切腹 (小林正樹, 1962) 4
Harakiri or Seppuku (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
On 35mm at the Pacific Film Archive, with Lucía, Dick, Ben, Sunny, Barbara, and Oscar, on 3 December, 2006, at 18:40.
In Seppuku, Kobayashi does a good job of having his cake and eating it too. The film is a withering critique of samurai ideals, of ideas of nobility predicated on position and circumstance rather than character, of making life-or-death decisions based on snap judgements and character generalizations rather than the situation at hand, and even of accepting the truth of history as it is handed down to us. Yet at the same time, we are given top-notch swordplay and bloodshed and a good and noble character to root for. What more could we ask for a film? In this case, I feel that Kobayashi managed to take the premise and work through it to utmost effect. The layers are unpeeled slowly over the course of the film, giving great weight to the kernel inside. In many ways I was reminded of Hero, only I felt that the way that the story slowly worked its way out like a Rubix cube was much more engaging (Hero I found pretty tedious), and the kernel itself was something I felt much more valuable (in Hero we learn that it’s worth sacrificing lives for… the one true China?).
If there’s a better samurai film out there, I don’t think I’ve seen it.
(***)
雨月物語 (溝口健二, 1953)
Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
on 35mm at the Pacific Film Archive, with Lucía, Ruchi, Aman, and Yuko. 18 August, 2006, at 20:45.
Quite a beautiful film, with virtuosic camerawork. Mizoguchi goes out of his way to impress with shots like the one in which the general commits seppuku just out of view of the camera (behind a tree), and when the camera comes around, his body has been replaced with a headless dummy. Or when Genjuro returns home to find his house dark and empty–the camera pulls outside of the house, follows him as he walks out the back door and as he walks around and back in again, this time with his wife sitting there in a pool of light. I’d have to see them again to be sure, but I remember them being single shots.
The story feels as though it was pieced together from old fables. Clearly Mizoguchi is trying to impress upon us the way that men destroy women’s lives (or let them be destroyed through their own selfishness and delusions). Clearly there is a message about accepting one’s lot and not letting ambition get in the way of family and more practical matters (such as preparing for the arrival of an invading army). Also, one should not let oneself be seduced by ghosts, unless one is willing to go through with them fully into the other world.
浪華悲歌 (溝口健二, 1936)
Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
on 35mm at the Pacific Film Archive, with Lucía, Dick, Aman, Ruchi, Ben, Yuko, and Roberto. 18 August, 2006, at 19:00.
A woman cannot convince her suitor to take care of her father’s 300円 debt, so she lets the company president (who is eager to jump into bed with her) take her on as his mistress. When that dries up (his wife finds out), and she finds out that her brother needs 200円 to finish school, she coaxes the money out of another executive, though the father gambles it away, presumably—it never gets to the brother. When she refuses to sleep with him, she is arrested and her name scandalized. Her family kicks her out because of the shame, and thus ends another Mizoguchi fable. I love these old Japanese films, and this one has the added benefit of strong Osaka dialect (ほんまや!).