_________________________________________________________________________
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was Li Bucai’s favorite film director, but the more he came into contact with his works , the director's image is more blurred. Known as a great director, everyone has core values, and critics can find out the director's creative context based on their core values (such as childlikeness to Spielberg, money to Michael Bay). However, Akira Kurosawa can produce commercial masterpieces such as "Seven Samurai", "Sengoku Heroes", "Red Dead Redemption", "Heaven and Hell", and can also create excellent literary adaptations, such as "Rashomon" (Akutagawa Ryunosuke novel "In the Bamboo Forest"), "The Spider's Nest" (Shakespeare's "Macbeth"), "Idiot" (Dostoyevsky's novel of the same name), "Chaos" ("King Lear"). Two very different achievements blur Kurosawa's core values, just as we cannot imagine Spielberg and David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, etc.) into one. His late work "Dream" (1990) is fragmented in sections, and each section has no common core value. Although it can partially reflect the creative process of Kurosawa, it can only be said to be sliced from different organs of Akira Kurosawa's system, and it is insufficient to present it. overall. On the other hand, the mid-term creation of "Desire for Life" (1952) can be regarded as a self-report: "man" should be like Faust in Goethe (1749-1832), never satisfied.
"Desire to Live" describes a zombie civil servant who has served in the local government for decades, Kanji Watanabe (played by Shimura Takashi), who learns that he has stomach cancer and has less than half a year left to live. Citizens strive for the construction of the park as a spiritual heritage. The whole film can be divided into three paragraphs: the first paragraph describes Watanabe after suffering from cancer, looking back on what he has done in his life, whether in career, family, love, or friendship, he has achieved nothing. The novelist who met by chance took Watanabe to wander around the night, letting this honest man who did nothing to experience the world of drunken life and dream death. In the second paragraph, Watanabe and his resigned female colleague Odakiri are playing around. The tone of this paragraph is healthy and lively, using the youthful vigor of the female colleague to compare Watanabe's life afterglow. The third paragraph is Watanabe's funeral, and flashbacks Watanabe's efforts to build the park. The interesting thing about the first and second paragraphs is that there are different "leaders" in the two paragraphs.
As far as literary creation is concerned, the guide is equivalent to an NPC and does not affect the main plot. His functions refer to "explaining the current situation", "methods to break through the current situation", and "possible dangers". Taking "Lu Ding Ji" as an example, Mao Shiba took Wei Xiaobao out of Lichun Courtyard, let Wei Xiaobao and the readers get a rough overview of the rivers and lakes, and then stepped down and bowed. The most important guides in the history of literature are probably Vergil and Beatrice of Divina Commedia and Mephisto of Faust. "The Desire of Life" appropriated the two images of Betty Leica and Mophisto to reveal the nihilistic nature of life for Watanabe.
Here is a brief introduction to Goethe, the creator of Faust. As a representative of the German Hurricane, Goethe was listed in history textbooks with The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). Looking at this work alone, Goethe is worthy of being the grandfather of romanticism - as long as a young man who had suffered from secondary illness and mistakenly regarded women as his eternal refuge, he would be moved by Werther's physical sacrifice for love. But in fact, Goethe soon jumped out of the romantic school and turned to classicism - a literary exploration of the balance between human emotion and reason. And "Faust" is the ideal human example of Goethe's life-long creation - fearless to make mistakes, courage to learn and give back what he has learned.
Faust is not perfect; he has indulged in various desires and even crimes (murder, adultery), tried to build his own Eden and escaped reality (married the mythical beauty Helen and had children), and finally completed his life by building a seaside city. Faust was assisted by his good partner and guide, Mophiist. The image of Morphist can be traced back to the English poet Milton (John Milton, 1608-1674) in the poetic play Paradise Regained (1671): Satan used all kinds of coercion and bait to induce Christ the Son of God to forsake God and serve Jesus The greatest test of sanctification. But what Jesus rejected, Faust embraced - sanctification is the realm of religion and myth (even the victors of history), Faust is a living human being, a representative of "us," so he cannot resist temptation, He made mistakes because of selfish desires, but he also knew how to reflect. More importantly, he pretended to be others (religion, country) to pursue "human value" alone. Faust's ultimate dream is to build a seaside city, making it a utopia where everyone can live and work in peace and contentment. When Faust realized that the city would become the spiritual legacy of his society, he died happily and was led by an angel to heaven.
Here, let’s first explain the tradition of epic poetry (epic) inherited by Faust – near mythology and far from realism, the symbolic meaning of characters and events is greater than the realistic meaning, we can easily restore these elements to their corresponding spiritual meanings . However, "The Desire of Life" is a purely realistic creation. Whether it is Watanabe, the novelist, the female colleague, and other characters, they are all real people, and they can only operate in the human range. The novelist can be compared to Mophiste, who led Watanabe to have a romantic night because he believed that Watanabe was a real saint by reflecting on the meaning of life due to cancer. Morphist is a heartless devil/guide, whether Faust's desires and fortunes cause danger to others is meaningless to him. But the novelist accompanies Watanabe on his journey, and understands that there is no difference between the extremes of "singing and singing" and "doing your duty." This painful realization made the guide, who had nothing to do with the plot, leave the stage sadly.
As mentioned above, because of the epic (epic) tradition, Betty Licai, who leads Dante to heaven in The Divine Comedy, is also close to myth and far from reality. The female colleague who gave Watanabe's life meaning again inherits the role of Betty Reica, but in the realistic background, she must exist in a flawed image; the female colleague seems to have no brains and only giggles, acting purely on temperament. What Watanabe infected with her was the invincible heat of youth, but this was only a spiritual aid, just like the little Garden of Eden that Faust tried to rebuild, it would be disillusioned. Therefore, this guide did not lead Watanabe to heaven, but beat him back to the world - as a human being, to pursue the value of life, you can only find it in the world.
After two journeys, Watanabe threw himself into the construction of the park and actively visited agencies at all levels. Even if he was coldly received or threatened by evil forces, it would not damage his determination. At this time, there is no guide around him - the spiritual exploration and construction of people can only be explored alone. On the day the park was completed, Watanabe died of illness. During the wake up night, colleagues reminisce about Watanabe's changes, officials vying for the park's credit, and in fact they have nothing to do with Watanabe - he has "completed his merits".
Back to Akira Kurosawa. As the first person in the Japanese film industry, in 1951, he won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival with "Rashomon", completing the national dream of entering the world. In the heyday of creation ("Redbeard" in 1965 was the dividing line), his films were very popular, both commercial and art films. But after the failure of "Trolley Maniac" in 1970, the "national hero" became an "international ronin", and no local company was willing to fund it. The 1975 return to film, "Dersu Uzala" (Dersu Uzala) even had to be produced at the expense of the Soviet Union (note that its fashion was the Cold War era). Even if the film wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it still cannot return the confidence of the nation and the Japanese film industry. Akira Kurosawa still has to wait for the injection of international funds to complete the follow-up works "Shadow Warrior" and "Ran".
Looking back on Akira Kurosawa's directorial career, isn't it like Faust and Watanabe? For this movie madman, life only exists for movies: at the age of forty-two, he gained worldwide fame, and at the age of eighty-three, he is still making films. He deserves to be a movie madman. Watanabe was able to end his life because his life had a time limit, and he could only do things within his ability within the time limit. Faust died when his utopia was not complete, but his wish was fulfilled - to seek the value of life. Akira Kurosawa attempted suicide after the failure of "Trolley Maniac", but after finishing his physical and mental recuperation, he devoted himself to the film again, and he really only existed for the film throughout his life. That's why I say "The Desire of Life" is his writer's own account - one cannot live without madness.
View more about Ikiru reviews
