Zigeunerweisen

I'm a huge Suzuki fan, but this was one I had never got a chance to see. Well I finally did and its surreal. I guess all his films are that way, but this one was really out there for me. Really beautiful and interesting all at the same time. He's the master so I just love watching whatever he puts out. If you're a Suzuki fan, watch for sure. If not then it may be too much for you.

"ZIGEUNERWEISEN is the best among the trinity, for being a more ludic and freewheeling vehicle that is almost unperturbed by affective force, and its psychic elements are more pellucid (a young daughter communicates with her dead father through dreams, versus the elusive suicidal pact in KAGERO-ZA), plus the inclusion of a triad of blind mendicant minstrels, chanting ribald ditties while the hierarchy of their sex preference goes through an irreverent modulation."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks!

Zigeunerweisen, which translates to Gypsy Airs from German and refers to a recording by Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, is the first part of director Suzuki Seijun's Taisho Roman Trilogy. Let me explain these elements a little bit further. The movie title refers to the recording because the two lead characters are listening to it and trying to figure out the violinist's words that are briefly being uttered. The trilogy refers to films taking place during the Taisho era between 1912 and 1926. Said era is often interpreted as inspired by arts, democracy, diplomacy, individualism and liberalism. All three films tell romantic dramas with hints at gothic ghost stories.

This first movie marked a remarkable independent return for veteran director Suzuki Seijun thirteen years after his last movie Branded to Kill created for production company Nikkatsu Corporation. The director was fired by the corporation for a lack of focused scriptwriting and commercial acclaim and successfully sued the company over many years which led to dramatic changes in Japan's cinematic industry. In the meantime, Suzuki Seijun had only created negatively received social satire A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness. Zigeunerweisen was shown in inflatable tents on convenience stores and in public places rather than in public or private cinemas which gathered a lot of attention. The movie is thus also the most commercially successful of the trilogy.

The story revolves around two intellectual former colleagues and friends who couldn't be more different from each other. Aochi is calm, gentle and organized as he prioritizes stability over experiments. Nakasago is wild, rough and disorganized and values experiments over stability. Aochi suffers greatly from believing his wife might have a romantic relationship with Nakasago. On the other side, Nakasago doesn't only seduce his friend's wife but also becomes smitten with a geisha. In his despair, Aochi bonds with Nakasago's abandoned wife during one of his prolonged absences. Despite those struggles, the two men remain friends and the morbid Nakasago suggests that whoever outlives the other should get the other's bones. When Nakasago dies alone in the countryside due to a drug overdose, Aochi continues to be haunted by his friend through his wife's admiration for him, the deceased's geisha's frequent visits and the strange daughter of the dead man.

This movie discusses numerous different themes such as death, desire, family, friendship and love. The film thus inspires profound discussions among cineasts. The mysterious story has several interesting changes and shifts and concludes on a surprising note. The acting performances are excellent throughout. The settings in rural Japan are wonderful to observe. The elegant costumes are truly inspiring. The soundtrack based upon classical music provides much atmosphere.

The film however suffers from its excessive length, clocking in at an ambitious one hundred forty-four minutes, that starkly contrasts the filmmaker's previous films that usually weren't longer than ninety minutes. Especially the movie's middle section is particularly slow, focuses on much repetition and doesn't properly develop the plot. The movie's commercial success was mostly due to its circumstances and presentation but not due to its content and quality.

At the end of the day, Zigeunerweisen is a mysterious drama that should appeal to intellectual audiences, experienced cineasts and people interested in the Taisho era. This movie is however too ambitious, complicated and long to appeal to wider audiences. Its overall style hasn't aged very well either and looks particularly old-fashioned by contemporary standards. You must muster a lot of attention, patience and time to fully embrace this experimental feature film.

I never thought I would say this about a Seijun Suzuki film, but my god was this boring. For starters, its meandering story told at a snail's pace should have been about an hour shorter. It often felt surreal just for the sake of being surreal, e.g. The trio of beggars with bizarre affectations singing their raunchy songs, the eyeball licking, etc. Other times it was just banal, with conversations that seemed pointless to me. It is marginally better in its final half hour, but that's not saying much. I never felt cohesion or a payoff that warranted all of the silliness, and this is not one I'd care to sit through again.

Suzuki is generally known for his outrageous, eye-popping imagery. I think his films actually contain a lot of depth and are great besides that imagery, but I know it's the visuals that bring him his fame. This film, independently produced after a long hiatus from film-making, is a different kind of Suzuki. A VERY different Suzuki. Zigeunerweisen, named after a musical composition that plays a couple of times during the film and a record of which plays an important part of the plot, is a rather slowly paced art film, a very long one at that, with an almost European feeling. There are a few striking images in its two and a half hours (most notably a woman licking a man's eyeball), but it isn't the phantasmagoria of Suzuki's earlier films, or his later films. The dialogue is often weird and poetic. My favorite line was "You caress me as if sucking my very bones." The film takes place during the Taisho period, which occurred after the Meiji Restoration during the 20s and 30s. It is a period marked by further Westernization and a loss of traditional values (I might be wrong, but I think Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses is set during the same period). The story involves two friends, a professor and a vagabond, and their relationships with their wives, as well as a geisha they once met on a vacation. There isn't too much story, per se. The vagabond marries a woman who looks identical to the geisha, but doesn't stay faithful, or even at home. The film is mostly told from the point of view of the professor (played by Toshiya Fujita, the director of Lady Snowblood). Like I said, the film is very deliberately paced. It was hard to stay interested at times. But the movie moves toward a mysterious and haunting finale. I don't think I get it, but I found the whole film intriguing, at least. Not my favorite Suzuki by a long shot, but maybe I'll understand it better on a subsequent viewing (which probably won't happen for a long while).