구로사와 아키라의《란乱》: 고전에서 영화로의 궤적

Abstract

There was a majority opinion that Shakespeare's 『King Lear』 would be tough to change into other media due to its constructive difficulty in spite of its excellent aesthetics. However, Kurosawa created a film with a new thematic consciousness based on his own philosophy by simplifying the double-plots of 『King Lear』 and also changing the personality of characters. On top of recognizing the significance in the aspect of the tragic beauty in the battle scene, strict expressionism, and excellent shooting techniques, it is noticeable that Shakespeare' work of the west has been naturally expressed under the religion of Buddhism and the periodical conditions of Japan in the east without disharmony. There are words, “Existentialism is humanism”. As a title of a book by Sartre, the theory of the writer who established his own philosophical area by indulging in existentialism for his lifetime seems to accord with Kurosawa's philosophy. Originally, in the aspect of universal criticism, Shakespeare's 『King Lear』 is a dramatic morality play with the strong Christian view. Such scenes like the death of Lear and Cordelia, the harsh and humiliating end of two wicked daughters, and the repentance and death of Edmund disobeying the Christian norms, showed the general evaluation of the time that the norms of goodness would be protected and maintained. Meanwhile, Kurosawa who borrowed the frame of 『King Lear』 explained children's cruel responses, and also described Hidetora's introspection, by adding the brutal past which was not given to King Lear to Hidetora. Also, through the site filled with slander and slaughter only for revenge and power while values like loyalty, fidelity, and friendship were ignored, Kurosawa showed the image of society in the medieval warring states period of Japan filled with heartless and cold-blooded mutiny. As another axis, Hidetora's misdeed in the past and the current hardship and pain(especially, caused by Kaede's revenge) were interpreted in the aspect of punitivejustice based on the traditional Buddhism of Japan. Presuming this world as 'hell', even Buddha could not lead people to paradise due to their misdeeds in hell. The vagueness of the last composition like "Why should we die?" by Cordelia was changed into solemn and sorrowful sentiment for the death of Hidetora and Saburo in the aspect that death would be the only way to get out of the hell where Buddha's salvation could not be expected.