Onmyoji Zero

Abe Seimei (Kento Yamazaki) is an apprentice sorcerer in ancient times, but he seems disdainful of his fellow students, teachers and indeed the concepts that are being taught. He is summoned by Minamoto Hiromasa (Shota Sometani), a courtier somewhat related to the royal line but making a living as a musician at the Imperial court; while Seimei is inclined to refuse the other's request, when he learns that it has to do with helping Princess Yoshiko (Nao Honda), he agrees to talk to her. It seems that the Princess plays a lute-like instrument that seems to be possessed, with its strings being broken every night by what she senses is a golden dragon. Seimei solves the problem, but then a member of his school is murdered and the apprentices are all given five days to figure out who the culprit is and capture them. Their reward will be promotion to the next level, so all the apprentices are eager to try, except for Seimei who doesn't want the promotion - but equally he is the only one of them who *can* solve the crime....

This is a mostly gentle fantasy with a great deal of mumbo-jumbo about the conscious and unconscious worlds and the difference between reality ("facts") and subjectivity ("truth"), along with a lot of special effects which are very, very pretty. But the story itself is a bit all over the map and while I liked the acting, there didn't seem to be much holding the tale together. It's quite lovely visually (I especially liked the fire and water dragons) and there are bits here and there that are unexpected and some that are funny, but it just didn't quite all hold together for me. Overall, a competent film leaning a bit too heavily on special effects to tell the story.

I was expecting this to be a light-hearted film about magic and sorcery...

It was, but I found it a bit more. Watching with Western eyes, I first saw Faust's Goethe, then a bit of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose.

But fortunately, I also enjoy Feng Shui...

Wait.. what?

I'll explain, I studied a PhD that looked at cognitive theory, and rather than go down the old NLP the map is not the territory road...

I'll remind those who know that Sigmund Freud, after studying as a neurologist (I am also a rare bookseller and I once sent a copy of Freud's PhD thesis on neurology to a Chinese American in New York... but that's another story, and this film is Japanese, a different country)... but after training as a medical doctor, Sigmund Freud trained with the hypnotist, or mesmerist, Charcot.

And then found that his clients 'recovered' just as well by talking through their symptoms without hypnosis.

But he had to write a book on the Interpretation of Dreams first to get there.

Today, modern athletes train hard to win a 100m race, but at least some get taught visualisation where they run through the race in their minds first.

Therapists who work with veterans and those who have other traumas in the form of PTSD work with both grounding techniques, but also ways of working with imagery to understand their trauma better. The German for 'dream' is Traum!

So, with that, I work with different mind maps, I work with a Hindu Vedic compass sometimes called a Brahma map as well as the Moksha Patam, as well as forms of hand meditation called Mudras.

And so I also use Greek, Norse, and Chinese myths, as well as gods and goddesses from Hindu religion, as ways of contemplating my own mind.

In Japanese myths, I like the spring story of Yazume and. Aretamasu, as she seduces the sun goddess out of her depression every year to bring in the new season.

Not so different to St Antoine's Temptation, except St Antoine (bless him) is terrified.

A story told in of all things Victor Hugo's story Les Miserables, where the two barricades are St. Antoine and the Temple, the former noisy, the latter quiet.

So I use Feng Shui in my home, and I know some of the stories of the five elements, the different dragons (I have a statue of Hestia on my hearth, the home of the Golden Dragon) with the Black Tortoise, Vermilion Dragon, White Tiger and Jade Dragon at each compass point.

So, I came to this film with some knowledge, and whilst the story is very much of a Japanese/ Chinese bent (I couldn't quite tell, but as a child, I watched the Water Margin and Monkey, Chinese myths made by Japanese filmmakers...), although I disappeared to Tarkovsky's Solaris for a 'madeleine' moment after the tale of the water under the Capital

Well, let's just say the film transported me on a fantastic journey through my unconscious, much known to me, but then, well, I was shown parts of the 'room' I didn't always look at.

What else do you want from such a film?

The main character is so handsome and charming, but it's not all the good things. The plot in the end is so supprised. I've been thinking that no magical survive in this world of film, there's only trick on trick, fraud on fraud. However, at the end, Abe is the only one can use magic, and he hid his ability from the begining. The second thing we have to say is the visual effect. It's very beautiful and magnificient, especially Princess's scene, with all of those beautiful and poetic things like flowers and koto, giltered flying dust, but her story is so sad too. I feel pathetic for her. I wish the princess can live another life with another indentity.