About black and white: the deepest indictment at the cinematic level

Kamille 2022-04-22 07:01:49

Why is "The Devil Is Coming" filmed as a black and white movie? Regarding this question, the current mainstream answers are mostly based on three levels or three perspectives: from an aesthetic point of view, black and white tones can most strongly accentuate the contrast between highlights and shadows to create a symbolic visual contrast; In terms of subject matter, the black and white tones echo the genre attributes of this film as a historical film, creating an atmosphere of the times; in terms of theme, the black and white tones of the main part of the film and the color tones of the ending part form a self-evident irony relationship, the boundaries between the old world and the new world, the real world and the false world are drawn.

'Here Comes the Devil': Colourful tones at the end of the movie

However, whether it is the aesthetic layer, the theme layer or the theme layer, none of the three seems to have made the question the most complete answer; The reason for the black and white tone is a bit too common, and it is an underestimation of Jiang Wen's unique author's will. Perhaps Jiang Wen also has such an intention to form an intertextual relationship from film-level imitation, and to send out a burst of film-level mockery and irony, which is essentially a dark and profound accusation.

So, what is the mockery of "The Devil Is Coming" at the movie level? The answer to this question is to a large extent also the answer to the question about tones of black and white. The reason why "The Devil Is Coming" is to be filmed as a black and white movie is that it wants to imitate the Japanese movie "Seven Samurai", and under the surface of this imitation, it is an imitation of the so-called ""Seven Samurai". Exposing and Criticizing the Spirit of Bushido.

Seven Samurai (1954)
9.3
1954 / Japan / Action Adventure Drama / Akira Kurosawa / Toshiro Mifune Shimura Joe

In the part near the end of "The Devil Is Coming", there is such a passage depicting that Ma Dasan attacked the Japanese prisoner of war camp in order to avenge the slaughter of the village. This passage is first unfolded in " Heavy Rain" , and its narrative space is in a prisoner of war camp with "Japanese" style architecture . Audiences who have watched "Seven Samurai" may be sensitive to find that several major elements of this paragraph are highly consistent with the paragraph "Seven Samurai" near the end of "The Battle of the Samurai and the Bandit": the same in "Heavy Rain" , the same It is a fight that travels inside and outside the "Japanese" buildings and is also "machines" . In fact, the description of the text is weak here, and the most direct comparison is achieved directly through the visual perception. Scenarios such as:

"The Devil is Coming": Japanese soldiers file out of the room

"Seven Samurai": Japanese samurai file out of the room

"The Devil Has Come": Destruction of Architecture from the Outside to the Inside

The Seven Samurai: Destruction of Architecture from the Inside Out

The details are as described above, and more importantly, the two paragraphs of the two films are highly compatible with the overall atmosphere. However, what the agreement of the two ultimately reveals is the essential difference or even the opposition between the two in terms of their positions. This opposition is most directly reflected in the following two scenarios:

"The Devil is Coming": Japanese officers on the left, Ma Dasan on the right (Jiang Wen)

"Seven Samurai": Japanese samurai on the left, bandits on the right

From the juxtaposition of the above-mentioned group of pictures, the imitation relationship between "The Devil's Coming" and "Seven Samurai" seems to be obvious. But as mentioned at the beginning of this article, the real intention of parody is to mock, expose and criticize, and finally complete the deepest indictment at the film level. In fact, the object of Jiang Wen's accusation was the Japanese invaders. They claimed to be samurai with the spirit of "Bushido", but on the night that Japan had announced its surrender, they massacred all the villagers of Kaojiatai Village (only Ma Dasanhe fish survived). ——Isn't all these actions the embodiment of the so-called "Bushido"?

"Seven Samurai" is a Japanese costume film with the spirit of Bushido as one of the main cores. Its director is the famous "movie emperor" Kurosawa Akira. The film is undoubtedly a masterpiece left in the history of world film: the master-level scene scheduling and group portraits, the movie scenes full of motion, the layers of progressive and incomparably smooth narrative logic... And the so-called "Bushido", in this film, is even more expressed as an unconditional "other-help" humanity - a pure, categorical imperative of self-sacrifice. However, all of the Bushido spirit in "Seven Samurai" was completely anomie and degenerate in the face of historical facts, and even turned into a sublime lie of self-rationalization, as shown by the Japanese soldiers in "The Devil Has Come" like that.

Because of this, the whole "The Devil Comes" is also a process of exposing and criticizing the hypocrisy of the Japanese invaders, and finally Ma Dasan's revenge in the Japanese prisoner of war camp completes the film-level indictment of the crimes of the Japanese invaders. . The entire "Vengeance in the Rain" paragraph is a fundamental subversion of the "Decisive Battle in the Rain" paragraph in "Seven Samurai": the so-called "Japanese Samurai" changed from attacking to fleeing, from attacking to being attacked, and from active to passive. . Especially the scene of the confrontation between the Japanese soldier captain and Ma Dasan, the Japanese character also on the left side of the picture, no longer has any samurai-like might, but was completely slashed by the angry Jiang Wen with an axe. This is the culmination of this subversion.

As for why the film "Seven Samurai" was deliberately chosen as the object of imitation and subversion, in addition to the thematic correspondence of the film itself, there may also be consideration of the director's identity. But from the role of a film director, Jiang Wen probably also has a respect and learning attitude towards Akira Kurosawa. However, Akira Kurosawa himself has a heavier national complex, and the most typical representative is the work "Rashomon". Compared with the original short story "In the Bamboo Forest" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, the biggest adaptation of "Rashomon" is that it adds a completely real objective perspective at the end, and under the revelation of this objective perspective, everyone The subjective statements of the people are glorified, and the truth is so vulgar that it is not good for everyone. Many film scholars have keenly pointed out that "Rashomon" is actually a metaphor for post-war Japan, and the trial process in the film alludes to the "Tokyo Trial". Therefore, Akira Kurosawa probably has the intention of defending or even overturning the case for Japan in this film.

Rashomon
8.7
[Japanese] Akutagawa Ryunosuke / 2010 / Shanghai Translation Publishing House

Rashomon (1950)
8.8
1950 / Japan / Drama Crime Mystery / Akira Kurosawa / Toshiro Mifune Machiko

"Rashomon": The dilapidated "Rashomon" is a metaphor for postwar Japan

All in all, the use of black and white tones in "The Devil is Coming" may be a simple technical or aesthetic issue, but it may not be so simple, especially under the overall planning of Jiang Wen as the director. The above film-based answers, then, may improve the fundamental understanding of this question. Regarding the black and white tone, it is the imitation and subversion of "The Seven Samurai" by "The Devil Has Come", it is the exposure and criticism of the hypocritical spirit of the Japanese invaders, and it is also based on the film level. national complaint.

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