Dir. Seijun Suzuki
Japan
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| From http://file.satyricon.ni-moe.com/Pistol-Opera1.jpg |
This will not be a large review.
A lot of what I said last time still connects to my thoughts on this film. It’s
the context which has changed. I suspected that I would have a drastic change
of mind on Pistol Opera when I got
around to a second viewing, and that was thankfully the case. The narrative of Pistol Opera is a lot clearer on this
viewing and one anyone can latch upon in its simplicity. Clearly set in the
same world of Suzuki’s Branded To Kill (1967) and its Guild of
assassins, ranked and able to be climbed into higher positions through killing
off the people above you, it follows rank #3 Stray Cat, a woman whose fixation
with guns goes into a sexual fetish, getting back into the work. She is
assigned to eliminate rank #1 Hundred Eyes, a mysterious assassin who is
completely unknown and has intentions to eliminate every assassin below them
and the entire Guild itself. With only a young girl Sayoko, enamoured with her,
who is really trustable, Stray Cat has to protect herself from Hundred Eyes, other
assassins and the comical figure of Rank #0 The Champ, the protagonist of Branded To Kill, who is just as
obsessed with his glorious (but exceptionally brief) moment at rank #1 as much
as giving Stray Cat advice. It’s a clear narrative, but as mentioned in the
first review, it’s the presentation that has to be adjusted to.
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| From http://dark-victory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/pistolopera34a.jpg |
From the director who became so
bored making b-movie crime films for Nikkatsu
Company that he pushed his luck making films like Branded To Kill, the tone of Pistol
Opera was what I had to readjust myself to. It is very slow paced,
methodical and contemplative in tone, the stereotype of a film of a much older
director later in their career, but its subject matter goes against this and is
furthered by Suzuki’s clear disregard for narrative. The
narrative is actually very clear, but the presentation of dialogue, plot points
and sequences is purposely abstracted. The few battles between assassins become
performance art and the reality is continually pierced by non-diagetic tangents
in the film’s world, even with a moment characters barrage each other with
countless insults presented by close ups of their heads, against purple, and
the mixing of Japanese and English. Its absurdist and very theatrical, his
concentration on look, colour and presentation as important, if more so, than
the plot point at that point he started with. The result is imaginative, a
veteran with the dexterity of a young man in showing what is onscreen.
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| From http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/po-dangling-body.png |
The film becomes much more
abstract in its final act, Suzuki
adding unexpected philosophical and political monologues and metaphors which
may seem incongruous. I’ve not quite understood them all, but I’ve really became
enamoured by them as this unexpected seriousness is one of the many swerves
that Suzuki has been doing throughout
the first three-quarters. It also leads to a final gun battle that I’ve
described before as the hell sequence of Jigoku
(1960) recreated through theatre, fun fair iconography and a playground. Also
add to this illustration, pop art iconography, Peter Greenaway films and a set designed by manga artists, a kabuki
theatre and Derek Jarman. The result
are tremendous and is the centre piece that made me unable to completely
dismiss Pistol Opera on the first
viewing, and proves how good the whole film is. It was good that I did this
review so I did not leave Pistol Opera
with a divisive review only, but it also was good because the two reviews
together also proves that a second viewing can have such a drastic effect on
one’s thought on such a film. And what an appropriate film like Pistol Opera, about breaking
expectations, to have this doubling effect of opinion that shifts?
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| From http://www.artofeurope.com/suzuki/pistol.jpg |
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