Manji

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Audience Member Another strange film from Yasuzô Masumura. The film opens with Sonoko (Kyôko Kishida) tells us (and presumably her psychiatrist) the story of her infatuation and love affair with Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao), a younger model who she met at an art class. The remainder of the film is one long flashback to the events that transpired, with only occasional cut-ins to remind us that this is a narrative from Sonoko. Although married, Sonoko throws herself passionately into her secret trysts with Mitsuko and soon she is brazenly and openly telling her husband Kotaro (Eiji Funakoshi) about the affair. He demands her to stop. She resists but when Mitsuko reveals that she has a fiancà (C) Watanuki (Yûsuke Kawazu) and that she may be pregnant by him, Sonoko decides to cut things off. Until Mitsuko and Watanuki begin to play games, luring Sonoko back into the relationship and encouraging Kotaro as well. The characters here are all unabashedly driven by intense passions, sexual perhaps, but there is something even more inexplicable about Mitsuko that drives them all toward her. Indeed, they are so wrapped up in her mind games and their silly blood oaths (and eventually ritualistic sleeping-draught taking) that they seem immature, like children or teenagers playing in a fantasy world of their own making. Almost from the start of the film, the characters speak of their love as something they would die for and Mitsuko repeatedly asks Sonoko to kill her because her love is too strong. It is strange â" and perhaps it is linked to Japanese culture? At any rate, Masumuraâ(TM)s widescreen compositions are often beautiful with the characters sometimes constrained to just part of the screen with the remainder filled with a richly textured space (either a wall, latticed stairs, some textile, or some other rectangular shape); no doubt this adds psychological tension to the presentation (as does the occasional nudity, potentially shocking for the time). Yet, despite all this, I found myself impatient at the silliness of it all. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Perhaps a tad over dramatic yet maybe that was deliberate to be noticed, to shock the viewers as much the male part of society. Made in mid 60's so I can understand why it was controversial at the time. Worth a look, yet not everyone's cup of tea. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Like it says on the back of the cover. This is a very Hitchcockian/Lynch film with twist and turns and shocking revelations. It is not on the par as Mulholland Drive but if you consider the time it was released then we can safely say it was ahead of its time. The movie is about obsession, betrayal, curiosity, lust, love and everything you can think of when it comes to a relationship. It's a very bizarre film and I have not seen anything quite like it before. The story starts with an art student that falls in love with another woman. They start a love affair but just when you think it's only them two involved, the story starts to unravel some shocking twists and a powerful ending. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member So crazy and weird and unpredictable. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member This 1964 Japanese film is about an obsessive lesbian relationship that develops between two art students. The initial love between the women is beautiful, as are the women themselves, and the addition of a lover and a husband makes for some intriguing twists that kept me wanting to see what would happen next. However, much of what does happen next makes very little sense, and it made me realize how underdeveloped and illogical most of the characters actually are. This movie is still interesting from a cultural or historical viewpoint, since it's one of the earliest Asian films to deal with homosexuality in such a straightforward manner, but beyond that I can't strongly recommend it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting. Someone along the lines of Ai No Corrida Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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