Takemitsu at Film Forum: Ballad of Orin

Opportunities were limited for blind women in early Twentieth Century Japan. Able-bodied men on the other hand, were in high demand for military service in Siberia. Despite their hardships, a beautiful gozé (a blind troubadour) and an army deserter forge a deep but unconventional bond of love, perfectly reflected by Toru Takemitsu’s strange love songs in Masahiro Shinoda’s The Ballad of Orin, which screens this Wednesday and Thursday as part of Film Forum’s two week retrospective of films scored by Takemitsu.

Abandoned as a young girl by her mother, Orin was taken in by a gozé house for musical training. In no way should gozé be confused with geisha. The women lived a monastic existence as brides of the Buddha. Of course, they were often called to entertain at worldly parties, bringing them into contact with men and temptation. Those who succumb are banished to a life on road as wandering minstrels, which indeed happens to Orin.

Senzo Tsurukawa is not like most men Orin meets in her travels. Rather than moving in for the conquest, he offers himself as her platonic protector. He even insists they call each other brother and sister, much to her frustration. Yet, even though they want different things from each other, the love they share is genuine. They even seem to have a semi-respectable future together running a clog stall, until Tsurukawa’s past starts to catch up with him. By the time they reach the appropriately ominous sounding village of Obama in the Wakasa province, tragedy seems inevitable.

Ballad is a perfect choice for Film Forum’s Takemitsu retrospective, given the role music plays in the story. Yet, despite the prominence of Orin’s songs, the music never overwhelms the on-screen drama. Though traditional in form, Takemitsu gives his score a postmodern-minimalist twist that sets a delicate but unsettling tone throughout the film.

Though worlds away from his New Wave noir films like Pale Flower, Ballad is one of Shinoda’s masterworks. There are unshakable images throughout the film, even during the opening titles. Also aptly known as Melody in Gray, Shinoda and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa use a color palette dominated by grays and greens, making coastal Japan look like Seattle. It perfectly suits Takemitsu’s melancholy score and Shinoda’s naturalistic approach.

Shima Iwashita is fantastic as Orin, powerfully projecting vulnerability and passion, without the benefit of her eyes. Yoshio Harada plays Tsurukawa like a young Toshirō Mifune, full of gruff bluster, but with a soft heart concealed inside. Their chaste love is arguably one of the most touching movie romances of all time.

Having also recently screened as part of the Shinoda sidebar at the 48th New York Film Festival, Film Forum’s Takemitsu retrospective will be one of the few chances to see Ballad on the big screen in the foreseeable future. A truly haunting film, Shinoda’s Ballad is highly recommended this Wednesday and Thursday (12/15 & 12/16), as is the entire Takemitsu series, which concludes on Thursday.

NYFF ’10: Samurai Spy

When their lords died in battle, surviving ronin (masterless samurai) did not have a lot of career options. Fortunately, in early Seventeenth Century Edo Japan there was considerable demand for spies and assassins, jobs certainly compatible with their skill-sets. One still noble samurai finds himself drawn into the clash of shadowy agents working on behalf of two rival clans in Masahiro Shinoda’s Cold War action allegory Samurai Spy, which screens during the 48th New York Film Festival as part of their Masterworks retrospective tribute to the director.

Sasuke Sarutobi is one cool customer. He is a member of the Sanada Clan. Though officially “unaligned,” they are suspected to the support the recently defeated Toyotomi Clan rather than the Tokugawa Shogunate. Despite his “plague on both your houses” protestations, Mitsuaki, a Toyotomi spy tries to recruit him into a rather nefarious scheme he has cooked up. A top Tokugawa spy-master plans to defect to the Toyotomi Clan with Mitsuaki’s aid, but the treacherous spy plans to betray him to their current masters in a manner that would allow him to collect from both sides.

When karma catches up with Mitsuaki, everyone assumes Sarutobi can deliver mystery man Tatewaki Koriyama, the elusive Harry Lyme of Samurai Spy. As a result, the honorable but jaded samurai becomes the focus of intrigue for a host of agents from the rival clans, whom he has no trouble keeping straight, unlike the rest of us mere mortals. Still, if you follow Sarutobi’s lead, you won’t go far wrong, unless you count the unfortunate Okiwa. A beautiful pawn in the game, she is brutally murdered after launching a brief but intense affair with Sarutobi. For his part, Sarutobi is determined to make the guilty party pay, good and hard.

Like Pale Flower, Spy is stylistically dazzling, yet it still tells a darkly compelling morality tale. At times the hack-and-slash action is surprisingly gory, complete with severed limbs and gushing blood. Yet there are moments when it approaches the unreal, as clashing combatants seem to hang in the air Crouching Tiger-like. Yet despite employing liberal elements from the martial arts and spy movie genres, Shinoda has really crafted another film noir in the tradition of Flower. Sarutobi is definitely a hard-boiled lone wolf, instinctively cynical towards authority. Again, Shinoda and cinematographer Masao Kosugi’s striking use of fog and shadows feel like pure noir.

Koji Takahashi is all kinds of bad as Sarutobi. Though not quite as jaundiced as Ryô Ikebe’s Muraki in Flower, he still projects quite a cool presence. Yet, when another woman in his orbit is kidnapped, his righteous seething is downright fearsome. Jitsuko Yoshimura brings a touch of humanity to the film as Omiyo, the woman Sarutobi must save, while Misako Watanabe adds quite a bit of heat as the woman he must avenge. Indeed, it is a great ensemble cast, even though viewers might need a cheat sheet to track their characters’ allegiances.

According to conventional wisdom, Sarutobi’s Sanada Clan represents Japan, while the Toyotomi and Tokugawa factions are stand-ins for the United States and Soviet Union, respectively. Intriguingly, Spy seems to suggest neutrals must ultimately align themselves, with Sarutobi eventually siding with the Toyotomi Clan, the supposed Americans. It also explicitly addresses the persecution of Christianity in Edo-era Japan—not exactly a fashionable topic in Japanese (or western) pop culture, then or now. Highly entertaining as well as historically significant, Spy is another masterful film from the Japanese auteur. It screens this Tuesday (10/5) and Wednesday (10/6) at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the 2010 NYFF’s Masterworks tribute to Masahiro Shinoda.

NYFF ’10: Pale Flower

In a different time and place, Muraki could have been a hard-bitten P.I. or a high plains drifter, but in an early 1960’s Japanese film, he had to be a yakuza. Spectacularly cynical, his contempt for humanity is constantly justified throughout Masahiro Shinoda’s classic Pale Flower, which screens during the 2010 New York Film Festival as part of their Masterworks retrospective tribute to the director.

Recently released from prison, Muraki finds things have changed. His boss has forged an alliance with the rival crime lord whose henchmen he was ordered to kill. This ought to be an awkward situation for Muraki, but he is too cool to care. One gets the sense he is simply looking for a distraction as he waits for death to come calling. In that respect, meeting Saeko is fortuitous.

An innocent looking beauty of apparent means, the mystery woman loves to gamble and does not mind losing substantial sums. Recognizing a man of action when she sees one, Saeko convinces the jaded enforcer to vouchsafe her at the yakuza’s high roller games. Thus begins a chaste but worldly courtship of a sort, not that Muraki will let it go anywhere.

Beyond noir, Flower’s characters seem to live in a preternaturally twilight world, where violence and death are constants, but the only real enemy is boredom. Muraki scrupulously lives by a code of honor, yet it means nothing more to him than observing traffic signals. Indeed, Ryô Ikebe truly delivers the noir goods as the sullen yakuza, perfectly conveying hardnosed grit and existential resignation.

Stylistically, Flower is so hyper-noir, it surpasses the excesses of self-parody, luxuriating in its moody underworld milieu. Thanks to Kosugi Masao’s elegant cinematography, nearly every frame is worthy of framing, despite the dissolute nature of the on-screen action. In fact, so much time is spent in gambling dens and the like, Flower was initially shelved for months after its completion.

A figure associated with the Japanese New Wave, Shinoda displays a genuine mastery of film noir forms in Flower well beyond that of French Nouvelle Vague auteurs inspired by the genre, such as Godard and Truffaut. Yet, it is still edgy and subversive, well deserving the “New Wave” appellation. Seriously hip and absolutely absorbing, a new print of Flower screens Saturday (9/25) as part of the Masterworks tribute to Shinoda at this year’s NYFF.