Samurai film
The samurai film is a sub-genre of the Japanese period film ( Jidai-geki ). It is practically congruent with that summarized under the terms Ken-geki ( d 劇 , German "sword piece") or Chambara ( チ ャ ン バ ラ or ち ゃ ん ば ら , sometimes also written Chanbara , short for chanchan barabara , the Japanese onomatopoeia for the meeting of two swords) Sword fighting film. The genre with its films about the often tragic fate and struggle of Japanese samurai became internationally known through the directors Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi .
Content and motifs
Samurai films mostly take place between the time of the Kriegsnin war (1467 to 1477) and the early Edo period . The protagonists are both samurai in the service of feudal lords and abandoned ronins . The films achieve dramatic tension through the contrasts between the often anachronistic chivalric ethics and the common people's struggle for survival, which is marked by immorality. This contrast gives rise to motifs such as the question of the legitimacy of systems of rule and the practicability of strict codes of honor when maintaining peace and order. Betrayal, arrogance and a lust for fame and epically widespread suffering are central motifs in the samurai film.
history
After the first heyday of the samurai film in Japanese silent film cinema , contemporary films ( Gendai-geki ) and films about the middle class ( Shomin-geki ) became increasingly popular in the 1920s and overtook the samurai film. It was not until the 1950s that the films by Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi gave samurai films a new impetus. The Seven Samurai (1954) established Toshirō Mifune as a prototypical samurai actor and set the tone for the genre: the realistic representation intensified the bitter atmosphere of doom, death and the senselessness of outdated morals.
With its themes and the relentless portrayal of violence, the samurai film had a clear influence on the spaghetti westerns , but was in turn inspired by it in the 1970s: while Sergio Leone's For a Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Kurosawa's yojimbo , the film adaptations of the Manga Okami by Kenji Misumi goes back to the imagery and motif language of Italian western directors. Characterized by melancholy and a first swan song for the genre were Kurosawa's last works in the samurai film Kagemusha - The Shadow of the Warrior (1980) and Ran (1985). One of the most popular characters in the samurai film is the blind swordsman Zatōichi , who was played by Shintarō Katsu in 26 films and a television series between 1962 and 1989 . In 2003, a sequel to Takeshi Kitano ( Zatoichi - The Blind Samurai ) followed .
The samurai film was particularly influential on the Japanese version of the gangster film , the Yakuza-geki (Yakuza film). Western filmmakers were often inspired by the visuality and tragic motifs of the samurai film. Sun turned Jim Jarmusch with Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai a film about an African American killer who the samurai ethic is committed. Set pieces from the samurai film can also be found in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films .
literature
- Patrick Galloway: Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2005. ISBN 1-880656-93-0
- Patrick Galloway: Warring Clans, Flashing Blades: A Samurai Film Companion. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2009. ISBN 978-1-933330-78-5
- Alain Silver: The Samurai Film. Overlook Press, New York 1977. ISBN 0-87951-175-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marcus Stiglegger : Samurai film in: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Reclams Sachlexikon des Films. 2nd edition, 2007. Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co, Stuttgart. P. 610.