Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi (The Idiot) as a dialogue with Dostoevsky on existence, moral beauty and trauma

Title: Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi (The Idiot) as a dialogue with Dostoevsky on existence, moral beauty and trauma
Variant title:
  • К/ф А. Куросавы "Хакути" ("Идиот") как диалог с Достоевским на теме существования, моральной красоты и травмы
Author: Aloe, Stefano
Source document: Slavica litteraria. 2019, vol. 22, iss. 2, pp. 37-45
Extent
37-45
  • ISSN
    1212-1509 (print)
    2336-4491 (online)
Type: Article
Language
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi ("The Idiot", 1951), based on F. Dostoevsky's eponymous novel, is one of the most complex and ambitious films of the Japanese master. Deeply impressed by Russian literature, and namely by the work of Dostoevsky, Kurosawa demonstrates a will to adapt not only the plot and themes from the novel but also some particular features of its narrative construction. At the same time, the film is conceived as a free rewriting of the Russian source based on the Japanese cultural and historical framework of the traumatic post-war era. In doing that, Kurosawa made possible to develop Dostoevsky's reflections on the nature of Love and Evil according to philosophical categories of the Japanese culture – in particular by approaching the questions posed by the Russian writer under a non-Christian, but rather Zen-Buddhist point of view.
Фильм японского мастера кино Акиры Куросавы "Хакути" ("Идиот", 1951), основанный на одноименном романе Ф.М. Достоевского, является одним из самых сложных и амбициозных шедевров режиссера. Под сильными впечатлениями от русской литературы, и в частности от творчества Достоевского, Куросава проявляет желание адаптировать не только сюжет и темы романа, но и некоторые специфические черты его повествовательной структуры. В то же время русский источник подвергается в фильме коренным изменениям в соответствии с травматическим историко-культурным контекстом послевоенной Японии. Таким способом, Куросава смог свободно развивать размышления Достоевского о природе любви и зла, опираясь на философские категории японской культуры, а в частности с не-христианским, а скорее дзен-буддистским подходом к вопросам, поставленным русским писателем.
Note
The present paper is based on a speech given at the University of Tokyo during the International Dostoevsky Workshop "Dostoevsky as Culture and Representation" (February 16th, 2019).
References
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