The hair style fiasco of "Records of the Living" is unimaginable... If the audience flocked at the beginning and thought the work was uninteresting, the content was too obscure, and the number of audiences decreased, I would still Understandable. But the situation is that from day one the theater has been sparsely populated. Such a poor response made people feel inexplicable panic like falling into an endless swamp. But at the same time, the instinctively sharp judgments of moviegoers made me shudder. If it is the subject of a movie showing the tragic conditions of the victims of the atomic bombing, it is not impossible to succeed if it is made well. But based on the life of a man who was haunted by the horror of the atomic bomb - this kind of philosophy rooted in the most irrational thing in human beings, the philosophy of how to respond, think, and solve the atomic bomb explosion, you who made the movie can't solve it - the audience from the beginning I saw through the film that this problem had not been solved before the filming, and cast a blank eye, did not glance at it, completely ignored and rejected. The situation will develop to this stage, the reason is the planning mistakes, and the resulting incomplete script. The biggest culprit of the script mistakes is the cancellation of the screenwriter's draft and the use of the 'one-shot finalization' creative method.
If anyone had written the first draft, Mr. Kurosawa would have realized the futility of making it.
The horror of the atomic bomb - no real fear can be conveyed without a depiction of the horrors of the explosion. Only through the lines and actions to reflect the horror, the unfolding of the plot are all illustrations, which is bound to be unfeasible.
However, the audience will not buy it if the film is used for preaching. This is one of Kurosawa's film creeds. If it was filmed like this as planned, it was just wishful thinking to force things that the audience could not understand. It stands to reason that Akira Kurosawa should have stopped the plan of "Records of the Living" without hesitation during the script creation stage.
The first draft written by the screenwriter is stillborn, which is a common occurrence in the film industry. However, Akira Kurosawa personally went into battle, mobilizing one of the master-level screenwriters and the new screenwriters, spending high planning costs, and creating behind closed doors at the hotel. On the other hand, the film crew is also ready to go, so the script must be finalized as soon as it is completed. The quality of the script is no longer a priority. In short, it must start shooting immediately.
However, this script is not a final draft in the true sense, at best it is only the first draft written by three people. In the past, the first draft of the Kurosawa team required repeated deliberation on the plan, and the reorganization and deformation of the script made it more profound and interesting. The first draft is nothing but an attempt and the basis for all preparations for the final draft. However, this precious attempt and foundation are completely absent from the creative method of "One Shot Finalization" - the first draft with an unpredictable future and many shortcomings has to be set as the final draft.
More importantly, when a screenwriter starts a draft, let’s put aside the screenwriter’s skills for the time being. The screenwriter must at least study the theme, story, and characters of the script first, and complete the structure and preparations necessary for the script before creating the first draft.
But in the 'one shot finalization' creative method, there is no clear division of the screenwriter's work. I felt that some materials were necessary, so I first asked the producer Shojiro Motoki, met with the physicist and atomic mechanic Mitsuko Taketani for advice, and accepted the principles of nuclear fission, the structure of the atomic bomb, and the scale of the disaster. Explanatory lectures on the details, but little research on the most pressing themes and stories. I believe that Mr. Kurosawa and Mr. Oguni have also ignored these aspects.
(Movie magazines, or other related media reports, always think that the script for "Records of the Living" was written by me. But I remember saying in media discussions and other conversational occasions that I was only interviewing before writing the script. Mr. Taketani Sanko, rather than writing the script first.)
In short, I originally thought that when we met at the hotel, we would focus on the theme and story, so I planned to agree on these elements and then start writing, but in reality, after we arrived at Maiko Garden (Kurozawa Akira arrived two or three days late), I only discussed where to start the first scene, and then went directly to the creation process of the script.
Retreat creation in the hotel is like a sumo wrestler on the sumo ring, and the battle of victory and defeat is left behind. The strategy and policy of the contest must be determined before stepping on the sumo ring. In other words, the script needs materials and ideas to build, and "Records of the Living" started the draft without such preparatory work. In any case, the box office failure of "Records of the Living" was caused by planning mistakes and incomplete script content. The culprit behind this fiasco is the new script creation method of 'one shot finalization' that hides fatal flaws. This fact, Kurosawa Akira is all too clear.
Shinobu Hashimoto: "Images of Compound Eyes: Me and Akira Kurosawa", translated by Zhang Yanwen, CITIC Publishing House, 2012, pp. 183-185.
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