Gishiki

(1971) The Ceremony/ Gishiki (In Japanese with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Nagisa Ôshima that has Sakurada Masuo (Kenzô Kawarasaki) and Sakurada Ritsuko (Atsuko Kaku) receiving a telegram from Tachibana Terumichi (Atsuo Nakamura). And while waiting for their boat liner, Masuo and through his narration it is during then we get to witness what his life is like from the times of 1945 and 1947 when he was just a child viewers then get to see how he meets them as well as other people from within this particular clan to which some may describe as dysfunctional.

The movie is long talky and boring to pessimistic from the stand point of a fictional and exaggerate story line.

I have seen this film in the late eighties, together with other Oshima's movies and I could collect only a vague impression of exoticism. This before I visited Japan, where I currently live.

I have seen it again last night and I can confirm that "Gishiki" portrays some of the most specific aspects of the Japanese culture. It is a movie deeply ingrained with the rebellion against traditional culture and family, which is typical of the late sixties-early seventies, not only in Japan, but also in Europe. The same can be said of the use of sexuality as a powerful device to offset the established values.

The powerful Sakurada clan is brought to ruin by the same force that keeps it together, the powerful grandfather. This happens in a sequence of rigidly choreographed family reunions, in occasions of funerals and weddings spanning several years following the end of the world. In this sense the world of the Sakuradas is so traditional that many scenes could be set in medieval Japan, with minor modifications in the dialogs and costumes. Ritual suicides and uncompassioned sex are recurring estranging events which follow and precede these ceremonies.

At the end what has been taken away from the protagonist is his very childhood, and hence his possibility to exist as a human being.

A boy experiences traumas during WWII (which we don't see), and the subsequent 25 years of his life are a continuation of those traumas. Oshima skillfully depicts Japan's post-war evolution, and the ways the dark secrets of the past live on within the present. Gishiki is by no means an enjoyable film: the main character experiences nothing but losses, misfortunes, and humiliations. But this is a dark truth of life: anyone who lives long enough accumulates losses and failures, and for some, perhaps everything else is overtaken. In the end, the main character is left alone with nothing except his lost dreams and his endlessly repeating traumas. A very sad film, but one I'm glad to have seen.

I hardly know where to start in describing this film. The story is told in flashback, as a conversation. From memory, there are about five flashback episodes, the longest covering the wedding of a young man, where the bride fails to show but the wedding proceeds. The young man continues the farce by attempting to have sex with a large pillow which he calls "darling".

The remainder of the film is just as weird, but I found it completely engrossing. Oshima appears to be attacking many aspects of Japanese modern culture with his scalpel-sharp satirical wit.

Not a film for everyone, but highly recommended nevertheless.

Kenzo Kawarasaki returns from Manchuria to Japan; actually, he has no memory of Japan at all. He's part of a noble clan, dominated by his severe grandfather. He falls in love with Akiko Koyama, but it turns out she's his half-sister; his grandfather raped her mother, and grandpa seems to be his actual father. So they yearn, meet at weddings and funerals, and he never does anything, either in getting an heir or accomplishing anything.

But at least he's appropriately miserable. This is, after all, a film by Nagisa Oshima, and all the evils that past generations did must be revealed and punished, even if the innocent are the ones punished.

There's not a hint of compassion here. So why did I think I had seen this before? Then it struck me. Ignoring the war crimes and rapine, this is the plot of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, their once mighty wealth brought down through a lack of get-up-and-go. But would ambition have changed anything?