For the true purpose of the film, many people tend to see the film as an analysis of the dark side of human nature. It is similar to the theme of the impact of desire on human nature expressed in Nagisa Oshima's "Sensual World" in his early years. It is true that Oshima's works are always full of reflections on the overflowing selfish desires in human nature, but the meaning and value of "Godfather" is far beyond this.
To truly understand the Imperial Law, one must have an understanding of Nagisa Oshima. Imamura Shohei once called him a "true Japanese samurai", because Oshima is not the kind of intellectual who is limited to thinking at the rational level, and his eyes are always closely connected with Japanese society. He always tries to explore the cultural mass psychology deep in Japanese society in his films, thinking about the reasons why Japanese culture is declining and how to turn it around.
Therefore, the film "Godfado" actually shows the director's reflection and regret for the decline of traditional Japanese Bushido culture.
The film tells the story of the Shinsengumi during the Meiji Restoration. Interestingly, there are almost zero female roles throughout the film. The absence of a female perspective fits the general cultural structure of Japan's traditional male-dominated society.
In this samurai group composed of pure male power, a stunningly beautiful young Ghana was recruited. His face is like a crown of jade, and he has bangs that represent same-sex love, which constitutes a fatal attraction to all the players. Tashiro, Yuzawa, Takeda and others have chased after him, and even the captain Kondo and Hijikata are very tolerant of him. The image of Garner can actually be seen as the embodiment of the desires in the hearts of these warriors. Tashiro's inner desire is a longing for love, so he always entangles Ghana without going overboard; Yuzawa's inner desire is possession of beautiful things and greed, so he plays with Ghana. However, they forget that the samurai has extremely strict disciplines, such as the prohibition of private wealth. For the samurai were organized on principles of obedience and mutual sacrifice. Once a samurai has selfish desires, whether it is about money or love, it is a great departure from the spirit of Bushido. The spirit of Bushido gradually began to decline.
Likewise, Garner has his own desires, and his desires are more immediate—the desire to kill and the twisted control of those around him. But these desires are contrary to the spirit of the samurai. As Hijikata said, "To judge whether he is a real samurai, we must see if he has compassion." Garner's behavior and its cruel selfishness naturally deviate from the spirit of Bushido.
Absolute obedience and self-sacrifice, this is the Japanese value system. Therefore, in World War II, there will be Japanese soldiers regardless of life and death to hit the enemy's aircraft. However, because everyone has selfish desires, the Bushido spirit will decline, and the traditional Japanese cultural values will lose their foundation of existence. At this time, the Japanese will have a sense of loss that is at a loss and at a loss.
Unlike Yuzawa Tashiro and other samurai driven by desire, Hijikata plays more of a role of reflection and rebuilder in this film. He was sensitive to the fluctuations in the hearts of the team, and also felt the great threat that Garner, the source of desire, posed to the samurai organization. He tried to find a way out of the Bushido spirit. But he is also inevitably bewitched by desire, so he is often contradictory. Not only asking Yamazaki to take Ghana to a brothel, but also thinking about the relationship between Kondo and Ghana with a little jealousy. At this time, he and Kondo developed a rift, and the kind of samurai friendship established by bloody battles was also stained with haze. So, despite many attempts to find a way out, Tufang found that there was no way out. Because human desires cannot be suppressed. The power of this kind of selfish desire is too powerful, and even he himself is inevitably affected by it. The old Japanese culture of shame, represented by the spirit of Bushido, is too oppressive to human nature, and has its inherent deep ills, which will inevitably decline. .
In contrast to the embodiment of absolute desire in Ghana, Okita is an absolute embodiment of goodness in the film. All the scenes in which Okita appeared were those of Yang Yan, who was cheerful and smiling. In order to show the kindness of Okita, the director deliberately chose a scene of fishing with children. It is not difficult to see that Okita is the good side that the director tried to put in the film, which is in stark opposition to Ghana. . Hijikata said, "It's not that you fell in love with Ghana, but Ghana fell in love with you." The metaphor of this sentence is actually the temptation of desire to entangle hope and light. What Okita represents is not only the positive aspects of the Japanese Bushido spirit, such as positiveness, kindness, and responsibility, but also the sunny and vigorous side that is different from Bushido's dehumanizing nature. It can be regarded as a new type of Japanese spirit. Okita kills Garner at the end of the film, which is different from the desperation that the earthwork cut down the cherry tree. Hijikata's behavior is filled with a sense of despair and irreparable helplessness, which is undoubtedly a farewell to the old Japanese culture represented by Bushido culture, and Okita's killing of Garner represents the director's concern for this kind of work. The hope of a new national spirit. The simultaneous appearance of the old and the new represents the director’s two completely different emotions—the coexistence of reminiscence and rebirth.
It is always so sad and helpless to miss something that has passed away. Nagisa Oshima stands on the periphery of Japan's gradually declining Bushido culture, and has placed deep feelings on the gradually declining Bushido culture that once ruled Japan for a hundred years. Regret and mourning. On the one hand, he thought hard about the reasons for the decline of Bushido culture, and on the other hand, he was thinking about what to do with Japanese society after the decline of this culture. Fortunately, as sad and depressing as the film is, Nagisa Oshima is not an outright pessimist. In the film, he constructed another brand-new Yamato national spirit, which originated from the old culture and is different from the old culture. The director still has unlimited confidence in this spirit.
In this way, it is not difficult to understand when we look at the subject again. The law in "Yufudu" naturally refers to the military regulations that represent the traditional Japanese Bushido culture, and the word "Yu" has the meaning of cessation and prohibition. The law in the army has ceased to be abolished, which means that the Japanese Bushido culture has gradually declined and declined, and the traditional samurai spirit has begun to move towards its own twilight.
Therefore, many Japanese felt a chill from the bone marrow after watching this film. That was their bewilderment in the face of the decline of their old value system. No wonder Ryuichi Sakamoto once said, "This story scares me." Yes, perhaps only the Japanese can truly feel the pain and helplessness of the cultural disintegration that the director conveys in the film. In contrast, in China, few directors can do this. This is what Oshima Nagisa is so precious about. It is unreasonable that the Chinese film industry does not rate this film very high.
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