At the beginning of the story, the shaky camera shot down the snowy Narayama, and the music was mournful, exuding unease and sadness. The snow was swirling, and two unkempt young men rushed out of the low earthen house under the thick snow. The camera returns to the house, the fire is made of wood on the ground, the old man is weaving a straw mat with straw, and the glib young man is gossiping behind him, with smoke curling up.
No bright colors, no eye-catching characters, or even a single detail that really strikes us as familiar. It was like a story that happened far, far away from us, so far away that we could not confirm the time or the place, and could only understand an inexplicable loneliness from the white snow. If there is really something fascinating from the beginning, I am afraid it is just the ancient primitive state of existence that is revealed all the time; however, when the whole film is watched, the heart is very shaken, both helpless and sad, helpless. The dead are gone, and the grief of the living will continue forever.
This is a film that truly portrays human nature, and the whole film gives people a cold, gloomy, oracle-filled feeling. It depicts all kinds of bizarre and natural, absurd and constant, extremely cruel and extremely peaceful human nature in the desolate and closed ancient original ecological environment slowly and calmly, almost in line. People's good and evil, beauty and ugliness, doubt and trust, contempt and nobility are all revealed in the indifferent and silent lens.
Some people may say that movies are all about showing humanity, but if you compare this film with those movies that most people usually like to watch, you will find that the humanity it shows is unique, because it is neither different from those American movies often The futuristic perspective it brings is also different from the secular taste that often exists in Chinese films today, and it is not the romantic treatment brought by many art films. Compared with a released film, it is more like a documentary. Documentary. It is not intended to judge the right and wrong, light and dark, of the characters in the film. It shows a quiet landscape where people and nature are still deeply intertwined behind our so-called civilization, and people and animals have great comparisons. Therefore, the human nature it describes is also realistic, natural, primitive, and even cruel.
This naturalness, primitiveness and cruelty can be seen most clearly in the two themes of the film, "sex" and "death".
1.
Sexuality is an important theme of this film, and the Japanese never seem to be stingy to show it in their works, but unlike the "sex" we usually recognize, the "sex" in "Narayama Set Kao" is not only It is flamboyant and undisguised, and it is more primitive and full of wildness. This is mainly shown through the three young men of the Stump family and the women associated with them.
Chen Ping's sons Jie Zuoji and Asong are the first pair. When Asong, with half of his face disfigured, sat on a branch and laughed, Jie Zuoji sang erotic songs and rushed towards her. Then the two made love between the bushes. Under the intertwined limbs were messy dead branches and fallen leaves. When the camera turned, it was two snakes that were mating. Asong's laughter was flamboyant and presumptuous, the bracken he picked was turned over, and Jie Zuoji said that he would bring back double the amount he picked.
This is the first time that there is a description of sex in the whole film. The tone is the most relaxed and unrestrained. We can't tell if there is any love between them. I won't talk about love on them anymore, because it's too unrealistic. But when Jie Zuoji said to pick double the bracken for her, I still had to be moved. In such a poor and hard life, picking bracken once can be compared to the promises of men and women who love each other in a civilized society. , and later the plot explained that in this village, going to the man's house for dinner means becoming his wife. What a grotesque and sad reality this is. .
In fact, Jie Zuoji is the one who cherishes his wife the most among the three adult men in their family. From the beginning, he spread the songs of A Lingpo hoping that she would hurry up and make room for A Song, and then directly take A Song home for dinner. , and when Assong was buried alive in every possible way, Jie Zuoji all showed a normal behavior that seemed to be a man we love in real life, which is different from Chenping's excessive rationality for sex and Lisuke's simple desire for sex. As the youngest generation, we seem to be able to see in him the edges and corners that have not been worn away by ancient social customs and circumstances.
However, his demands were actually selfish (perhaps a human nature), which was the fatal factor at the time. In order to survive collectively, he must give up his own paranoia. Jie Zuoji is constantly being assimilated. In the end, when the girl he brought back to the dining table without A Lingpo, he is more inclined to the ancient customs. One step closer.
The second pair is written about Chen Ping and his sequel, Ayu. Ayu is a widow from another village, and she is not beautiful. When Chen Ping heard her coming, she just said "that's it". But on the night she came, they had sex in the house, naked and unrestrained, with snakes walking by, Chen Ping was very happy when he saw it, and said that the "House God" was welcoming Ayu, so he made love to her more intensely.
From this picture, what we see is only desire, not love. It is the desire of men to women, and it is also the desire of women to men. As the owner of this family, Chen Ping is the only person who has the right to marry a wife and have children, so he can have sex with his wife in the house to his heart's content without concealing it. This time, the presence of snakes is actually another hint of the animality of their desire for each other. Chen Ping is happy because the appearance of the snake means that Ayu will bring good luck to the family. In his opinion, Ayu is only a tool for him to have children and to manage the family well. This point later he asked Ayu to commit himself to helping the family once to make it easier for him. It can be seen that he has recovered his temper without destroying the fields. In the eyes of him, that is, most people in the village, women are tools, even his wife is no exception, something that can be given up for living.
The third is the help that has been craving sex but can't. As the second son of this family, he has no right to marry a wife and have children, and because of his body odor, no one is willing to accept him. After peeping at her brother and sister-in-law having sex, she couldn't help but go to the neighbor's bitch to solve it, and even became irritable when Azhi, who wanted to sleep with all the men in the village, missed herself alone.
Lisuke has always been a typical existence as a sexual repressor in the film. He looks for the object of venting everywhere, and even does not hesitate to do something ridiculous like having sex with a bitch, so that he finally got paid with the help of Aling Po. Wish, after venting desire on an old man over sixty years old, he finally calmed down. The sex in this scene is ugly, deformed, and disgusting. The primitiveness and naturalness of human nature have been greatly exaggerated in him, and even in the society he lives in, he is ridiculed everywhere as an alien.
In the three of them, the primitiveness and naturalness of human beings are revealed through the most naked "sex". Driven by instinct, all three men want to experience sex; bound by tradition, only Chenpei can enjoy such luxury at this moment. Barren land brings not only poverty and hunger in life, but also restraint and depression in way of life. It is a rational consideration that the family can't afford too many women, but it is an instinctive idea to still be concerned about women's bodies. At this moment, the men of the tree stump family embody the social and natural nature of human beings at the same time. And the contradiction and intertwining of the two.
2. Death
Love and death are the eternal themes of human beings. If "sex" is the place in "Narayama Festival Kao" that concentrates on the naturalness and primitiveness of human beings, then the images of death that can be seen everywhere in the film can be regarded as It is a concentrated expression of the cruel side of human nature.
At the beginning of the story, Aling Po sits in the house weaving cloth, Jie Zuoji sings a song that mocks her, the metaphor of death has appeared, Aling Po will go up the mountain when she is seventy years old, and going up the mountain means death.
The first explicit image of death occurs when Risuke finds the body of an abandoned baby boy by a snow-covered creek. At that time, the camera was just a quick scan, and I only captured a stiff gray object, but I didn't have the courage to drag the progress bar back and replay it. When I think of the scenes I saw in Japanese movies with baby corpses in the past, they are very realistic and ugly, which can stir up the deepest anxiety and fear in people's hearts. Originally, if only one person died, it usually wouldn't cause a big shock to the person, but he was a baby, and his death was so ugly, it happened when the ice and snow melted. Everyone has a heart of compassion, why not be moved by it.
However, Lizhu's subsequent reaction and the attitude of the villagers really made us "civilized people" laugh and laugh, and then doubted human nature and whether there really exists goodness and caring in our nature. Lisuke was very excited when he saw the baby boy's body, and ran back quickly, not out of sympathy for the child and shame on the actor, but because it was a very unfortunate thing. So it's not good. In contrast to this, Jie Zuoji and Asong also said to the pregnant Asong when they were glued together, "If it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, sell it for money." Human life is so contemptible that existence is a sin.
What pushed this death theme to the first climax was the incident of the Yuwu family. The Yuwu family, as a family of thieves with a previous family in the village, was hated by the whole village, so when it was found out that they were stealing for the second time. When the whole village was supplied with food for the winter, the whole family was not spared the fate of being buried alive, including Asong, who was five months pregnant.
The barbarism and cruelty of human nature were vividly displayed in this incident. When A Ling-po took out her own food and asked A Song to bring it back to her family to eat, the girl didn't realize that it was the last supper. While she and her family were having a good time, a group of villagers broke into the door with farm implements, followed by knocking over their pots and bowls, putting people in net pockets and carrying them away, digging three feet in the ground to find the stolen food, The utensils were smashed to vent at will, until they were all thrown into the pit, and then the entire population was quickly buried. This is not like a group of villagers implementing the village rules in an organized and disciplined manner. It is clearly a robbery, but at least the robbers will not ignore people's lives so casually. At this moment, we can realize more clearly how far away they are from us, that it is really the distorted life of a group of savages, primitive people under poverty and starvation.
Human life is as light as a feather, and personal interests are irrelevant. The common purpose of everyone is only to allow more people to survive. Therefore, the Yuya family who only stole a little food became unforgivable, even if they were only helpless for their own survival. We can't blame anyone. The vitality is too slim. What can we do if our humanity is annihilated or numb? In a situation where we can't survive, it's ridiculous to talk about morality and care in a civilized society.
The shrill wind, the dull sky, and the eerie and disturbing music like the sound of metal ringing, Chen Ping revealed to his mother the fact that he had killed his father under the tree. Because his father was unwilling to send his mother up the mountain to bring shame to the family, Chen Ping accidentally killed him, for which Chen Ping felt guilty. The good in man's nature struggles with the cruelty his environment teaches him. The hidden death is revealed, and the film soon reaches its final climax, when Chen Ping finally sends his mother up the mountain.
This is the climax of the whole film, and it is also the most vivid embodiment of the theme of death. The film spends nearly a quarter of the length of the film on the part of Chen Ping carrying his mother up the mountain, the mournful music, the cold and sharp mountain scenery like a blade, the fear, ruthlessness, and depression that are approaching death step by step but cannot retreat, eroding everyone. 's heart. However, in this long mountain road, people will temporarily forget the final intention of the trip. When Chen Ping found that his mother had suddenly disappeared, he was relieved and happily released a chick, and the mountain scenery became quiet and peaceful. But when I saw my mother reappearing, the green trees and maple leaves of Narayama suddenly turned a stern gray. The pathetic music plays again, reminding us that this is a rite of passage to death.
When the mountain turns around, and in the wild countryside, he sees a few corpses that are not yet cold. Chen Ping feels more and more guilty, until the valley is full of bones, and the crow flutters from the belly of the person. . Chen Ping put her mother in a place without bones, and Granny A Ling sat like this, her hands clasped together, until the snow was flying and her life was coming to an end.
Death is presented intensively and intensively in the last event, and we are shocked by this ending not only because it presents all death beyond the limitations of time, but also because it presents it with artistic expression In view of the divinity of this death ceremony, we cannot find the object of blame. All the barbaric systems and customs that are unreasonable in our opinion are based on the continuation of human life. There is no way to blame anyone, so I can only feel a deeper sadness and helplessness. The cruel expression of human nature has become a normal state. On the contrary, Chenping's father, who is unwilling to send his mother up the mountain, is the representative of shame.
Through the two themes of "sex" and "death", the whole film depicts to us the life of a natural, primitive, barbaric and cruel village. Because of poverty and hunger, they stipulate that the starting point of all activities is survival, so excessive human desires are useless, and emotions are not needed, and behavior that crosses the border a little is a felony, and even the natural continuation of life itself is not tolerated .
However, are such humans still human? This is the question I ask myself repeatedly while watching the film. Perhaps because a large number of scenes of animal living conditions in the film are inserted in a montage technique, like simulating human sexual intercourse and hunting, Imamura seems to intentionally lead us to think that humans and animals are the same in some ways. Some people regard this kind of animality of man as the inferiority of man, which is despised by man. How can man be like animals? What distinguishes civilized people from them is that we have order, morality, and goodness?
However, my opinion is quite the opposite, and the animality that Imamura intends to express is not something that should be despised in my opinion. In fact, in this film, people have a very close relationship with nature. They are as one with nature as those animals. The worship of the house god "snake" and the belief in the mountain god make them persist in life and believe in life. Motivation to get better. Here, it is precisely the expression of an intimate relationship of co-prosperity and symbiosis between man and nature. What's more, I never think that human beings are inherently noble. Compared with animals, under the influence of the environment, human beings can become both good citizens of moral society and barbarians of primitive society. What makes humans terrifying and different from animals is this kind of sociality, which is a kind and hateful sociality. After a group is established, the rules and the power to bind people's hearts are generated in the group.
Therefore, Imamura uses a natural perspective to record all of this. It is cold, objective, and without any emotional bias, but simply shows us their living picture. It is cruel, primitive, and wild. It has both the mysterious worship of nature and the There is a torture of the cruel side of human nature.
However, if this is just a simple documentary, we will watch their "survival of the fittest" and "the strong eat the weak" just like watching the animal world, and we will feel sympathy and depression because they are human beings like us, but it will never really be true. To experience that long and suffocating atmosphere of tragedy, will never feel so hopeless and sad as we are experiencing at the moment. Imamura is still outstanding in the emotional orientation of the characters, and the character who infinitely magnifies our negative emotions to the deepest despair is A Ling.
3. The existence of A Ling
A Lingpo has a lot of ink in the film, and mainly presents her image through the main plot "Up the Mountain" and the interaction with others. Although it is still only a natural perspective of the statement, we can already piece together a somewhat human A Ling from these displayed fragments. Yes, there's some human touch, warmth, affection, or the elder's concern for the younger generation, that separates her from the others in this cool-toned picture and gives the film its true sense of tragedy. A Ling's death marks the disappearance of the only warm color in the film.
A Ling's body was still tough when she was 79. In order to avoid the ridicule of the villagers, she secretly knocked off two front teeth on the big rock, and her face was bleeding, but she seemed to be happy for her "aging". We can guess that in this closed village, the slightest shame of a person is related to the whole family. For example, Liping was unwilling to carry his mother up the mountain and was beaten to death by his son. Taking her own atonement, and then going to the Yuwu family to be buried alive for stealing food, so, with the emphasis on the family's character depicted in the later chapters, it is very likely that she took the initiative to "age herself" for the sake of the family's reputation. go up the mountain. This spirit of self-sacrifice is still touching even in this primitive state of existence, even if it can be regarded as the result of A Ling's complete assimilation from the heart to the body by the cruel environment.
A Ling's human touch is far more than that. I remember that it was mentioned in the video that Lizhu was a child picked up by A-Ling, and it was normal for a baby boy to be abandoned at that time. A-Ling picked him up and didn't dislike him for his odor and didn't care about his laziness. , is really raising him as a son, can you see the compassion of a civilized person? When Ayu first came to the tree stump's house, she was warmly entertained. Later, Aling taught Ayu her proud fishing skills and location. This practice of hiding little secrets between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to jointly support the family is still very much in modern times. Warm. Or, when Ah Song was sent home by Ah Ling and was buried, Jie Zuoji angrily questioned Ah Ling, "It was grandma who killed her." Ah Ling did not defend herself, but just said "I want to go up the mountain this winter." , "You can see Asong when you go up the mountain." Ah Ling's decision was indeed cruel to Asong. Although it was for the sake of the whole family, she did not take it for granted like other villagers. She felt guilty about it, so she asked to go up the mountain to atone for her sins. We can see that in A Ling's heart, the kindness and compassion of human nature still exist. Even though she lives in a cruel environment, she can only be cruel to herself and still be kind when she treats others. You can forgive the eldest son for killing his father, and you can be gentle when the old man next door is terrified of death.
At the end of the story, A-Ling sat like a Buddha in the white snow, Chen Ping turned back excitedly and shouted, "This is a good omen!" A-Ling remained silent and waved him away.
Xue buried countless jagged corpses, and also buried A Ling who was about to become a corpse. At this moment, I would rather believe that this is really a snow with the will of the god Narayama, to welcome this strong, selfless and warm soul to a less cruel place and live in peace.
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