chow (Mifune Toshiro) and sam (Chiaki Misaki) (the English version of the name...) are the two generals in the Spider’s Nest. Two people have three predictions, the first is that both of them will be proclaimed, the second is that chow will become the lord of the city, and the third is that Qian Qiushi's son will also become the lord of the city. The three prophecies have been fulfilled one by one, but is it the fate that is supposed to be or is the human being dominated by the desire in the heart and bound by oneself?
In the chaos, Akira Kurosawa uses the ever-changing cloud to represent a kind of meditation to examine the battles of war. The pain of killing and killing and the desire to death and contention of human beings make the natural world appear extremely calm like a high god. In the Spider's Nest, the precursors of the realization of the three prophecies are also an opportunity to show the breathtaking power of nature.
Before the first prediction was fulfilled, chow and sam rode through spider's bushes. The two familiar with the terrain got lost. After hearing the weird smile between the trees, they saw the ghost and were told the next three predictions. When the two talked while resting outside the city, they found it ridiculous. After a while, the prophecy was confirmed. So the ghost's words began to arouse the two people's thinking, and they were seduced.
The second prophecy was fulfilled by Chow’s wife Chin, but Akira Kurosawa hinted that Chin’s existence is more like an externalization of Chow’s growing desires through the arrangement of the character’s behavior and scene scheduling. It is the opposite of Chow's words and deeds to Chin, but it is ultimately influenced by Chin. In one of the shots, Chow paces anxiously. Outside the painting, Chin always encourages him to assassinate and usurp the throne. A moment before he assassinated the city lord, there was a bird's neighing (here I have to sigh Kurosawa Akira's use of sound effects, chin always appears with the harsh sound of clothes rubbing against the ground, before chow started to assassinate When he is nervous and anxious, the sound of voiceover Chin’s clothes and the floor rubbing into Chow’s ears makes him even more frightened. This is also when the audience and chow’s identity are assimilated), which makes chow, chin and the audience feel nervous and fearful at the same time.
Before the third prediction was fulfilled, Sam’s horse refused to be trapped, and became frantic. Because of the previous bird’s prediction, this prediction made people feel more nervous. The audience would feel that the prediction would be fulfilled when it was actually relatively slow. , But Akira Kurosawa made the audience feel more anxious. There is a noteworthy detail here. Whenever Chow contemplates prophecy and is evoked by desires, the sword in his corner is always obvious in the camera, but the action at the end always makes this sword exist very much. Necessary, not just a suggestion and decoration. Such a setting fits the lyrics at the beginning and the end of the film. As long as people's desires turn over, the killing will begin.
The third prophecy was temporarily not fulfilled because Chow sent someone to kill Sam, but let Sam's son who was severely injured escape, and soon afterwards he led his army to attack Chow. So anxiously, Chow rode his horse to Spider's Bush and shouted the ghost out to let him reveal the prophecy. The answer was that if Spider's Bush did not move, Sam's son would not be the lord of the city. Chow thought how could the forest move, so he arrogantly didn't take combat skills and told his army these predictions. (There is another noteworthy detail here, which is the rain. The first time chow and sam pour heavy rain in spider's bush before they met the ghost, it was also the same when chow wanted to find the ghost the second time and broke into spider's bush. Suddenly there was a strong wind and heavy rain. The wet rain splashed the mud on the ground. A feeling of filth was disturbing, and the atmosphere was created to be tense, such as the passage in the Seven Samurai against the horse thief, or suddenly it was all over again. When it started to rain, Kurosawa was clearly good at using natural phenomena to create an atmosphere.) In addition, the precursor of this prophecy is reminiscent of Hitchcock, which is a bird. Suddenly, a group of birds rushed in front of chow, and finally It's blood. When Chow assassinated the city lord, Chin next door looked at the blood stains of the former city lord on the floor on the wall. He was terrified. The blood-filled chow recently looked in a trance. Chin went over and broke away his hand and stuffed the murder weapon into it. The guard, who was framed and drunk, came back and quickly and fearfully washed the blood off his hands. This happened before the second prophecy was fulfilled, but when the third prophecy was about to be fulfilled, the child’s chin became nervous. He kept washing his hands with a terrible expression in his mouth, talking about unclean blood.
In the end, after seeing Spider's Bush moved by Sam's son's soldiers, Chow died under the arrows of his own soldiers.
Finally, the spider’s nest city sounded again:
see the full of wishes
the remarks of the greed
homelees ghosts
are still around
human's wishes
like a great war
no matter when it is
never changes
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