Dogra Magra

[ALex]

I haven't seen the movie but the book is also very confusing. At some
point it is even hinted that none of it is real and that the book
itself is much like a zen koan, its purpose is to transform the
conscience of the reader not to tell a story that makes sense.

On 6/22/06, Alexander Jacoby <a_p_jacoby at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> Having just watched Toshio Matsumoto's Dogra Magra, I wonder how people on
> the list have reacted to it and how much of the story people think is real.
> In Matsumoto's early Pandemonium / Shura, there are many scenes where the
> director plays tricks with the viewer so that's it's initially confusing as
> to whether a particular scene is supposed to have really happened, or be
> taken as fantasy (an example the murder of the young couple early in the
> film). In Pandemonium, however, these issues are usually resolved so that by
> the end of the film one knows basically what has happened. Dogra Magra is
> not like this, since the film is seen from the perspective of an amnesiac.
> I'm wondering how much of the narrative one can have any confidence in at
> all. My basic questions are:
>
> 1) How many people, if any, were really murdered - when and where?
> 2) Who by? Is the young man really guilty either of the murder shown in the
> flashback, or of the one which allegedly took place inside the asylum?
> 3) Is the young man really the person who the doctors claim he is?
> 4) Is it possible that the whole incident has been fabricated by the doctors
> for their own purposes? - ie experimental research?
>
> If people feel that the answer to all these questions is, We don't know, and
> that's the point of the film, then fair enough. But I'm wondering if I may
> have missed some subtle clues as to which of the events we're to interpret
> as really real!
>
> Thanks,
>
> ALEX
>
>
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