Cast:
Ryō Ikebe (Muraki), Mariko Kaga (Saeko), Takashi Fujiki (Yoh), Naoki Sugiura (Aikawa), Shinichiro Mikami (Reiji), Isao Sasaki (Jiro), Kôji Nakahara (Tamaki), Chisako Hara (Yazuka's Lover), Seiji Miyaguchi (Gang leader Funada), and Eijirô Tôno (Gang Leader Yasuoka) Directed by Masahiro Shinoda (#922 - Himiko)
Review:
"Reality for its own sake is not what interests me. If my films had to be perfect reconstructions of reality, I would not make them. I begin with reality and see what higher idea comes out of it."
It does seem apt to turn back the clock sometimes and look back to directors not always referred to in the realms of world cinema. So yes, it seemed about time to cover a movie by Masahiro Shinoda. He was born in the city of Gifu and studied at Waseda University to study theater. He worked with Shochiku Studio in 1953 and honed his craft as an assistant director. He made his debut as a director with One-Way Ticket for Love in 1960; he would work with the studio for the first batch of his films. Shinoda worked on over two dozen movies until concluding with Spy Sorge (2003). Among the highlights listed for the director range from Assassination (1964), the original adaptation of the novel Silence in 1971, and Childhood Days (1990); Shinoda died just three months ago this year at the age of 94. With Pale Flower (known as Kawaita hana), the basis for the film was a novel that had been written by Shintaro Ishihara (believe it or not, he decided being a filmmaker wasn't for him and became quite the public politician, for better or worse); Shinoda and Masaru Baba co-wrote the screenplay, with the former writing the first half and the latter writing the second half. The co-producer for the movie was Shigeru Wakatsuki, who had produced The Human Condition trilogy of films [1959-1961] (by this measure, Shinoda was quoted in an interview for Criterion as saying that because of Wakatsuki's involvement and push, Pale Flower wasn't really a Shochiku project and thus this was the first film he learned about independent film production). Shinoda was quoted as saying that he made the film involving yakuza because that world apparently was the only place where the "Japanese ceremonial structure is sustained." Apparently, the methods utilized by Shinoda in emphasizing visuals and sound over dialogue irritated Baba enough that he complained to Shochiku about it (labeling it as "anarchistic", I'm not kidding) that led to several months of delay in releasing the movie (Shinoda later asserted that the film served as a model for the Toei line of yazuka movies), which apparently worked out for it fine anyway.
I suppose a good deal of noirs really do boil down to the face that certain people just cannot escape their destiny. We all are destined to reach the figurative desert to crash and burn at some point in our lives, some are just prepared to end sooner. What we have here is a moody and stark noir that is filled with plenty of moral ambiguity and bleak surroundings for such committed filmmaking. You hear the sights and feel the murky qualities that arise in the puddle of ceremonies and loyalty and, well, gambling. You get to feel what one does to try and capture the feeling of being alive within the snares of killing within the pointlessness of life (consider one of the early lines of the film talking about Tokyo and seeing people crammed into "tiny cage-like boxes" as such "strange animals"). You can feel the despair all around people who clearly aren't going to have a conventional type of end to their metaphorical roads of travel (as for the film itself, it was done in Yokohama). Apparently, Ikebe was curious why Shinoda wanted him to star in the movie, where he apparently was quoted as saying he was "a ham actor", but the director assured him that his type of presence (which for this film has a good deal of walking rather than long lines) would be right for the movie. Kaga just has that strange factor to match Ikebe in self-defeating grace and mystery, one who we can draw ourselves to without knowing that much about in actual fact. Not to simply just cite Shinoda again, but he (and Ishihara) stated that the dynamic between the two is similar to Tristan and Isolde rather than say, Romeo and Juliet. It goes along with a movie where you don't know what you're hearing is music or just sounds (such as say, tap-dancing) for a harsh film where actions are either irrational or just meant to be, if you think about it. Anything can be futile, such as going back to old loves or half-baked hits or so on. The last sequence with the two characters together in the build-up to the hit is particularly a resounding highlight to experience in its stark execution and procedure that might as well be the ending (don't get me wrong, the last sequence does seal up the futility and the ever-lasting hunger succinctly, but you get the idea). As a whole, Pale Flower is a committed bleak noir that is wonderfully shot and executed for a curious time for all involved, a tragedy with crystal-clear maneuverings worth looking into further.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
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