La cérémonie

It's a mystery to me why Oshima, and especially his movie Ceremony ( although my personal favourite is Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) doesn't get the recognition he deserves, among the greatest directors. Possibly because, apart for the famous In the realm of the senses, very few have watched his films. Ceremony, in my opinion, is his best film. It is extraordinary how he constructs the narration of this family saga, and how he makes it resonate with thoughts and feelings in every minute of it, putting in shame all of the more applauded asian family stories that became famous movies over the kast decades. But he also surpasses many acclaimed European directors of his time. Ceremony is an undisputed masterpiece that you watch shivering , a proof that cinema can be made out of pure magic!

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.

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?

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.

I know a lot of people love this movie. For me it was not entirely successful. This is not one ceremony but many seen without any connection.

I saw a lot of events but I did not really feel I got to know any of the characters better and their motivation for their behavior. In fact I felt I knew as little about them when the movie ended as when it started.

I am not the big flashback fan for a starter. But some of the baseball things were contradicted from others as never happened. Well I have no idea now really if it did or was just made up. but again how much was then made up? What did really happen and what did not. For me not a great premise for a movie. This could as well have been all a dream.

Maybe I missed something because of the subtitles maybe not were adequate, but I doubt they could have missed that much. It did not help that I did not feel connected to any of the characters. At the same time I think their actions did not feel connected to other episodes in the paper thin story line.

I think I have seen many better and more subtle Japanese movies that were critical to society. This is not one for my collection