Modes of Social Critique in the Film Work of Yanagimachi Mitsuo

(Jukyusai no Chizu, 1979)

By Joel Neville Anderson

Critic Doug Cummings, of FilmJourney.com, praises Yanagimachi for his “renowned tendency to describe rather than ascribe,” which “keeps the film’s enigmas and nuances alive, waiting to be plundered.” He quotes the director as saying of his next film: “The movie is a portrayal of reality,” “I had no intention to protest or praise.”Cummings and Yanagimachi’s words touch on one of the most important aspects of his work, the sort of “perfor­mative reality” that he creates. The circus acts of the Taiwanese peddlers and the long landscape shots in Himatsuri set to Takemitsu Toru’s haunting score come together here. Sato Ikuya describes the desires of the bosozoku in terms of the street as a “stage”, the route as a “script”, and their tokkofuku uniforms as their “costumes”. He emphasizes the importance of play in the bikers’ theatrics, “trying to embody what he calls the ‘Saturday night hero.’ In Emperor, Yanagimachi’s perfor­mative incli­nations mesh well with those of the bosozoku and his unique aesthetic may be seen in its early formation. Within short interludes set to psychedelic Japanese rock, there are moments in Emperor that seem quite obviously to have come about by Yanagimachi saying, “Here, do this in front of my camera,” or, “Wait, don’t stop until I can film that.”

(read the whole article here)