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Reviews
Matatabi (1973)
The Tragedy of Life's Struggles
This films details the beginnings of the Yakuza, the system of honor and ritual that they created, and the social structure of the organization.
The film follows the lives of three friends at the lower rung of the Yakuza social order. (Many people mistake this film to be about three Ronin, but that is definitely not the case and is made clear in the opening narration.) The three protagonists are in fact toseinins, wandering peasants who have forsaken family and home for a life of adventure and petty crime, travelling between Yakuza Houses looking for shelter, work and food.
This film is a tragedy, not of epic proportions, but of all to real proportions. The film centers around Genta, a young man conflicted between desire (to family and love) and obligation (to the Yakuza code). Spoiler warning In essence the film is a coming of age story, especially for Genta. Genta must weigh his killing of his father against his love of family versus his obligation to kill him because of the code he lives by. He also deals with a certain level of betrayal ... after having been ordered to kill his father by a Yakuza boss, he is then turned away by that same boss because he doesn't want a criminal in his midst, the irony being that the boss created the criminal.
This film is really a ridiculing of any code, since rigid codes often undermine our own humanity and morality.
The only character that is really shown rejecting a code is the girl, Okumi, that runs away from her owner to be with Genta. She firmly rejects the role assigned to her by society's rules to do what is right, not just for herself but for her three friends.
The cinematography here is quite good, a lot of nice long shots of the three (eventually four) traipsing across gorgeous Japanese landscapes. (Unfortunately, the print shown wasn't that great, the colours washed out, especially the blue spectrum, so if some of the granduer was lost, the imagination was able to fill in the colour gaps.)
The tragedy in the film is the understated endings to three of the characters: Genta dies alone and lost. Shinta dies painfully of tetanus. And Okumi is left a life of servitude, forever awaiting the return of a Genta she knows not is dead. And Mokutaro, alive, is left alone and without the only friends he has, probably to forever believe that Genta deserted him out of a recent misunderstanding they just had.
For all the emotional and moral struggles these characters go through, in the end it is meaningless, as they die anonymously. There is no one to grieve their parting. And none of the character actually "come of age", even though that is the basic premise of the film.
There is some sporadic comedy here, and the fight scenes are oddly played out (against type for this kind of film, which makes them interesting to watch in that regard.)
I don't highly recommend this film, but I do recommend it.
Tôhoku no zunmu-tachi (1957)
Great Piece of Comedic Morality Play
Very enjoyable piece of cinema, filmed in stark black and white.
The story follows the lives a mountain-locked village, where only the eldest son of each family is allowed to shave, wear proper clothing, and most importantly marry and procreate. All other male children (called Yakkos) are resigned to a life of labour, working the fields, wearing rags, and abstaining from carnal desire. Daughters that cannot be married are sold off each year to a travelling merchant.
The film follows the life of the most wretched of these yakkos, Risuke. He has been cursed with the worst case of halitosis known to man, and everyone blanches from him when he speaks, ordering him to face away. Much of his conversation with people is while he's not facing them.
Tragedy befalls the husband of Triangle House as he is wracked with a painful sickness and dies, but not before explaining to his wife that his father was also stricken with the same illness, thus it must be a curse. He details how his father caught a yakko having relations with his wife and killed him. He claims that the sickness is the curse of the murdered yakko and he must be appeased before peace will ever come to his family. On his dying breath he asks his wife, Oei, to bed every yakko in the village, one at a time, for a single night after his death, and that will finally appease the curse.
The wife obeys him, and every yakko's life improves, except Risuke. Oei avoids bedding him, feeling that not even the murdered yakko would expect her to engage that level of punishment upon herself. As far as she knows the curse has been lifted, a wonderful butterfly acting as her sign.
But poor Risuke is plagued with feelings of doubt and self-esteem issues that begin to drive him mad. Finally an old woman tells him a secret, one that is kept from all yakko, lest they leave the village and put it to ruin: far over the mountains lies a village only of women, who are so desperate for men that they would accept even Risuke, so desperate are they that even the worst case of halitosis known to man would be no nevermind.
Risuke decides to set off over the mountains, even though no yakko has ever been known to make it. His desire for love and companionship and acceptance is that strong. It is here that the film takes an interesting visual turn.
Up until this point, the entire piece was either filmed outdoors on location or in quite realistic interior sets. But as Risuke sets off on his journey, the outdoor locations become a fantastical, far from realistic, set piece... painted highly stylised backdrops, fake snow upon fake rocks ... Ichikawa is suggesting strongly to us the fantastical nature of his trip, showing us that the story of a village of women is pure fantasy, but that Risuke's search and desire for acceptance is the more important journey. The journey is the reward, not the destination.
A great film. Highly recommended.
I was also surprised and pleased to see the old grandmother from Ozu's "Good Morning" show up here as the old woman that tells Risuke about the village of women.
Dokonjo monogatari - zeni no odori (1964)
Not Ichikawa's Best
What didn't work:
1. The plot was far too complex and it didn't hold up well throughout the film. 2. Fortune played to big a role in a couple of situations, such as when Hapyaku is about to drown and that truck driver shows up. For one, it took me the entire movie to figure out who the hell he was (he was the hit-and-run driver at the very start of the film) and why he and Hapy seemed to know each other. Geez, he didn't even talk at the start of the film, and he appeared so briefly, yet we were supposed to remember him? 3. The handheld camera work was making my head hurt, it was so erratic. And experiment that failed. I don't if they had steadycam's in 1963, but that would have been a better choice. 4. The film was too dark, especially the last 15 minutes on the waterfront, where it was so dark during some shots that I couldn't make heads or tails what was going on. 5. The female informant that just kept "showing up" didn't work, but that plays into the unnecessary complexity of the plot and how it just didn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
What did work: 1. The casting of Hapyaku. He had the right mixture of brawn, naivety and comic relief. I really liked his character, too bad the character was stuck in this movie.
This isn't Ichikawa's best work, probably not even close. It was his second Cinemascope production though, and he seemed to still be experimenting with the new medium. The script could have definitely used a reworking.
Wagahai wa neko de aru (1975)
Great Film, Deliberately Paced, but Never Dull
An Ichikawa film, which means that there is little plot, just vignettes for a short period of the protagonist's life.
The story revolves around an academic, of sorts. A man who is initially characterized as lazy, a man who starts many projects, but never follows them through. True, but as the film evolves, we are to learn why.
He's just never been able to achieve the goals he once set out for himself, blaming, more or less, circumstance and environment, when in fact most of the blame should lay with him.
The synopsis of this film was a bit misleading, stating that narration is done by Sampei's cat. Not true. The cat becomes a participant (unwilling and willing) in most of the story, but his narration only occurs at the film's tragic ending.
The film is dialogue heavy and most of the character participation rarely leaves Sempei's study. The characters leave and enter the scenes quickly, so figuring out who's who and who means what to whom can take a little while to figure out. Ichikawa leaves no quarter here.
But once you've got everyone figured out and the main thrust of the what's going on (which kind of revolves around the impending engagement of two minor characters), the film itself is rewarding. Again it deals with changing values, a common theme it seems in Japanese cinema.
Very good film. Very highly recommended.
Watashi wa nisai (1962)
Criterion Are You Listening? Release this on DVD!
The only real disappointment with this film is that I will probably never get to see this on DVD. I want to own it so badly now.
I was tremendously impressed with this film when I saw it for the first time at the Ichikawa retrospective in Vancouver tonight. It reminded me of another favourite film of mine, Yasujiro Ozu's Good Morning.
I Am Two revolves around a Japanese nuclear family (husband, wife, and small child) and their trials and tribulations. There's no hard plot here, just vignettes of life taking place over the course of 9 - 12 months (the time span is never made very clear, but that is probably an accurate estimate).
The film is told from the pseudo-perspective of a one year old (who turns two at film's end). I say pseudo, because Kon doesn't inflict childlike camera angles on us throughout the film. Instead he relies on narration by the child, mainly to introduce new characters to us from his perspective and to introduce new plot points, again from the child's perspective.
The film has a similar pace to Good Morning, similar character interactions, and similar themes (i.e. the loss of traditional Japanese values as the pace of change accelerates). It doesn't benefit from Ozu's use of colour, but neither is it a fault of the film. I Am Two is not Good Morning, but you could consider them first cousins, both of which have a great deal of charm.
Like Good Morning there is oblique social commentary, but it is never in your face. If you recognize it, then so be it, the film seems to suggest. If you miss it, then so be it also. Both films recognize changes in Japanese society, but neither film passes judgement on those changes.
One of the interesting aspects of the film is the opening ... it details the birth of Taro, narrated by Taro, and from Taro's "blurry, ill-defined" perspective.
If this retrpspective passes through your town, this is one I VERY VERY HIGHLY recommend. It is a must see. And I would love someone (preferably Criterion) to put it out on DVD.