Chapter 94 Shunji Iwai: Youth is the black box of life

He has a strong interest in art. When he was in the third year of high school, he saw the Japanese movie "Keiko" made by a Canadian director. Although the movie was rough and looked more like a documentary, it gave him the idea of ​​making a movie.After entering Yokohama National University, he joined a film club. Thirty people in the club didn't really love movies, and the equipment for filming was just for idle use.Shunji Iwai used these machines to shoot ten works.In the fifth year of university, he wanted to be a cartoonist again, so he took a year off to learn painting.Shooting MTV, commercials and TV series.

In the 1990s, when he first emerged, Japanese films were recovering, veterans continued to release new works, and emerging directors gradually gained the right to speak.Shunji Iwai was born at the right time, and in this age of inspiration, response, and demagogy, he quickly completed his artistic preparation period. In 1993, after filming nearly ten TV dramas of about 60 minutes, he filmed a children's TV short "Fireworks" for Fuji TV's "If..." series. Best Newcomer Film Director.In 1994, his TV short "The Bundle of Love" was not only made into a film, but also won the NETPAC Award at the 1995 Berlin Film Festival.He thus joins the ranks of filmmakers he has been looking forward to for a long time.

Everyone has experienced such a midsummer, the weather seems to be extremely hot, the green leaves make a crisp sound in the wind, when jumping into the swimming pool, there is a moment of coolness, wandering around with a few buddies, exploring the mystery of this world In the part of the test, a small excursion is enough to be considered an adventure.As usual, there was a girl a few years older, with dark eyebrows and bright red lips, a vivid fairyland in the field of vision.You should love her and prove that you have grown up.This is not sprouting, but ignorance. Fireworks is all about pre-adolescence.A few elementary school children kept arguing about "whether fireworks are round or flat when viewed from the side". In order to be sure of winning or losing, they had to climb up to the place where the fireworks were set off to see what happened.This group of boys also has a common female companion named Nasha who is close to them. She is a few years older than them and her parents are divorced. As if running away from home, she also invited the boy who was at most ten years old who had always had a crush on her to "elope" with her, "I look like I should be sixteen when I dress up like this! I will support you!" she said.

The most exciting moment came when the girl painted her lips bright red.The music came right then and there, too.Running away, for adults, there are two kinds of endings as usual, degenerate, and come back.But for her, it's just a small-scale exercise in puberty, which is a bit hilarious, but more of a sentimental one. "fireworks".Produced by Japan's Fuji TV in 1994, the film is fifty minutes long.Starring Yamazaki Yuta, Okunae, and Takayuki Soda.Unlike other children's films, it is so beautiful that it is unreal. It is not so much about childhood as it is what adults believe in their own childhood. Its details are real and simple, healthy and fresh, with a strong breath of life.This work allowed Shunji Iwai to win the Newcomer of the Year Award from the Japan Film Directors Guild that year.It is an exception for this award to be awarded to a TV director.

It has been said countless times, it is about love and remembrance. Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé, Fujii Ki, has been dead for three years. She wrote a letter to "Fujii Ki" at the address recorded by his elementary school classmates, which she thought would never receive a reply.Unexpectedly, she received a reply letter from a woman, also named Fujii Shu, who was a classmate of the boy Fujii Shu.As the correspondence continued, Fujii gradually discovered that she might have encountered a pure and deep love that she didn't know about. The search and confirmation in the book are all triggered by death, but they are sad but not sad.The refreshing youth time, the beautiful scenery of the small northern town buried under heavy snow, and the peaceful life in the small town are all unforgettable for a long time.

Produced by Fuji TV in Japan in 1995.Starring Miho Nakayama, Etsuji Toyokawa, and Takashi Kashiwahara.Won the Best Asian Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Dream Traveler is about exile. Coco killed his twin sister, Curly killed the teacher who harassed and bullied him, Xiao Wu was paranoid, the three became good friends, and the place where they met was a mental hospital.They want to escape, go out along the hospital wall, and start their wandering era.A "Bible" obtained by chance made them think hard about "the end of the world". The three of them had their own understanding of this, but the roaming on the wall did not stop.However, in this wandering where bitterness and sweetness coexist, Xiaowu fell off the wall, his head was bloodied, and he never stood up again.Coco and Curly, who had lost their partners, continued their journey, and they finally arrived at the lighthouse. Coco shot herself, completing her understanding of "doomsday": when she dies, the world will also perish.

They have been walking on all kinds of walls and embankments, the walls of mental hospitals, the parapets beside the roads, and the embankments by the sea.On the other side of the wall is the whole world, and on this side of the wall is the place of exile, the mental hospital, the abyss, and the sea.Over there, in that world, they are not needed, and the abyss and exile here are not suitable for survival.They walk between the world and the abyss, and they only temporarily belong to the low wall at the edge of these two worlds. This wall marks their identities and allows them to breathe temporarily. This low wall is a symbol, a narrow path in fairy tales. If you walk up, you can't turn your head back, and you can't fall to the ground. Once you fall down this wall, you will inevitably bleed.

Whether the world of mental patients is really so sad and beautiful is debatable. "Maybe the lunatics are the real wise men" and "We are the lunatics in the eyes of the lunatics" are common clichés of young literary and artistic youths, but Shunji Iwai may just borrow more As the representative of most exiles, mental patients, the "Ship of Fools" can never land, and those who go beyond the rules cannot get off the low wall.The end of exile is a lighthouse, the direction is for others, and death is for oneself.There is only one bullet, and a single gunshot is still not enough.A friend of mine who suffers from severe alcoholism, a former literary youth, loved this movie, it gave him another reason to get drunk.look.

Still produced by Fuji TV, in 1996, starring Zorna, Tadanobu Asano, and Koichi Hashizume.Won the Journalist Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. "Swallowtail Butterfly" is about suffering and sinking. It is a place where immigrants live together. The Japanese call it "Yuandu", and the people who live there are called "Yuan Bandit". "Crazy urban gold diggers, body sellers, drug addicts, gunmen, all kinds of people who speak bad Japanese, English, Chinese, etc.", a girl born here, lost her mother, has no name, taciturn, like a pure white cat chrysalis, amazed by the color of a butterfly that accidentally intrudes into the house.

"Swallowtail Butterfly" is also about hope. She was sent to Glico, a young prostitute, and was taken in by her.This is a woman who already has a mottled color. She is brave, vigorous, and happily discusses her technical work. She gives this colorless girl a colored name "Swallow Butterfly".Everyone in the Jianghu must have a backer, and her backers are Huo Feihong, Aaron, and Lang Lang. They are all "yuan thieves".By chance, they got a tape containing information on making counterfeit banknotes, and they became very rich overnight.They have the opportunity to realize all their dreams.The dream of turning into a butterfly, the dream of wanting to fly.

"Swallowtail Butterfly" is also about the loss of Paradise. "Blue Sky" is a paradise, a paradise of adolescence, poverty is a barrier to decay, hope is a natural shelter, and when they leave this paradise to go to the raging sea and step into the hope they have realized with money, they can only let the wind blowing rain.Huo Feihong, who has a crush on Glico, bought a big bar and let Glico sing there, and became famous. Glico, who signed a contract with the record company, had to temporarily cut off contact with them.In the end, the underworld came to seize the tape, Huo Feihong died in prison, and the people from "Qing Kong" held a cremation for him.Swallow Die opened the suitcase and threw boxes of banknotes into the flames. "Swallowtail Butterfly" is about growing up. After the vicissitudes of life, Fengdie, like all ordinary girls, was riding a bicycle on the road, and met Liu Liangkui, a mafia boss. She told him that Glico was his long-lost sister, and like all peaceful and fragrant girls, she Will leave peacefully, and after that, she will no longer need the protection of the butterfly tattooed on her chest. "Swallowtail Butterfly".Swallowtail Butterfly Production Committee and RockwellEyes Co., Ltd. jointly produced it in 1996, starring Hiroshi Mikami, Zhuo Na, Ayumi Ito, Yosuke Eguchi, Xu Zhian, and Tomoko Yamaguchi.Zhuo Na became famous in one fell swoop, not only won the Best Actress Award at the Japan Film Awards, but also established her status in the music scene because of the amazing sales of the songs she sang in the film. "April Story" is about how a girl adapts to a new life.The young girl Yuno Uzuki and Xiaojia Biyu left their hometown of Hokkaido and came to Tokyo to study at university.In the slightly smoky weather in April, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom on the boulevard, and the petals are floating everywhere, like snow, falling on the body, brushing off, and it will be full again in an instant.On the way to move, someone is marrying their daughter, and they are afraid that the cherry blossoms will mess up the new makeup, so they send it out under an umbrella. What is the new bride like?Even the driver has to look back frequently.In such a weather, even if you feel a little apprehensive about leaving your hometown, you will immediately be filled with longing. She tried her best to appear gregarious, but her heart was as sensitive as the weather in April.People laughed and asked her if she was hot in a sweater, maybe there was no malice, but her shyness and embarrassment clearly meant that she cared.The sharp and sharp female students are not as good-looking as her, but they may come from a big place, and they have a slight sense of superiority and exaggerated self-confidence in front of her. Maybe it is just hostility and jealousy in disguise, but after all, I still like to approach her, because She is good-looking, among girls, that's the only subtlety.She didn't pursue it either, and after being mobilized by female classmates for a while, she followed to learn fishing, not because she was afraid of not being able to catch up, and she had a lot of elements to win the favor and recognition of female classmates.She may not understand the people and things in the big city, but she has her own idea, just deal with it without being humble, and with her human touch and sincerity in a small city, she finally impresses the vigilant female neighbor and takes the initiative to come to her. Home to taste the already rejected dinner. She has a secret.When she came to Musashino University to study, she was following a man. She could never forget him playing the guitar on the green hills. Knowing that he was working in a bookstore, she went to see him from time to time, and finally met her on a rainy day. , took advantage of the rain to catch up with him.Leaving the bookstore with a half-broken red umbrella he gave her, she thought that it was a miracle of love that she was not good enough to get into this famous university.Perhaps, in the future, her heart will be settled, and she will leave home alone and devote herself to the vast crowd of the city, and finally she has a reason. "April Story" is only 67 minutes long and was released on March 14, 1998.Starring Takako Matsu, Seiichi Tanabe, Tatsuya Ishii, and Yosuke Eguchi.It was an impromptu by Shunji Iwai. Before the shooting started, there was only the outline of the story, and many plots and dialogues became clear during the shooting.In fact, it doesn’t matter if it has no plot. The plot is just its commitment and organization to the April weather, cherry blossom avenue, and girlish feelings. , not twists and turns, but has a clue. In "Everything About Lily Zhou", the most memorable thing is the large green rice field.The boy was wearing white clothes, riding a bicycle, passing by there, listening to music, it was there, it was a breathing place between reality and reality, between the obscure thoughts and thoughts of adolescence. "All About Lily Weeks" is about comfort. Hasami Yuichi lives in a broken and reorganized home. He and his classmate Shusuke Hoshino are good friends, fighting, resisting ubiquitous violence, stealing, and keeping silent before questioning, but they both love the female singer Lily Zhou. Music, as lovers of Lily Zhou, they risk stealing her new album, robbing to see the island in her song, they have their country, Lily Zhou's BBS is where they gather, where they confide , dreams, and, heating.However, after returning from a trip to Okinawa, Hoshino became more and more silent and violent, and Hasumi was his easy target of violence.Their youth carries the smell of iron and youth. On the day of Lily Zhou's concert in December, Hasumi held a green apple and went to meet a friend he met on the BBS.In the crowd, he saw Hoshino, and he killed him.After watching a Faye Wong concert, Shunji Iwai had the original idea of ​​this movie. In 2000, he wrote the novel "Everything About Lily Zhou" in three months. The first few chapters of the novel are written in The posts on his "Yuandu" forum are combined, and when it is adapted into a movie, the structure is also connected by online messages. In "Virgin Suicide", the old doctor asked Cecilia: "Why did you commit suicide? Have you not tasted the suffering of life?" Cecilia said: "Doctor, you have never been a thirteen-year-old girl." It is life bitter?Still youthful?Iwai Shunji did not answer directly.There will always be a group of people who are like the antennas of the world, receiving the messages of the troubled part of the world. No matter where they land, it is suffering.They are infants, perpetual adolescents.Why did the boy kill?Shunji Iwai did not answer either, but told reporters at the Shanghai Film Festival that the juvenile murder was influenced by "A Brighter Summer Day", but the murders in "A Brighter Summer Day" had more sources. Due to the pressure of the times, the murder in "Everything About Lily Zhou" comes from the pressure of life. This pressure cannot be seen or touched, but it will always exist.Therefore, Shunji Iwai has always emphasized that there are "irrational" factors in this murder. "Everything About Lily Zhou" is 146 minutes long. Noboru Joda is in charge of photography, Takeshi Kobayashi is in charge of music production, and starring Shugo Ninari and Ayumi Ito. Premiered on October 6, 2001. Shunji Iwai likes to show "unspoken love". "Fireworks", "Swallowtail Butterfly", and "April Story" are all related to secret love, and "Flowers and Alice" is also about how the sparks of secret love gradually start a prairie fire because of a suitable timing. Hua and Alice are the names of two girls who grew up together and studied ballet together, one is more cheerful and the other is more restrained.Hua has always been secretly in love with their senior, Miyamoto, and lingers in his range of activities all day long. Finally, one day, Miyamoto slams his head against an iron door and wakes up with "short-term amnesia". Hua did not miss this opportunity , she seized the opportunity, immediately stepped forward in surprise, and told Miyamoto that she was his girlfriend.To make the story more believable, she brings Alice in as her fictional ex-girlfriend. The story turns sharply from such a somewhat funny beginning, there is no lack of lightness and humor, but also a bit of horror. The darkest part of the friendship between young girls gradually emerges.Of course, like all of Shunji Iwai's works, there are blue sky, blooming cherry trees, green trees and grass in the film as usual, as well as the scenes of girls practicing ballet, the soft light on the yellow-brown floor, and the white gauze skirt, all Captured in the camera by Shunji Iwai, it looks a bit like a Degas painting. "Flower and Alice" is composed of three independent but related short chapters "Flower Love", "Flower Arashi" and "Flower Dance", as well as "Flower and Alice", with a length of 135 Minutes, starring Suzuki Anko, Aoi Yu, Aida Shoko, Guo Zhibo, and Hirosue Ryoko. Released on March 13, 2004.Now we can conclude. "Shunji Iwai" is about youth.For him, youth is the bronze age of the whole life, it is nostalgia, it can no longer be reproduced, and it can never go back, tossing and turning, leaving only melancholy.There is a poem: "Youth is his only disease", this poem is suitable for Shunji Iwai.He is a "youth nostalgic patient", and the suffering and despair in his works are the derivation and continuation of the suffering and despair of adolescence.Youth is also his religion. He is always salvaging the black box of youth, looking for clues of character, causes of fate, roots of passion, and comfort of suffering for all encounters in life. "Pleasing to the eye" is the hallmark of Shunji Iwai. Exquisite pictures, painstakingly selected scenes, gorgeous and harmonious colors, soft light, slightly shaking camera, just right music, and low-key people and things constitute his sensory kingdom. .However, things that need to be deliberately done by others are easily grasped by him, and his aura is compelling. He is a real "person in this way" and cannot be done by human beings. Therefore, even if it is only for eye-catching, his works can also Worth our ninety minutes or more. Therefore, Shunji Iwai is worth looking forward to. "Iwai Shunji" is not the perfect form, although he is already gorgeous enough, but that gorgeousness is still the gorgeousness of a chrysalis, or that of a half butterfly. With a thicker foundation, his wings will be more powerful.Perhaps one day, when he flaps his wings gently across his kingdom, it will be enough to cause a storm. From 1987 to 1992, ghost soup, fried eggs, etc. 1993 Mermaid Legend 1993 fireworks 1994 Bound of Love 1995 Love Letter 1996 Dream Traveler 1996 Swallowtail Butterfly April 1998 Story 2001 All About Lily Week 2004 Flowers and Alice 2006 Ichikawa Kun Story 2011 vampire