Jun 12 2006
Initial (Tau man ji or 头号字) D: an Interpretation
Watched the movie Initial D in Seattle Intl. Film Festival (thanks to Steve and Kari). Here are some facts and thoughts:
Movie is based on a comic series of the same name by Shuichi Shigeno .
Although the production company and the crew are mostly from Hong Kong, the story is supposedly to take place in Japan (that is where it got me confused for a while, since all the “Japanese” guys speak Cantonese in the movie).
How to read the movie? Basically, it is about a teenager who really excels at one particular trade but is otherwise socially awkward and lacks confidence. He submits to authority easily, fancies the prettiest girl in school but has to wait for her to take the initiative (and believes such a thing could actually happen: aka beta-male syndrome). There are non-subtle hints of voyeurism, under-age sex, and other kinds perversion (e.g. incestual) that strongly suggest male domination. If I shall indulge myself with stereotypes, it is as Japanese as the Superman story is American (superhuman strength and constantly on the look for evil to justify the use of violence).
To Westerners still, there are other connotations that are not easily discerned:
1. The belief in repetition and perseverance. Such a belief is highly valued in East Asian culture. The story is about a delivery guy who achieved world-class success by driving through the same route over and over for many years without even thinking about it. And his performance improves linearly with time–no diminishing returns allowed.
2. The belief in sudden enlightenment. S.E. is an essential part of the Zen Buddhism. There is a metaphore for it, “the head-smashing moment” (当头棒喝. Another interesting story of the origin of Zen here）The story goes, the essence of Zen is so simple yet the world is so complicated that it is impossible for one to link the two through reasoning. If one tries too hard, he needs to be “smashed on the head” in order to achieve enlightenment (use pattern-recognition, you moron!) In the movie, the father-teacher took his son-pupil for a spin and told him, “watch closely for I will only do it once”, and Bang! His son got it.
3. The movie itself employs many features in Hong Kong Kong Fu genre: such as the “forzen movement” technique where everthing freezes except the main character, who flickers just enough to get himself out of trouble. The technique is also widely used in the Matrix and the Mission Impossible series. I don’t know how strictly the screen play follows the original comic stories. But the plot of a wasted old hero, who is struggling on the margin yet still has enough wisdom to tutor a upstar youngster, sounds awefully like a Kung Fu novel.
Deconstruction complete.