Tadashi Suzuki is an Asian dramatist who can be lined up with dramatists such as Meyerhold, Brecht, and Peter Brooke. He combined Noh, Kabuki, and Western realistic theater to create the Suzuki Training Method, which became internationally renowned. Many foreign schools, such as the Juliard Academy and the Moscow Art Theater, are learning his things.

The Suzuki training method emphasizes the primitive animality of human beings, returns the focus of acting skills and emotions to the lower body of the actor, emphasizes the feeling when the feet are in contact with the ground, and uses the ground to slide, move, pace and cooperate with the abdominal breathing method to stimulate the actor's inner emotions and external body instincts, and achieve a balance between voice and body.

Keiko Kitagawa said, "Yes, my teacher is a disciple of Mr. Suzuki. ”

The Suzuki training method can be famous all over the world, and there must be something very unique in training. Zhang Ran was quite interested in this: "Why do you attach so much importance to the pace?"

Kitagawa Keiko said: "Pace is the basic skill, mainly to train the waist, the teacher said, if the actor steps on the floor hard, the action may cause the imbalance of the actor's body, in order to achieve physical coordination, it is necessary to concentrate all the strength on the waist, and the waist becomes the core of the actor's energy, the source of performance power." ”

Zhang Ran nodded and asked, "How are your lines trained?"

"Sit on the ground, change your look and recite Macbeth's monologue, and I'll show you how to do it!

Kitagawa Keiko said to Zhang Ran, sat on the ground, wrapped her hands around her legs, buried her head between her legs, and began to recite Macbeth's monologue: "Tomorrow, tomorrow, and another tomorrow, day after day will come quietly, until the last moment ......"

Zhang Ran clapped his hands. Keiko Kitagawa immediately changed her appearance, raised her feet and left the ground, and continued to read: "All of our yesterdays are just lighting the way to death for fools......"

Zhang Ran clapped his hands three times in a row, and Kitagawa Keiko repeatedly changed her shape. The password always reads the lines and does not stand up until the entire line is finished.

I don't know why, Kitagawa Jingzi obviously looks like a Yang fan, but her performance reminded Zhang Ran of Liu Yifei, and she couldn't feel the breath of life, giving people a silly, silly and sweet feeling. He couldn't help but say: "I don't know if you will act in a stage play or a film and television drama in the future, if you act in a film and television drama." You'd better learn a little bit of Stanley's stuff. ”

Keiko Kitagawa had never heard of Stanley, the Suzuki training method she had learned was one of the best in Japan, was it necessary to learn anything else?

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "Your family should be very rich, the rich lady's life will be relatively narrow." As an actor, no matter what genre it is, whether it is an experiential school or an expressive school. Life is very important. Your life experience determines that it is more suitable for you to play a simple girl and a rich lady. Playing other roles is prone to problems, and if you want to change, you have to experience more!"

Kitagawa Keiko's eyes widened, and she looked at Zhang Ran stupidly and couldn't speak. Her family is indeed rich, and she is considered a rich lady, but she has never said anything about it? It took her a while before she came back to her senses: "How do you know?"

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "I have a student who is very similar to you. She's worse off than you are. Let's not talk about that, let's talk about the Suzuki training method, in addition to this basic stepping exercise, is there any other specific movement training?"

Kitagawa Keiko didn't ask Stanley about it, although Zhang Ran made a lot of sense. But the Suzuki training method is the best actor training method in Japan, and the teacher is willing to solve his own problems: "There are T-shaped steps, forward steps, slow walking exercises, and there are eleven specific steps......

Through the exchange with Keiko Kitagawa, Zhang Ran found that although these movements taken from Kabuki look weird, they do have their own unique features, especially for balance and waist training. However, this training method is obviously more suitable for the Japanese, after all, it is a fusion of traditional Japanese performance training.

In fact, the training of traditional Chinese opera is no worse than that of Japan, and it is even stronger. Both Grotowski and Brecht have learned a lot from traditional Chinese opera, and some of the Grotowski training methods taught by Zhang Ran are derived from traditional opera. However, there are very few people engaged in performance education in China who are willing to draw strength from traditional opera, and everyone thinks that Western things are advanced and Chinese are backward, but they don't know where the things they abandon are precious in many Western theater masters.

Kurosawa's former residence was remote and deserted, and when Zhang Ran and Kitagawa Keiko walked in, there was no one else except for the two staff members. The house is divided into two floors, on the first floor there are original products that cannot be bought elsewhere, you can see the trailer of the director's work, and on the second floor, you can mainly display some of the first drafts and painting scripts.

Zhang Ran wasn't too interested in other things, he couldn't read the manuscript at all, and what really attracted him was Kurosawa's hand-drawn storyboard. As soon as he and Keiko Kitagawa walked up to the second floor, they were immediately attracted by a hanging painting. The whole painting is a diagonal composition, and on the green grass, a group of samurai in black armor, with a red flag behind their backs, straddling brown horses and waving weapons in their hands, are charging forward.

He knew that this was a storyboard drawn by Akira Kurosawa, and unlike many directors, Kurosawa's storyboard was not drawn on a piece of paper with a lot of shots, like a comic, but Kurosawa's storyboard was drawn according to the requirements of the art work, and each one was a separate painting, which was very exquisite.

The painting in front of him is extremely clever in terms of composition and use of color, and even Kitagawa Keiko can't help but say, "This painting is so beautiful, it's a samurai charging, right?"

Zhang Ran was a little surprised: "Haven't you watched "Shadow Warrior"?"

Keiko Kitagawa shook her head and said, "No, I haven't seen his movie!"

Zhang Ran thought about it for a while, after all, it was a movie from thirty years ago, and there were not many people who wanted to watch old movies from decades ago except for fans, so he said: "After the box office fiasco of "Tram Mania", Kurosawamin had to leave the Soviet Union to shoot "Delsu-Uzara". After returning to Japan, he really wanted to make "Shadow Warrior", but unfortunately no investors were willing to cooperate with him. The old man swore that I would let the audience see the images in my head, even if it wasn't a movie, even if it was still! He has been painting day and night, painting more than 200 paintings in total, and there is a belief that supports him to continue painting, and he believes that one day he will make "Shadow Warrior" into a movie!"

Speaking of this, Zhang Ran couldn't help but take a deep breath, he couldn't get along in the film and television industry in his last life. It's to rely on Kurosawa's story to motivate myself. He believed that he would one day be able to make a movie about that story about dreams and flight, and he had been working hard to revise the script, drawing the storyboard seriously, and waiting.

Seeing that Zhang Ran stopped talking, Kitagawa Keiko asked, "What happened later?"

Zhang Ran smiled and continued: "After waiting for almost three or four years, two American fans knew that Akira Kurosawa lacked funds, and flew across the Pacific Ocean to bring him investment and help him complete "Shadow Warrior". One of these two American fans is named Francis Coppola. It's the director of "The Godfather", and a guy named George Lucas is the director of "Star Wars!"

Keiko Kitagawa hasn't watched "The Godfather" and doesn't know who Coppola is, "Star Wars" does. "Star Wars Prequel: Attack of the Clones" was released in Japan in July this year and made a box office of 9.3 billion yen, and she also watched it. At this moment, hearing that director Lucas is a fan of Akira Kurosawa, he couldn't help but sigh: "It's amazing!"

Zhang Ran smiled at him. "I may have been looking at the painting for a long time, if you have something." Leave me alone, you can go first!"

Keiko Kitagawa shook her head: "It's okay, I'm fine!"

Zhang Ran nodded, stopped talking, and turned his head to look at the hanging painting.

Akira Kurosawa was heavily influenced by Van Gogh in the fifth dream of his last film, The Dream. The story revolves around the protagonist's encounter with the painter in the environment where Van Gogh's masterpiece is located, which can be seen as a dialogue between Kurosawa and Van Gogh across time and space.

The painting in front of you is clearly influenced by Van Gogh, with contrasting colors and interlaced brushstrokes that give a strong sense of immersion. The short, stiff lines are full of suffocating feelings.

This feeling of suffocation should have something to do with Kurosawa's experience. In 68, the United States and Japan co-produced the film "Tiger and Tiger", Kurosawa Akira served as the Japanese director, he made a lot of preparations for the film, and planned to make it into a classic, but Hollywood's work habits and Japan's filming methods are too different, and the two sides have constant friction, Kurosawa was fired by the crew after three weeks of filming, which put him under a lot of pressure. The next filming, "Tram Mania", failed at the box office and dealt him a heavy blow again, so he attempted suicide and used a razor to cut 21 wounds on his body.

Although he survived due to his early discovery, the circumstances did not change. No one is willing to invest, and they want to make a movie but can't, for such a director, it is undoubtedly desperate, so whether it is the movie "Shadow Warrior" or the painting in front of him, there is some despair.

Standing in front of the painting for a long time, Zhang Ran was immersed in a sense of sadness, as if he had traveled through more than 30 years, and let him see an old man sitting alone in front of the drawing board, concentrating on painting the picture in front of him, and whispering softly: "I want the audience to see the pictures in my head, even if they are not movies, even if these pictures are still!"

A strange feeling poured into Zhang Ran's body, this feeling was so cordial, and so strong, just like the confiding of an old friend who had been separated for many years! He stood quietly in front of the painting, staring at the picture quietly, his face couldn't help but burst into tears, and a sentence jumped out of his mind, no matter how difficult it is, one day, I will make the movie I really want to make!

Just then, a black sedan stopped outside Kurosawa's house. The car door opened, and down stepped an old man in his sixties and seventies, with gray hair. He was full of energy, completely devoid of the twilight that should be at this age, and walked into the former residence of Akira Kurosawa with vigorous steps.

When the staff saw the old man, they hurriedly greeted him and saluted respectfully: "Mr. Yamada, you are here! Is your movie finished?"

The old man replied, "It's going to be released soon." Mr. Kurosawa used to tell me a lot about samurai and how to express the true side of samurai. Now that my samurai film is about to be released, let's talk to Mr. Kurosawa. ”

"Go up!" the staff member had just finished speaking, when he suddenly remembered something, "A strange young man came today, he has been looking at Mr. Kurosawa's painting for two or three hours, and he is still looking at it!"

The old man was stunned when he heard this, and then laughed and said, "This is strange, I'll go and see!" (To be continued.) )