Although Hei's works have always strived to achieve a win-win situation in art and commerce, and of course many of his works have also achieved this, but the overly profound themes shown in the lens of his films are still popular in the world today. A topic of debate. For example, this "Record of the Living Man".
On the box of the disc, Toshiro Mifune's terrified face was imprinted, as well as his strange smile for some unknown reason. Seeing it makes me unhappy. The introduction to the film says: This is Akira Kurosawa's most controversial work. I think it's easy to understand.
The story takes place after the war, in a war-torn Japan, and among the Japanese people who live in fear of nuclear weapons such as atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. I don't know if I should sympathize with them. You know, it all seems so sad and mean and out of place.
Kiichiro is the owner of a coal mining industry in Japan. Thanks to his hard work, his family lives a very comfortable and comfortable life. However, a sudden news broke the peace of Kiichiro's family. "The United States and the Soviet Union will conduct nuclear tests, and the ashes of nuclear radiation will float to Japan." That is to say, Japan will become a victim of nuclear radiation, and this country is no longer suitable for people to live in. Hearing this news, Kiichiro seemed to be a different person. He, who used to be bright in the past, became uninterested in everything, thinking about how to escape this disaster all day long. He first bought a piece of land in Akita, and despite the opposition of his family, he began to break ground to build his own underground house. As a result, someone went to investigate and said that Akita was no longer safe. As a result, Kiichiro put the plan on hold, and his behavior also brought millions of losses to the whole family. Then he intensified his efforts to run some unnecessary properties in various places. The children were afraid that their father's actions would affect their future lives, and they intervened one after another, but the stubborn Kiichiro still went his own way. In the case of ineffective persuasion, the child chose to use legal means to limit the father's control over his own property. In the Family Dispute Mediation Division, these ill-conceived children stab their fathers for what they have or will not get. Under the seemingly righteous words of the children, the result is obvious, the paranoid Kiichiro lost control of his property. But he still hasn't given up on his plan to lead his children away from the precarious Japanese island. Soon, an old Japanese man from Brazil brought him new hope. Yes, Brazil, the country far away in the southern hemisphere, should be safe. He began to prepare the schedule to move to Brazil. Kiichiro, who has no money, has raised several million in just a few days with the solid circle he has accumulated in the business field for decades, but obviously this is not enough. Even so, the old Brazilian said: I like you very much, you are very trustworthy in your work, and we will talk when your family figures it out. Your money will go first. Such touching words. In the end, the old man jokingly said that he and his father went to Brazil when he was a child, and he was very opposed to it, but then a fire destroyed all the family's properties, so he had to go. I guess it was God's will. Talking and smiling, he would not know the terrible consequences that his words might bring. Finally, under the persecution of the children, Kiichiro set fire to his own property, and the empires that he had worked so hard to build all his life vanished in an instant. And in the eyes of people's contempt, he lost himself and went crazy. he is crazy , or is the world originally crazy? Maybe even think about it. Kiichiro was finally sent to a mental hospital by his family, a truly safe place.
It's a terrifying movie, like its terrifying name, I don't even want to remember what it was about, it hurts me. "I don't want to be sensational, but I just want people to hear the kindness of a living person," Kurosawa said. I don't even know if they are kind.
Kiichiro should be kind. Although he is selfish and stubborn throughout the movie, his heart is kind. At the Family Mediation Division, they asked him if he had decided to move to Brazil out of fear of nuclear radiation. He said categorically, no, I am not afraid of those things at all. He just didn't want to be murdered, murdered for no reason. He didn't want to see a swaddling baby die. At that moment, he was just a father, just a grandfather. Although he had many bad problems, he thought of not only the individual, but the whole family. Kiichiro should be kind. In the ashes of the factory after the fire burned out, when everyone scolded the manager for his irresponsibility, he stood up resolutely and admitted loudly that he set the fire to break up his family. Thinking about moving to Brazil with me. At that moment, he didn't want others to take unwarranted charges for his actions, he was just an old man, just an old man who cared about his employees. Kiichiro is kind, and he felt deeply self-blame in the incomprehensible and mocking words of everyone. He didn't expect so many, he was just a simple person. The employees questioned him: what should we do? Boss, you burned the factory, what should we do? The weak Kiichiro, in these ashes, stumbled, he said in pain, let's go together, go to Brazil together, let's go together. At this moment, he was a child who did something wrong, and he was saddened by his lack of thoughtfulness. Kiichiro is kind. In the room of the mental hospital, he will cry when he sees the fiery sun, and he will murmur: "It finally burns up, and the earth finally burns up." His kindness is helpless because we don't have the power to change so much.
The dentist played by Joe Shimura, a member of the Family Dispute Mediation Division, should be kind. When he hears Kiichiro's story, he will think about whether we really don't care about these radiations. He will defend Kiichiro's kind behavior even if he is not understood by others. Kindhearted, he blamed all the tragedies on himself for not helping Kiichiro, when he needed it the most. He is kind, and when Kiichiro was locked in a mental hospital, he would also visit him, just sitting beside him and listening to Kiichiro's last painful moan.
Kiichiro's wife should be kind. She was just one of the ordinary Japanese women of that era. She obeyed her husband and loved her children. She was just swaying her position in the use of her children. She will also be sad and hate such incidents of family disagreements over property. She would even get down on her knees and say to her own children, she just said: Please, let's go to Brazil together, go with Daddy. He just wants us all to be okay. However, she was just a woman, one of the ordinary women in Japan in that era, she had no status, no identity, she was just a woman.
Kiichiro's youngest daughter should be kind. She always stood by her father and never cared about her own interests. She would praise her father and cry for him. She is not like her other brothers and sisters who care about property matters, and she will not neglect her half-brothers and sisters for the sake of boring status battles. She was always giggling, without any scheming, without any harmful thoughts.
Doctors in mental hospitals should be kind. He would say: The patients are mostly the same, the ones sent here. But that man is different. Sometimes he wonders whether he is crazy or it is us who are crazy at all.
But there are more unkind people in this world, and there is nothing we can do about it. When the father was annoyed by the children, they were just thinking about how to get rid of the siblings who might take away their property. They were just thinking about how to get the father to make a will and determine their vested interests. When my father was put into a mental hospital, they just said it was long overdue. It looks like a great prophetic expression, which is annoying.
This is Haley's most controversial film and one of his underrated works. The overly heavy subject matter and overly plain language of the film make this story, which was not easy to accept, even more hopeless. Haley's fear of Earth's future is unmistakable in the film. He asked Kiichiro to say: Is the earth okay? How are people on earth? The earth is on fire, and finally on fire. He tells us that if this continues, our planet will one day be destroyed, burned, and finally become ashes by the weapons of our own civilization. But what can we do? We can't change the world, so we live numbly like more Japanese in the movie. It's not that we don't fear, it's just that we can only live like this.
When civilization becomes a dead ashes, there is nothing we can do.
Postscript: It's
been a long time since I watched the movie, and I don't want to write it. Because it's sad. After watching it, my only thought was to go to sleep, I felt like my life was consumed by the movie. However, Toshiro Mifune's desperate face would pop out from time to time, making me sad.
I can't write it well, it's too heavy. I can only write, write this story, and I can't write it well, which is also a kind of despair. Now, finally done, I think it's great. I don't want you to see it, or anything. I just tell it to you, like a duty. Now that I'm done, that's it. I want to go to bed, I'm too tired. Movies are so tiring.
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