In the history of world cinema, the director Yasujiro Ozu is an expert in food metaphor movies. "Eating" is an important part of his internationally renowned works, and "eating" is everyone's daily life. Regarding his movie, Ozu left such a well-known saying: "I am a tofu shop, and I can only make tofu. I have spent my entire life trying to make really delicious tofu. If you ask me to grill steak or fried Pork chops are simply difficult for a strong man."
The book "Ozu Yasujiro's Dining Table", recently introduced and published by Chuchen Culture·CITIC Publishing Group, contains a lot of interesting anecdotes about "eating" by Ozu and tells how food affects the 60-year life of "tofu maker". The author of the book, Kita Sou, is a "professional householder of Ozu" in the Japanese literary world. He spent several years visiting the restaurants and restaurants that Ozu frequented in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kamakura half a century ago. He walked and tasted and discovered a more authentic film master. .
saury, conger, ramen, tonkatsu, tea-zuke...It turns out that the ingredients on the table and the dialogue at the table always carry the movie world of unique Ozu philosophy ——Editor
[Autumn saury With radish] There is no plot to eat saury in "The Taste of Saury". What Ozu wants to convey is the image of saury in the minds of Japanese people. The taste is the taste of this work.
"The Taste of Saury" is The last work directed by Ozu Yasujiro. The film was launched in August 1962, finished in November, and was released on the 18th of that month. After "The Taste of Saury", Ozu originally planned to shoot "Turnip and Carrot". Although due to Ozu’s death, the filming of Turnip and Carrot was not completed, but it is worth noting that the names of the two works include the names of foods.
can be said that not only Japanese movies, but also foreign movies, such works named after food are rare. The name "The Taste of Saury" is reminiscent of another work by Ozu, "The Taste of Chazuke". Surprisingly, "The Taste of Chazuke" finally ended successfully with a couple who originally had different dreams sharing chazuke, but "The Taste of Saury" does not seem to be related to saury. There is no plot to eat saury in the entire film, so why is it named "saury"?
Looking back at Ozu's movies, saury appeared only in "Good Morning". There is a scene in the film: the eldest son Xiaoshi sees the side dishes on the dining table in the living room and complains to his mother: "What, why is it dried saury and pork soup again?" Of course, because the director is good at low-angle composition, we Can't see the dried saury and pork soup on the table. The mother scolded the children: "This is already very good!" At dinner, father and aunt came back. This time, the second son, Xiaoyong, annoyed his mother: "Dad, it's dried saury again tonight!" These plots show the past. The simple table culture in most Japanese families and the straightforward language of the children make dried saury instantly become the focus. However, "The Taste of Saury" does not even have such lines.
Someone once asked Ozu about the origin of the name "The Taste of Saury", and his answer was that saury was delicious and cheap. Perhaps what Ozu wants to convey in this work is the image of saury in the minds of Japanese people. It is cheap and delicious. The taste of salt-grilled saury eaten with grated radish is the taste of this work.
Regarding the directing of "Autumn Harmony", Ozu once said: "It is very simple to express a drama with emotion. As long as you cry and laugh, you can convey sadness or joy to the audience. But this is just a performance, no matter what No matter how you appeal to feelings, the character and temperament of the characters cannot be fully expressed. Abandon the dramatic things, present a sad atmosphere without crying, or experience life with the ups and downs of the plot. I tried to shoot in this way This work.” The director of "The Taste of Saury" may be exactly that. Its name is also not directly related to the story, but it vaguely tries to express the taste of the Japanese saury. If you take Ozu's "Late Spring", "Early Spring", "Autumn Harmony" and other film works named after the seasons, you might understand it better. "Early Spring" is a good example. The content of the film is not necessarily directly related to the name of the film. The time background of "The Taste of Saury" is not autumn, because there is a scene in the movie where the protagonist eats conger eels, which are usually tasted from early summer to midsummer.
Judging from "The Taste of Saury", even if Ozu’s planned "Carrots and Carrots" are actually completed, the radishes and carrots will not appear in the movie. And "The Taste of Saury"Similarly, the name of this film is also created by Ozu and Noda Takago.
However, the word "radish" was once used by Ozu in the movie title. In the movie "Floating Grass" shot by Ozu at Daiei, he initially considered using the name "Turnip Actor". The film was prepared after Ozu's last black and white film "Tokyo Twilight". The script was completed from summer to autumn of 1957. In January of the following year, Ozu and the crew went to Niigata for shooting. As the snow was less than expected, he decided to postpone the shooting. Because of this, Ozu and Noda immediately began to create "The Flower of the Other Side" and shoot the summer scenes of the movie. In "Young Days" in 1929, Ozu once filmed college students playing in the snow on the slopes of Akakura, but his film style had not yet formed at that time. Although it is a pity that we have not been able to appreciate the Ozu-style snow country pictures, we are fortunate that we have enjoyed the midsummer seascapes he shot.
In May 1959, Daying Corporation proposed to make the "Carrot Actor" put on hold into a movie. Ozu also agreed, but because the shooting time was changed to summer, he had to revise the script that had already been completed. Therefore, in mid-June, Ozu and Mr. Noda went to the Ise-Shima area to collect materials. He and Noda rewrote the script of "Turnip Actor" in Tateshina's villa from late June to early July, and at the same time changed the movie's name to "Floating Grass".
The name "Carrots and Carrots" may be used to set off the term "radish" in "Carrot Actors" that was not used before. In short, Ozu and Noda conceived "Carrot and Carrot", judging from the character setting and the outline of the story, it is a companion to works such as "Higan Flower" and "The Taste of Saury".
After Ozu's death, "Turnip and Carrot" was taken by Shibuya Minoru as a work to commemorate Ozu. The film was released in 1965. Although the content inherited the ideas of Ozu and Noda to some extent, it was mainly based on the idea of the Shibuya team. The finished movie adopts the style of Shibuya comedy, which is very different from Ozu's style.
[Ramen] The couple sat side by side eating ramen, feeling each other's love. Such a very friendly and everyday picture, on the contrary, highlights the characteristics of Ozu movies.
In Ozu movies, there are many shots of eating ramen and ordering ramen. Ramen first appeared, probably in his 1936 work "The Only Child". In order for his mother who came from Shinshu to enjoy supper, Ryosuke bought the kind of ramen sold along the street at night. Ryosuke was hammering his mother's shoulder at the time, and his mother was telling him about the Kaminarimon lantern that she had seen while visiting Tokyo. There was a sound of suona outside, and Liangsuke stopped his hand and asked, "Mother, have you eaten Chinese ramen? Try new flavors." Then he went to the stall outside and bought ramen. He ordered three bowls of noodles and said to the boss: "Put more char siu!" Although for the elderly mother, eating ramen before going to bed would increase the body burden, the mother still sat with Ryosuke and his wife and enjoyed it. Delicious ramen. While saying "Where shall we go to play tomorrow", Ryosuke told her mother "The soup is delicious" and advised her to drink more soup. Liangsuke's words and deeds show that he is aware of his mother's disappointment in him, and at the same time shows that he is doing his best to honor his mother as a son. These seem to be hidden in the ramen of this supper, and it makes people feel sad. The scene where the protagonists of
eat ramen at a Chinese restaurant has appeared in the two works "The Taste of Chazuke Rice" and "Autumn Harmony". The couple sat side by side eating ramen, eating the same food and feeling each other's love. They talk about love while eating ramen in the restaurant. They are very pure and never think of "sex". This is also a very intimate and everyday picture. It is this scene that highlights the characteristics of Ozu's movies.
In "The Taste of Chazuke Rice", there are scenes where Okada from the countryside who has just found a job and Setsuko living in Chigasaki eat ramen. In "Autumn Harmony", there is also a scene of company employee Goto and white-collar Ayako eating noodles together. The former are lovers, and the latter are unmarried couples. Here, we must pay attention to the difference between the two shots in the scene of eating ramen. Both works are a pair of men and women sitting side by side at the bar of a ramen shop, eating ramen. At first glance, it looks very similar, but as the screen unfolds, it can be seen that the angle of "The Taste of Chazuke" is completely different. The ramen scene of
"The Taste of Tea Zuke" starts from the outside scene of a Chinese restaurant with "San Lai Yuan" curtains. Signboards with siu mai and wontons were erected outside the store. In this scene, crossingThe moving melody of Hehamako's "San Francisco's Chinatown" always surrounds her ears. Then came the shot of the shop, the two sitting side by side at the bar facing the wall, eating ramen. The pictures of Setsuko and Okada constantly switch back and forth. The lens is viewed from the front and side, that is, from the side of the bar to shoot two people. In the film, Okada and Setsuko's shots are constantly intertwined, which unfolds topics such as blind dates and ramen. The pictures that make up this plot are very natural and coherent. When the camera was aimed at the hero and heroine from the side of the bar, Okada talked about ramen.
chatting about delicious food, the two of them got closer together. After that, just like Miura's additional tonkatsu in "The Taste of Saury", Okada shouted "Hey, let's have more ramen and more soup", and ordered another bowl of ramen. Immediately afterwards, the camera again switched to outside the "San Lai Yuan" curtain of the Chinese restaurant, ending the scene of the couple eating ramen. This scene started with the "San Lai Yuan" curtain of the Chinese restaurant, and ended here, and formed an echo.
In "Autumn Harmony", the scene of the hero and heroine eating ramen basically starts directly from the scene in the store, so the name of the ramen shop is unknown. However, judging from the curtains in the depths of the picture, it is still "three-dimensional", even though the text above is inverted. The film first shot the scene of customers dining in the store from the perspective, and then shot Goto and Ayako sitting side by side from the diagonally behind, and then used Ozu's typical back-cut technique to expand the plot. The scene where Goto remembers her mother alternates with the scene where Ayako listens quietly. One important point is that the scene of eating ramen in "Autumn Harmony" is different from "The Taste of Chazuke", and there is no scene where the two of them were shot diagonally in front. Compared with "The Taste of Chazuke", the scene of eating ramen in "Autumn Japan" is much less. This is a major change in the method of film production. "The Taste of Rice with Tea" was filmed in 1952, and "Autumn Harmony" was filmed in 1960. For eight years, Ozu has been pursuing his own movie style with excellence. In "The Taste of Ozu Rice", mobile shooting is used more frequently, and the coherence of the film is not strong enough (more empty shots), which means that Ozu's movie style is still being explored.
