After viewing Tsigoineruwaizen (1980-also reviewed) I watched Tony Rayns detailed introduction on the Arrow Blu-Ray. Along with discussing the film, Rayns mentioned that the other two in the trilogy are more abstract, leading to me going back to the Taisho period.
View on the film:
Featuring a delicate colour balance, Arrow present an immaculate spotless picture transfer with a clean soundtrack.
The last ever production that cinematographer Kazue Nagatsuka would work on, directing auteur Seijun Suzuki proves to be in perfect synch with his regular cinematographer,as the duo are joined by Suzuki's long time production designer Noriyoshi Ikeya and former long time editor Akira Suzuki making a return.
Walking down to the great outdoors in the opening, Suzuki makes it gloriously visible that he has a full team on his side, with Matsuzaki (played by a wonderful Yusaku Matsuda,whose regal shell is cracked open by Matsuda,as Matsuzaki starts to question his reality) being wrapped in lush wet green surroundings hanging down the screen in long-take wide-shots (a major recurring motif of Suzuki.)
Poetically bringing the curtain down on the Taisho period with a delightful stage show within a film final, Suzuki takes the surrealist stylisation that has been building across his credits, and slides it into abstract avant-garde, casting a eerie, sensual supernatural atmosphere with glistening Japanese New Wave jump-cuts being layered on long, lingering shot which dice down on Matsuzuko's unsettled doubts over meeting a mysterious woman who looks just like the wife of his benefactor.
Stated later by Suzuki that he had wanted to make a adaptation of a Kyoka Izumi novel for years, the screenplay by Yozo Tanaka weaves elements from four Izumi novels (!) into a hypnotic tapestry,where each piece of Izumi's writings is placed next to a continuation of the doppelgänger, ghostly memories of Zigeunerweisen (1980-also reviewed),leading to a enticing friction on reality being created,which takes Matsuzaki to the end of the Taisho period.
View on the film:
Featuring a delicate colour balance, Arrow present an immaculate spotless picture transfer with a clean soundtrack.
The last ever production that cinematographer Kazue Nagatsuka would work on, directing auteur Seijun Suzuki proves to be in perfect synch with his regular cinematographer,as the duo are joined by Suzuki's long time production designer Noriyoshi Ikeya and former long time editor Akira Suzuki making a return.
Walking down to the great outdoors in the opening, Suzuki makes it gloriously visible that he has a full team on his side, with Matsuzaki (played by a wonderful Yusaku Matsuda,whose regal shell is cracked open by Matsuda,as Matsuzaki starts to question his reality) being wrapped in lush wet green surroundings hanging down the screen in long-take wide-shots (a major recurring motif of Suzuki.)
Poetically bringing the curtain down on the Taisho period with a delightful stage show within a film final, Suzuki takes the surrealist stylisation that has been building across his credits, and slides it into abstract avant-garde, casting a eerie, sensual supernatural atmosphere with glistening Japanese New Wave jump-cuts being layered on long, lingering shot which dice down on Matsuzuko's unsettled doubts over meeting a mysterious woman who looks just like the wife of his benefactor.
Stated later by Suzuki that he had wanted to make a adaptation of a Kyoka Izumi novel for years, the screenplay by Yozo Tanaka weaves elements from four Izumi novels (!) into a hypnotic tapestry,where each piece of Izumi's writings is placed next to a continuation of the doppelgänger, ghostly memories of Zigeunerweisen (1980-also reviewed),leading to a enticing friction on reality being created,which takes Matsuzaki to the end of the Taisho period.