Pistol Opera

[Aaron Gerow]

Reactions to Seijun's new film seem generally positive, but I can't say I 
can agree with them. Having seen dozens of his films and written on him, 
I eagerly awaited the film. But to me, while certainly a visual feast, it 
is a pale imitation of his previous work. The comparison with Koroshi no 
rakuin is inevitable, because the film constantly quotes it, but despite 
an article in the press notes desperately trying to argue that Seijun is 
being original here, I found it derivative and uninspiring.  I sorely 
missed the presence of Yamatoya Atsushi, who gave substance to Koroshi's 
script.  Without him, Pistol Opera's thematics revolve around repressed 
sexuality, violence, and the death wish, but in unexciting ways.  The 
post Zigeunerweisen Seijun has increasingly delved into the Taisho era, 
an era I study a lot, but in Pistol, this perverse nostalgia descends 
into a Japonisme which I could not help but find disturbing (Mt. Fuji 
abounds in this film).  While looking to the past, the film paradoxically 
pronounces a new generation (of killers) which seems to align with its 
vision of images without substance. Maybe that's post-modern, but, while 
I don't want to sound like Hori Kyusaku here (the Nikkatsu president who 
fired Seijun), I wonder what relevance these images have to anything 
going on today.

Still, it is a provocative film.  Maybe I just need to see it again and 
think about it some more....

(By the way, I also found Esumi Makiko beautiful but as inept as usual.)

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171