Among them, the TV series "Fireworks" won the Japan Film Directors Association Newcomer Award, which is also the first time that the award has been won by a non-professional. In 1998, Iwai Shunji directed "April Story" starring Song Takako. He spent 8 months editing and finishing alone. He is a director who strives for perfection.
So, what this article is going to comment on is Iwai's "April Story". In my opinion, although the film is only 59 minutes long, it faithfully reflects the consistent style of Yanshi's films. In short, it focuses on the use of music in the film and the feeling of freehand cinematography.
1 Pure Music
It is said that in the second half of 1998, when "April Story" was released in Japan, many people were watching director Iwai Shunji's jokes. The plot of the film is so simple that it can be summed up in one sentence. But what the schadenfreude didn't expect was the unexpected success despite not being very business-friendly. Here we can see Shunji Iwai's consistent style: that he can make a delicious meal with ingredients we can find everywhere.
Shunji Iwai majored in oil painting at Kobe University, and after graduating he became famous for his films "Love Letter" and "Swallowtail Butterfly". And in the film music of "April Story", he also went into battle and served as the producer himself. Although the 13 songs in the original soundtrack were composed by Tsuboi Shinhachi and Kishiuchi Moe respectively, he was responsible for coordinating, supervising and producing, and the CLASSIC played in the opening subtitles was actually their trio 's name. The most surprising thing is that the film and television singer Ryuko Matsuko, who plays the heroine completely free of charge in the film, even arranged the piano solo in the record. Although we can vaguely recognize the wrong tone of the playing, perhaps it is a limited level, but this simplicity and childish feeling is exactly what Iwai wants.
As can be seen from "April Story", music is an important factor in Iwai's film. The music in "All About Lily Zhou" and "Swallowtail Butterfly" participates in the narrative, the melody is pure and touching. There are also some music with simple melody, often using pure female vocals or solo piano and violin solos, which makes people not feel the existence of the soundtrack of the film, or rather makes people accustomed to Iwai's film music from the beginning. In addition to "April Story," prominent examples include "Love Letter" and "Flower and Alice." In "Everything About Lily Zhou", which is called "Youth Electric Fantasy Story", he mentioned "Sky Music", or "Ether Music". When we watch the film, we can realize that it is a pure emptiness, ethereal, pure and tactful melody. In "All About Lily Zhou", Iwai created a pop singer Lily Zhou, and used her pure and sad music to carry it. the minds of adolescents.
Going back to "April Story", the first piece of music in the film started when Yuzuki Uzuki, played by Takashi Matsuko, put his hand on the window of the tram that was gradually moving away from home. It was just a few simple and , The notes played by the piano naturally bring the soft and beautiful tone of the film to the audience. It is worth mentioning here that Iwai's previous experience in shooting the MV made him deal with the relationship between characters, pictures and music: it was just right, and the aftertaste was permeating.
When Yuye rides a bicycle through the streets in the April sunshine, the smooth guitar hits your heart like the gentlest fist, and when you practice fishing leisurely in the grass, it is another The melodious strings and Yuno's flowing hair are washed by the breeze. The most powerful thing is actually the seven-minute magic stroke at the end, or the finishing touch. The heroine finally met her sweetheart in Musashino's bookstore. In the pouring rain, Musashi-san supported her one after another. Umbrella, accompanied by the short and sudden pause of the piano, it seems that the director wants to bring the heart of every audience to the throat, and the melody of the flute accompanied by the piano echoes the persistent greeting of the heroine from the beginning. ; Against the background of the guitar and the fine drum beats, Yu Ye ran happily in the rain. What we see at the end, the raindrops falling from the umbrella suddenly slow down into a clear one, and the heroine's smile becomes the last scene of the film in the beautiful melody of the flute.
Shunji Iwai's use of film music and his unique taste are unmatched among world-class film directors, and the soundtrack of "April Story" is the most pure, romantic and relaxed and natural in all of Shunji Iwai's films. .
I think it's time for the next spring to come, on a certain evening, with the music of "April Story". Maybe there is still a spring rain in April, then listen to the song "Rain Miracle". Go to the lake, go to the hillside, go to the grass, go to the roof, look at the April around you from various angles, you will feel the same happiness as the protagonist in the film, and it can also dissolve the sorrow and pain of the whole winter.
2. The freehand lens language
"Love Letter" is pure white, "Dream Traveler" is sky blue, "Swallowtail Butterfly" is purple, "All About Lily Zhou" is dark green, "Flower and Alice" is pale yellow, while "April Story" is transparent of.
From Shunji Iwai's original "Bound of Love", to "Love Letter" and "Swallowtail Butterfly", and then to this prose and poetic "April Story", another feature we can see is the blandness of Iwai's film. Sense, trivial fragments of daily life constitute the whole film to produce a peculiar prose effect. Coming back to photography, its main feature is the combination of long takes and fast editing.
The steady lyrical long shot renders the mood of the film, coupled with the slow panning shot often used by the director, it brings people into the deep emotional thoughts and aftertastes of memory, presenting the film viewers with The simple life-like features of the whole film, the fresh and ethereal indifferently release a meaningful connotation and a typical oriental (or Japanese) charm.
The deeper fast editing brings a post-modern feel to the film, and the smooth lyrical shots mentioned above show the randomness that Iwai pursued when he finished filming and editing, that is, the pursuit of the film. Different from what we usually see in genre films, Iwai Films pursues this requirement by diluting and even dissolving the text of the film, "casually" collaging the picture into a mass of image fragments. Even so, "April Story", we can't simply think that its storyline is simple and therefore judge its meaninglessness, find an uncertain meaning in the meaninglessness, and express a specific emotional effect. The success of Moon Story" is also a common feature of the success of Iwai's films.
"April Story" does not win with plot, but pursues the unique emotions and artistic conception of life, and combines the real and the unreal, the past and the present, etc. It is worth noting that in "April Story", like all his films, Iwai rarely uses blurred images when expressing hallucinatory dreams and memories. He did not use ordinary light, but boldly used a special bright transparent light to make the lens look like the paradise we imagined. Yes, this is the feeling that the Iwai lens wants. However, after watching it for a long time, people will feel that it is too idealistic and hopeful, and the artificial axe feeling is inevitably regrettable, but this does not hinder the aesthetics, art and ideological performance of the film.
Finally, I will transcribe a text that will be mentioned in all "April Story" movie introductions as the end of this article.
"The plot of "April Story" is almost impossible to put into words, because it is so simple - a clumsy and lovely high school girl expects to meet her former crush on a college campus unexpectedly. But when you see the sky The fluttering pink cherry blossom petals, the bicycle passing lightly on a warm street in the afternoon, and the figure of a girl standing alone on the grass in the sunset, you will immediately realize that Shunji Iwai wants to talk about more than these. "
Yunye is such a girl, as Nalan said, "There was Yingying who rode on a horse, with thin makeup and light daisies. She was shy but turned around."
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