Masuo Sakurada starts receiving a shocking telegram from his cousin Terumichi to begin the story. Not believing if it is true or not, he travels to his relative’s cabin together with his cousin Ritsuko. The trip has more than one meaning for him, because in fact Ritsuko is more than just his cousin, who had been attracted by this terrible fate of Sakuradas which among other things also turns out to be a flashback down a bad memory lane.
The movie unravels in three main dimensions as such. The first and minor most is what was stated above the present day. The second dimension which is the longest delves into the past starting with when he and his mother were repatriated back to Japan from Huludao where they carried along with them the burden of dead father and younger brother of Masuo while facing prejudice and racism from all sides. The third part deals with death weddings ceremonies that take place mostly in one room at Sakurada’s family house.
He uses this family story as an allegory for Japan, which becomes less forgiving as more of history is exposed about Japan focusing on the individual who does not matter so much as long as there are families and generations involved plus other matters too.
In this way, when Masuo and his mother return, Kazuomi, his grandfather and the ultimate leader of the family expects him to live for two people including himself who was dead before. This doubles Masuo’s burden while his mother is thought to be a comfort woman.’ Moreover, he has repeatedly been sacrificing what he yearns for so as ‘family first.’ in addition, his grandfather oversees all members’ lives such as sexual encounters and marriages.
The fact that it needs incest to keep the line clear shows how this institution worked during that time (prior and after WW2). Besides surprisingly Oshima even allows Masuo together with Terumichi falling victim to this propensity because both have desires for Satsuko at one point and later Ritsuko both from extended family.
This aspect also leads us to a comment about the position of women who were essentially enslaved by the male folks not having all the power to direct their lives, including their bodies, with some of them only finding solace in death or suicide, which is shown unambiguously.
From this perspective, one might summarize the family dynamics as follows: while everything is rotting on the inside and out, aging people desperately grasp at tradition trying to make it look great; however young ones are silenced and eventually give in before what seems like higher forces than them, and once again suicide becomes a way out. The pressure Kazuomi puts everyone through creates an ongoing tension in the movie that is mirrored in Masuo’s story and his general behavior over time. Nevertheless, Oshima also exposes total ridicule of this concept when he shows how a young man had to go through a full wedding ceremony without ever seeing his bride just for show that was meant to be sarcastic but dramatic as well.
The accusation against the previous generation could be said to be palpable (since it is a notion that is still carried out in Japanese cinema even today) but Oshima also indicts them for their powerlessness of will and inability to free themselves.
Therefore, among the many episodes of this film, there are some synonyms for typical Japanese behavior: drunken, incestuous, hypocritical, vulgar, anti-communist, deceived, foolish, racialists or misogynistic were used by Oshima to depict the real nature of people at that time.
Apart from context, however, it is a great movie cinematically having been done through rather sophisticated and meaningful experiments. The Non-linear narrative works well under film editor Kenichi Uraoka’s hands; indeed the story largely revolves around marriage and funeral ceremonies which serve as potential examples of those characters of protagonists as well as previous remarks made. These moments have a distinctly theatrical/avant-garde feel that can be quite stunning on occasion; Oshima and DP Toichiru Narushima employ symmetrical framing/ wide-angle lenses/horizontal movement/tracking shots among others in order to show family dynamics as well as occasional absurdity of proceedings.
Some moments do recall Ozu’s style in “Tokyo Story” but generally it seems more satirical than imitative throughout since Oshima has always vocalized his disdain both towards him and Mizoguchi in any case.
The use of sound is also noteworthy, as can be seen in the repeated voice-overs once in a while replacing the actual voices of actors in another one of these intelligent “tricks”.
Kei Sato’s performance as Kazuomi really shines through and he presents an “aristocratic villain” type of personage which is grandiose and suitably excessive. Ritsuko played by Atsuko Kaku and Satsuko performed by Akiko Koyama are also excellent at being both discordant elements and slaves to their men’s desires; their indifference in erotic acts they engage themselves into stands out as some of the best moments from the movie. Masuo played by Kenzo Kawarasaki has the juiciest role but I often found his acting weak; it became tiresome looking at his ‘sad face’ all the time though.
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