Yoji Yamada was born in Osaka, Japan in 1931. He majored in law at the University of Tokyo. After graduation, he was admitted to Shochiku as an assistant and was promoted to screenwriter. In 1961, he directed the first film "The Stranger on the Second Floor" and has since written and directed himself. There are 77 movies and countless classics. Among them, the "Tale of Tonjiro" series with more than 48 episodes is the most representative. The "Tarajiro Torajiro" series is performed by the late superstar Atsumi Kiyoshi on the life of "Torajiro". Since 1971, each new work has become Japan's designated New Year film and summer film. It has lasted for more than 30 years and is the most popular in Japan. The film series has witnessed the changes in urban and rural areas, family relations, and values during the 30 years of rapid economic growth in Japan.
The director, known as "comedy Yamada," who has been filming city comedy for almost his entire life, made the transition to a Japanese samurai movie at the age of 71 in 2002, which is really surprising. But Yamada Yoji’s samurai movies are different from previous Japanese samurai movies. Such a director, at this age, has long since faded away from frivolity and impetuosity. Yamada Yoji has stripped the formal Bushido spirit with a heavy texture, and strives to restore the Shogunate. The emotions and life of the lower samurai at the end. In Yamada's samurai movies, the protagonists are not powerful heroes, without the ability to change the age, and even their own destiny cannot be grasped. In the era of changing times and conflicts, there is nothing to live in. But such humble people also have their emotions and stick to their own principles. In Mr. Yamada’s view, such principles may be the true Bushido spirit. In Mr. Yamada’s own words, “Samurai has a strong sense of responsibility in his heart. To be able to calm down in the face of a simple life, poverty is not a shame for them. No matter how poor they are, they must live cleanly."
"Twilight Seihei"
In "Twilight Seihei", Kiyobei Iguchi loves his daughter deeply and is filial to his elderly mother. For this reason, he never fools with his colleagues and gets off work hurriedly before dark every day. When he rushed home, he even got the nickname of "Twilight Qingbingwei". In the film, the nickname of "Twilight Qingbingwei" is a mockery of Iguchi by colleagues, but no doubt we can see that this reflects Iguchi's love for his daughter and mother, and it is the director's praise and recognition of Iguchi. Although he possesses special skills, he never takes arrogance or humiliates the weak. Even if he is underestimated, he does not think that he can live a peaceful life. And when the beloved Miss Pengjiang was insulted, Yi came out, but this was only using a bamboo stick to teach others. Iguchi in Mr. Yamada’s lens is a too real person. He is also a bit sloppy because his wife has to take care of his family and lead a hard life by himself, and he has to put down the samurai's frame and work with the merchants to help the family. Although telling my daughter, reading is to be able to think. But my own thinking has great limitations. I want to give up my samurai status and become a farmer, but I still haven't, or I think I was already very advanced in that era. When the layman gave an order that he didn't want, he had no choice but to agree.
The most profound thing in the film is the love between Iguchi and Tomoe, which has already been missed, and reunion, but still hindering identity, restraint in every way, finally said, but she has promised others. In the film, Mr. Yamada forced Iguchi to be executed, and the passage in front of Yugozenemon and calling Tomoe to dress him up was handled very well. In the dim lens, there was only silence, with her back on her back, she sorted him out in an orderly manner, and the sadness of parting spread in the space. The camera cuts to the front, he wants to speak and then stops, she is also looking forward to it, and soon on the back, he slowly talks about the doll that he gave her when she was young; saying that he has always liked her, even when she was married and married, he still After I became a family, I never faded. When talking about the proposal a few days ago, my eyes suddenly burned, stood up, turned to face her, and summoned the courage to say, "I will definitely come back in triumph. If I propose to you, will you agree?"
She was sad, her expression drifting, and told him that she had agreed to someone else's marriage. He sat down slumped, finally unable to conceal the loss, and said some impolite words helplessly, restrained somewhat abruptly with affection, and headed towards the desperate duel with unknown result. The camera was cut, she was still sitting there, also a little lost, Iguchi's demented mother asked: "Are you the young lady of that family?", she replied in a daze, "I am Pengjiang, Qing Bingwei's childhood sweetheart since childhood. ." Tears were already in his eyes.
Fortunately, Pengjiang finally stayed. At the end of the film, the daughter of Iguchi, who is the old woman, said indifferently in front of her parents’ grave, “Miss Pengjiang finally became our mother. But the peaceful life of our family has only been maintained for three years... …Father eventually died under the fire of the Emperor’s Army. During the Meiji era, most of his father’s old colleagues were on the same footing. I often heard them say that Twilight Kiyobe is really an unfortunate man. But I don’t think so. My father loves us deeply. I was loved by the beautiful Ms. Tomoe again, and my short life was full of beautiful memories. And I am also proud of having such a father." In the warm and moving voice of Inoue Yangshui, I meditated on the last narration. It turned out that happiness is It's simple, it's just that we are all too concerned about chasing publicly recognized standards.
Mr. Yamada is obviously a bit dissatisfied with the deterioration of the samurai class at the end of the Tokugawa period. In the film, most of the samurai lead a more luxurious life, but the corpses of farmers are often floating in the river that melts in early spring. Even, Mr. Yamada said directly through Ms. Tomoe's words, "The life of a samurai comes from the gifts of farmers." All this reflects Mr. Yamada's dissatisfaction with the decadent samurai class and his sympathy for farmers. And a role like Iguchi probably also contains the director's expectations for the samurai.
"Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw"
In "Twilight Seihei" finally did not become a farmer, and died as a samurai at the mouth of the artillery fire, or made Mr. Yamada a bit regretful, so after a lapse of two years, Mr. Yamada made another shot with "Twilight Seihei" The style of "Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw" is very similar. In "Hidden Sword and Ghost Claws", Katagiri Sect is basically the same as Iguchi, that is, he has a strong sense of responsibility, he can be calm in the face of a simple life, and possess unique skills, but never rely on skills and arrogance. But there are also obvious differences. He saw his father commit suicide by cesarean section as a victim of the upper-class struggle, and then Katagiri, who fell in his family, obviously had no favor with the upper class of the samurai. When he was finally involved in a political dispute and was about to execute his former colleague Hazama, Katagiri also maintained the temperament of an upright samurai at first. He refused the seduction of Hazama's wife; he persuaded Hazama to have a laparotomy to maintain his honor; After unsuccessful, he decided to kill Hazama himself to keep his honor. However, when Mr. Yamada was clearly overwhelmed by letting Katagiri resort to his secret skills, he ended Hazama's life with a musket. He categorically attacked the formal Bushido spirit, and shot out the violent scene of Hazama's right hand with a shot that did not match the overall atmosphere. , It also reflects the end of the samurai in the gunpowder era.
The biggest difference between the film and "Twilight Seihei" is the final break with Katagiri and the decadent samurai class. At the end of the film, after the execution of Hazama, Katagiri learns that the elder is playing with Hazama's wife. Facing the cheeky face of the elder, Katagiri was finally completely disappointed with the samurai class, and used the secret "ghost claw" stunt to unknowingly result in the life of the elder. It can be said that this result, including the elder's previous prostatitis The inability to urinate reflects the director's hatred of the decadent upper-class warriors and hopes that the mysterious power will punish them. And in the end, Katagiri gave up his samurai status and became a farmer.
Of course, Katagiri eventually became a farmer, not only for the above reasons, but a more important reason is his love with farmer silk. At the end of the film is a tender ending: Katagiri, who has given up her status as a samurai, goes away with her beloved woman.
In "Twilight Seihei" and "Hidden Sword Ghost Claw", Mr. Yamada composes a thick and textured picture of the life of the lower-level samurai in the late Shogunate period in a gentle narrative style. As Mr. Yamada himself said, ""Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw" has some connections with my last movie "Twilight Seibei". The background period and story location of the two films are the same. The film says They are also the dialects of northeastern Japan, and they describe the lives of inferior samurai. Their lives are relatively poor, but poverty is not shameful. It also requires a clean and courteous life. So I am concerned about the history in the film. The details are very important, such as sweeping the floor, cooking, chopping wood, etc. There are also some etiquettes that are rare among young people nowadays, and even young actors do not know how to shoot them. I deliberately asked for them to be fully replied. The state of life at that time allows people now to have a better understanding of history and culture. "These subtle things add to the reality and delicacy of the film. For example, in "Twilight Seibu", the director asked Iguchi to drink the porridge. I took the pickles and rubbed it in the bowl again and ate it again. It immediately showed the bitterness and frugality of life at the wellhead. In "Hidden Sword and Ghost Claws," the confession of the old servant to the old servant when she is about to leave Katagiri and return to the countryside, the truth is flowing out in the rumbling, which is very moving.
Among these special life scenes, what impressed me the most was the performance of the feudal lord who inspected the warehouse in "Twilight Seihei" and found that the well was sloppy and reprimanded the warehouse leader. Tuankou first knelt on the ground, the lord turned and walked out of the warehouse, Tuankou raised his head and scolded Iguchi as a bastard, then got up, ran a few steps, out of the warehouse, followed the lord’s team, and carefully said good things to the chief behind, sir. I ignored my sleeves, Tuankou followed two more steps, continued to speak carefully, but was rejected again, then the team walked away, Tuankou stood in place, stood on tiptoe, raised his hips and looked at his neck, took a long breath, turned and sprinted back to the warehouse. Some rampages, the camera cuts to the warehouse, in the lower right corner of the camera is the kneeling well head, the soil reversal appeared at the door, from the long corridor straight, pressing the well head, using a fan to quickly knock the head of the well with rhythm Scolded, "Asshole, asshole, asshole...", and then sat on the floor panting. In this section, the performance, editing, and composition are all done, and the foulness, power, and anger of a small official are vividly portrayed.
The length of the film "Twilight Seiya" is 128 minutes, while the length of "Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw" is 136 minutes, but it is not long when watching the movie, except for the meticulousness of the film and the plot. In addition to compactness, I am afraid it has something to do with the unobtrusive humor that the director often arranges in movies. In these two dramas, Mr. Yamada gave full play to the comedy skills he has been immersed in for many years, and the humorous and funny plot arrangements made people laugh. For example, in "Twilight Seihei", when Tomoe came to the house for the first time, Iguchi nervously used the dirty socks hidden in his sleeves as a handkerchief to wipe his cheeks. In "Hidden Sword Ghost Claw", the samurai from Edo trained Katagiri and his colleagues on artillery and marching, and through the antics of the country samurai, it not only showed the impact of the new culture on the old culture, but also made us fall in love. It is simply another highlight of the film.
Mr. Yamada once said in an interview, “Japan is now in a state of uneasiness and worry”, “Now the values of Japanese people have changed, and the tradition of pride in diligence and thrift is slowly losing, and the blind pursuit of luxury. Japan has good traditions. There are also bad traditions. Good traditions must be maintained, and bad traditions must be abandoned." "It is very important to distinguish between good and bad, but now some people have serious deviations in their judgments of good and bad. Keep it, this is also a difficult time for Japan.” Or these just express the reason why Mr. Yamada made these films, and hope that such films can help people find their own values.
"One Point of the Samurai" is the last part of Yamada's samurai trilogy. The film tells the story of the subordinate samurai Shinnojo Mimura who was poisoned and blinded after he tried poison for the lord of the domain. The Bantou Shimada Fujiya plays with it. Finally, Mimura duel to Shimada for dignity. The film will have its world premiere at Beijing Japan Film Week on the 18th of this month, and I believe we will all be able to see it soon.
Thursday, November 9, 2006, Wuhan Qingbingxu year September 19th,
film information:
"Twilight Seibei": Director: Yoji Yamada. Starring: Sanada Hiroyuki, Miyazawa Rie, Kobayashi Nenshi. 2002
"Hidden Sword and Ghost Claw": Director: Yoji Yamada. Starring: Nagase Masatoshi, Matsu Takako, Yoshioka Hidetaka. year 2004
"One Point of Samurai": Director: Yamada Yoji. Starring: Takuya Kimura, Tan Ling. year 2006.
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