Dudu didn’t know much about Japanese history, and he knew nothing about the tea ceremony. Even the tea sage Lu Yu didn’t understand it seriously, let alone Sen no Rikyu in a foreign country. However, for a film that is so meticulous about the scenery, costumes and props, and the composition and color matching that every frame looks like a painting, it is so poisonous that it has no immunity at all. With the strong support of countless Douban netizens, I watched the legendary "extremely beautiful" film about the Japanese tea ceremony "The Search for Sen no Rikyu".

Little popular science: Anyone who knows something about tea ceremony should have heard of Sen no Rikyu, who is known as the sage of tea by the Japanese. He once served as the tea head of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He combined tea ceremony with wabi-sabi aesthetics, pursued the unity of knowledge and action, and formed the Japanese tea ceremony system of "harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility" Zen tea, which reversed Anshi Momoyama's aesthetic value orientation of gold. The era is extravagant. This move had a profound impact on Japanese culture, so much so that many things in Japan today are named after him, such as "Rikyu Ash", "Rikyu Fan", etc. Even the most advanced chopsticks for eating kaiseki cuisine are called "Rikyu" Chopsticks", which shows its profound influence.

This film directed by Mitsutoshi Tanaka is adapted from the novel "The Death of Rikyu" by Kenichi Yamamoto. This is the second collaboration between him and writer Yamada after "Castle of Fire". Judging from the style of the director's few previous works, he is very accomplished in inner description skills, and this time he has applied this style to the turbulent life of a famous generation.

The male protagonist of the film, Ebizo Ichikawa, is a kabuki actor who was praised by writer Yamamoto as "the best choice to play Sen no Rikyu", recreating the half century of Sen no Rikyu from the age of 19 to 69. mental outlook. Although the acting skills are not perfect enough, the rhythmic and beautiful movements and eyes are all very well executed.

The entire film uses flashback techniques to recall Sen no Rikyu's life before committing suicide by disembowelment. It uses his ultimate pursuit of tea ceremony as the main line to tell a sad story hidden behind the beauty. If you want to study it in detail, the information you need to consult may not be completed in ten and a half days. Here, Dudu will simply talk about the movie "The Search for Sen no Rikyu" with a Douban score of 7.8 from the plot.

The plot looks at Sen no Rikyu’s personal experience

The main line of the movie is the story between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Sen no Rikyu. It begins with a stormy morning. Three thousand soldiers and horses gathered outside Sen no Rikyu's tea room, waiting for him to commit suicide by committing seppuku. Then his famous saying was introduced: The only things that can make me bow my head are beautiful things.

Then the camera cuts back to the scene just a few decades ago. Toyotomi Hideyoshi first met Sen Rikyu on the night when Rikyu used a box of delicate and ethereal moonlight to overwhelm the hall full of treasures. A simple box looked so beautiful due to the moonlight that it even made Oda Nobunaga pour out a whole bag of gold, and Sen no Rikyunori became Nobunaga's favorite.

At that time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi came from a humble background and became a general due to his military exploits with Oda Nobunaga. Before taking power, he respected Rikyu very much. He would visit Rikyu after angering Nobunaga, and he would also calm down and listen to Rikyu's opinions before the decisive battle with the Shibata family.

With the passing of Nobunaga and the victory of the Battle of Hou Xue, Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to take power step by step. But after becoming the Supreme Court, he began to be dissatisfied with Rikyu, who had always focused on tea ceremony but was more influential than himself. At the tea party, he not only used the death penalty to ridicule Rikyu who opposed the North Korean expedition, but also ordered to forcefully marry Rikyu's daughter, causing her daughter to commit suicide. In the end, Rikyu was even "stabbed to death" to threaten him to hand over the treasure.

The thing Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked Sen Rikyu to hand over was not a priceless treasure, but the green incense burner that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had seen at Rikyu Tea House when he was frustrated. But for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was just an excuse to want a great master to bow to him. Unexpectedly, the elderly Sen no Rikyu actually chose to die calmly.

Speaking of incense burners, we have to mention Sen Rikyu’s early emotional experiences. When he was young, Sen no Rikyu fell in love at first sight with the distressed princess of Goryeo who was bought by Takeno Shoou and was going to be dedicated to the king as a slave. Before the princess was about to be sent away, he planned to secretly send the princess back to Goryeo, but was unexpectedly forced to the end by the pursuing soldiers.

The princess handed the incense burner she carried with her to Sen no Rikyu, said something in Korean and drank poison and died. After the death of the princess, Sen no Rikyu tried to drink poison several times, but he retreated due to strong fear and became a deserter. Someone who knew Korean on the road told him that the last words the princess said were: "Please live well." ". After learning the truth, Sen no Rikyu cried bitterly while holding the incense burner, and took this evidence of his bad faith with him. Unexpectedly, he died because of it in the end.

Look at Sen no Rikyu’s artistic achievements in detail

Videos about tea ceremony naturally focus on details. The deliberate design of every flower and tree in the film is full of Japanese beauty. , not only the design of the camellias, tea sets, tea spoons, and tea house in the tea room, but also the several incomparably beautiful and thought-provoking fragments that combine nature with the tea ceremony are exquisite.

There is a scene that impressed me deeply. When Lixiu saw Zongen cut a white camellia and placed it on the flowing stone mortar, he took out the white paper to wrap the flower and held the camellia in his palm. In this situation, it seems that even the wrinkled texture of the flower wrapping paper is filled with fragrance.

Rikyu and Zong En lit candles at night. Rikyu cut out the shapes of birds from white paper and placed them around the candles. The light and shadow made the birds leap out. In a beautiful artistic conception, Rikyu calmly answered his wife's question and said, "You are the one who should be my wife." There was emotion in the scene.

Let’s talk about the teahouse contributed by Rikyu. In fact, Japan is probably the only country that has inherited the ancient Chinese tea art. The domestic tea culture tradition has been almost lost. In his later years, Sen no Rikyu tended to be primitive and naive. He built the teahouse extremely simply, severed the connection between tea ceremony and material things and entertainment, and made tea ceremony a kind of Zen practice.

He also reduced the space of the tearoom and lowered the entrance, so that no matter who enters the room, everyone has to bow their head and bend down, which means that everyone who enters the room can treat each other honestly and equally. The Sen no Rikyu teahouse "Taian" that has been preserved to this day has now become Japan's national treasure teahouse. Friends who are interested can go to Kyoto to see its true appearance.

It is a pity that a generation of great tea ceremony families ended up miserable because they could not adapt to the secular officialdom; but it is gratifying that the "cup of tea" protected by Sen no Rikyu with his life was still passed down. .

Dudu is a movie enthusiast who is not doing his job in the financial world, focusing on vicious reviews of all kinds of movies. If you also have a literary and artistic sensibility and love movies, you are welcome to follow the WeChat official account of "Financial Tongue Girl" and watch something different!

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