Kûkai
was like the Japanese Xuanzang (of Journey
to the West immortality). He really did travel to China in search of
Buddhist teachings. As amateur sleuths go, he inspires a good deal of confidence.
That is not necessarily true of the great Tang poet Bai Juyi, but Kûkai needs
somebody familiar with all of the capitol city’s brothels. Together, they will
solve a mystery with supernatural implications in Chen Kaige’s Legend of the Demon Cat (trailer here), which screens
during the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
Technically,
it is not really a whodunit. The demonic cat did it—and he will do it a lot
more. The question is why. Kûkai first finds traces of its nefarious activity
when he is summoned to exorcise the emperor. Unfortunately, he arrives too late,
but immediately suspects the furry demon. He also meets Bai Juyi, who is about
to resign his post as the court recorder. It is from Bai that Kûkai hears
gossip of a strange cat tormenting the household of the captain of the imperial
guard. From there, they are off like Holmes and Watson on the trail of Captain
Chen, which naturally runs through an elegant brothel.
In
fact, it is fortunate they are there, so Kûkai can treat Chen’s former
favorite, who is mysteriously afflicted with paranormal parasites. However,
they really catch a break when they discover the diary of Nakamaro Abe, a
Japanese expat, who watched the Emperor’s favorite concubine, Yang Guifei, meet
her sad end. In an almost Shakespearean paradox, everybody at court loved her,
especially including Abe, but she was doomed to die as a Marie Antoinette
scapegoat. Of course, the cat is still rather ticked off about what happened,
but to be fair, it did go down rather badly.
Frankly,
it is hard to believe this is a Chen Kaige film, because it is relatively short
on melodrama, but long on spectacle. It looks more like a Tsui Hark remake of Ghost Cat of Otama Pond. The fact that it
is a Chinese-Japanese co-production is also a minor miracle. See, we can all
get along after all. Regardless, it is a big film, with big sets, and big
effects, and a weirdly idiosyncratic narrative based on Baki Yumemakura’s Japanese
novel.
There
are a lot of entertaining aspects to Demon
Cat, starting with the laidback, unforced buddy chemistry that develops
between Kûkai and Bai. Instead of bickering and bantering, they gently tease each
other and eventually really start to open up and talk honestly. Shota Sometani is
truly terrific as Kûkai, in a sly, understated kind of way. Huang Xuan plays
off him nicely as Bai, but the character does not have the same heft and
dimension. Sad-eyed Hiroshi Abe radiates
heartsickness as his morose namesake, while Sandrine Pinna is radiantly regal
yet acutely tragic as Lady Yang.
Perhaps
most importantly, Demon Cat vividly demonstrates
how cool Buddhist monks can be. This is a messy, sprawling film, so it might be
that sum of its parts is greater than its whole, but it would be a crying shame
to miss those parts. There are at least half a dozen scenes viewers are sure to
be talking about afterward. Highly recommended as a visually lavish jaunt into
Tang-era intrigue and supernatural hijinks, Legend
of the Demon Cat screens tonight (9/13) and Saturday (9/15) as part of this
year’s TIFF.
