Chapter 468: Artist Ken Takakura

At that time, Toei Edo samurai period dramas were flourishing, but stars who could interpret modern Xiaosheng were very scarce, and Ken Takakura, who had just entered the industry, was pushed to the stage by the company and soon had his first starring opportunity. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoOn January 22, 1956, he made his debut on the big screen under the stage name "Ken Takakura" in [Denko Karate]. A week later, [Meteor Karate] was launched, and Oda became a rising star with a monthly salary of 20,000 yen. In the eyes of director Kiyoshi Saeki, "this new actor looks very vibrant", but as a delicious side dish around Misora Skylark, Kataoka Chiezo and others, he is always ashamed to express the lines of "meat and numbness", and the appearance of a goose with a dull head cannot attract attention at all. This is not only due to the audience's preference for period dramas, but also because Ken Takakura always believes that actors are not a man's lifelong career, and he is ashamed to release himself. It wasn't until he met the famous director Uchida Tumu while filming [Festival of the Forest and Lake] that Uchida loudly rebuked him for living in a nightmare on the set: "You are carrying the sorrow of the nation, not a playboy driving the wilderness." Under Uchida's guidance, Ken Takakura finally burst into enthusiasm for the profession of actor.

In the 60s, the Nikkage space was gradually encroached upon by the emerging television industry, and Shin-Toho collapsed in 1961, and Akira Kurosawa's samurai films and Daiei's sword and halberd dramas quickly became market darlings, and Toei's historical and period dramas were no longer in full bloom. Shigeru Okada, the director of the Tokyo Photography Agency, was upset by the idea of making a new "Theater of Life". He brought in three people, Tadashi Sawajima, Koji Tsuruta and Yoshiko Sakuma, who were also in a downturn in their careers, and started a "battle against the water" (Tadashi Sawashima). In 1963, [Life Theater - Flying Car Corner] was released, opening up the road to "new gangster movies", and Ken Takakura, who was fortunate enough to play it, also took a new path of tough guys, and his era is coming.

This is another example of a happy marriage between a Japanese shadow and a novel. In 1965, Teruo Ishii appropriated the title and background of Ito's novel Abashiri Banwai and submitted a film script based on "The Defiant Ones" to Toei. Unlike the pure love movie of the same name that lived in Japan six years ago, Ishii cut out the love scene and emphasized the prison escape process of the protagonist Tachibana Shinichi, Toei thought that this kind of drama would not attract the audience, so when Ishii returned from the Hokkaido location, he found that the film had been sent to the black and white road. Ken Takakura, who plays Shinichi Tachibana, runs to complain to Hiroshi Ogawa, the president, who sends him away with the sentence "If you are verbose, let Tatsuo Umenomiya play".

On April 18, the black-and-white film "Abashiri Fanwai" was a box office hit as an additional screening of [Kanto Wanderers], which was sought after by gangsters, workers, and students. Ken Takakura, who is "fierce, shy, and bright" in Teruo Ishii's memory, is shown as a "rebellious young Ken" in the film, with the shadow of his school days remaining on his body, mixed with the taste of scoundrel and narcissism, but once his mind is decided, he can fight back without hesitation, and this fierceness and wildness are doubled up on the screen. In contrast to Yujiro Ishihara, who was born in the upper class, and Asahi Kobayashi, who drifted between the middle and lower classes, Ken Takakura represented a poor man from a peasant family, and he was born in a filthy and rancid region, and later collaborated with Teruo Ishii in a series of gangster and assassin plays, establishing a fashionable hero who was both handsome and comical. [Ashikari Fanfu] has filmed 18 films, and there are as many as 10 films directed by Teruo Ishii alone.

After Teruo Ishii's death in 2005, his remains were buried in Abashiri City, where Ken Takakura's words "Rest in peace, Teruo Ishii" were written, and a stone monument commemorating him was placed on a tree in front of the main entrance of the Abashiri Prison Museum. A film that complemented [The Legend of the Remnants of Showa] and [Hungry Strait], and changed their artistic careers at the same time.

"If we compare righteousness with human feelings, the world of men is more righteous and reasonable. My childhood friend, Guanyin Bodhisattva, knows my mood and the Tang Lion Peony screaming behind my back!" The following year, [The Legend of the Remnant Heroes of Showa: Tang Lion Peony] starring Ken Takakura came out, and it really spread the Toei Renxia movie in front of everyone's eyes.

Before the basic structure of the [Legend of the Remnants of the Showa] was formed, the Ren Xia movie can be traced back to the [Zhongchen Collection] lineage. The "Loyal Ministers" incident is the story of the 15th year of Genroku (1702), the story of the important minister Oishi Uchizosuke leading 47 samurai to attack the house of Yoshio Kira and behead him, avenge the owner of the seppuku suicide, Asano Nagaki, and then collectively seppuku. Their actions are not only in line with Bushido's emphasis on "allegiance to the master" but also "life for life" chivalry, so they are deeply respected by the Japanese and have been adapted into movies many times. Ken Takakura and his subordinate Ikebe Ryo in [The Legend of the Remnants of the Showa] are just like the combination of the forty-seven samurai, they fight hard to avenge the psychological process of revenge with a sword, and establish the "Toei Patience Drama" routine of the enemy's bullying → patience → the protagonist's decisive counterattack.

In the context of the rapid development around the time of the Tokyo Olympics, a new type of yakuza emerged in Japan: abandoning the bushido tradition and taking advantage of it by any means necessary to expand vested interests. Ken Takakura, on the other hand, is independent of them, a model of ancient chivalry. Whether in the [Ashshiri Banfu] or the [Showa Remnant Legend] series, although he has the idea of "I am a fool", he still knows that he cannot do it, and he does not hope for the "shade of the tree", but sticks to his own ethics and rushes to dangerous places. Coupled with the nostalgic lyrics he sings in a deep voice, his cold and unwanted principle of action, the loneliness of finding a place to return and the mentality of lamenting the beautiful past are exactly in line with the mentality of some people at that time who have nothing to follow.

In addition, in addition to the pleasure of volatile blood and violence, the standardized costumes of Ken Takakura's kimono and short knife in [The Legend of the Remnants of Showa] follow the Japanese aesthetic sense, emphasizing the sculpture of the flesh. Every time the climax of the climax, Ken Takakura reveals the tattoo of the Tang lion (unicorn) on his body, which always arouses the cheers of the audience, and in the scene of Ken Takakura and Junko Fuji meeting under the ginkgo tree in "The Legend of the Remnants of the Showa, Please Return to Heaven", the lingering and graceful composition of the composition is particularly admired.

This kind of martial arts and clumsiness made the Kyushu boy Ken Takakura go to the world. In 1969, Ken Takakura was invited to play the leading role in the Hollywood movie "Flames of War". In the 70s, when Ren Xia films were opened, he withdrew from Toei and poured a lot of humanistic flavor into the image of a tough guy, [Hakka Tianshan], [Happy Yellow Handkerchief] and other films brought him trophies; [Pursuit] was the first foreign film to land in China, it was he who played Du Qiu, who promoted the film dream of ordinary worker Zhang Yimou, and achieved the legend of the two cooperating [Thousands of Miles Alone] many years later.