"From Miyamoto to You": Summoning a New Japanese Movie

ashley

Member
Fresh, fierce, and powerful, full of a kind of vitality that is almost to be thinned out, it seems that it is not enough to describe the movie "From Miyamoto to You" that Zhen Li Zhe also adapted from the comic of the same name. The shock and shocking emotional impact of this movie in the process of watching movies makes it almost the best movie of 2019.


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Summon a new Japanese movie

Looking back at the experience of watching movies in the past two years, I was most surprised. Most of them are the works of Japanese young directors-"Ice Cream and Rain", "Night and Day", "Your Bird Can Sing", and "Enthusiastic Tricks". This freshness in aesthetic experience is refreshing. These new generation directors have brought an unprecedented vigor and vitality to Japanese movies, secretly gestating a possibility of a brand-new movie aesthetics.

Regrettably, these movies have always been out of sight of Western film festivals. Except for Cannes' "Night and Day", several other works have not been shortlisted in any of the three major film festivals. Hamaguchi Ryusuke, Zhen Lizizhe and Miyake Sang have also been shortlisted in the Logano Film Festival, but that's all. To a certain extent, this Western Film Festival's neglect of Japanese young directors is a deep-rooted aesthetic prejudice brought by the Western-centric aesthetic experience of artistic films.

The three major film festivals have shaped the whole set of internal rules and aesthetic logic of artistic films in the West, from theme selection to aesthetic style. In this tradition, art films are becoming exhausted, overworked and even stale. The aesthetic innovation of most of the shortlisted works at the festival seems to be in anticipation. Few works exceed our inherent experience.


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The works of these young Japanese directors may indeed be out of place under the aesthetic standards of the Western Film Festival. They seem to be too light. Regardless of social criticism, human exploration, and artistic techniques, they are not deep and eye-catching. And the contemporary Japanese life they present, it seems that it is not enough Japan-the kind is the Japanese in the movies of Zhi Yuhe or Naomi Kaze.

In my opinion, these young Japanese directors have spared no effort to practice a set of film expressions derived from their own life experience, go to grand narrative, go to social criticism, go to the depth of humanity, and run counter to all the standards of the Western Art Film Festival.

They have no baggage in aesthetic expression: a mirror in "Ice Cream and Rain" reconstructs the boundaries between time and space, reality and fiction; the almost experimental empty shots and still photos in "Passion" . There is no hint of utilitarian in the choice of theme, such as the entangled love triangle in "Night and Day" and "Your Bird", the dog blood Mary Su in "Enthusiasm", and the violent revenge of "From Miyamoto to You". The intention is to cater to the tastes of Western film festivals, and therefore to be more free and unfettered. Even though some works may not be exquisite, complex, or deep enough, or even have rough rough edges, they still shine. And those artistic films that are close to routines have gradually lost their aesthetic vitality in a delicate, complex and profound trend.

Although the expression of each author is different, these Japanese youth films still have some similarities, such as the precise grasp of the character's life state, the sharp capture of the character's feelings, and the presentation of physicality. "From Miyamoto to You" is even more powerful and trembling.

Animal

Zhen Lizi Zhe has always had a certain great interest in human "animal" and "body", which is an anti-rationalist position. In the tradition of Western subject philosophy, people have been defined as the existence of wisdom, belief, and reason. In contrast, Nietzsche's anti-enlightenment included animalism in the planning of human beings, and thus regarded human beings as physical beings.

Animal nature and body are the two keys to understanding "From Miyamoto to You".

In the famous work "The Disordered Generation", the wandering male protagonist always stirs up fights indiscriminately and without motivation. This animal physical behavior is a causeless violence. The creator did not explore the psychological and social causes of the protagonist's violent behavior, and refused to give a "clear answer or guiding explanation" (director interview), but focused on presenting the state of the character's beast-like existence. For mainstream audiences, finding a traumatic history for the violence in the movie as an explanation can dispel the fear of violence. And, like Zhen Lizi Zhe, it is undoubtedly an offense to the audience to continue to deepen the character and existence of the perpetrator.

The original comic of "From Miyamoto to You" was created in the atmosphere of the depression in the early 1990s. Under the social environment full of highly regulated social rules and suffocating and suppressed hierarchical concepts, Miyamoto was born. Society, want to be enemies of the world, and the blood is still daring forward.

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In the episode "From Miyamoto to You", animalism becomes a life instinct that Miyamoto is inspired to refuse to be disciplined in the socialization dilemma. The series shows how Miyamoto, who first entered the society and was tortured by social rules, how to complete the transformation of socialization. But in the process of establishing his social identity, he still did not accept social rules (denying unspoken rules such as bribery), but relied on some animal instinct (kickheads like physical assaults).

The movie version "From Miyamoto to You" presents a more complex animal nature of Miyamoto's character, a kind of animal nature with a transcendental nature that belongs to life instinct.

Social people exist between transcendental gods and secular animals. The human body is engraved with both transcendental potential and animal immersion.

In the movie, Miyamoto and his enemy Tama have a certain animal nature on them.

However, Tama's animal nature can not surpass the animal's inferiority and limitations. It is because he dives from the human nature to the animal instinct, cannot control himself, and releases the brutal rape of Jingzi. Toma is a non-human humanoid animal to some extent.

But the animal nature of the palace itself is the physical instinct and life instinct inspired in the dilemma, in order to fight the almost invincible powerful enemy (Toma) and the hypocritical social relationship (Tama's father).

This animal nature includes a transcendence, which transcends both the human nature bound by society and the inferiority of animal nature. Miyamoto's motto is "enemy to the whole world", so that the potential of the body becomes an antagonistic force, in order to get rid of the disciplined constraints from society.

The reason why Miyamoto ’s animalism is transcendent is that he used this revenge to know himself—to recognize his feelings for Jingzi, realize that he wants to marry and have children, and does not even care whether this child is Not his, this is completely beyond the inferiority of animals. In subjective philosophy, only through the "knowledge" human mechanism can one surpass the inherent animal nature.

The reason why we have always used animalism to talk about Miyamoto rather than the concept of masculinity mentioned in some comments is because masculinity is still a socially disciplined and socialized gender construction. On the contrary, in this revenge journey, Miyamoto completely transcended the social nature. He was beaten and humiliated again and again, losing his dignity. Even in the final battle, Miyamoto did not rely on the so-called male power Including physical strength and skill) to win, but rely on an animal life instinct (a strong will to survive and non-regular tricks).

In the scene of confession after revenge, Jingzi chose to accept Miyamoto, not because Miyamoto had avenged her. At the beginning, Miyamoto came to see Jingzi with Tama, who was covered in blood. Jingzi was unmoved, but instead questioned, I didn't let you fight, and it caused me trouble. Miyamoto replied, I am for myself, and I want to be the enemy of the whole world.

Therefore, when Miyamoto, whose face was covered with blood and her front teeth leaked, said stupidly to Jingzi, "I will protect you", this sentence is not a masculinity with social attributes-men protect women, and It is an animal's life instinct-I want to be the father of a child. My life is full of hope. I believe all of this, which is in line with the strong life instinct that Jingzi always wants to give birth to.

The dialogue of this character is chaotic and the characters' thoughts are chaotic, but if we start from the line of Miyamoto's line "living life is powerful", it seems that it is not difficult to understand the emotional relationship of the characters.
 

ashley

Member
Binary patching and emotional transformation

The film uses a two-line narrative, and the scenes of the two timelines are alternately presented. The main line of the narrative is from Miyamoto and Yako to date, to the completion of revenge, accounting for four-fifths of the space. The narrative vice line is that Miyamoto and Xiangzi meet the parents of both parties until the last child is born.

The main line of the narrative is conflict (revenge line). From the beginning of dating, the protection of Jingzi from the ex-boyfriend. The rape and the quarrel between the couples caused by the rape incident. It was several fights with Tama.

The narrative vice-line is mainly reconciliation, admitting mistakes to the company's superiors, seeing the parents of both parties, seeking their approval of the marriage in their grievances, and paying back money to the ex-boyfriend.

If the main line of revenge is Miyamoto's motto-to be an enemy to all people in the world, then the secondary line of reconciliation is reconciliation with the world.

The causeless violence in The Disordered Generation is a force that completely destroys social rules and rational values, and the protagonist is closer to an animal that has lost its sociality. Animality and sociality here are mutually exclusive and binary opposites.

In contrast, in "From Miyamoto to You", Miyamoto's animalism in the main line of revenge (confronting conflict) and the sociality in the sideline of reconciliation (seeking approval) form a binary complement. The relationship of contrast, not duality, makes the character Miyamoto more complete, more realistic, and a person with subjectivity.

It is precisely because this sociality / animality exists in a structure of binary complementation, so that the juxtaposition of some heterogeneous factors in the film does not seem abrupt. For example, the second blood of the comics, and the ruthlessness of reality. Miyamoto has a strong heart, confidence, and perseverance, but in reality is a small person with ordinary intelligence and physical strength.

Zhen Lizi Zhe also tried an effective expression of animalism, body, and violence in the "Disordered Generation". In the episode "From Miyamoto to You", he repeatedly practiced the presentation of a social scene. In the film, he is familiar with almost every kind of scene, every character state and emotion.

The first scene in the public toilet was so violent and solitary, easily transferred to the calm restraint of the second company to admit the wrong scene, and then jumped to the gentle and secular family scene in Zhiyu and the movie, and then the fresh daily life of the two people ’s dating scene Then to the eroticism and animal nature of the sex scene. Zhen Li Zi Zhe is also very good at transfer, each scene is completely different, but they can be very smoothly connected together.

Switching arbitrarily between different social spaces and different emotional tones, there is no feeling of division and awkwardness. It is also because of the absence of traces of emotional transposition technology that people can hardly predict the plot of the movie. The climax that progressed to the third place was completely unexpected, and I didn't expect the plot to turn like this.

One scene's emotional processing is called a textbook level, and it is a scene where the two quarreled after Jingzi was raped. The scene mixes humiliation, depression, anger, despair, love, lust, absurdity, humor and other emotions, making people want to laugh while feeling uncomfortable. The subtlety of the dialogue and the multi-level performance of this drama may be the best emotional drama I have seen in recent years.

There is also a scene of vengeance battle, which is also a mixture of pain, joy, cruelty, pleasure and mixed feelings.

Physical

The body also contains two levels in this movie, one is to stimulate the animal's potential to defeat the enemy, and the other is to experience life and confirm the meaning of self-existence through body experience (pain and bleeding). In body theory, there is a concept that without physical experience, there is no free experience, and body and spirit are isomorphic. Miyamoto also learned more about his feelings through physical pain and trauma.

In this "From Miyamoto to You", Zhen Lizi Zhe is not about presenting the beauty of the body, but the reality of the body, from the facial expression of the person to the naked body to the movement of the limbs, trying to pursue a kind of no passing Modified, beautified realism.

Distorted expressions when weeping, brutal and fierce faces during quarrels, hysterical voices when roaring, these expressions of the characters in the movie are all social, close to the true state of humanity.

In a scene in Jingzi's office, after screaming, Jingzi quickly transformed and apologized to his colleagues in the office with a highly polite, polite, and restrained social expression. That trained facial expression is like a dress on the face. In a few emotional scenes where the two quarreled, the desocialized expression was as naked and true as the nude, and could convey the emotions of the character to the maximum.

Zhen Lizi Zhe also presents violence, fighting, spectacle, drama, and appreciation. It almost challenges and eliminates the way the film presents violence.

Almost all movies that show scenes of violent fighting will choose a violent presentation that suits the theme and aesthetic style of the film. Whether it is aesthetic, freehand, ceremonial (martial arts movie), cruel, unhuman (gangster movie), or horrible, bloody, naked (Sanchi Chongshi), disgusting, perverted (Yuan Ziwen ), Or highly gaming, entertaining, and playful (Quentin). But without any category, these violent presentations are of a certain exhibition nature, in order to present the spectacle of violence.

But "From Miyamoto to You" removes the expressiveness of the violent scene and restores it to a primitive, animalistic body movement.

In the final fighting scene, there were almost no ornamental moves and no dramatic fatal blows. They were completely torn and wrestled together. For Miyamoto and Tama's size difference, this kind of scuffle is logical, but it doesn't feel boring at all. The two symmetrical danglings also made people nervous and ridiculous, but in the end, they won by virtue of biting, picking pants, vomiting and sneak attacks. Although all are bad moves, this fight seems to be the most impressive scene of violence I have seen in recent years. The cruelty and pain of the fist to the flesh are very real.

The performances of Chisong Zhuangliang and Aoi Yu in this film are amazing, and they all performed in a state of madness to the extreme. Ikematsu Zhuangliang is undoubtedly the best young actor in contemporary Japan, and it may not be too much to expand into contemporary Asia.

This film, from the director to the actors, can no longer be described as "powerful" or a "strong" word. It seems that it can only be said to be powerful, an aesthetically highly powerful and highly conscious. Perhaps these talented young directors are forming another new wave of Japanese movies.
 
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