Japanese sword halberd films can be compared with Hong Kong martial arts films to a certain extent. The creative motifs that were also nurtured in East Asia took root and flourished in their respective territories. Even in the ACG field, the content of "Bakura Samurai", "Ruroin", "Swordsman", and "Duel" is often the priority of creators. As a result, we were able to get in touch with such unforgettable masterpieces as "Rurouni", "Chaos Warrior" and "Rurouni Kenshin". And the animation classic "Infinite Residents" that we will mention next, although it is also a story of a "Legend of Swordsman", but its own unique charm is still being talked about today.
The original manga of "Infinite Residents" was created by the famous cartoonist Hiraki Shamura and serialized in the monthly magazine "AFTERMOON" in 1994. This work relies on a sketch-like realistic painting method, using a large number of lines and light ink to replace the dots, and through the solemn tones, movie-like dynamic pictures and sub-mirrors, a cruel world full of killing is vividly expressed. According to data, the circulation of each volume of the work has exceeded 200,000 copies, and it has received unanimous praise from readers and the industry.
The story background of "Infinite Residents" is set in the Tokugawa shogunate period. The protagonist Manji is a killer in Edo Castle who bears the title of "Hundred People Slash". He has unlimited life and a body that can heal itself. He accidentally killed his brother-in-law in the government, causing the younger sister who had witnessed everything to lose her mind in fright, and finally died under the blade of thousands of enemies.
In order to understand the immortality curse caused by the blood fairy, he vowed to kill a thousand wicked people to redeem the sins of a hundred people. After the meeting of fate, he met an orphan girl with a blood feud, who looked like her younger sister, Rin. After that, Wan-time decided to help her get revenge, and encountered Rin’s enemy "Yi Dao Liu" all the way, and aimed to kill Yi Dao. Liu's shogunate spy "Mukuruiyu" and various other forces and individuals left a scarlet mark in the mountains and plains of Dongying.
The battle scenes of "Infinite Residents" are a bit clumsy compared to other legends of swordsman. Every time he fights, he is scarred. Because of the special function of his body, he takes over the heroes of other stories. A deadly attack to parry. With the tragic offensive of "injury the enemy a thousand, break eight hundred", resolve every beastly battle. It is in this context that "Dweller of the Infinite" was able to show the "death consciousness" of the samurai to the onlookers without any disguise.
Whenever we talk about words like swordsman and samurai, what flashes through our minds is that they will fight each other and go to death calmly. In the long training career, the warrior swordsmen have honed their skills with each round-trip slashing, but they don’t seem to care much about their lives and can give up at any time. This is the case in the Japanese Bushido classic "Ye Yin". The expression of "Buruya, see through the meaning of death. If you choose between life and death, then death is the first choice." It can be seen that for the samurai, the "realization of death" is an extremely important part of their personality shaping.
Kawabata Yasunari once said that death is not scary but cute, not ugly but beauty, death is life, and you should pursue it without dodge. It shows that death consciousness is very ingrained in that kind of society and thought. Fearlessness, impermanence, death awareness, revenge, caesarean section, etc. are all concentrated manifestations of death consciousness. They subtly penetrate into the depths of people's consciousness and psychological concealment, and become an important part of the actual social morality, social norms, and social norms.
"Samurai going to death" has become a conditioned habit of consciousness shared by all classes of society, and the external expectations of society are gradually transformed into the internal consciousness of the warrior. If the samurai can act according to the existing rules, even if he dies, his innocence and family honor can be maintained. On the contrary, the samurai who fears death will face both social and conscience sanctions.
When we re-examine "Infinite Residents" with this point of view, the protagonist Wanci's situation has become an out-and-out tragedy. He holds an immortal body and struggles in every decisive battle of reputation. Fighting, but only frequently wandering between life and death, the life span of ten thousand times has become thinner because of the endless extension. The moment of death, which symbolizes glory, together with the dignity of the swordsman, becomes an inaccessible object, no matter what With laughter and scolding as an adjustment, the audience can feel the sadness of this undead soul.
For Wanji, in this journey of revenge where right and wrong cannot be defined, Wantime defeated a strong opponent time and time again, and it should only be a matter of time to achieve a thousand people beheaded. However, the swordsmen in the world with blood on their hands, who upholds the good heart, who is the unforgivable wicked person, has the qualification and ability to appraise every time? The immortal Wantimes lost the pride of the samurai, and survival or destruction became a real problem before him.
"Infinite Residents" puts the problem of life and death into a story similar to monsters and strangers, and inspired many creators to devote themselves to similar creations. In 2017, Japanese director Takashi Miike turned this work into a live-action movie to compete in Cannes. The film played ten thousand times as a key member of the former top Japanese boy group SMAP, known as the Japanese national male Shenmu who is known as the king of Japanese drama. Mura Takuya. However, the face of the old male gods irreversibly left the traces of the years, and the film’s reputation was also mediocre. The original full-bodied character group portraits are difficult to perfectly present in the size of a movie. Every enemy ten thousand times. Entering and exiting quickly like a revolving lantern, the over-reduced manner of service makes the film exude a strong sense of cosplay, which is also a common problem of comic movies. But even so, the film still has a lot of brilliance.
The action scenes at the beginning of the movie used black and white images in a large scale. Ten thousand times played by Takuya Kimura fought in a chaotic array of hundreds of enemies. Compared with animation and manga, every kill in the movie version is cut to death, with severed limbs flying, releasing a strong taste of B-grade film. Takashi Miike tried his best in every fighting scene, just There are as many as 38 original weapons in the film. Among them, a "three hundred people cut" scene took 15 days to complete. Interested friends may wish to find and feel it.
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