Sunday, January 22, 2012
ASKING AND TELLING
Today's Japanese film by Nagisa Ôshima was
A military academy in the Shogunate. New recruits are being screened. Two to be chosen on the basis of merit. One of the two is gay in a bit of flamboyance he wears white and has long hair. But oh, can that boy work the sticks/swords.
He is one of two chosen and right at the start the other recruit tries to seduce the gay one. And in a nice way if a bit assertive.
Thus begins a story that makes explicit the homoeroticism of all such military or martial art films.
He is accepted into the group yet his presence causes some problems which, in the end, only he can solve. And he does.
I enjoyed this film a great deal. It is not perfect and as some orientals look more alike than others to a round eye (the reverse is true) I was sometimes confused over who was/is who (whom?) but all that clears up nicely in the end.
the premise alone is very nice to see. It is not that he is homosexual that is a problem (he leans "that way" and more), it is the response to him that is what causes difficulty. Men are such fools when their dicks are concerned.
There is not a lot of fighting, but what there is turns out to be sudden and cruel. There is a lot of stick work. Nice. Balletic.
What about the gay guy? At one point he makes it very clear what his reason for enlisting is. He wants to kill people. Hardly an agenda that conflicts with the mission statement.
The translations are a bit clunky sometimes but overall the acting and the cinematography win. Very nice. A 4 out of Netflix5.
