- Commentary on the Movie "Twilight
Qingbingwei" Author: In
the dark room of Qing Jinjun, the strongest swordsman in the domain lives alone in the fighting room, outside the room is bright sunshine and blooming wild flowers, lying on The corpses in the flowerbed were buzzing with flies, like an ominous omen. The protagonist, Kiyobei, stepped into that terrifying house alone. The voice-over is the trembling voice of a colleague who dare not enter: "Be careful, Uemon is no longer a man, but a beast!"
Kiyobei did not see the beast, but instead saw a sad father, a frustrated husband, and a down-to-earth man. The samurai, the target he was ordered to assassinate - was just like the shadow of the assassin himself in his life, the famous renegade samurai Yugo Zenemon, known as the strongest swordsman in the domain, before the arrival of Qingbingwei, he has been knocked down.
It was not the sword that knocked him down, but life.
"Twilight Seibei" is not actually a samurai movie. Although it borrows the theme of samurai, it reflects the fate of the town's little people and their struggles. Before the duel between the assassin Seibei and the killed Uemon The dialogue is the climax of the whole movie:
"Crossing this mountain, you will leave the domain. There are many ronin outside the domain. In a few years, the era of samurai will end." Uemon came to assassinate him. The swordsman who burst out is not high-spirited, but shows a sad look. He even prayed to Qingbingwei to let him escape, instead of bravely accepting the challenge as the strongest swordsman in the domain should do, Die by the sword or let the enemy die by your own sword, and write the dignity of the samurai in blood.
This is an elegy of the samurai era, and the film faithfully reproduces the miserable and helpless life of the lower-class samurai at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. Holderlin once wrote: "In ordinary times, what is a poet for?" Similarly, as a samurai who valued his reputation and integrity more than his own life, after staying away from the flames of war with swords, lights, swords and shadows, After having the blood and courage to protect the family and the country, he lives in a materialistic, vulgar and trivial world. He lives a rigid and impoverished civil servant life, surrounded by a group of short-sighted and unambitious colleagues: they neither care about the end of the curtain. The current situation does not care who will control the feudal government. In the turbulent times of the upcoming Meiji Restoration, the life of the low-level samurai in the small domain is like a small ant, unaware of the change of the current situation, ignorant of the mountains and rains coming. of changing things.
In these ordinary times, I recall the heroic appearance of Miyamoto Musashi when he hit the sixty-four states of Japan with his sword, and the tragic when Hirata Masahide did not hesitate to cut his belly with a knife and bloodly admonished his student, Oda Nobunaga Prodigal Son, to return. The earth-shattering tragic and solemnity of Sanada Yukimura and the "Sanada Ten Warriors" defending Osaka Castle is indeed impossible to find, just like the sung in the section "Fortunate Ruowu·Tunsheng" - "Fifty years in the world, like dream". The story of the samurai has long been a distant romance. In the past, the efforts to find poetry in the midst of swords in troubled times have long since been reduced to the trouble of running around day and night for firewood, rice, oil and salt. Yuan song "Tao Nao Ling • Dao Qing"). When Qingbingwei had to sell his saber, which symbolized the soul of a samurai, for his wife's funeral; when he lost the Eemon used by the head of the feudal lord, he took his wife and daughters everywhere, begging for food in temples like dogs, the ideal of the so-called samurai, samurai Is it the same as that of the Eemon daughter who died of tuberculosis in the movie, and perhaps the dignity of a samurai: the once snow-white skin, only a urn of silent ashes remain.
The last samurai was not killed by modern bullets like in the movie "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise, but a life of helplessness.
However, "Twilight Seibei" tells the story not of how a samurai died, but how a real samurai lived: an obscure lower-class samurai, a warehouse clerk in a small domain, a How did the humble ant survive in this ordinary age and guard his truth, his love, his dreams, and his dignity - even if it's just an ant, he has his own dignity.
This is the really touching part of the film, director Yoji Yamada is familiar to Chinese audiences for his films "The Call of the Distant Mountain", "The Yellow Handkerchief of Happiness" and the TV series "The Story of Yinjiro." In "Twilight Qingbingwei", he continued to implement his aesthetic tradition of being good at shaping small people and expressing the rich inner world of ordinary middle-aged men. Qing Bingwei was poor all his life, lost his wife in middle age, raised his old mother and two young daughters alone, lived in a poor house, had nothing to eat and drink, and shouldered the burden of life, but the boring little world around him did not understand this strange man. Man, people nicknamed him "Twilight Kiyobei" - because he always came home on time after work in the evening and never went out for drinks with colleagues.
However, it is this ordinary family man who adheres to the principle of being a man in the face of adversity, and would rather live alone than go with the world. Despite being poor, he still saves on clothing and diet, and sends his two daughters to private schools to study four books, and encourages them to "learn to think even in troubled times"; he never drinks flower wine with his colleagues, but he can notice the early spring azaleas The quietly blooming, in a world of chicken feathers, discover the splendid poetry of ordinary life. He silently chops wood, farms the land like a farmer, and watches his daughter grow up like a flower. He doesn't have the heroic spirit of the senior warriors, but just like them - he has the belief that he must protect him all his life.
This is an era when people have forgotten to use the sword, and unfortunately, the sword has not forgotten him. In the end, Qingbingwei was favored by the clan elders because of his superb skills, and was forced to take the head of the renegade samurai Uemon. crossroads.
It is hard to forget the sound of Qingbingwei sharpening his sword alone in the dark night. Tomorrow, can this pair of hands that are used to writing books and weaving bamboo cages hold a sword again? It is hard to forget the deep affection when he carried the orange light and quietly looked at the apple-like smiling face of his sleeping daughter. In order to protect this love, should he deprive another person of his love? It is hard to forget the solemn look on his face when he told the co-worker in the warehouse who usually didn't think highly of him - telling the person in front of him, in addition to the daily boring entertainment with his colleagues, flirting with the boss's wife, and talking about the number of intercourse with each other. Besides fun, is there another kind of noble life?
Obviously, Qingbingwei did not draw his sword eagerly to answer these questions. In fact, the most touching thing in the movie is that on the eve of this life-and-death duel, this usually shy man finally mustered up the courage to confess to Miss Pengjiang, who has always loved each other deeply, telling her that "that dream never faded", if in the duel If he can survive, is she willing to marry him? The beautiful and elegant Miss Pengjiang was full of surprise and fear, because just the day before, she had already agreed to another person's proposal, and it was too late.
The helplessness of fate is nothing more than this. Perhaps, the long-awaited love is the same as the imminent death, the only thing that passes by is endless sadness, if it can be one day earlier, or one hour later...
He wasn't a hero from start to finish, and that final duel didn't make him a hero either. From the body of another samurai, Uemon, Kiyobei saw his past and future. The common encounter and fate made him unable to draw his sword. Finally, the sudden attack of Uemon and the low beam of the house (not conducive to The wielder of the long sword) together fulfilled his mission of killing and relieved him of his moral self-blame.
This humble ant in the dust is not destined to become a flying eagle. At the end of the movie, when he finally returned home covered in blood and limping, he saw the smoke from the kitchen at dusk, the peaceful countryside, the smiling face of his daughter, and the tearful Miss Pengjiang. This ordinary person finally got all the love: the love of family, the love of friendship, the love of love. Love, even if it is long overdue, still has the power to make death jealous—because it is love that gives this fleeting life its splendid color. All this in front of him told him-the whole meaning of his life's efforts.
At this moment, a humble ant gained dignity in the dust.
Qing Jin Jun in Beijing
on September 5, 2007
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