I was just dazzled visually by this period
drama from Teinosuke Kinugasa. We live surrounded by colors - most of them
muted whites, browns and blacks - and it is only in film sometimes when we
realize how astonishingly powerful colors can be - how they can jump out
and captivate us with their richness. Make your eyeballs come alive and make
you wonder why we don't surround ourselves with colors that speak to us.
This film drowns in luxurious kimonos both for the men and women and offset
against simplistic interior designs they are stunning. This is a gorgeous
film with wonderful period detail, ceremony and ritual. It is interesting
to see the arc of Teinosuke Kinugasa filming style.
His early films were very influenced by European expressionism and Russian
montage, very experimental - but they didn't do well in Japan. They were
too far out of the mainstream. He took his 1928 film Crossroads on a marketing
trip to Russia and on to Europe and it got some play in theaters there -
one of the first Japanese films to get a theatrical release abroad - but
back home it was a failure and he had to shut down his production company.
By this film he seems to be very much a traditional part of the film community.
This was released right in the middle of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema
when Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse were making their great films. Teinosuke's
reputation never reached that level but this film won the Grand Prize at
Cannes, the Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the
Best Foreign film by the New York Film Critics. But by his last film Yoso
in 1963 he is back to black and white and a very classical style.
All three of his films that I have seen appear very theatrical to me - as
if much of it could have been presented on a stage. I think this goes back
to Teinosuke's beginnings in his career. He began in Kabuki theater - playing
the female roles. The dramatic formalized acting style of Kabuki shows up
in all these films - the close-ups, the powerful stern manner of speaking,
the distinct movement. When film came along Teinosuke became a "female" actor
in that as well - until they began to allow women to act. That left him jobless
and he turned to directing. He ended up directing over 120 films. I would
love to see as many of them as I can - all three so far have been terrific.
This is in fact based on a play by Kan Kikuchi. It is a drama that takes
place in 1160. The Heiji era. Lord Kiyomori of the Taira Clan goes on a visit
to the Temple of Itsukushima but while he is away another clan takes advantage
of his absence to invade his castle and take it over. While this attack is
going on the court tries to save the sister of the Lord by sending off an
impersonator for the attackers to follow. This is Kesa, (Machiko Kyo) a court
lady. The invaders do in fact attack her but they are fought off by Morito
(Kazuo Hasegawa), a lowly country samurai. Morito then re-joins the fight
and Kiyomori regains his castle.
For his service the Lord tells Morito he can have anything "but my head".
Morito says he wants the hand of Kesa. The Lord agrees but then is told that
Kesa is married to Lord Waturo and so he cannot. This is the take-off point
for a film that suddenly turns from high politics and war to one of very
personal obsession. In most films Lord Waturu (Isao Yamagata) would be a
bounder and you would root for true love - but he is an honorable man, treats
his wife with great love while Morito turns into a rogue as he just gets
incredibly angry, his face puffing up as he feels entitled to Kesa. So the
hero at the beginning turns into a villain of sorts because of love. It leads
to a fascinating powerful ending of forgiveness if not redemption. The Gate
of Hell is a gateway where the heads of your enemies are hung. But we can
also create our own Gate of Hell. Morito has. At he end of the film I just
went, wow.
