In 2018, Warner Bros., which had DC comics in hand but failed to make huge profits in the adaptation and production of related films, decided to take a different approach and try a different adaptation. Since the Wolverines from Marvel can have a journey of reinventing themselves and growing up and awakening in Japan, why not bring their own heroes to Japan for a unique cultural fusion?
As promised, Warner quickly found a Japanese partner for the film based on its own style of work, the Japanese cartoonist Okazaki Noji and Kamikaze animation who once created the "exploding samurai". After further in-depth exchange of views, the two sides finally decided to set the main background frame of the film as Japan through time and space and the Warring States Period.
One is DC Comics' most darkly charming hero character, and the other is Japan's most dramatic and historically deep troubled times, and it came together like this. The original worry about losing the original charm of "Batman" in the mashup and grafting has become the biggest charm of this movie.
Why is Japan's Warring States Period?
The Japanese persistent pursuit of historical legends and heroic complexes has a long history. As early as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Japan, which had just entered the Tokugawa shogunate era, benefited from some Chinese businessmen who came across the ocean and obtained the first batch of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" books in Japanese history. These historical novels originally originated from foreign countries contained a large number of heroic legends that resonated with the Japanese people.
Inspired by "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Japan, which did not have too much historical connotation, renamed a recent war in its country with the goal of reunifying the whole country as the "Warring States Period", and carried out a large number of related literary creations. It is clearly said that it is the Warring States Period, but compared with the Warring States Period of our country, the intensity and period span of the so-called Warring States Period in Japan can only be compared with the "Three Kingdoms Period" of our country at most.
Entering the contemporary era, with the rapid rise of Japanese comics and continuous strong cultural output, I believe that many otaku and otaku women who are keen on Japanese comics and Japanese game works will not forget those characters who often appeared in anime and games from the Warring States Period of Japan. Such as Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nohime, Mrs. Aichi... Today, the Warring States Period has become a unique cultural brand in Japan, and it has also been adapted in countless animation works, historical novels, and film and television works. Or in folklore, it is more plump and three-dimensional.
Therefore, when the story framework of Batman's arrival in Japan was constructed, and the time-travelling was mentioned again, the first question that the Japanese screenwriters in charge of the story came to thought was how to make a clever and perfect connection between the Warring States Period and Batman? Instead of choosing the age of the story, in their opinion, only a historical period like the Warring States period can carry a heroic character with a unique dark flavor like Batman.
The movie is clever enough not to choose to bluntly pull a number of characters from the Batman comics to ancient Japan, continuing with a modern approach to confrontation.
During the Warring States Period of Japan, there were many daimyo lords with different personalities and abilities, and there were also a lot of villains with different personalities and abilities in the Batman comics. Re-interpretation, for example, the penguin turned into Kafei's Takeda Shingen, the poison ivy turned into Echigo's Uesugi Kenshin, the death knell became Ou's Date Masamune, and the double-faced man became Omi's Akechi Mitsuhide...
Among them, the most amazing thing is the movie's reinterpretation of the two heroes of the Warring States Period in Japan: the clown became the "Sixth Heaven Demon King" Oda Nobunaga, and the gorilla Grude became the rich man jokingly called "Monkey". Omi Hideyoshi (It seems that Tokugawa Ieyasu has no corresponding!). When all the villains have their corresponding characters, Batman also has his corresponding team: a team of ninjas with the desire to save all living beings and save Japan.
Batman and Japanese Culture
Batman's backstory, I believe many comic book fans and fans as well as I know. Bruce Wayne learned martial arts from a ninja master and eventually parted ways with the Ninja League due to differences in philosophy and goals. In this whole story, the introduction and application of Japanese elements can be said to occupy a very important part.
In terms of Batman's modeling settings, even in Christopher Nolan's "Batman: The Dark Knight" trilogy, we can still find a strong Japanese samurai style, not to mention Batman's confusion in the three movies The post-rerise plot is intrinsically linked to the Japanese ninja spirit.
In the use of weapons, the smoke bombs used by Batman and various hidden weapons full of modern technology are also surprisingly similar in principle and performance to the weapons used by ninjas in Japanese anime.
The "Ninja League" represented by Batman and Ninja Master inevitably parted ways due to ideological reasons. If Japanese literature and movies are used to briefly describe this dramatic turning point, it is exactly like "Seven Samurai" and "Rason". Door" is the product of the close integration.
Stunning visual feast
When the characters are all in one-to-one correspondence, if you still fight with modern costumes and modern technology, it will be a bit out of the background of the story constructed with good intentions.
Therefore, in the costumes of the characters, we can see that everyone has changed the clothing style of modern Gotham at the beginning of the movie, and realized the modeling innovation of doing as the custom in Japan in the Warring States Period, with armor, fans, clogs and exquisite and unique clothing matching... almost every time. A character is perfectly remodeled in the film.
In the scene picture, the innovation of the film is also unprecedented. Since the 18th and 19th centuries, the West has always admired the perfect fusion of realism and freehand brushwork in the traditional Japanese painting style, and even set off a wave of learning Japanese ukiyo-e.
There are even rumors that Monet and Van Gogh once copied Japanese Ukiyo-e. It can be seen that its influence is great. Therefore, Japanese paintings, and even later comics, have a large audience in the Western world. Coupled with the mystery of the East, the West is flocking to them.
This time, "Batman Ninja" has truly realized the fusion of exquisite Japanese comics and heroic comics. If the Batman, who was in a storm at the beginning of the movie, fell into the windy streets, it is not enough to attract the audience's attention.
Then, when a clown in a gorgeous costume performs a grotesque performance under the moon, the beautiful scene is amazing! Just like the first appearance of Lucia in "Death" under the background of the moon, it can be said that there is no difference between the two.
Do you still remember the famous Ukiyo-e painting "The Surf of Kanagawa", which is an important cultural card of Japan? In the picture, in addition to the freehand clouds in the sky, the background is a looming traditional cloud pattern. In the five-minute clown's amnesia memory fragment, the film uses the rough-grained freehand painting style in the Ukiyo-e painting style to distinguish it from the rest of the film.
The profound transformation of the clown's image from the outside to the inside in the simple picture is simply addicting. Although the clown's red makeup on the mouth at the end appeared as expected again, but a few minutes of quiet life and the display of the confused image still showed a unique clown image to the world.
With sufficient production budget, the film has chosen a different production path. Traditional 2D animation requires a lot of labor, time and effort, and is basically thankless. The most vivid description is "Studio Ghibli", which insists on traditional hand-painting, so that it takes several years to create an animation work.
Using the technology of 3D to 2D, coupled with subtle manual adjustments, the frame-by-frame picture production of "Batman Ninja" is efficient and vivid. The most direct manifestation is the wonderful picture of the battle between Batman and the Joker Roof.
The second plot setting
The perfect combination of advanced production technology and cool Japanese comic style brings the audience in front of the screen a storm-like visual touch, but this has not completely covered the shortcomings of the film.
In the current setting of the original comics, Batman is under the huge blow of the death of his parents and the darkness of the city. He has gone through hardships, experienced the long training of ninja masters, and experienced self-awakening and human struggle. The Dark Knight in the eyes of the world today.
But the remodeling and transformation of Batman in "Ninja Batman" does not inherit any foreshadowing in the comics. Where is the connection between Batman and Ninja? How did Batman have the epiphany to become a ninja? What is the relationship between Batman and the ninja tribe? How did the villains become the daimyo of the ruling side of Japan?
Countless questions are buried one after another in the 90-minute plot, which makes people unable to complain and the visual effects are in stark contrast to the plot settings.
As for the final battle, it was even more surprising. The final confrontation between the villains and the characters of Batman is not a head-to-head confrontation in the era of cold weapons. The huge Japanese castles of the villains are actually giant robots with various machines and guns, and in order to deal with the undead. "Batman", they want to actually combine their respective robots into giant robots...
Seeing this, I believe everyone will have the same feeling as me, how big is this screenwriter's brain hole. And this is nothing, the most deeply disappointing thing is that Batman's "God Operation" when facing the giant robot enemy: using countless groups of monkeys to stack Arhats to form a giant fit monkey, and then come out without thinking about it. Covered with several bats, turning into a giant Batman...
It can be said that at the end of the story, in addition to the Bat carriage with a strong retro Gothic style that Batman and his party rode after returning to Gotham, it can also arouse the curiosity of the audience, and the highlights at the beginning of the movie. and innovation have all been wiped out. In addition to the visual shock, the storyline of the movie did not bring us the same spiritual shock.
But even if the film inevitably fails in terms of storyline, we still cannot deny the innovation and breakthrough it has made in terms of style, technology and cultural integration.
Especially for the majority of otaku and otaku, the catwoman and the clown girl have changed from the restrained shapes in the past American comics. After combining with the Japanese manga loli style, the graceful and sweet and lovely shown are simply unexpected. The surprise in the middle, the surprise in the surprise, is something we can't even imagine when we are used to the dark and deep style of the "Batman" series.
The author of this article said that the article was first published on the WeChat public account "Cinema Life". It is recommended for DC, Marvel, sci-fi, fantasy, Europe and the United States, classic movies, and in-depth analysis of popular blockbusters. Just pay attention to "Cinema Life".
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