Ninjo Kami Fusen

God only knows just how much I stalled to watch this one. It was one of those impulse downloads that just grabbed my attention from the get go. Then again, I am a moody person when it comes down to actually watching stuff (or listening, or almost anything else). But today I was presented with the PERFECT scenario for watching a movie that could be horribly bad and tedious. I woke up at 9pm (yeah, really), had dinner, just finished with a song yesterday (took the easy way out… Decided to go with an interpretation of Bach’s BWV 147 “Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude Jesu”, then decided not to use it at all, and will be writing something again someday… But that’s a story for another day) and wasn’t in the mood to start composing another. So I decided to just get it over with and watch this thing.

A little bit on history for you. “Ninjo Kami Fusen” (“Humanity And Paper Balloons”) is the last film by Yamanaka Sadao, as he went to war the day the film was released theatrically. He died in battle at the age of 29 and most of his films were lost after that. On the film itself, although somewhat unknown outside Japan, it was considered by many critics and filmmakers to be a milestone (Akira Kurosawa included).The story is set on the 18th century and focus on the life of Unno, a ronin trying to get his life together, and his neighbors. Now… REALLY. This is not an easy movie to watch. Many, many, many cultural references which WILL seem completely obscure if you are not REALLY into Japanese culture (after all, 1937, the world was not exactly globalized, so they weren’t pulling any punches regarding culture, part of why the movie looks and feels so real). I thought it was ridiculously dragged at first, the story just seems to wander aimlessly and doesn’t show any signs of going anywhere, anytime soon. And you might even take some sweet time (took me about 20 minutes) to realize how the hell was the main character, as there are loads of parallel stories being told and the schemes that are being pulled off are not that obvious sometimes. I really thought it was boring and almost gave up watching it as it hit the 40 minutes mark and I was still not really getting the fun of it. But then something just happened and the story started to make a whole bunch of sense. It is not about an epic tale of a samurai, it’s the story of a dude that’s miserable. You gotta have this ridiculously clear in your mind when watching it. There is no epic turn around, there is no violence; it is a drama (and a DAMN GOOD one at that). Although it could be a little bit shorter and it drags quite a bit, this is a great film. Photography is excellent and Yamanaka did a great show on making the sorrow of the characters show even when they were smiling (simple and effective acting is also a great point here).
I don’t think there is a better entry point to Pre-War Japanese films then this, but I wouldn’t advice someone to go from a ’00 movie to here either. Once I discover better ways to take this in, I’ll be sure to note here, but until then, it’s a great one for the brave that want to see what is out there.