The once poor and backward Fukuda village situated near the Tone river has perhaps the cheeriest history I can think of. But there’s a catch. In a single day over a hundred smugglers of all shapes and sizes were wiped out, it was positively like jumping into enervation whiskey. Add that to the abhorrence of September 6, 1923 and voila! the Fukuda village entity was finished. I would venture to guess that the irregular and atypical members of our company were all a tad bit unending trouble, slightly addicted to otherworldly insights, or, as mothers and fathers themselves would put it, ‘tainted’. But these drug peddlers and pimps were not even classified as men, mere dilapidated animals instead. There’s a certain unbeatability to reflecting upon the natives of Fukuda. From the unfortunate memories, that conjured Yahushua in the face of a few Hirohito.
And as luck would have it, at the very edge of the graciously accommodating Fukuda village, I, alongside my fellow comrades, was captured. To think that I found immense comfort in secrets and would speak, focus, and do anything else besides confess to my oldest sin. And so as luck would have it, I was able to remain between the shadows. But even then, the Nikko Shrine was overflowing with misplaced mothers who were enraged and frenzied out of respect for me. As luck would have it. Now I understand! And now it finally dawns upon me why I was revered in our village symbolism for so long.
While in the midst of a war with Korea, Tomokazu Sawada heads back to Fukuda village with his wife Shizuko. Their relationship seems to be on a strain, since Tomokazu carries a traumatic experience from his time working as a teacher in Gyeongseong under the rule of Japan. On their way back home, they both come across Sakie, who has lost her husband in the war. Towards the end, however, it seems that Sakie wasn’t exactly sitting idle, as it was revealed that she had a fair go with Shizuko over boatman Kurazo.
Around the same period, a group of Shikoku medicine peddlers led by Shinsuke Numabe begin their journey to the Kanto region. In the subsequent days particularly on September 1, 1923, Japan’s great Kantō earthquake struck the region. It claimed the lives of hundreds due to the fire it caused. In a politically motivated fabric of accruals, without anyone to accuse, police officers, journalists and the Japanese government instigates the locals to irrationally deteriorate Koreans’s reputation with allegations such as “Koreans are about to start a riot or even set fires”. This coincidence occurred just when the antagonism towards Koreans went beyond its crest and the furious locals were empowered by the discovery of the vendors.
Let me start by stating the negative first. When taking into consideration the significance and how big influence such an incident could make if presented right, there are quite a few elements here that look like they contradict this and actually have no business being within this particular story at all. A good case in example is the erotic triangle (quartet one could say) which has nothing to do with the plot and appears to be a conjoined effort to bring in a range of star actors including Masahiro Higashide as Kurazo, who does shine however, particularly due to his overall exterior appearance. Additionally, it is also this part that unnecessarily drags the film’s total running time to 137 minutes. Which did not have to be the case and the timing could have been lowered significantly by just concentrating on the actual events.
Second, the acting is very questionable and some of the key acting details look staged especially during the actual event in question and those scenes do tilt to being grandiose or a little bit too dramatic when it could have been simply executed in a precise manner that would have offered the film a bigger believe in all of its aspects.
On the one hand, “September 1923” involves a medley of characteristics, however, it should be noted that Mori goes one step further. To begin with, this Stewart remarks, how racism grows in the psyche of people, in the most articulate manner, illustrates how the rulers through the media fused to the locals a sense of insecurity and directed them against their deemed enemies socialists, apart from Koreans Fobi, the narrative of how ordinary innocent people metamorphose into a barbarous mob, is perhaps the most disturbing of the narrative and comment, that, apart from propaganda, goes onto touch the more primal and instinctual aspects of humanity, which here, is rather brooding.
However, Moore goes a step further in demonstrating that even those who are aware of what is going on the self described intellectuals, so to say, are unable to withstand the oncoming tide although they have a complete grasp of the situation I am guessing it’s caused by the fear for their security and lives. There is a certain blame and guilt when Mrs. Ytersag says “the uneducated willingly rush in everyone while the educated waste too much time thinking.”
After the assassin’s greatest betrayal, with the announcement , the true identity of the murdered is extoled even further, which I thought was even more shocking- and for me, was the best directed scene in the film. This was followed by a diverse scene where the massacre is playing out.
Also impressive was the editing, where verified footage of the Soviet Type 4 Spencer rifle performed came to life. Once again, I have to commend the colorist. Koga Jun took care of developments with details conceiving a framing that matched the storyline, the setting’s environment, and the designer’s work. Because of this, it makes sense to be relatively confident in claiming that the picture is a visually pleasurable experience.
The pair with Sakie on the other hand is strong as well, Arata Iura plays Tomokazu and he is good here, quiet for most of the film, only to be noticeably more than out of control in the best scene of the film in terms of performances, Natsu rather obnoxious, Koshi holds his own alongside with Shinsuke, played by Eita Nagayama, the assertive leader of the group selling medicine.
The issue with portraying the event of September 1923 is that it is not a good movie, and though it is well shot in reality quite relevant, the whole time context is of its own nature. The main problem is that this event, it does not cause the viewer enough thought to explore the detail deeply so as to make the viewer consider it a significant enough cause, therefore, rendering the title a wasted effort words.
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