In 1990, the 62nd Academy Awards were held as scheduled. After a brief introduction by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, a gray-haired Asian slowly got up and walked onto the stage. The thunderous applause failed to subside for a long time.
This old man is the Japanese film master Akira Kurosawa, known as the emperor of the Japanese film industry, and the first Asian to win the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award.
It can be said that Akira Kurosawa is a milestone for Japanese movies to go global. He has created countless classic movies in his life, such as "Rashomon", "Seven Samurai", "Shadow Samurai", "Dream" and so on.
Most of his films start from the perspective of social problems, then analyze the causes of the problems in depth, and integrate rich social culture and national spirit in them, which makes his films not only have magnificent pictures, but also contain rich Cultural heritage.
1
In 1910, Akira Kurosawa was born in a samurai family in Tokyo, Japan, and was raised very strictly from an early age. Such a family environment had a profound impact on Akira Kurosawa's life, which we can also know a little bit from his films.
Whether it is his early film "Seven Samurai" or the later "Shadow Samurai", Akira Kurosawa takes the samurai as the main character and tells the story through the perspective of the samurai. The spirit of the samurai.
The traditional Japanese samurai are professional soldiers. As a professional military group, combat is the first mission of the samurai. In the Japanese book "History of Japan" by Mr. Inoue Kiyoshi, he clearly defined the samurai: murder, robbery, and robbers are samurai, and samurai who are defeated and flee or wander are ronin.
It can be seen that the murderous nature is a major characteristic of Japanese samurai. In addition, Japanese samurai will wear unique armors when fighting, and have their own fighting skills, which are extremely difficult to deal with professional soldiers.
Another characteristic of the samurai is to advocate the spirit of Bushido, which is the moral code of the feudal samurai, emphasizing loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, taking pride in killing, advocating the spirit of self-sacrifice, and willing to work for the monarch. Most of the warriors who were infected with this thought acted extremely and insensitively.
But the samurai we see in Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" is a different picture. The seven warriors all have valuable moral qualities, such as courageous, resourceful, and superb martial arts, such as being positive and optimistic, emphasizing love and righteousness, willing to hoe the strong and helping the weak, and helping the disadvantaged. Similar, and diametrically opposed to the traditional Japanese samurai image.
However, there are also images in "Seven Samurai" that are consistent with the definition of traditional Japanese samurai, but they have another name: bandit.
Akira Kurosawa was born in a samurai family, and I believe that the spirit expressed in "Seven Samurai" is the true samurai spirit in Akira Kurosawa's heart. For traditional warriors, take the essence and discard the dross.
But samurai is also complicated and cannot be generalized. The movie is an artistic treatment. In "Seven Samurai", most samurai are too idealized. Perhaps only the role of Kikuchiyo is the most suitable, because he is both a peasant and a samurai; he hates samurai, but wants to be a samurai.
One of his words impressed me: "The peasants look weak on the surface, but they are also the most cunning and stingy. They are cowardly, selfish, incompetent, murderers, but it is you warriors who make them like this."
2
Like Hayao Miyazaki, an animation master who also won the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, Akira Kurosawa often expresses his concerns about the natural environment through films.
In 1990, "Dream" directed by Akira Kurosawa was released. This film consists of 8 separate dreams, including the fox marriage, the ghost warrior, the ogre, the colorful clouds, the waterwheel village, etc. The story is exquisite and unrestrained.
It is worth mentioning that the film was funded by Kurosawa's admirers Spielberg and Lucas, and American director Martin Scorsese also played a role in the film.
Japan is an island country with a total area of only 378,000 square kilometers, but its total population has reached about 126 million. The population density is more than twice that of China, and the living space is very crowded. With such limited land resources, the natural environment is very precious to Japan.
With the continuous development of modern society, chemical waste and domestic waste are increasing day by day. The improper disposal of these wastes by humans has brought irreversible damage to the environment, and Japan is deeply disturbed. "Dream" directed by Akira Kurosawa deeply reflects and condemns these various folly of human beings.
In the dream of "Colored Clouds", Akira Kurosawa dreamed of the eruption of Mount Fuji, which was accompanied by the explosion of a nuclear power plant. People fled in panic, but unfortunately Japan's land area was limited, and people didn't know where to flee at this time.
Clouds of various colors floated slowly in the sky, colorful, gorgeous and charming, but don't be deceived by their appearance, because they are also deadly poisons. They are all kinds of radioactive particles, brightly colored as if to remind people not to touch them. In the past, people had the opportunity to choose, but unfortunately there is no way to do it now.
In order to avoid being polluted by nuclear radiation, the people in the dream finally chose to jump into the sea.
It is true that the modern technology of human beings has advanced rapidly, but on the other hand, the trauma caused by human beings to the environment can be described as appalling. We should have a reverence for nature and understand that human beings are only a part of nature. For human beings, the most important thing is clean air and water.
When the old man of "Waterwheel Village" asked the reporter, he was actually asking the audience: The night is already dark, why should it be as bright as day?
In addition to the theme to be expressed in the film, the visual effects of "Dream" are also very dreamy. Whether it is wandering in Van Gogh's paintings or walking on the hillside of a giant dandelion, the visual effects are very shocking, and the surreal footage gives people A unique beauty to enjoy. "Dream" is clean and refreshing.
3
"Sun Tzu's Art of War" is the earliest extant military book in China and the earliest military book in the world.
Such a treasure in the ancient Chinese military cultural heritage can be seen in the film of Emperor Kurosawa Akira, which is really unexpected. I have long heard that "Sun Tzu's Art of War" has gone to the world, it seems that what is said is true.
There is a plot in "Seven Samurai": a samurai asks the leader why he didn't make the fortifications perfect, but left an entrance. Isn't this an opportunity for the enemy to take advantage of? The battle-hardened leader samurai replied: "A good city must leave a gap, lure the enemy into it and then annihilate it. It is impossible to hold on to it."
This strategy of defending the city coincides with the principle of "besieged city must be queued" in "Sun Tzu's Art of War: Military Contest", except that the situation in "Seven Samurai" is to defend the city, and "siege city must be queried" refers to siege, But the truth is the same.
There is another plot: In order to protect the village, the warriors need to help the villagers to narrow down their living areas as much as possible, but some people ignore the overall situation and are unwilling to move for their own selfish interests. Those who only care about themselves must die first.” This principle is also similar to Sun Tzu’s Art of War.
However, to say that it has the highest degree of overlap with "Sun Tzu's Art of War", it has to be "Shadow Warrior" directed by Akira Kurosawa. The protagonist of the film, Takeda Shingen, is known as "the number one general in Japan's Warring States period". His principle of using troops is "as fast as the wind, as gentle as a forest, as plundered as fire, and as immobile as a mountain", which can be said to be a complete copy of the original text of "Sun Tzu's Art of War".
He also condensed this sentence into the four characters "Feng Lin Huo", which was embroidered on his military flag as a four-character mantra, and divided into four troops. Each troops fought according to their own characteristics. He has made a lot of military exploits and has a great reputation.
Takeda Shingen just made his own way by reading "Sun Tzu's Art of War", and is regarded as the number one fan of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" in Japan.
It is also worth mentioning that the plot of "Shadow Warrior" is similar to "Shadow" directed by Zhang Yimou in the past two years. "Shadow" idea.
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