Based on the framework of King's Ransom by Ed McBain, the film explores the antagonism of the rich and the poor. The author believes that "Heaven and Hell" is not just a discussion of the so-called class antagonism. The film's hidden motif - "man makes things happen, things happen in heaven", seems to have elusive power over the fate of the characters. If he didn't get her dowry, would he still succeed? If the scar on his hand is not seen by the police, will he still be arrested? Therefore, the understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven and Hell should not only be limited to the opposition between "good and evil", "capitalism and Marxism-Leninism", "humanity and inhumanity", "individualism and collectivism", but should also see The inside and outside between "making things and accomplishing things" and "man and heaven".
"Westernization"
Kidnappers, ransoms; detectives, board of directors; seemingly ordinary police and gangster films, but Akira Kurosawa has added his own unique perspective to this genre - the process of Japan's westernization after the war. Unlike "Wild Dog"'s theory of depravity, "Heaven and Hell" dramatically reinforces the chasm between depravity and progress. On one side are high modern western-style buildings (balconies, gardens, floor-to-ceiling windows, showers), and on the other side are kennel-like wooden slums. One is a young kidnapper who hates rich people, and the other is Quan Teng, who has grown up through his own efforts.
As if the river of garbage floating in the film, "Drunken Angel", "Desire of Life", "Heaven and Hell", and the signifier meaning of "smelly pond" appear repeatedly.
Capitalism, crime, drugs, and one side, Akira Kurosawa intensified the corruption that Westernization brought to Japan. The police system, case solving, telephone calls, and on the other side, Akira Kurosawa is enumerating the progress that Westernization has brought to Japan. Dialectically speaking, Westernization is like the wisp of red smoke rising in the film (the only color in the whole film), swaying around and settling around. The key is that Akira Kurosawa aimed the bullseye at changes in people's hearts, rather than changes in the external environment. Vertically, we may make a simple comparison between Kurosawa Akira's "Heaven and Hell" and Imamura's "Pigs and Battleships" Pigs and Battleships (1961). Obviously, Imamura Shohei is more radical, ironic, and desperate than Kurosawa Akira. Those pigs pouring into the streets and alleys like a flood are not only a few gangsters, but also the American culture trampling on the traditional Japanese culture of self-determination.
In terms of audio-visual language, a large number of stage-style fixed cameras make the three-dimensional space of the entire screen compressed into two-dimensional. Various characters, walking around, gathering or dispersing, Akira Kurosawa will dilute the scene scheduling dominated by camera movement. Stephen Prince pointed out, "This is a rare use of the wide screen in film history, and the emergence of "Heaven and Hell" has changed people's definition of the film directed by Akira Kurosawa in the later stages."
Since Three Rascals in the Hidden Fortress, 1958, Kurosawa has used the widescreen format (2.35:1) extensively. Especially in this film, Akira Kurosawa makes full use of the space inside the frame - Tohoscope, to circumscribe the mood of the characters (the characters squeezed in the corner of the picture). Long take, pick up, pick up short take, pick up motion camera and then take long take, the audio-visual composition of "Heaven and Hell" is like the original soundtrack that occasionally appears in the film, and the narrative and characters are clearly rhythmically segmented. Change of mood. You see, assistant Chuanxi's counterattack and the chase paragraph.
Terrence Rafferty of The New York Times said: "Kurosawa kneads genres in a new way. The structure of the film is eclectic. The shift of focus is swift. It’s uplifting, like the climax of Seven Samurai.” Tom Milne of Time Out put it more succinctly, “Half thriller, half morality play, "Heaven and Hell" spreads Kurosawa's reflections on Dostoevsky."
All of the film's conflict ends with the two male characters. They, one is a respectable, middle-aged industrialist; the other is a poor, young medical student. Regarding the confrontation scene at the end of the film - the characters overlap each other. According to Donald Richie, "On the surface, they are opposites, one good and one evil. But Akira Kurosawa gives us a completely different implication: in any case, good and evil are Coexisting, these two men can be equal.” Stephen Prince (Stephen Prince) believes that “Heaven and Hell is structurally divisive, but it is clear in terms of humanistic reconciliation. . This point, the movie is very different from the original novel."
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