This article is a dissertation of the course "Road Film Studies" that I have taken.
"Kiujiro's Summer" is the eighth film directed by Takeshi Kitano. It is a slightly warm comedy in his film career, and is also recognized as the most personal biographical film in his works. Takeshi Kitano tells an uncomplicated story in a warm tone, a middle-aged man who has nothing to do, is ordered by his wife to help a child find his mother. It is worth pondering that there was no image of a father in the film, but at the end of the story, the middle-aged man and the child seem to have formed a relationship of affection with father and son. An unfamiliar and familiar "father" image is constructed out of thin air, and its meaning is worth analyzing. This article attempts to explore this process from three perspectives: text reading, author criticism, and cultural context.
1. The "father" from scratch by close reading of the text
The story of "Kiujiro's Summer" basically follows the pattern of "road healing films" that emerged in the 1970s. Two people who were originally conflicted embarked on a journey. During the journey, they re-acquainted themselves with each other. Reconciliation. In the film, Kikujiro, a middle-aged man who has nothing to do, and a ruffian, and a left-behind child "Masao" who "has no father" and "mother probably works elsewhere" are on the road. The two are spliced together like a father and son. However, it is not difficult to find that the middle-aged man in the film does not seem to have the qualities of a father. He does not have a serious job, extorts money from the gangster, indulges in betting on horses, and even loses all his wife's travel expenses. Obviously, this man who refuses to take on family responsibilities is more like a child than a "father" in a sense. In the dialogue between a middle-aged man and his wife, it is not difficult to see the psychoanalytic root of the crux of his "refusal to grow up" - "not everyone is like your mother (running with other men)". The starting point of the growth trajectory of the middle-aged man and the child is established, one is avoiding becoming a father because he hates his mother, and the other is looking for his mother. That is to say, at the beginning of the story, the film seems to revolve around the "mother", and the identity of the "father" is absent.
The relationship between the two did not begin to change until the middle-aged man chased away the molesters for the child, although the change in the attitude of the middle-aged man towards the little boy at this time was more due to the guilt of a faulty partner. non-father's sense of responsibility. Through the transition of the following plots, such as playing games in the process of hitchhiking, using oranges to wrap rice balls, sleeping in the shelter and other plots, the relationship between the two is further tilted from a partnership to a father-son relationship, so that in about half of the film In one place, a middle-aged man teased the child half-jokingly, "Call me Dad, come on, call me Dad". At this time, the middle-aged man has unconsciously expressed his concern as a father and his loss of losing (leaving) children, and the image of "father" has been vaguely formed. However, the middle-aged man really completed the image transition from playmate to father. After discovering that the little boy's mother was another wife, he actively tried to cover up all this in order to protect the boy. This transition from passive to active Quite a landmark. Then, like an epiphany, the middle-aged man chooses to go to a nursing home to face his childhood trauma. This act of reconciliation with his mother marks the hero's recognition and return to his social identity.
It is worth pondering that at the end of the story, the child who tried to get the mother's love did not get what he wanted, but went back satisfied. On the face of it, this is just an ordinary ending to the reconciliation of the protagonists of a road movie. However, according to Lacan's theoretical analysis, the child who did not obtain the mother's love finally obtained the father's love - the absence of the mother's love and the return of the father's love may be understood as the child in the imaginary world did not obtain the satisfaction of the mirror stage, but in the end. Through his identification with his father, he has completed the society's "question" of the individual, thus successfully entering the symbolic world and attaining spiritual growth in stages. For middle-aged men, the return of this social identity undoubtedly means that it is similar to the successful entry of children into the symbolic world.
2. "Father" from the perspective of the author
Like a joke, the name "Kiujiro" didn't appear until the end, not a child but a middle-aged man's name. According to the name of the film, it is not difficult to know that the middle-aged man is the real protagonist in this film. The film is full of the director's personal biography. One of the proofs is that "Kiujiro" is the name of the film director Takeshi Kitano's "father". And Takeshi Kitano also confirmed this, "Indeed, the inspiration I show in the film usually comes from my own experience, what I have experienced. "Kiujiro's Summer" is a film that is not lacking in tenderness, and it is based on materials. My childhood. I'm not going to pretend that the plot of this movie has nothing to do with my childhood. On the contrary, I think this movie is a nod to my father. He's a very surly man...he has a very introverted personality. Use cowardice in the wrong place. My dad doesn't talk to his kids. In fact, he doesn't talk to anyone. He never talks to me, and doesn't think of nice things to please people. He passed away at a very young age. After that, my mother refused to mention him to me. In this film, the image of my father plays a very important role.[1]”
Takeshi Kitano grew up in a female-dominated family. "The 'head of the family' father, Kijiro, was just a decoration, and the one in power was his mother, Saki. Saki was well educated. When he was young, he was a tutor in a baron's house. Married to a naval officer surnamed Kitano, and after the death of her husband, she married the painter Kijiro in the form of recruiting children, so she always felt like a phoenix fell into a chicken coop. And Kikujiro was short-sighted, strong in the outside world, and dry in the middle, and was often ashamed, and could only beat him after drinking Only the wife has to express the pain of depression and depression. Therefore, the relationship between husband and wife has always been on the verge of collapse [2]”. Through the observation of Kitano Takeshi's growth environment, we can find that Kitano Takeshi's father was silent and stubborn, and there was not much communication between Kitano Takeshi and Kitano Takeshi, and he was absent from Kitano Takeshi's growth stage due to his early death. Takeshi Kitano grew up almost entirely under the care of his mother, and this deep emotional foundation for his mother constitutes the premise of the film's "Mother Searching" behavior.
However, the result of "searching for mother" ended in the return of the identity of "father". It seems that although Kitano Takeshi has benefited from the nourishment of mother's love, he has been unable to let go of his father's absence for a long time. Regarding the discord between his parents, Kitano Takeshi understood his father from a male perspective, "My father is not 'Kitano', but my mother never shy about saying that my father is her second man. It's not unreasonable to feel depressed and depraved... It's true that Dad was very uncomfortable, and in our family, he was completely weightless. I know very well why he comes home drunk every day[3]". Therefore, in the film, Kitano Takeshi gave the character "Kiujiro" the character of a "father". He had nothing to do and was disliked by others, but he was kind-hearted. This characteristic is not incomprehensible, but due to his living environment—— family trauma. And the child who was abandoned by women in "So he is like me" is on the one hand the epitome of Kijiro's/father's childhood, and on the other hand, Kitano Takeshi's imaginative writing of himself, who lacks fatherly love.
3. "Father" in Japanese Culture
It should be pointed out that the image of "father" constructed by Takeshi Kitano in the film is undoubtedly traditional. It represents the guardian of the family rather than the diehards of the old world. Traditionally, "fathers", as the "parents" who support "the family business", have absolute power in the "home" and are also bound by the "home". They exist for the "home", but they do not actually enjoy How much is the privilege of being a 'parent'. The task of a 'parent' is to pass on the "family" handed down from the ancestors to the children and grandchildren. Therefore, it is the character and ability of the "parent" that is valued. In contrast to the Chinese 'ancestor', the ancestors will grow up , the father is the father, the father is the elder. In Japan, the 'parental authority' is not unchanged for life. For the continuity of the "family", while emphasizing the power of the "parental", it also sets the corresponding "parents". Norms and Constraints [4]”. That is to say, on the one hand, the father dominates the family, and at the same time must make some kind of "sacrifice" for family norms. Although the film is stubborn and arrogant, there is no shortage of Kijiro's image who pays for the man. It is undoubtedly in line with this traditional value.
From the perspective of film history, in the 1960s, in the era of the rise of individual ideology, although there also appeared in Japan "Sun Clan movies" that represented the spirit of rebellion, the "father" in it was not lacking in arrogant, rigid and vulgar negative images. . For example, "There is such a scene in the movie "Season of the Sun". Long Zai's father is going to participate in long-distance running, but Long Zai laughs at him for being old. He moved his hands mercilessly, and it is clearly written in the novel that Ryuya's father vomited blood.[5]" But with the return of neoconservatism in the 1970s and 1980s on a global scale, traditional values The image of the "father" as the guardian of the family has been re-acknowledged. The image of the father in "Kijiro's Summer" was born in this context.
references
[1] Terman, Takeshi Kitano. Takeshi Kitano's self-reported boring life, I don't want to die [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2015.
[2] Xiami. Poisonous tongue Takeshi Kitano, fondly remembering his parents [J]. Xinmin Weekly. 2015(13): 108.
[3] Takeshi Kitano. Kikujiro and Sauki [M]. Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2015.
[4] Shen Xiuyi. The influence of the traditional family system on the Japanese people's thinking: Centered on the comparative analysis of "family" in China and Japan [J]. Writer. 2009(22): 161-162.
[5] Li Handong. From "Sun Clan" to "Rogue Faction" - Japanese Post-War Movie Chrysanthemum and Knife Pattern [D]. Shanghai Normal University, 2013.
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