SUZUKI Seijun --- some snippets about
one of the most famous "cult" Japanese directors
Starting next week, Japanese Film
Festival 2016 in Singapore will be held at the National Museum of Singapore. This
year, there is an SUZUKI Seijun retrospective as a part of the festival. In
association with that retrospective, I would like to introduce some snippets
which are well known among film fans in Japan.
Here is their website:
“Film is only one time. Like a firework. It blooms in a flash
and it vanishes. In that period, who imagined film works would be archived?”
---Suzuki Seijun
Quote in response to the question “Don’t you
think of being remembered by future generations?” taken from an interview with
Suzuki Seijun about “A Tale of Sorrow and
Sadness” (1977).
It is said among Japanese film critics that
Suzuki Seijun is a difficult interviewee. He looks cool for his former works.
He parries interviewers’ questions. If an interviewer asks him “What is the
theme of this film?”, he will just say, “There is no theme. I just received the
script from the studio.” or “Well, what is that?” or “Maybe it is as you said”
etc… It is hard to tell if Seijun is being humble. We cannot judge he is
serious or not.
We tend to think film directors choose
directing because they love film. But Suzuki Seijun was not a big film fan. He
is not like Akira Kurosawa who wanted to be a painter when he was young.
Neither is he like Ichikawa Kon who loved animation and started his film
carrier as an animator. After failing a university entrance exam, he entered
the Kamakura Academy film department at his friend’s invitation and later,
joined Shochiku Studio in 1948. It was a quite tough period for a young man to
get a job. According to Seijun himself, “Maybe I felt it was good to join a
company, even if it was any company.” He moved to Nikkatsu Studio in 1954 and
was promoted from assistant director to full director in 1956.
Regardless whether Seijun loved films or not,
he always made his films with all his strength. According to Takeda Kazunari,
his former assistant director, Mrs Suzuki once remarked that her husband does
not go to bed during the shooting period. Even when drowsy, he was always
thinking about the film shoot. He prepared the continuity details for the next
day’s shooting, always thinking whether the shot would work or not. Seijun gave
his best effort, even when his works in Nikkatsu
Studios were ranked as B Grade films, often released as the additional film in
a Nikkatsu double bill program. Noro Keisuke, one of his favourite supporting
actors, said he gave up memorizing a Seijun’s script because it often changed
every morning before shooting.
His works has had a
great influence on later film directors, but he does not look to have been
influenced by former directors or have been inspired by somebody’s works. His
style cannot be explained by ideology. His uniqueness stands alone in Japanese
film history. Critics maybe not have had other expressions except for calling
his uniqueness “aesthetics”.
Among his remarkable
styles, Seijun uses colours, distorted space and time, unconnected shots,
mirror reflections. In particular, Seijun uses the unconnected shots, where he
jumps between two unconnected shots, from his early works throughout his
career. These shots make the storyline difficult to understand, but it also
makes his film so much fun to watch. Suzuki Akira, an editor who has worked
with Suzuki Seijun since his Nikkatsu era, explained “Seijun does not take
acting he does not want to show. He takes only good acting and tries to connect
only them. That is why his shots are jumping.” Hasumi Shigehiko, Film scholar
mentioned “For example, Masuda Toshio (another Nikkatsu director) takes a scene
for “taking a break”. A scene without positive meaning is taken and shown with
some feeling. The story then follows. But in Seijun’s films, there are no
“taking a break” scenes.” Yamada Koichi, film critic, also said “There is no
loose part following orthodox film grammar. For some reason, Seijun just tries
to connect only the peak shots.”
Seijun Suzuki was fired
from Nikkatsu Studio because of his “Branded
to Kill” in 1967. Even before that film, he was sometimes scolded by his
studio executives for various reasons. Here are some examples.
“Naked Age” (1959)
Film with an old man
character, Gon Jii acted by Hidari Bokuzen alongside Spitz, a dog. Spitz was a
popular dog at that time, beautiful and well groomed. But the studio executive
decided that “It is unnatural for a homeless old man to have a pet dog suited
for an upper class family.” Watching this film now, the scenes of the miserable
looking old man with a beautiful white fluffy dog have a dreamlike impression. But
this clashed with the Studio’s filmic realism, so the most parts of the dog
were cut.
 |
| Naked Age (1959) |
“The Kanto Wanderer” (1963)
The Studio insisted on
adding a new final scene. Seijun’s original last scene was the heroine, Tatsuko
(acted by Ito Hiroko) standing at the Japanese style veranda in her house and
thinking of the hero, Mitsuo (acted by Kobayashi Akira). But the studio executive
asked “Where did Akira go?” So Seijun shot an additional final scene with
Akira. Seijun thought it should be understood about what happened on the hero,
no explanation required. But as a star film, the Studio needed the ending with
the hero.
 |
| The Kanto Wanderer (1963) |
“Tokyo Nagaremono (Tokyo
Drifter)” (1966)
The last scene was
changed. In the original last scene, there is the green moon and a white tree
stump with a red edge. When Seijun made his previous film, “Tattooed Life” (1965), the Studio felt
that the climax of that film was too much. They warned him not to exceed that
limit. Emori Seijuro, a Nikkatsu Studio executive, was the only executive who always
defended Seijun works. When he saw the final scene in “Tokyo Drifter”, he got angry with the green moon. Emori demanded
the last scene to be reshot.
Interestingly, Tokyo Drifter was a kind of music film,
and Watari Tetsuya, the lead actor, also sang the theme song. As a personal
challenge, Seijun wanted to test if he could insert this tune in the film as
many times as possible. As a result, the same tune appeared 13 times in
different ways in the film. (15 August 2016)
 |
| Tokyo Nagaremono (1966) |
References:
“Seijun Eiga” by
Suzuki Seijun, edited by Isoda Tsutomu and Todoroki Yukio, published by Wides
Shuppan in 2006
“Suzuki Seijun Zen Eiga” edited by Ueno Koshi, published by Rippu
Shobo in 1986“Suzuki Seijun Kantoku Jisen DVD Box” (vol. 1 and 2) directed by Suzuki Seijun, introduction by Sato Toshiaki, released by Nikkatsu Co. in 2006 and 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment