self-introduction

[bird@ca.inter.net]

Hmm, Ozu...what shots in particular?
What interested me about Dolls, particularly moments like the appearance of
the kimono, was how step by step the story moves from the everyday  to the
mythical, and along the way this change is pushed along by moments of
magical realism which border on kitsch. For example the final shot of the
lovers dangling from a tree on the edge of a cliff. In that shot the tree
is so stylized or exaggerated as to be obviously a matt painting over which
the lovers are superimposed in post-production. The film overlays kitsch
and  tragedy, to very moving effect - at least this was the way I read it.
It seems to parallel in a way Kitano's other work in television - on game
shows and so on - which is very low-brow but does make at times rather
important comments on contemporary Japan.

Does anyone know the name of the bunraku play on which the film is based,
and/or the folktale the play comes from? The image of two people bound
together by a red cord - this is very familiar - the idea of en-musubi? -
I'm wondering if there are specific examples in traditional culture of
characters bound by a red cord.

BTWa question about Kitano's name.He is known popularly in Japan as Bito
(Beat) Takeshi. I understand this name comes from the name of his 1970s
manzai duo "the Two Beats", but does anyone know the significance of the
term "Beat" here (eg heartbeats, Beatniks...)?
Lawrence Bird

>I saw "Dolls" some weeks ago and although I don't think it's Kitano's best
>film, I'm interested in. For example, How about thoese shots where you could
>see some kimonos hanging from a wood structure? In these case is seems quite
>easy to understand its meaning in relation to the Bunraku, etc. But the most
>surprising for me was to realize that may be Ozu had been using it with the
>same purpose (predestination, etc.) in some similar kind of shots he used to
>edit ... What do you think?
>
>Lorenzo J. Torres
>Ass. Professor in Communications
>Universidad Carlos III
>Madrid
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