Masahiro Shinoda's 1973 film Petrified Forest is an unusual film. It is based on a novel by Shintaro Ishihara, in which I think the author was trying to resolve some issues such as difficulty with intimacy and a mother complex. There are several different narrative strands driving the film. In the main narrative a young medicine student, Hauro (Ken'ichi Hagiwara), runs into his attractive ex-schoolmate Eiko (Sayoko Ninomiya) and they quickly fall in love with each other. The only obstacle is the jealous owner of a barbershop who simultaneously is her lover and her employer and has power over Eiko, because she borrowed money from him. Hauro and Eiko resolve to get rid him so that they can be together. Haruo's estranged mother (Haruko Sugimura excellent as malevolent women), who was caught cheating on her now departed husband by Haruo, who resents his mother for it-she also left the family shortly after this. His mother is now obsessed with living with Haruo, and it is the last thing Haruo wants. Simultaneously, he is working on a medical case as an assistant to a senior doctor and professor who operates on a young boy recklessly removing a tumor that leaves the boy deaf. The senior doctor continues to give the boy and his mother (Mariko Yagi) false hope of recovery and implicates Haruo by admitting as much in front of him making him complicit in the facade to his great consternation. Thus, Haruo is full of contradictions-he few objections to poisoning the venal beauty shop owner and lover of Eiko, feels no guilt at denying his mother's request to live with him, but is tortured over the situation of the young boy in which he feels obligated to help smooth over. Quickly, once his lover teams up with his mother he throws her over for the mother of the damaged child-and hell hath no fury as woman scorned-she plans to get revenge by exposing him as a killer after killing herself with a letter to the police as well as sending a letter to his new lover. His mother intervenes and poisons Eiko and moves in with Haruo to look after him, which seems to destroy him emotionally. The cinematography of Kôzô Okazaki, who worked on Shinoda's Buraikan, is impressive. The soundtrack by the phenomenal Tôru Takemitsu is among his very best compositions.
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Jeez, pretty heavy.
Posted by: Edward | November 23, 2014 at 10:41 AM
Yeah, most of Shinoda's films are like that really.
Posted by: MC | November 23, 2014 at 11:23 PM