殡之森

This is my second time watching Kawase’s The Mourning Forest. I have also watched Kawase’s newest film True Mothers through the virtual film festival. Pursuing simplicity and nature, the lighting in her film always takes a very significant place. When I watched this film for the first time, I paid more attention on the dimension of the characters’ behaviors and their relationship to the ceremonial activities such as funerals. I view the nature as a shifted space for the rituals. However, it is also interesting to consider nature as the character itself. My post will briefly analyze four parts of this film that express nature as a character, in other words, or a subject (in contrast to an object).

The essential play to transform nature as a character is manipulating the visibility and the invisibility. One central feature for the characters, or human beings, is the active dynamism. It is the initiative instead of the passive. However, when the initiator is invisible, the passively moving object could be viewed as the initiative itself. At the beginning of this film, under the wind, the grass and the trees are waving heavily. However, the force of wind is invisible. It creates the illusionistic perspective that the plants are waving actively by themselves. Meanwhile, the sound of the wind is analogical to the common white noise in the background. Its mundanity fails to specify itself as a power. Therefore, the nature acts by itself as a character.

Furthermore, the power of analogy functions in another scene as well. When Machiko and Shigeki are playing between the ribbings of the fields. The ups and downs of the ribbings form a clear pattern. Repeating and emphasizing this pattern in multiple shots, it becomes a powerful symbol. Its appearance clearly indicates the wrinkles of the elders, such as Shigeki’s face. This creates an interwoven relationship between nature’s texture and the character’s texture, blurring the boundary. The nature is also embraced with such characteristics.

In addition, the characters’ gestures and positions force the audiences to view the nature as another active subject. A communication needs to be completed by two participants in each end. During an organic communication, the relationship between the subject and the object is constantly changing. In the early dawn, when Shigeki wakes up, he already finds Machiko standing and gazing upwards to the forest. The feeble noises in the backgrounds activate this gaze into a communication with messages being transmitted. Therefore, instead of being a passive object of the gaze from the observer (Machiko), the nature becomes an active speaker, interacting with Machiko. The nature is then transformed to be the third main character in this film.

Developing the concept of invisibility and visibility further, the interaction between sound and image seems to make the nature to “roar.” Around 55:00, after Shigeki and Machiko enter the mountain, the weather turns worse. The thunders constantly explode the audiences’ mind, as surprising the characters as well. However, besides two people, there is no other creatures which could make such immerse sound. Without visible lightnings in the daytime being the source of the thunders, the origin of this sound could be attributed to the nature. It is the nature’s low roaring. Acting as a character with own personalities and language, the nature is activated through this device.

2007年的日影，画质一般，画面风格和《小森林》很像，但又不一样，《殡之森》取景更多的是真正在森林深处。整个画面都是绿色，完全是夏天的感觉，下过雨的森林，清新的空气又混合着泥土的气息。这部电影听名字就感觉是一部悲情的电影，确实是，是一部悲情治愈的电影。 这部电影是讲，一位孩子去世的母亲（女主角），在一个类似敬老院的地方工作，遇到一个妻子去世33年的爷爷（男主角）。这位爷爷一直没有忘记自己的妻子，并且这位爷爷精神有些问题。在一次女主角要带爷爷出去的时候，他们都车子出来点问题，在女主角去找帮手的时候，爷爷逃跑了，他是去找他妻子的墓地，结果男女主在森林里迷路，最后找到了墓地的故事。 剧情很简单，只有一条线，很明确，节奏慢，语言也不多。看这部电影也许你会思考，活着是什么，什么叫活着，活着的意义是什么。 电影中的爷爷很活泼，像个老顽童（不是贬义）。在寻找妻子的墓地上非常的执着，很感动，很让人动情。在女主角和爷爷迷失在森林里中的那段，也很感动。女主角在这部电影中充当的是“大人”的角色，一直照顾爷爷，但两人又是相互保护。