Surprise Full House

We’ve been helping with film curation and programming for the local independent cinema for a while, and there are still unexpected surprises when it comes to just how many tickets will sell for an event. When I pick an obscure film that I love and find moving, I try not to be disappointed when it just doesn’t come together and doesn’t have the draw that I want it to.

But then there are nights like last night when a foreign film from 1957 manages to fill a theatre and bring so much inspiration and joy that it moves me in a new way. In a way that connects me with others that are drawn to old celluloid, to writing, and to preserving art pieces from before they were born. It makes all of the work worthwhile.

Late Mishima

If you don’t know some aspects of Mishima’s biography, you perhaps should at least brush up a bit about the end of his life by ritual seppuku and the causes behind it. He took part in a failed military coup which directly preceded his suicide. Why? Well, it’s part of why there is a particular draw to work produced by him near the end of his life in 1970.

When you read these stories, it’s easy to start looking for threads of his eventual fate or at least the mental state that led to it. Are they there? Yes, but they are subtle. The narratives twist and turn around various forms of destruction and disillusionment. From a couple that can’t deal with their own aging to youth in revolt, there’s a feeling of being on the edge of some sharp change. At the edges of most of these tales, dance visions of violence committed not just on the self, but on others and on society in general.

Urban Life and Alienation

More than destruction, the real unifying aspect of Mishima’s stories are themes of alienation in urban life and modern relationships. Mishima is interested in exploring just how well one person can know another and how families disintegrate or contain deep-seated deceptions.

‘Poor Papa’ is a particularly powerful examination of one daughter’s love for her estranged father at the cost of her affection for her mother — until eventually she realizes how poorly he treated her mother and how selfish he is. ‘Cars’ explores the narrator’s idea that, being an older man, he is allowed to exploit a young woman — and his sharp disillusionment when he realizes that she is as mercenary as he is (all in the course of one afternoon).

Voices of the Fallen

Because it is both the longest and the titular story, it’s appropriate to comment on ‘Voices of the Fallen Heroes’ separately. It’s a tale of spectral voices that speak through a medium at a séance. These voices come from an incident much like the one that Mishima eventually would take part in, a failed coup that ends in executions and ritual suicides. It also contains a powerful comment on the horrible fate of kamikaze pilots, soldiers, and all of those that lost their lives for their country for promises of honour. Their laments over finding those promises empty and the modern age little more than evidence of their broken trust really resonate.

It’s in this story that the reader can find the most uncanny foreboding of Mishima’s eventual decisions and ending. In a way, it makes the story more moving and more powerful and more haunting long after you close the pages of the book.

The Perils of Classic Film

Sharing classic films with others is sometimes a double-edged sword. It involves a lot of, yes, I love this old piece of the past and, yes, this piece of the past is still disappointing in so many ways. But in a way, it’s a lot like literature. It’s a balancing act of trying to study art pieces in context and to discuss them in a way that makes everyone welcome to share their experiences and opinions.

Art is a constant evolution and even a piece of film from decades ago is still changing and growing long after the final cut.