From "The Story of the Broken Chrysanthemum" to "The Story of Ugetsu": the light of the West, the shadow of the East, the loneliness of art

Mizoguchi Kenji, one of the most famous Japanese directors of the last century, his works often focus on women in trouble, and the audience can easily be attracted by the intense emotions in them.

In many of Mizoguchi Kenji's works, weak women devote everything to men, but men do not value women's dedication and often abandon them in loneliness and poverty.

Among them is Mizoguchi Kenji's unique expression of Japanese literature and traditional drama.

Actually, there is an interesting story about Kenji Mizoguchi, that is, this famous Japanese director is very superstitious.

When his work "Ugetsu Monogatari" was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival, he was so eager to win this award that he even hung a portrait of the Nichiren sect in his hotel room, which was created during the Kamakura period in Japan. of eminent monks.

After hanging the statue of the eminent monk, Mizoguchi Kenji prayed in his room every day. Perhaps because of his sincerity, he finally won a Silver Lion Award at the film festival.

This greatly increased Mizoguchi Kenji’s interest. After that, when he went abroad to participate in various film festivals, he would hang portraits of Nichiren Buddhism in the rooms he stayed in. The Venice Film Festival’s three consecutive awards seemed to confirm this. With all this.

Of course, Mizoguchi Kenji has won many honors in the European film industry, which is also an affirmation of himself.

Mizoguchi Kenji only lived to be 58 years old, which was far from a long life, but he was very productive and made more than 60 movies in his life.

Especially in the last four years of his life, he successively filmed such popular films as "Ugetsu Monogatari", "Gion Sisters", "Sansho Doctor", "Chikamatsu Monogatari" and "Red Line Zone" A masterpiece recognized by the world film industry.

It can be seen that the movie "Ugetsu Monogatari" had a great impact on Mizoguchi Kenji. Perhaps in Mizoguchi Kenji's heart, he knows the importance of this movie better than anyone else. This is his creation A watershed moment in career.

Later, Mizoguchi Kenji no longer stuck to the technical point of view when creating films, but reached a state of doing whatever he wanted. It was this kind of him that finally made the Western world accept this Eastern actor. Giant.

Although Mizoguchi Kenji has been dead for more than 60 years, the discussion about him has never stopped in European society. When his name and his movies are mentioned, people always associate them with the mysterious Eastern occult aesthetics. Connected.

This requires understanding how Mizoguchi Kenji created the mysterious "Oriental World" in his movies?

It is necessary to mention another film by Kenji Mizoguchi, "The Story of the Lost Chrysanthemum". This film was completed during World War II, when Japan's domestic controls were very strict.

In desperation, Mizoguchi Kenji could only choose to film the daily life of kabuki. It seems relaxed and comfortable, but behind it is the ambition of a film artist.

The maid Ade in "The Story of the Broken Chrysanthemum" spent half her life wandering around with the troupe young master Kikunosuke. She just devoted her youth silently and watched the young master Kikunosuke reach the pinnacle of art step by step.

In the end, in order to allow Kikunosuke to achieve higher achievements, Ade chose to quietly leave Kikunosuke's life.

The plot between Adei and Kikunosuke described in this movie is actually a story widely circulated in Japan, but Japanese film critic Tadao Sato believes that Kenji Mizoguchi’s adaptation made this story The story rises to a new level.

Tadao Sato believes that Kenji Mizoguchi’s adaptation no longer sticks to the realm of small love, but embodies the brilliance of a will, which is a kind of loneliness towards art.

For Ade, it is not only a selfless dedication of a woman to a man, but more importantly, Ade indirectly dedicated himself to the art that Kikunosuke loved.

At the end of the film, Kikunosuke became a world-famous artist. It happened that he met Ade, who was seriously ill. Did he have any regrets and self-blame?

There must be some.

However, after this trace of regret and self-blame, he will continue to pursue his art, which means that he has to accept the lifelong loneliness that art has brought to him.

Mizoguchi Kenji seemed like a different person on the set. He had an extremely bad temper, which even frightened the actress Tanaka Kinuyo, who worked with him most.

But when he visited the Louvre Museum in France and looked at the portrait of "Mona Lisa", he cried to Tanaka again, saying that there was still a long way to go between words. Walk.

It seems now that Mizoguchi Kenji has extreme requirements for film skills, just like Kikunosuke in "The Story of the Lost Chrysanthemum", his heart is filled with panic, full of pain and suffering.

After carefully appreciating "The Story of the Lost Chrysanthemum", you will find that Kenji Mizoguchi used melodramatic techniques that were popular in Hollywood at the time when expressing passages related to the plot.

In fact, this is not a strange thing. In the early Japanese movies, there were many places where Hollywood techniques were borrowed, and it can even be said that they were completely shaped by Hollywood techniques.

However, when expressing theater passages, Mizoguchi Kenji abandoned Hollywood expression techniques because he believed that this Western technique was not enough to express the charm of traditional Japanese drama.

For Japanese kabuki, it is a system of its own, which means that it is exclusive, and movies are also a domineering existence. It was born in the West, and early Hollywood dramas were The fact that it is blooming all over the world is a reflection of its strength.

Mizoguchi Kenji has been making an attempt where 1+1 is greater than 2, or it can be said to be a kind of "exploration" of national images. Although the ideal is full, it is very difficult to realize.

If you look at "Ugetsu Monogatari" from the perspective of "The Story of Canju", you will find some interesting phenomena.

Whether you look at the movie "Ugetsu Monogatari" from the perspective of narrative, photography or editing, you will find that its expression is textbook-like, clean and neat, and not sloppy at all.

Although the works of this Indian director and the works of Mizoguchi Kenji are two completely different styles, they have one thing in common, which is that they have mastered the craft of film from a Western perspective.

The look and feel of the movie "Ugetsu Monogatari" is still very good. It has never involved the expression of "Noh drama" in terms of content, but the technique and soul of "Noh drama" have gradually penetrated into it.

In the beginning of the movie, the male protagonist Genjuro and his family took a boat to escape from their war-torn hometown. At this time, there was a heavy fog on the lake, and the boat passed through the thick fog calmly.

This scene is a beautiful expression in this movie, but it is by no means meant to highlight the beauty. As the fog lifts and the fog lifts, the protagonist seems to have traveled from the human world to a fantasy world, and will begin a new journey. journey.

Mizoguchi Kenji took advantage of this short transition scene to create a sense of time and space changes, which had never appeared in Western movies at the time.

From this perspective, "Ugetsu Monogatari" can cause huge repercussions in Western society, and even confirm Mizoguchi Kenji's status in the European film industry. There is nothing mysterious about it.

It is just an Eastern shadow cast under the Western light. As for the language of the film, Mizoguchi Kenji did not make much subversion.

From the perspective of a latecomer, Mizoguchi Kenji is indeed a great director. He has an almost fanatical respect for the nature and craftsmanship of movies. On this basis, he combines the unique culture of Japan Added to the broader cultural system, this is the most precious wealth he left behind.

Author: Linhai Tingyin