain Moon", and also ushered in the pinnacle of his own career as a director. 60 years have passed. Although from today’s point of view, the film’s narrative and performance methods are slightly outdated, but its great artistic achievements will not be obliterated by this, and it is sandwiched between the fables behind the splendid and splendid story. The general theme expression still has practical significance.
From an aesthetic point of view, perhaps thanks to Mizoguchi Kenji’s living background in Kyoto and his research on traditional techniques such as Kabuki and Ukiyoe, his films have a strong oriental charm. The panning empty shots are like slowly opening landscape scroll paintings, but they often end up in the panorama of the characters in the middle of the scene, with the east-style rhythm that stretches like flowing water, and there are no shortage of nodes in the picture. The impressive long shots of this film include the landscape and empty mirror at the beginning, and Genjuro eagerly searched for his wife and children in the dilapidated house after returning to his hometown. The camera follows Genjuro into the dimly lit hall, and leaves from the side door, using the earth wall to temporarily conceal the painting. When Genjuro enters the hall through the front door again, the camera also pans back to the center of the hall. It was originally empty. Suddenly the sound and shadow of candlesticks, firewood and his wife Miyagi appeared on the ground. Although the soundtrack is solemn and solemn, the treacherous atmosphere that confuses the audience still emerges, and the truth will be revealed after that day, and the touch on the audience's soul is also at the highest point under the control of this "expectation-worry-relaxation-shock" emotion.
Mizoguchi's request for "one shot, one shot" is almost paranoid, but it is undeniable that this kind of lens aesthetics, which is almost impossible to appear in modern movies, has become his iconic feature and has deeply influenced European Sina. Tide movies. He has also made a unique contribution to the simultaneous advancement of narrative grasping and application of multiple composition centers under a large depth of field. The audience often focuses on many places when they don’t know where to focus, but after patrolling their gazes in multiple places, he understands and enjoys the director. More information revealed in the context.
Unlike Akira Kurosawa, who is keen on expressing actions with fast montages, Mizoguchi Kenji regards long shots as the essence of film art. However, his long shots are different from Ozu's slow narrative of low-angle fixed camera positions, but pay more attention to camera movement and scene scheduling. In "Yueyue Monogatari", you can see a group play that is rare in Ozu's movies. Although there is no rigorous to demanding composition and scheduling like Akira Kurosawa, the rich lens angle still interprets different metaphors and atmospheres. . For example, in the shot of Genjuro in Wakasa's palace, the director uses a lot of depression angles and close-up shots, which contrasts sharply with the overall mirroring style, but also hints at the unusual place and the protagonist's mental journey.
As an adaptation of the novel of the same name, "Rainy Moon Story" selects two short stories to merge, forming a bilinear narrative feature. The two clues of Genjuro and Fujibei began to split in the middle of the story, and they did not interact with each other until the end. It cannot be said that this is a bit of regret in the plot setting of the film. But on the subject, Mizoguchi Kenji found the perfect fit between the two, which is the struggle against desire and the meaning of home. The responsibility to the family, the desire for wealth and power usually split in their consistency until they become opposites. At the beginning of the pursuit of power and money, the happiness of wives and children is often the biggest motivation for men. But when a better life really appeared in front of us, the wife of chaff became a stumbling block again. The word responsibility has become a heavy shackle that binds men. They look to get rid of but are afraid of losing. They are ambitious and at a loss.
Therefore, when Genjuro meets the beautiful and wealthy Yangui Wakasa, he only resists a little and falls. And when Fujibei's thoughts and luck was overwhelming to obtain the top rank of the opponent's general, he immediately swept away his stubborn depression, and even described his own success under the complacent opponent. road. An interesting detail is that every time Genjuro sells pottery, he brings back a gorgeous kimono and yukata for his wife. With him, this is a kind of complacency in fulfilling family responsibilities. It is because he combines his desire for wealth with him. The performance of the bondage of the wife's obligations. But when he started in Wakasa, he also chose to give him a yukata as a gift. In the play, this implies that Genjuro regards material as the only way to express his feelings about women, and also compares his two feelings for Wakasa and his wife Miyagi. Outside the play, this also expresses a plot of the director. It is said that when Kenji Mizoguchi was a young man, because of his poor family, he used to design yukata patterns. The magnificent yukata pattern in the film not only greatly enhances the depiction of the Dongying ethnic customs, but also demonstrates Mizoguchi's unique aesthetic insights. It is a pity that it is limited to the black and white image quality and cannot show the colorful color characteristics of the kimono. It must be regarded as a small regret left by the limitation of the times.
Mizoguchi Kenji is known as the "feminist master", and the masterpieces including this film and "Nishizuru Generation Girl" and "Sansho Doctor" all explain the suppression of women by classical ethics and the feminist perspective from the perspective of women. It symbolizes the ultimate salvation of the family to men. In terms of the two female characters in this film, Ahama is more rebellious than Miyagi. Although her husband's stubbornness left her tortured or even reduced to dust, she was ultimately able to win the return of Fujihei's prodigal son. Miyagi, who is almost a model of classical Oriental women, not only endured her husband's derailment, but also could only end up with the yin and yang of the dead. At the last meeting, she changed into the kimono that her husband gave to her. Even though there was a lot of reluctance in her eyes, she still didn't talk about the cruel reality, but let her husband spend the rest of his life in a peaceful night.
Although Mizoguchi seems to be accusing the patriarchal society of injustice from the perspective of women, from the perspective of his writing on the role of Miyagi, he can think of the complex emotions of the director himself and Miyagi's actor Kinyo Tanaka throughout his life. Perhaps this is the case. The traditional woman who is gentle and respectful is the perfect lover in his mind. This is not surprising. Jin Yong, who once portrayed such maverick and wonderful female roles as Zhao Min and Huang Rong, has also publicly stated that the most ideal object in his work is the twins in "The Deer and Ding Ji". This man's small ninety-nine, ancient and modern at home and abroad, is probably not as good as it is.
Another woman in the film, the seemingly powerful female ghost Wakasa, may have more vividly expressed the director's view of feminism. Although she has died of Huangquan, she still actively pursues love. It is not so much to realize the dream of her life, but rather to allude to the gradual liberation of modern women in love and sex. But when her father's voice rang from the armor with only the head left, she was shocked and at a loss. This kind of patriarchal or male power’s imprisonment and oppression of women is fully revealed in Noh-like performances and soundtracks, and it also reflects the naked contradictions and struggles between the gradual rise of women’s status in post-war Japanese society and the entrenched traditional concepts. . Many years later, when people study the state of Japanese social development during this period of history, Mizoguchi Kenji's movies will surely become a strong evidence. And this is the sociological significance of film art.
Whether it is Genjuro or Fujibei, they have completed their salvation by returning to their hometown and restarting family life. The price is the death of his wife and the painful past. Although this is not a happy ending, it can be regarded as a happy ending. Although it weakens the main theme of the film to some extent, it consolidates the great significance of family responsibilities to men from another perspective. If you use one word to summarize the movie, it is "knowing the way you get lost." The prodigal son will not change his daughter. I think this may be the ultimate theme that Mizoguchi Kenji wants to express.
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