The murderer's night

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Movie
German title The murderer's night
Original title 無理 心中 日本 の 夏
Muri Shinjū: Nihon no Natsu
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1967
length 98 minutes
Rod
Director Nagisa Ōshima
script Nagisa Ōshima
music Hikaru Hayashi
camera Yasuhio Yoshioka
cut Keiichi Uraoka
occupation

The Night of the Murderer ( Japanese 無理 心中 日本 の 夏 , Muri Shinjū : Nihon no Natsu ) from 1967 is the tenth feature film by the Japanese director Nagisa Ōshima . The work is also known under the title Japanese Summer: Double Suicide Under Compulsion , a literal translation of the original title.

action

The 18-year-old girl Nejiko meets Otoko (literally: "man"), who has decided to die. She clings to him and continues to express her sexual interest. As the two rest on a wide plain of dried-on clay, men appear with a measuring tape. You shoo them aside and dig out a box at this point. Despite warnings, Otoko and Nejiko look at the contents of the box - they are weapons. So the men force her to go to a distant, disused warehouse. Criminal groups have gathered there and in neighboring halls and are preparing for gang fights.

Nejiko and Otoko are led into a large room with some prisoners. Among them is a man who is tied and cannot be untied because he would otherwise stab people with his knife, a student who only knows the aim of holding a rifle in his hands, and a “toy” who looks after his old revolver. A man, henceforth called "television", carries a small television into the hall. Through the television set, the prisoners learn that in Japan a “white man”, a western man, is handling a rifle and has already shot several people from an ambush. Authorities recommend locking yourself in at home. For a long time Nejiko tries unsuccessfully to find someone among the men to have sex with. Attempts with the tied up and with Otoko are thwarted by distracting events. At some point the people gathered realize that they are no longer guarded and can leave the hall. Still, most of them stay. The student goes to town, where he shoots two police officers at the first opportunity. On returning to the hall, he explains that it wasn't as fulfilling as hoped. Nejiko has slept with three men and doesn't find it satisfying either. After some of the prisoners kill each other, the student, "toys", "television", Otoko and Nejiko set out to hunt down the "whites". Otoko approaches the entrance where the shooter is holed up and approaches him at arm's length without the “white man” shooting. The rest of the group join in, and the "white" joins them. Pursued by the police and fighting with them, the group flees up a small round hill. One after the other, “toys”, the student, and the “white man” are struck down. "Television" wants to surrender to the police, but Otoko shoots him from a distance. Finally, Nejiko and Otoko unite in an act of love; whether they will survive the hail of bullets from the police remains open.

meaning

Again and again the protagonists handle traditional Japanese swords, old pistols and the most modern rifles. With this, Oshima asks about the social status of violence. The "white man" turns out to be a blond, blue-eyed American who speaks (little) with a southern accent and wears a striped shirt. With his face and haircut, he resembles Lee Harvey Oswald . Tessier said that the symbolism was difficult to decipher to an audience unfamiliar with contemporary references. The film is halfway between avant-garde theater and a fantastic comic. “Full of anarchy and nihilism, obsessed with destruction and nothingness, the film loses itself in Oshima's fascination for its own structural elements.” The director portrays the traditional Japanese double suicide of a couple ( Shinjū ) as a futile act of resistance against the state. In particular, Desser interpreted the final scene to mean that sexual liberation and political revolution were the same force.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Tessier: Oshima Nagisa, or The Battered Energy of Desire , in: Arthur Noletti, Jr., and David Desser (eds.): Reframing Japanese Cinema. Authorship, genre, history . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1992, ISBN 0-253-34108-6 , S: 78-79
  2. ↑ David Desser: Eros plus Massacre. An introduction to Japanese New Wave Cinema Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1988, ISBN 0-253-20469-0 , p. 93