Akira Kurosawa's films have always been characterized by a strong sense of humanitarianism underpinned by a Greek tragic aesthetic. This sentiment is sometimes even to the point of preaching that others find repugnant. But this "Madadayo" turned to comedy and brought out a lot of humor about Kurosawa in his later years (Actually, Akira Kurosawa was originally a very humorous person, but it was all overshadowed by his dazzling humanitarian drama). Uchida Baixian, the central character of the film, is a humorous old man himself. The idle character in Japanese kanji was originally a "day" in the middle, but the old man changed it to "month"; and Akira Kurosawa also made the old man cutely howl at the blank moon in the film. An ancient ballad of the moon. If we think of the beautiful clean and clear picture in "August Rhapsody" - the grandmother and grandchildren sitting under the summer moon, then this "Madadayo" episode of singing the moon is not an accident. That gentle, clean, but sensitive, fragile moonlight may reflect some of Kurosawa Akira's mood in his later years. Anyone who has read Akira Kurosawa's autobiography "The Oil of the Toad" will know that Akira Kurosawa is actually a very sensitive and emotional person, different from the forceful and even violent ones presented in the movie. Of course, other parts of Akira Kurosawa's character eventually led him to the "humanitarian crybaby" path. In his later years, these perceptual character traits that once dominated his childhood have been precipitated by his half-century artistic journey, and rendered in a comedic aesthetic style, which is full of his thoughts on life, history, and society. Even the understanding and examination of the national character of the Yamato nation is worth savoring.
Akira Kurosawa's artistic career has been haunted by the opinion that his work is a simplified and even alienated Japanese taste with Western thinking. Although Kurosawa himself does not resent this opinion, his dynamic mid-early and early works are more appreciated by Western audiences and people in the industry, which seems to confirm this opinion. In fact, Akira Kurosawa's later, quieter works carry over much of the language of previous films. For example, in the first scene of this film, the protagonist comes to the classroom, and there is a wisp of smoke that has not yet dissipated in front of the podium. I have seen some posts and articles analyzing the symbolology of natural environment elements in Akira Kurosawa's films. I don't think this way of thinking is right. One of the outstanding aspects I like about Akira Kurosawa's films is that the various elements (including the natural environment) presented in Akira Kurosawa's film images are neither purely realistic nor purely symbolic, but expressive. The main mode, the mode in between, has the so-called "freehand" nature. If there is such a phantom-like smoke in a classroom, then this group of hormonal boys must be artists. It is difficult for us to directly associate this wisp of smoke, or the door in Rashomon, with a definite thing. The symbolic association of uncertainty makes the aesthetic value of the image itself increase instead of decreasing.
The return to basics of an artist in his later years usually sounds like a meaningless cliché, but personally, when I find that I can always experience their artistic mana most vividly in the works of the masters in their later years— -In "Curling Sunset", in "Days Above the Clouds", in "Fanny and Alexander" - I think it may be because, when an artist can already see his "achievement", that kind of finally The joy and gratification of arriving at the Temple of the Muses can be expressed in a more direct and pure way, in the most appropriate position between artistic creation and the dullness of life.
View more about Madadayo reviews
