Contrary to what he imagined, the Ozu that Wenders found was not an "Orientalized" Ozu. In Finding Ozu, we see a very different Japan: the pursuit of Western culture and fashion in golf training grounds, the commercial culture reflected in the fake wax food in restaurant windows, and even Ozu's The actor Li Zhizhong was also pulled by a group of middle-aged women for a group photo because of a new TV series recently. Yes, what kind of Japan is Japan, and what kind of Ozu is Ozu?
It is said that Ozu's influence in Japan is not as good as that of Keisuke Kinoshita, who is not so famous in the world movie circle (very vulgar word). Let’s not talk about the credibility of this statement, but he at least provides us with a perspective to examine the problem: Is Ozu a symbol that has been “Orientalized” by the West? It is precisely because the oriental scenes and oriental sentiments provided by Ozu fit the Western imagination of the East, so there is an "Orientalized" Ozu, a first-class or super-first-class Ozu in the eyes of the West? Another famous Japanese film master, Akira Kurosawa, has no such danger. He not only invoked many traditional techniques of Western films in his films, but even some themes came directly from the West, such as "Spider Nest", "Spider's Nest" and "Spider's Nest". Chaos" and other adaptations of Shawon's famous novels. Ozu is more dangerous. The vocabulary that belongs to Ozu is mostly the so-called "Japanese": kimonos, men and women sitting on their knees, a slightly upside-down slapstick perspective, even the complex and delicate emotions, intricate family relationships, always smiling. Setsuko Hara has been labeled as Japanese.
"Floating Grass" is also such a movie that has been branded as Japan. The traditional drama team led by Lanju came to a quiet Japanese town. This town has Lanju's young lover, Wakao, and their son, Kyouji. Another movie that reflects the traditional Japanese love of life and death. We saw taverns, sloppy rice, Japanese-style wooden and paper buildings, and also saw large kimonos and summer clothes, carp streamers fluttering in the wind, and oil-paper umbrellas. , this time Ozu even made the traditional drama appear directly, allowing us to see heroic epics with rap colors, humorous and simple Japanese songs and dances... However, everything seems to be not so smooth.
Junko, the heroine of the troupe, may be the woman of the boss Lanju during the long tour, who discovers the boss's secret and starts a war for men with the boss's old lover who runs a tavern. The form is clearly not favorable for the heroine of our troupe. Because she is a symbol of wandering and wandering, and the tavern owner is a node that symbolizes return and stability. Junko made a strange move. She asked Kadai, another beautiful young woman in the troupe, to seduce the boss's son called his uncle. Young people are passionate about love, and they are naturally attracted. At the end of the film, the troupe was unable to continue and disbanded. The boss discovered the relationship between his son and Kadai, but he still couldn't face the peaceful family life and chose to continue to wander. At the dock, Junko is waiting for her, and everything seems to be the same as it started.
However, under the seemingly unchanging tradition, deep cracks are forming, making the sound of crackling ice. The film started with the scene of putting up posters on the small town pier. Everyone was not very interested in traditional dramas, but was obsessed with the stripper tour group that came last time. The troupe appeared in the drowsy summer weather, the strong advertising delivery man barely touched the hearts of several middle-aged women, but the young daughter of the barber shop, Xiao Ai, did not buy his account. As imagined, the box office revenue was not very good, although the boss is optimistic that it will gradually get better. The men in the troupe, on the other hand, drink together all day long, talk about women, and even think about stealing the boss's property at the worst of times. Everything shows a traditional twilight. Behind the cultural surface lies a huge change in social ethics. His son, Kyouji, no longer has the idea of just living with the boss. What he thinks is how to "industrialize" traditional drama and turn it from a traditional means of entertainment and way of life into a "career". In the end, the troupe was disbanded, and everyone went their own way. The boss was originally going to stay and live a stable life with his old lover, but his son's love and condemnation made him give up his stability and return to wandering. The woman who symbolizes wandering is still by her side. It can be said that this is the last chance to return, everything has shown that the traditional wandering life has come to an end, the whole social value has no place for them, and he still chooses a discord out of time Live at the right time and the right way, the road has come to an end.
Of course, we can't think of this troupe and its slightly tragic boss as a traditional Japanese metaphor, and it seems like an exaggeration to say that this is a national fable about Japan. But going back to the topic of "Orientalism" we discussed at the beginning, it seems that Ozu is not so Japanese. The quiet, restrained, and humble Ozu that we like seems to have been "Orientalized" by us. Ozu. Behind the surface Japan and Japanese symbols, what Ozu really cares about is such a disintegrating "Japanese tragedy".
Kinoshita Keisuke is also "Japanese", and a large part of the issues he discusses are such "tragedies", such as "Twenty-Four Eyes" and "Japanese Tragedy", which reflect the post-war society in Japan. Chaos and the rapid disintegration of traditional values. But Kinoshita himself was immersed in such a tragedy, so his movies (although he only watched two of them) always had a warm undertone. Such as the last class reunion in "Twenty-Four Eyes", and the singer and the little chef in "The Tragedy of Japan". However, Ozu jumped out of this tragedy, so his delicate human relationships seem to be a cruel portrayal. Ozu and Japan have become such a kind of "always together, but forever separated". situation. This may be the reason why Ozu and Kinoshita have different influences in Japan.
Looking back on Ozu's other films, they are all about the theme of "always together, forever apart". In "Tokyo Story", the old couple went from their hometown to Tokyo and then to the countryside. The unfilial piety of their children deeply hurt their hearts. They knew that the world no longer belonged to them. Although Noriko, played by Setsuko Hara, is still smiling, this era has gone away like a train watched by Kyoko. "The Smell of Saury", an alcoholic elementary school teacher who participated in the class reunion held by the developed elementary school students, was ridiculed and ridiculed. This is also Ozu's last film. Even in children's movies like "I was born, but...", the same theme still exists, the brothers don't understand why their father bows to a parent who bullies his child, and why his father is there The classmates are so useless in the family, I don't understand why I was born, but I am always different from others.
Film is a Western art, and perhaps all oriental directors, whether from Japan or from across the Taiwan Strait and China, will inevitably encounter such a problem of "orientalization" when facing films.
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