I haven't seen many Japanese movies. As far as a handful of Japanese films are concerned, there is one characteristic of Japanese films that are generalized, that is, the tone is always very slow and slow, the story is not rushed or slow, the picture is quiet, even very slow. There is a few seconds of stillness. "Kijiro's Summer" is like this, "All About Lily Week" is like this, so is "August Rhapsody". It is a test of patience, and it is easy for people to gain peace of mind.
What kind of characteristics did Akira Kurosawa have in the film industry? Not so clear. "August Rhapsody" has a very distinct personality, I think, aside from the natural scenery and slow pace that Japanese movies often feature.
The picture begins with a piano with an inaccurate scale, and the story that the piano has been accompanying is in-depth. The director even used the piano music played by the actors on this old piano, which was increasingly inaccurate in scale, as background music. From the initial simple DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, XI, DO to the full track, the story is also more and more complex. Personally, I feel that everything before is paving the way, waiting for the climax. Just when I thought the climax finally came, the story ended. The inner shaking brought by the abrupt end has reached saturation.
The war seems to have a heavy shadow in Kurosawa Akira's heart. Memories of war give the film a strange atmosphere. That eye, the very thin, grass-colored child, and the dark clouds rolling in the sky before the storm are coming. It is conveying the black director's disgust and fear of war. The four children walked the streets of Nagasaki again and again, wanting to get more information about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945, and went to the school where their grandfather was killed again and again to worship. Many people are forgetting history, which Kurosawa doesn't want to see.
I have always had a heartfelt resistance to Japanese works on the subject of World War II. In such films or texts, the author has been leading the audience to mourn the victims of the atomic bombing. It is undeniable that they are worthy of sympathy, but when they mourned the misfortune of their own people, did they ever think that the suffering of the people of the countries they invaded was no less than the misfortune of the atomic bomb? Of course, this is just some personal sentiment. Nothing to do with fantasies.
There is one thing I don't understand. The ants lined up to climb the bright and dripping roses, trying to explain something. Nature, or youth that will eventually be eroded into aging? Or, death?
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