"Doctor Sansho" - Kenji Mizoguchi interprets the director's elegance

Eloy 2022-03-15 08:01:01

I really can't put these words until tomorrow. I still know very little about "Doctor Sansho" and director Kenji Mizoguchi, but it's hard to stop my love for him. When I recall the last "Mrs. Musashino", I have been deeply moved. I was impressed, and this time, he once again perfectly explained to me what a director's elegance is.

It may be unimaginable, how can Desica's "The Bicycle Thief" and Jean Renoir's "A Corner of the Countryside" coexist, and how can the rough beauty brought by realism and poetic film overlap? Mizoguchi's works can give a definite answer, and elegance and poetry can become a kind of reality.

"Sanjiao Doctor" can be regarded as a fusion of the two films. If the first half shows the journey of the protagonist, mother and son, and is more poetic and beautiful to Renoir, then the second half of the protagonist is abducted and sold to the slave base of the scholar-officials. The plot of doing coolies and getting paid later can be regarded as an excellent masterpiece with the most realistic narrative features. What I want to say is that not every director can have such profound skills. The continuous application of vertical scene frames, in every scene, from the high-level wormwood grass to the poor slave base, from the monastery to the photographer Kokufu, you can see that the camera moves, elevates, pans, and stretches in the most elegant way, and the important thing is that it is perfectly integrated with the actors in the shots, Mizoguchi Kenji's shots seem to be going on with the actors all the time. Communication, even if we see the protagonist face the camera after becoming the prefect, we can feel the protagonist's deep sadness and anger. You can easily see John Ford, William Wheeler and other American directors who are good at sketching grand scenes from Mizoguchi's lens, but the Japanese director who mainly focuses on women, such mirror language reflects a kind of compassion. And like every actress in Kenji Mizoguchi's films, the shots also maintain their due scale, never transitioning intimacy, this is a kind of elegance, this is a kind of every film director The elegance it should have.

Let's discuss the powerful ending of "Doctor Sanjiao". After a few years, the male protagonist, Artificial, is finally reunited with his mother, who was sold to a brothel. The mother is blind and unable to walk with gray hair. Great women can continue their lives, you can imagine how director Mizoguchi trains his actors, slow down, slow down, you should be more calm, not like this, your steps should be more steady, indeed, you have not In such an ending, there is no hysterical struggle and shouting, and there is no hysterical struggle or cries. The almost stoic and restrained performance of the two actors makes us firmly believe, hope, never disillusioned.

"Doctor Sansho" gave me the most powerful ending. I'm afraid the last shock came from the ending of "Autumn in the Kobayakawa Family" directed by Ozu. If the film director is a lawyer or even a lecturer, then they should be persistent and control the rhythm of their own films with ease, and everything is to give the audience the most favorable ending. If you Failing to understand how powerful your movie has an ending, and starting to cliché your position and attitude in the middle of the movie, then this weak ending will prove your incompetence and hilarity as a director.

This is exactly what Tarkovsky said - carving time.



PS: In my opinion, the director of "Dragon Ball" doesn't seem to have even the most basic drama skills. Really, he doesn't know how to manage his own work. The chaotic rhythm and the completely out of shape narrative make him a great actor. Stupid SB.

However, the investment of this "Dragon Ball" can make 20 "Sanjiao Doctor". It must be said that this is a kind of sadness, the sadness of our times.

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Extended Reading
  • General 2022-03-26 09:01:14

    9. The tragedy of the system. There is a sense of sadness in almost every shot.

  • Winnifred 2022-03-27 09:01:21

    Mizoguchi made the film as originally intended to excavate the dark side of human nature, and how Dr. Sansho went on a sadistic path of no return. Any problem that violates the system, a non-democratic society will always find various reasons to kill it.

Sansho the Bailiff quotes

  • Taro: Even children as young as you are sold and bought, treated like animals, and nobody questions it. What a horrible world.

  • Taro: [to Zushio] I found that humans have little sympathy for things that don't directly concern them. They're ruthless. Unless those hearts can be changed, the world you dream of cannot come true. If you wish to live honestly with your conscience, keep close to the Buddha.