Kagero- za

Kagero-za (aka Heat Haze 1981) is the second part of the Taisho Roman Trilogy directed by Seijun Suzuki and produced by Genjiro Arata. It is again a literary adaptation, this time of a short story by Kyoka Izumi, a writer most famous for Gothic ghost stories. Izumi had works adapted by a number of directors including Kenji Mizoguchi's The Water Magician (1933), Teinosuke Kingusa's Midare-gami (1961), and Masahiro Shinoda's Demon Pond (1979). The story is somewhat free flowing with several digressions that do not add much to the overall story with large doses of the supernatural. It is set in 1926 and tells the story of Shunko Matsuzuko (played by action star Yasuka Matsuda), a playwright, who happens across a curious woman who turns out to be the apparition of the wife (Emiko Azuma) of his wealthy benefactor Tamawaki (Katsuo Nakamura). The story is further complicated by the fact that Tamawaki has two wives. All in all, the plot was somewhat difficult to follow, but that seems to be secondary to the style of the film overall. And the mise en scene (the sets, locations, costumes, actor movements, cinematography, music, and especially the art direction) are the most impressive aspects of the film. The story, quite frankly, is secondary to the visual expositions of this historical and supernatural time and place. Suzuki has always been adept at the use of artistic flourishes and set direction in his films, but here it is particularly impressive. Especially the last coda of the film which incorporates an artistic play within the film with amazing set backdrops depicting spectacular traditional Japanese art that are further incorporated into scenes that take place outside the playhouse, which has a sensational collapse.

Set in Tokyo in 1926, three years after Suzuki’s own birth, Heat Haze Theatre depicts a Japan caught in flux between tradition and modernity, with 1970s action star Matsuda playing Shunko Matsuzaki, a playwright of modern Shinpa theatre who is being supported by a wealthy patron, Tamawaki (Nakamura). One day he crosses the path of a beautiful woman on her way to the hospital where she tells him a friend is dying. She asks Matsuzaki to accompany her because she is scared of a mysterious older woman (Azuma) there who is selling the fruit of the Chinese Lantern Plant, or physalis, rumoured to contain the souls of women. He refuses, but finds himself unable to shake off this beautiful apparition, whom it is later revealed may be the deceased wife of Tamawaki. - See more at: http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/heat-haze-theatre/#sthash.Shm01hUd.dpufIf nothing else this film has an impressive visula style found in the misc en scene: the costumes, sets, cinematography, set locations, and especially art direction. I liked the play within the film and the dramtic backgrounds of traditonal Jpanese art that inhabit the last scenes of the film.

whose lyrical but ambiguous writing formed the basis of a number of silver screen adaptations, ranging from Kenji Mizoguchi’s early silent The Water Magician (Taki no Shiraitô, 1933) to Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Midare-gami (1961) and Masahiro Shinoda’s Demon Pond (Yashagaike, 1979). - See more at: http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/heat-haze-theatre/#sthash.Q2MwQ1UE.dpufFrom his source material is a screenplay that resists any attempt at a synopsis that is somewhat surrealistic and fantastical. It is a much less linear and coherent narrative than the film's predecessor Zigeunerweisen.