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ropenico
Reviews
Tanin no kao (1966)
Smoke and mirrors
I get it: The premise of a man whose face is disfigured in an accident and then covered by a life-like mask serves as a plot device to explore the relationship between external appearance and character. Contrived and pretentious is how this theme is handled in the film, starting with the opening narration that is so clever it makes no sense at all. Things do not get better as the film plods on. The character of the psychiatrist (!!!) who developed the mask is particularly annoying: his incessant pseudo philosophical drivel was driving me crazy. No wonder his human guinea pig suffers a breakdown and eventually does him in (we are expected to believe that - just as the psychiatrist had predicted - the new handsome face changed the man's personality and made him do nasty things).
But what personality change are we talking about when the main character is obnoxious to begin with? While his face is still all bandaged up, all he does is self loathing and accusing his wife of rejection. To prove himself right he then uses the fancy mask to seduce his wife only to call her out how easily she gave in to another man. Predictably she says she knew it was him all along. That is actually one of the few plausible ideas in an otherwise vacuous script: after all his body, voice and mannerisms have not changed. But why did not she say so upfront? Ah, right, then there would be no dramatic conflict!
I know, it is all supposed to be very profound, symbolic and what have you, but the film tries so hard to be high-brow that it ended up having the opposite effect on me. The much celebrated aesthetics felt calculated and ostentatious, a mere display of visual gimmickery. Then perhaps evoking the feelings of anger and alienation in the viewer was the whole point.
Satsujin kyôjidai (1967)
Goofy surreal comedy
This film has a definite European feel to it (French comedy with a touch of early Almodovar), only it was made in Japan in mid sixties.
The plot is simple and crazy at the same time. The main character Shinji (Tatsuya Nakadai) is singled out for extermination by a mad, Nazi inspired scientist (Eisei Amamoto)who sets up numerous traps and sends countless assassins in all guises Shinji's way. In the process Shinji undergoes a transformation from a shabby, socially awkward university lecturer to a sly, dashing agent 007 type only to return to his nerdy self at the end of the film. Which made me wonder: was it all a dream? I guess that's part of the film's premise.
Tatsuya Nakadai shows his comic side this time and is priceless as the hapless Shinji turned into James Bond and back. The set of Amamoto's lunatic asylum seems to be a jab at Teshigahara's pretentious aesthetics. The film is well paced, inventive and visually stimulating. If you are willing to leave aside logic and simply take the ride,you are in for a rewarding cinematic experience.
Kagerô (1991)
Bearly watchable
This is the last but one film by Hideo Gosha and sadly it does not hold a candle to his earlier works such as Goyokin or Hitokiri. The fundamental problem lies in the truly awful screenplay: The story takes an implausible turn in the second half and much of the dialogue seems to be cut out straight from a second-rate women's romance. Not to mention gratuitous nudity and even a soft porn-like sex scene. The result is a cinematically well executed but otherwise rather low-brow entertainment with a simple good vs evil plot.
SPOILER ALERT The gist of the story is as follows: A young girl called Orin witnesses murder of her gambler-father for cheating. Orin is then adopted by a well-off restaurant owner and his wife. When her younger brother (a biological son of the couple) is bullied because of her background, the then teenage Orin decides to leave her loving family and somehow becomes an accomplished gambler herself. A (yakuza?) boss wants Orin to represent him in an upcoming big-time card game tournament. While en route there she runs into her now grown up brother and learns that his family have lost all their property to gambling debt. Orin thus decides to buy the restaurant back for her brother with the money she hopes to win. Needless to say the new restaurant owner Otaki and his mistress are very wicked people indeed and we are constantly reminded how evil they are. In order to win the aforementioned card tournament they hire the best gambler in Japan, Tsunejiro "the Immovable", to play on their behalf. Predictably, the final round of the card game comes down to Orin against Tsune. But there's a bizarre twist: not only we learn that it was Tsune who murdered Orin's father some twenty years ago but this impervious, poker-faced character who ignores women even when they throw themselves on him suddenly falls head over heels in love with Orin, and she willingly reciprocates his feelings. A dramatic as well as melodramatic finale follows. END OF SPOLER ALERT
What keeps the movie afloat are the visuals, good pacing and for the most part decent acting. I was particularly impressed by Tatsuya Nakadai's portrayal of Tsune. Not that this role is memorable in any way. Rather, despite the cheesy lines inflicted by the scriptwriter, Nakadai with his restrained performance managed to wrestle some dignity into a painfully campy character. Even so I felt mildly embarrassed to see this superb actor in a part well below his league.