When Shii came to the Berlinale, he was especially interested in the Teinosuke Kinugasa films. Even though I am not particularly fond of samurai films, I thought I wanted to give it a try, and what better occasion is there than a day in which I can catch three films in a row in the same theater? The convenience was overwhelming.
Jujiro (Crossways)
Japan 1928, Teinosuke Kinugasa, 87’
Young Rikiya is into the beautiful prostitute O-Ume and gives her a kimono to woe her. But her followers beat him up and blind him. After Rikiya tries to stab someone, he thinks he murdered and runs back home to his sister. As she tries to help him, her landlord uses the situation to blackmail her into sleeping with him. Cornered, the sister kills the landlord, and both siblings must flee again.
Death count: 2, I assume.
Style-wise, I think that “Jujiro” is an expressionist masterpiece, and it really made me want to watch Kinugasa films again. There is something inherently beautiful in the depiction of despair in this film, and if the series is called “Aesthetics of Shadows”, then “Jujiro” is probably its best example. Kinugasa shows the poor, ragged and evil with mesmerizing beauty. Other than that, I typically have a hard time to love films which are really just despair and, in this case, essentially lacking anything human apart from the sister’s love (the brother himself did not seem to have done anything for his sister from what I can see, and generally seems to fail to understand what love is). To me, the story was nothing but a dragged out piece of pain, and my failure to feel for the characters here is similar to what I felt when I watched “Ninjo kamifusen” because I just couldn’t get behind what they did. I probably should have watched “Yukinojo Henge” instead – at least I can get behind that story for sure.
Yup, that was a major painfest, but the little sister and the beautiful shots and direction totally made it up to me!
Haha I understand XXXD I guess I don’t have as much tolerance to suffering.