The “Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System” DVD box set is a sample of Masaki Kobayashi’s work and what he has done for his entire career. His humanism and pacifism is noted throughout his career and while he may be known best for “The Human Condition”, “Harakiri” and “Kwaidan”, the four films presented in this set shows how this one man went into filmmaking to make a difference and to not be like other Japanese filmmakers. From his first film in the 1950’s to his last in the 1980’s, his films were seen as rebellious but in truth, it was his voice trying to reach a larger audience and challenging the viewer to consider their the direction that society was headed. “Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System” is highly recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2009 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2010 All Rights Reserved.
TITLE:Â Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System
DURATION: The Thick-Walled Room (110 minutes), I Will Buy You (112 minutes), Black River (110 minutes) and The Inheritance (108 minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, (2:40:1 for “The Inheritance”), Monaural, Japanese with English subtitles
COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: April 16, 2013
One of the most important filmmakers to emerge from Japan’s cinematic golden age, Masaki Kobayashi is best remembered today for his 1959 epic The Human Condition, but that is just one of the blistering films he made in a career dedicated to criticizing his country’s rigid social and political orders. He first found his voice—rebellious, angry, engaged—in the fifties, following his life-altering experiences as a soldier in World War II; the four films collected here, made in the same period as The Human Condition, reflect Kobayashi’s coming into his own as an artist. He fought to get these powerful dramas made at a studio more oriented at the time toward quiet family melodramas; they are unforgettable pictures of a postwar Japan troubled by identity crises and moral corruption on scales both intimate and institutional.
When it comes to Japanese cinema, when Masaki Kobayashi’s name comes up, one will remember the filmmaker for being a pacifist but taking on films that criticized his country’s social and political orders.
Best known for his trilogy of films titled “The Human Condition” (1959-1961), a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist, Kobayashi is also known for his films “Harakiri” (1962, which won the Jury Prize at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival) and “Kwaidan ” (1964, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and received a “Best Foreign Language Film” Academy Award nomination).
But prior to these cinematic masterpiece, Kobayashi showed a rebellious side in his earlier films from the ’50s. To best showcase his earlier work, The Criterion Collection has put together four of his earlier films in an Eclipse Series set titled “Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System”.
Included are the following three films from the ’50s and one from the ’60s : “The Thick-Walled Room” (“Kabe atsuki heya”, 1953), “I Will Buy You” (“Anata Kaimasu”, 1956), “Black River” (“Kuroi kawa”, 1957) and “The Inheritance” (“Karami-Ai”, 1964).
Here are my reviews for each of the films included in this DVD set:
The Thick-Walled Room” (“Kabe atsuki heya”, 1953)
“I Will Buy You” (“Anata Kaimasu”, 1956)
“Black River” (“Kuroi kawa”, 1957)
“The Inheritance” (“Karami-Ai”, 1964)
For those unfamiliar with Masaki Kobayashi’s films, one must know that there is always a message that he wants his viewers to see, learn and realize how society is being corrupted . It’s a Japan that he has seen change and not for the best.
His films tend to feature characters that are flawed, characters who have shaded pasts or are currently shady that you can understand why Kobayashi goes through the effort of trying to get his message out. It’s because its a big part of the human nature that existed and still exists today not just in Japanese culture but all around the world.
With the release of the four-movie DVD set “Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System”, the Criterion Collection has selected four films that are very different from each other, but they also have similarities.
Masaki Kobayashi’s “The Thick-Walled Room†is thought-provoking and bold.
Considering the film was one of the first to be made after World War II about Japanese soldiers after the war, his film confronts the harsh realities of life for war criminals but also confronting the reality that those who made the decisions of war, those who ordered the soldiers to do the things they did were not punished as badly as them.
But also the harsh reality that life for these war criminals would no longer be the same after they leave prison, even if it’s for a day of mourning.
Their life for many of these war criminals have been stripped and during American occupation, because of the atrocities that some of the soldiers had committed, they weren’t going to receive any special treatment.
“The Thick-Walled Room†was not about coming up with solutions. Yamashita is a man who was forced by his commanding officer to kill an innocent man that too them in and fed them and to make things worse, his friend makes up a lie that he is responsible for killing innocent people to steal their food and earning him more time in jail.  And among the soldiers featured, he is the one that has suffered the most.  And you wonder what will happen if released from jail, so he can go back to his family to mourn his mother’s death for a day. Will he seek revenge against the former friend who lied? Will he run away, so he can never return back to prison? How will life be for this man outside of prison? Or is life much better for him if he goes back to prison?
Yokota is the complex character of the film. During the war, he was a translator who did not want to fight. But with a rotten superior officer, he was forced to do things he never wanted to do.
He is a man who also tries to understand who is at fault for the war. Was it the soldiers? Was it the people who commanded them? Is this harsh prison sentence created for them to repent? He struggles with how life has changed for him and his fellow soldiers.
But he really wants to repent or at least contribute while in prison.
While the portrayals of the Japanese are well-done, there are things that are important to point out. In Japan, there was a lot of propaganda during World War II that Americans and other allies had mistreated and tortured Japanese prisoner of war. There were major incidents that things did happen such as a soldier sending a Japanese skull back home or a letter opener carved from Japanese bone. But also those who did surrender being killed to death by soldiers. Of course, American military said these actions were based on rumors. But true or false, it did make Japanese feel that they should die by fighting back than surrender and be stuck in a prison where they would be tortured. It is known that in some areas, Japanese POW’s treatment were terrible, especially those who surrendered to the Soviet forces as these POW’s.
We do see how in the film, Japanese POW’s were used for propaganda and to spread rumors around the prison. We do see POW’s who wish they can kill themselves but also the shame that many feel about surrendering and not dying.
While Kobayashi probably could have been more polemic with this film, the film was more about how these men have changed from being soldiers to prisoners that feel there is no life for them. Anything that literally made them happy, has been stripped away. Honor for their family, love for their wives or girlfriends, all they know is the cell they sleep in, the hard labor that they occasionally have to do and being around other Japanese who feel shamed, or dealing with the atrocities they had committed, these things weigh heavily on their mind and some can suppress it and try to repent, other just want to end their miserable life.
“The Thick-Walled Room†is a fascinating film by Masaki Kobayashi and as an earlier work, he would go so much further in a film like “The Human Condition†over a decade later. But a film such as “The Thick-Walled Roomâ€, goes to show how bold he was to stand up against social and political orders.
For his next film titled “I Will Buy You”, it’s probably a film that can be summarized with the word “greed” or perhaps one can call it “the way of modern businessâ€.
I suppose in our day and age of professional athletes making millions of dollars and endorsement deals, we no longer balk about a unique quarterback, a pitcher or a basketball player making a ton of money. The agents get the same amount of press for landing major deals and as for scouting, go on a sports news site and colleges incurring major infractions because of incorrect scouting is still big news.
But while the concept of scouting athletes have gone on for decades, I find it interesting that filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi zeroed on this back in 1956 for his film “I Will Buy Youâ€.
At first, we are shown how a scout named Kishimoto, for the baseball team, the Toyo Flowers is determined on trying to recruit graduating college player Kurita. We see through his narration of how he observes everyone around Kurita, from his mentor and handler Kyuki, his brothers and even his girlfriend.
But while Kishimoto is wise, we also learn that Kyuki is also wise to the scouts, trying to make things better for him as a businessman and also earning a fat paycheck. But Kyuki is also sick…or is he?
We see this tete a tete between both men, also seeing other scouts trying to shower the family and Kurita with gifts.
But then the bombshell…Kurita is not a dumb athlete, he knows that by milking everyone, he can earn big money and gifts for his family and he is just as bad as the scout and his handler, which his girlfriend now detests.
While I’m not sure how the impact of the film was to professional baseball in Japan at the time, while Kobayashi is a rebel when it comes to his films, having followed Japanese pop culture for decades and seeing how Japanese baseball is such a popular pasttime in the country, it’s almost how we feel today when star players receive a major deal from their sports team or even an actor or actress that receives a big payday for a film, we don’t blink an eye because it’s how things are.
Still, this was 1956, not long after World War II, so I’m sure the film did probably raise a few eyebrows, but this is the atmosphere created by the team owners and them wanting to land a huge star athlete. But in the case of “I Will Buy Youâ€, we start to see Kishimoto realizing things about the work that he does. He is torn by the dishonesty and the practices of the industry, but that is part of the business of professional sports.
Forty years after this film was made, in America, Cameron Crowe would direct the film “Jerry Maguire†which centers around an agent with his only star athlete but showing how the business of professional sports is about, with an added romantic angle to the film.
And nearly 20-years after that film was made, now all we hear is about college infractions of bad recruiting practices to star athletes who lost their fortune.
But it’s obvious that Minoru Ono (who wrote the original novel) saw how professional sports was heading and Masaki Kobayashi saw it as a way to show people the greed that exists in professional sports.
Unfortunately, where greed and corruption in politics is what people rebel against, but when it comes to sports, it’s still entertainment and whenever it comes to athletes making big money, may it be in the 1950′s to today’s major sports, people are much more forgiving.
“Black River†has a message from filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi that tries to show how life for people after post-war and those living near the U.S. military bases are being affected negatively by Western culture.
The message of western culture affecting other countries is nothing new. Even in feudal Japan with the first confrontation of foreign merchants, there have always been a belief that the foreigners brought diseases and other unwanted situations to their country and it changed people for the worse.
Even today, the political debate of US bases in Asia is still a sore spot for many people and unfortunate, even American soldiers have been guilty of committing crimes upon Japanese that increases the hostility of locals even more.
But after World War II, Japan was under uncertain times. Actually, many countries and their future were uncertain as people lived in poverty, without jobs, without income and people did things in order to survive.
For “Black Riverâ€, women are seen turning to prostitution in order to make money. Men were unemployed and in order to get things done (or to get people out of an establishment), some turned to the yakuza.
While the living conditions of these people are bad but not the worst, the message that Kobayashi delivered with this film at the time is why isn’t anything being done to stop this deviant behavior?
The film also goes into the woman’s right after rape. The character of Shizuko is set-up by Killer Joe, who has been infatuated with the young woman and pretends to be her savior, when in truth, he became the man who raped her while she was unconscious.
The following day, she wants Killer Joe to accompany her to the police but Joe reminds her that all it would do is embarrass the both of them. And she knows it is true. Rape laws were not as strong as today and even in America during the 1950′s, rape was only punishable if there was extreme physical violence involved. If a woman did not fight back, there was no crime. Eventually, laws in the 1960′s would later change this but Masaki Kobayashi knew that it was terrible that a woman’s word was not strong enough and Kobayashi showed the film that because of her situation, she couldn’t tell police because she was unconscious at the time and probably for many rape victims in Japan of the time, whether or not it was intentional, the message was that women had to bear the burden after becoming a rape victim, as there were no major rape laws in Japan.
As for the film, while enjoyable as a whole, the problem lies within its pacing as the film starts introducing us to the people who live in the slum village but then begins to focus on Nishida, Shizuka and Joe and the love triangle that exists for the three. The other characters featured in the first half are not given the same presence by the second half and you tend to forget them, as your attention is diverted on the love triangle and how things will eventually resolve itself by the end of the film.
Still, when it comes to a message about the changes upon Japan society because of the U.S. military bases, Kobayashi’s “Black River†definitely showcases a message of a corrupted culture.
While created after his masterpiece “The Human Conditionâ€, Masaki Kobayashi’s “The Inheritance†showcases the worst behavior of people and sometimes it happens after the death of a loved one (especially if that loved one had money).
While the story of people trying to get their cut from one’s will may seem banal, Kobayashi’s film is different as it showcases how one secretary was able to methodically plan her way to get into her boss’s will.
“The Inheritance†begins with a wealthy business man dying from cancer and trying to plan his will before he dies. What he knows is that his current wife will get a third from the will, but also wanting to give a third to his illegitimate children, the problem is that he doesn’t even know who his children are, nor has he been a part of their lives. But he sends his secretary Yasuko to find them.
Meanwhile, his lawyer and his staff know they want a cut from the will and try to find a way to get some of that money, as does the businessman’s young wife who tries to find a way to derail any finding of the illegitimate children, so she can get most of the money herself.
Suffice to say, a common theme from Kobayashi’s films are characters that are typically shady in their own right. But the performance from actress Keiko Kishi as the cool and collected secretary Yasuko was well-done, and to see how her character is able to plan her way of getting into the film was quite fascinating and the writing was clever.
Overall, the “Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System” DVD box set is a sample of Masaki Kobayashi’s work and what he has done for his entire career. His humanism and pacifism is noted throughout his career and while he may be known best for “The Human Condition”, “Harakiri” and “Kwaidan”, the four films presented in this set shows how this one man went into filmmaking to make a difference and to not be like other Japanese filmmakers. From his first film in the 1950’s to his last in the 1980’s, his films were seen as rebellious but in truth, it was his voice trying to reach a larger audience and challenging the viewer to consider their the direction that society was headed.
“Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System” is highly recommended!
