Eros Plus Massacre by Yoshishige Yoshida - Essay Example

Film Analysis of “Eros Plus Massacre” by Yoshishige Yoshida What is formally radical about thefilm “Eros Plus Massacre”? What is Political radical about the film “Eros Plus Massacre”? When do the currents of formal and political radicalism intersect? How do the currents of formal and political radicalism intersect? Yoshishige Yoshida’s direction of “Eros Plus Massacre” claims to be an innovative turn in Japanese cinematography which sought a wider socio-political awareness as a project of a radical movement that was essentially based on the director’s influence and studies of French existential philosophy and literature. As a breakthrough from an orthodox filming tradition during the 60s, Yoshida utilized a technique of combining the intricacies of history and art in a craft which exposes the nature of sexuality in its portrayal of the central purpose in designating characters according to gender traits. For one to analyze the film fully, one needs to examine how it had been created by the New Wave movement in the light of blending formal with political radicalism. Essentially, if the concept of formal radicalism must be present in visual arts as in film, it would be expected to project the opposite of an ‘embodiment’ which otherwise serves as the typical function of an art piece. In “Eros Plus Massacre”, the art as it occurs in the perception of the audience seems to be formally radical as it shapes itself into the form that could be understood rather less figuratively for the lack of conspicuous representation. While the film may be observed with components that require a viewer to invest in depth of psychological insight, the analogies between the past and the present thematic characters make no representative meaning of each other yet they bear reflexivity to an extent that the art communicates back to itself in the attempt to allow comprehension of its main thrust. To fulfil the objective of a formally radical work, hence, director Yoshida brings the fragmented narrative technique to proceed as shooting of alternate sequences in which the life of Eiko, being a liberated young woman with a circle of lovers in contemporary period, is patterned after the life of Sakae Osugi, an anarchical male figure who, during his conservative time, is known for his philosophy on absolute freedom when it comes to love and sex relations. In a conventional approach, Eiko could have portrayed a more natural role where, instead of knowing about Osugi, she could be made to resemble his lifestyle as an independent entity whose kind or composition embodies that of him. This, however, is not the case since the formal radicalization of the narrative conveys both lives as intertwined for Eiko assumes the position of a researcher in pursuit of studies regarding Osugi’s socio-political principles and way of living. So, in this manner, her quest of identity based on a strong character of the past renders for her a sense of ‘self-awareness’ at the time being. The viewers are hereafter bent to realize that the personal exploration of Eiko depends not solely on the pure nature she is in the absence of external influence, but on her constant social relations and passionate interest on learning from the lives of Osugi and Noe Ito. Apparently, in Yoshida’s filming process, “Eros Plus Massacre” leads the audience to understand that the theme of the motion picture becomes increasingly attached to the knowledge of the character in dramatic view which then makes the film ‘self-aware’ as it shifts the sight and feel of viewers between private and social dimensions. One such stimulating scene in which this has materialized is when Eiko, in focus, touches herself in the shower and the tracking shot from top to bottom of her glass-covered wet body mobilizes her erotic imagination through a couple of supposedly invisible male hands in fondling motion as though they were actually upon her skin. As a critical viewer during the film watch, I have observed that the film, though decentralized and complex in pointing out which individuals or group takes the leading side, signifies in its chief content much of political struggle among women. Contrary to the conventional perspective of feminism by which women are empowered from being weak, fragile, or defenseless victims of a male-dominated society, “Eros Plus Massacre” rather promotes a narrative of revolutionary perspective where women take control and possess the capacity of empowering themselves by actively responding to their conflicts regardless of the period involved. Through the lives of Eiko and Noe Ito, for instance, there appears in each female character a manifestation of internal battle by the way either of them negotiates with real circumstances. Somewhere, the anticipated image of a helpless woman who prefers to be quiet in distress is lost because it looks like both of them can manage and that both of them may be felt with a political attribute of knowing how to analyse their individual situations prior to applying measures necessary for resolution of internal crisis. In particular, Eiko is a woman whom the film exhibits as bearing the ability to equate her male counterparts as she explores on her state of womanhood and makes love with different men in the absence of regret, because just as how it works with a man of ego, she yields to a sort of egoistic drive as a consequence of studying Osugi’s political substance which eventually justifies her deeds and definition of freedom. Moreover, the political radicalism of Yoshida’s filming technique in “Eros Plus Massacre” can be perceived in the undertones of a Marxist or communist notion as viewed on the basis of the general desire for freedom beyond restrictions of a higher order. The cultures emerging in both rural and urban settings in Osugi’s and Eiko’s times, respectively, are characterized such that they hold no indication of dynamic forces coming from an authority or body of officials who would command or dictate over the will of the principal characters. Under various scenes, for instance, Eiko and colleague Wada, are freely roaming subjects who seem unbounded by legal terms as they can do what they feel like doing and treat each other as people in common need of independence. Wada’s pyromaniac behaviour and Eiko’s act of sensuality and explorations that defy moral norms, altogether, constitute visual elements free of inhibitions so that their civilization may be judged to depict a communist attitude. Even within the culture of Osugi, the simplicity of the atmosphere as well as the concerns that humans deal with at the time are outside the confines of an intricate system of politics and in the task of presenting these occasions, the filmmaker has endeavoured to incorporate plain music. The use of theatrical sound and percussion or beating of drums in brief span is a simplistic style that evokes the Marxian idea of ‘common’, especially since the music is played merely on film sections that entail tragedy. Overall, it turns out that it is somewhat difficult to keep track of points or shots at which currents of formal and political radicalism intersect whenever the film tends to operate in a manner that what frequently matters is to cope with its psychoanalytical aspect of engaging viewers in the critique of a sum of events instead of distinction between specifics, whether real or ideal. Sometimes, it looks as if both structures of radicalism in “Eros Plus Massacre” have almost always worked together until juxtapositions by the audience enable such intersection to be determined. By a sequence of past-present juxtapositions which had been enhanced by peculiar camera angles and transitions, Yoshida brings across the significance of understanding time as a vital element from which to compare beliefs, particularly how such beliefs have evolved from an era to another which are over forty years apart. The scenario at the top of the cliff when Eiko and Wada station themselves back to back on a wooden cross which culminates into a psyche of punishment or captivity may be thought of in coincidence with the theatrical shots of Osugi and family in a tragic pyramid that resembles a platform for execution. When Wada and Eiko step into an academic recollection among the archives of Japanese history, the momentous point in the life of Osugi and feminist wife Ito is projected with their son who is also fated with their misfortune. Juxtaposed with the picture of the cross, one may necessarily see the close association in the plainness of lighting effect yet the contrast heavily rests on the impact of pondering between the soaring freedom of youth that has just begun a philosophical journey and the subsidence of conquest via an anarchist whose liberal political existence is bound to cease. So basically, Eiko and Wada are both socially aware characters with solid attachment to each other as well as to the deep level of consciousness they have of themselves as free individuals. In the process, they sustain self-awareness with constant communication which leads to philosophical effort of arguing, wandering, and looking into past lives so that this establishes the currents that draw together the formal and political radicalism in the cinematography of “Eros Plus Massacre.” Read More