lunedì 26 novembre 2012

Shinjuku Mad - Kôji Wakamatsu

ha qualcosa di "Un borghese piccolo piccolo", c'è un padre al quale hanno ucciso un figlio, ma poi è tutto diverso.
Wakamatsu dipinge una società nella quale i giovani sono fuori di testa, fra delinquenza e droghe, la polizia non vuole indagare, allora ci pensa lui, il padre, un pover'uomo della provincia che cerca e cerca, disperato, perché il figlio è morto, spera almeno per una nobile causa, e trova che è morto per niente, per mano di una banda e di un giovane delinquente impunito.
un ritratto impietoso di una società alla deriva.
l'attore che interpreta il padre è bravissimo, già solo per lui è un film da vedere - Ismaele





The epicentre of Japan’s cutting edge cinema, theatre and music scene at the end of the 1960s, the atmosphere of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district has been described as simultaneously that of a carnival, a giant party and a war zone. In the opening scene of Wakamatsu’s portrait of the area, two members of an underground theatre troupe are slain mid-performance by a group of anonymous thugs. The police are unwilling to get involved in any investigation, and so it is left to the murdered actor’s father to solve the mystery. His only clue at the beginning is the cryptic words Shinjuku Mad – but is this a person, a place, or perhaps even a state of mind? His search leads him into an alien underworld in which every one of his values finds itself broached, as he encounters permissive sex parties, John Lennon wannabes strumming guitars and wailing Hare Krishnas, and ultimately a violent gang of anarchist bikers preaching nothing less than world revolution. One of Wakamatsu’s favourites among his own films, Shinjuku Mad provides a fascinating testament to the vibrant counter-cultural milieu in which the director operated.

Un bon film de Wakamatsu : critique féroce de la société japonaise, constat politique amer de la cruelle confrontation des générations. L'émergence d'un nouveau Japon, en contradiction avec la société traditionnelle ancrée sur des valeurs que la jeunesse rejette, est le point d'ancrage sur lequel le cinéaste s'appuie pour universaliser son propos, car les conflits générationnels à la fin des années 60 ne sont pas l'apanage du Japon bien entendu. Quoiqu'il en soit, en nous faisant suivre les pas de ce père en quête de deuil après le meurtre de son fils,..
Cet acteur est remarquable, donne une intensité époustouflante même. Au regard des prestations banales des jeunes -pour deux ou trois c'est même franchement merdique- il passe pour un grand monsieur. On ne peut lui enlever qu'il est habité par son personnage. Je retiendrai donc surtout sa performance, celle de Masao Adachi, le scénariste habituel de Wakamatsu dont l'écriture se révèle aussi sèche et froide que l'exigeait le sujet et pour finir cette réalisation toujours aussi bonne, originale, incorporant ces plans urbains, disséquant la froideur du béton et la mort de l'humanité comme peu savent le faire, dessinant une esthétique qui n'appartient qu'à lui.

The father of a slain young man comes to Tokyo to find the killer, known as Shinjuku Mad. The police are no help so he sets out on his own, poking around in underground coffee bars and crash pads in Shinjuku, then ground zero for the Japanese counter cultural movement. He’s straight-laced and square but he’s not insensitive to young people. In fact, he likens them to the architects of the Meiji Restoration, the men who helped bring Japan out of its feudal age.
It’s clear Wakamatsu and his usual screenwriter, Adachi Masao, have more respect for the honest working man of Japan here than the “revolutionary,” who talks a lot but never does anything except squabble with others. Even more than the fact that Shinjuku Madfeels like a real movie, complete with coherent plot and resolution, it’s this aspect that surprised me the most. That a revolutionary filmmaker should take the position of the conservative working class says a lot about how he felt about the state of the revolution…

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