This film review is reproduced with the consent of glasscandy , and the original text is in [translation study] Tatsuya Nakadai 's diary on the golden age of Japanese cinema No. 7 and beyond.
It was called the "Golden Age" of Japanese cinema at that time. Daiei, Shochiku, and Toei have three studios in Kyoto, which are mainly used to shoot costume films.
"Belly Cut"
In 1962, "Cut the Belly" was the first costume film in which Nakadai starred. The film was shot at the Shochiku Kyoto studio, and was partnered with director Masaki Kobayashi, who continuously filmed the six-part series "What is a Human". One is the suspense drama written by Shinobu Hashimoto: with the narration of the past by the ronin samurai Jinyun Hanshiro played by Nakadai, the whole story of the story gradually becomes clear; the other is Shibin Lang, shown in the middle of the story. The heroic scene where Nakadai's son-in-law cuts his abdomen with a bamboo knife. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------ It took me about four years to shoot "Who Is Human", and then I heard that director Kobayashi asked me to shoot the movie "Kyoto" written by Shinobu Hashimoto .
The movie "Severe Belly" is the same as Hashimoto Shinobu's script. I intend to use my role as Jinyun Hanshiro to sit on the tatami on the Shirasha Island in front of the Ii family's courtyard, and tell the old man played by Mikuni Rentaro who is sitting opposite. The form unfolds the plot. It's more like a radio drama than a movie. When we were children, we liked to hold the radio and listen to rakugo, rakugo, and rakugo. The art of language is the foundation of "Cut the Belly".
I was originally a stage performer, and I have these qualities. There were basically no film actors who could act like that at the time. The language skills are used very well by Director Kobayashi. Photography, lighting, and supporting roles are all good. There are all the actors with excellent acting skills in costume films: first, Mr. Mikuni, Mr. Takuro Tanba, and Ms. Shima Iwashita. In addition, the recording is also very good. This film is a language art. If the recording is sloppy, everything will be over.
Although I've been in a lot of great movies, if I was asked to "choose one of all the movies I've been in" when I was dying, I'd still choose "Cut." Everything about this movie is outstanding.
The scene of Shi Binlang's suicide by incision is the most painful to permeate the movie screen, so painful that the women turn their eyes away. The content of this film can be summed up in one sentence: this is a revenge drama, a story of a man who has nothing to take revenge on society. The brutal incisional suicide scene symbolizes this unreasonable society, and the revenge scene in the same place later makes the cruelty even more cruel. This is what Director Kobayashi wants to achieve.
The protagonist of the film is a middle-aged man who has just embraced his grandson. Nakadai was only 29 years old when he played this role. He spoke the dialogue with a heavy bass like from the ground, creating a sense of reality that matched the age of the character.
I was more mature when I was young, but I still worked hard in shaping the characters. "Cut the Belly" is a language art film, so it is necessary to pay attention to the intervals of the lines.
At that time, I kept reading acting books and acting books around the world, learning how to become a world-class actor and how to improve my acting skills. The famous British actor Lawrence Oliver said in his biography: "Depending on the role, for example, when playing Othello and Hamlet, you need to change the pitch." Lawrence Oliver played Othello with a special tone, and at that time he really became black people.
Also in Japan, for example, Mr. Hirosawa Tozo, who performed nagqu, would have a "seven-color tone". The pre-World War II stars Mr. Tsuzaburo Bando and Mr. Ichikawa Utaimon changed the interval and even the cadence of the tune according to the different roles. From the time I entered the film industry as an actor to now, I act with my own voice just like everyone else. Acting with the original voice can express the daily state. If it is "playing", it must distinguish more than ten types of scales such as treble, bass and alto, just like the instrument cello. Because it is "acting", only if the actors act "virtual and real" movies have good box office. There is only "real" and only the daily state, and the audience will not buy it. Only the "virtual (acting)" part will attract the audience. The natural everyday state is the foundation of acting, but professional actors need to create fiction on top of it.
When filming "Cut the Belly", I used my own lowest tone in order to portray the image of a middle-aged man who had experienced war. I also use high pitch and mid pitch in other films, and it is the actor's pleasure to use different intonations.
There are various problems with the singer's own voice, and there are similar problems with the actor's voice. Today's microphones are so good that they can be heard no matter how low they are. In the past, the sound reception effect of microphones was poor, and there were no small microphones, so the sound engineers were very hard. They hid the microphones in many places to keep them from being seen. If a certain sound effect is not recorded, and the sound that conveys a sense of distance is not recorded, it will be considered the fault of the actor.
Later, in the TV era, as long as the atmosphere came out and the lines came out, it didn't matter. "Speaking skills", the basic skill of professional actors, is no longer important. Young TV directors are coming out in large numbers, and they don’t know much about the definition of an actor. Their idea is: “I only need one movie to become popular, and other things are not important and I don’t understand.”
In short, the students of Noming School need to master the scale from top to bottom in the auditory range, just like a musical instrument. Differences in characters require changing the pitch of the voice. Different works will change the way of vocalization. The lowest tone I used was in "Belly Cut", and the light and high tone I used was in Mr. Yamamoto's "Golden Eclipse". How to deal with Mifune's resolute voice in "Red Dead Redemption", and how to speak with a tough voice in a low voice in "Tsubaki Juro", I have considered these issues. Actors and instruments are the same.
Debating acting skills with Rentaro Mikuni ============
Half of the story of "Cut the Belly" is propelled by Nakadai's dialogue, and the actor who plays the role of the audience, the villainous clan elder who stands on the opposite side of Nakadai, is Rentaro Mikuni. -------------------------------------- Mr. Sanguo is ten years older than me and is my elder . I also entered the industry earlier than me as an actor. We had a little bit of an argument when we were filming Cut the Belly.
At the beginning, Mr. Sanguo said, "I imagined that Mr. Zhongdai would act like this, and accordingly I should act like this. But Mr. Zhongdai didn't act like I thought." I replied, "No, I also thought Mr. Sanguo knew that I would do it. Acting like this, filming like this." Hey, I'm too arrogant.
I come from a stage show, and the way I speak to someone standing a meter away, two meters away, or ten meters away is not the same. In that group of shots, Mr. Sanguo was ten meters away from me, and I needed to take a ten-meter distance to read my lines. So Mr. Sanguo said: "There is a difference between acting in a movie and acting in a stage play. In a movie, you have a microphone by your side, so you don't need to use such a loud voice." I argued: "But the sense of distance between the two of them when drawing the panorama is expressed in In one picture, so we have to speak in a way that expresses a sense of distance.” And then our debate began.
Then Director Kobayashi said: "Okay, let's fight, whether it's for two days or three days. Hey, everyone, call it a day." Director Kobayashi left with the crew, leaving only me and Mr. Mikuni. Argue until both parties reach a complete consensus. The director came back at the right time: "It's almost stopped, right?"
There was a lot of respect for actors at that time. Today, is there such a wealth of time to make movies, arrange dramas, and make TV series? There is no idea of spending "excess", "wasted" time shooting good stuff.
Now let's look at the "audience" played by Mr. Sanguo at that time, and he played very well. Hey, now think about how I would argue with such a tough guy.
Kinosuke's suggestion ---------------------- "Cut of the Belly" ends with an intense fight scene. At that time, Zhongdai did not have the basic skills of costume films, which caused him a lot of pressure. It was Manya Kinosuke (then called Nakamura Kinosuke) who helped Nakadai, the top star of Toei's costume films. ---------------------- "Belly Cut" was filmed in Shochiku's Kyoto studio. Costume movie star Kinosuke lives in Kyoto. His then-wife Arima Daozi and I acted in "Heihe" and "How to Be a Man" together, so Kinosuke treats me well. Before filming, I asked him to go to Gion for a drink, and I asked him, "How do you play the action scenes?" He said a simple truth: "Well, ah, come over and cut one by one." , the actors who were cut were cut 'beautifully', and with their breathing, the action scenes were OK." After listening to this, I felt much more relaxed.
The basis for the action of "cutting" is "writing the Chinese character 'mi'". First, after taking the preparatory posture, he slashed from the bottom up, and the second slashed diagonally. Next, a knife in the middle, and finally slash from top to bottom. Fight with the feeling of writing the word "mi" like this, the action will be very beautiful.
At that time, I set up a dojo in my own yard, and now it is the rehearsal field of the nameless school. It used to be a rehearsal field that I only used to practice fighting scenes. I found the movies of former costume movie stars such as Mr. Bando Tsumaburo and Mr. Kataoka Chiezo, and watched them at the dojo while studying how they walked, how they acted, and how they fought. And he practiced swinging the wooden knife in the air, and practiced fighting scenes. After listening to Mr. Kinosuke's words, I have been practicing in order to master the swinging motion of the word "rice".
However, I had a big fight with Kinosuke. In my spare time for the filming of "Cut the Belly", I went to visit Kinosuke's house in Kyoto. I, Kinosuke, and Arima were chatting and laughing. At this time, Kinosuke and I had a conflict over performance theories. He said something like, "The new play feels ridiculous", and I also said, "Kabuki is just a sham." The words gradually became more intense, and Kinosuke threw me with whiskey, and the two were about to fight. Arima cried to persuade us. Finally reconciled, said, "Go to Gion" and went to Gion. But after drinking there, they started arguing again, and this time it was a fight. I'm going to film "Cut the Belly". Jin Zhisuke is a big star in Toei Kyoto. Although the two of them have scenes to be filmed, they are still bruised.
The next morning when I went to Songzhu's studio, the staff asked worriedly, "Why is your face swollen?" I explained, "It's actually like this." "I replied: "No, both sides' faces were swollen, so they were half a catty." The other party asked: "That can't be, it's you who won the victory?" question. As a result, the staff of the two studios also competed against each other. ------------------------ Generally, imitation knives made of bamboo or duralumin are used for action scenes in consideration of safety and speed. However, Masaki Kobayashi was obsessed with the style of realism, and ignored this established habit when he was filming "Cut the Belly". --------------------------- All the action scenes of "Cut the Belly" use real swords (real swords) without edges. This is director Kobayashi's intention to show the horror of the knife. In the play, the son-in-law of "Jinyun Banshiro" is played by Shi Binlang. The family elder, played by Rentaro Mikuni, absurdly ordered my "son-in-law" to cut my belly. Hanshiro, who expressed his anger at this, was finally arranged for a martial arts scene. Director Kobayashi said that he must shoot a scene as cruel as "cutting his abdomen with a bamboo knife". I think the director, in order to express Hanshiro's anger, bet on the use of real swords in the final fight scene to make a thrilling scene.
Of course, real swords were also used in the duel with Takuro Tanba. Danbo said, "You are very calm, you won't let the knife close to my head." But I was still scared. It was barely able to rub the sword across the body, but if the target was the head, it couldn't be done even with a bamboo sword. And this time with a sharpened knife. Because the bamboo sword is light in weight, the body can hold back the action when it is cut to the head. Because the real knife is heavy, once it is cut, it will not be able to stop the movement. Therefore, when cutting to the head, the action must be done quickly and far away from the head. It's actually quite a life-threatening situation, and this extreme sense of urgency is shown through the movie screen. I think this is also the intention of Director Kobayashi, but it is really scary.
The photographer of "Cut the Belly" is the same as the "Emperor" Yoshio Miyajima as the six-part series of "What Is Human". Bringing silent urgency to this brutal story with still poised photography.
Director Akira Kurosawa is a person who doesn't want to convey the gist of the movie to the actors, so he won't tell the actors. However, an actor cannot be called an actor if he does not know the message of the film, the intention of the director, or the way and lighting of the camera.
The filming location for Cut the Belly was a delightful location for photography and lighting. Except for the final martial arts scene and the reminiscence part, I almost always sat on my knees. I was sitting in front of the courtyard of Ii's house, and the time in the movie was ten o'clock in the morning. It was a story that happened in one day, so I sat on my knees and the time passed through noon and evening from then on. Photography and lighting worked hard on the performance time. Mr. Miyajima said, "You've been filming "What is a Human" for almost four years, and you're tired of filming, and you can't do it well enough." This is absolutely nothing.
Between ten and eleven o'clock in the morning, the light gradually increases in the camera's angle, and the light decreases in the evening, which requires careful adjustment. At first glance it seems to be the same angle, but each shot requires adjusting the position of the camera and the position of the lighting, as well as subtly adjusting the length and angle of my shadow, the intensity of the light and the length of the light. This is done to show the passage of time, so the image becomes interesting, and we have to spend some time for this purpose.
"Cut the Belly" was sent to the Cannes Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize-------------------------- There was a commotion in the screening room, especially The scene of the bamboo knife cutting the abdomen made five or six ladies faint. Some audience members said "cruel", while others said "be quiet" or "this movie is amazing." The debate started when the film was shown, which made me think Cannes is really special.
After the screening, the first-line newspapers and media in France said: "This year's award must be "Cut the Belly". The director and I were interviewed with the attitude that we must win. There was even an acceptance speech on TV, but the Palme d'Or was awarded to the Italian film "Leopard" directed by Lucino Visconti.
Our people complained arrogantly: "The Cannes Film Festival is an award given to (them) to help the soon-to-be-defunct Cinéma de Rome." Our people believed it so much that they had already reserved a table in the restaurant for the celebration party. Coincidentally, the seat next to the "Leopard" crew, director Visconti, Alain Delon and the others gathered together to celebrate happily. And here we are all of a sudden... At this time, a senior Shochiku who was the head of the regiment was very angry and nitpicky: "Why is it Italy (winning the award)? Italy, as a member of the three Axis powers, was the first to raise an army against the Allied powers. White flag." Everyone was so dissatisfied. In short, "The Leopard" is also a very good movie, but before the announcement of the award results, "Cut the Belly" also tied with the praise the film received.
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