If you have been paying attention, you will know by now that war movies are just about my least favourite genre. You know the drill, take a bunch of loveable guys and kill them one at a time. However, I was completely blown away by this no-holds-barred Japanese film which is one of the most brutal films I've ever seen. Set in 1939 during the Sino-Japanese war, it follows the story of nurse Sakura Nishi, played by hauntingly beautiful Ayako Wakao, as she moves between an army rehab hospital and a bloody field hospital, and let me tell you now, this movie is no M*A*S*H. None of the horrors of war is skimped upon nor the traumas of those involved. Sakura is raped by patients who consider her no better than a "comfort woman" and a witness to the casual hacking off of arms and legs to purportedly save lives -- all graphically rendered. She takes pity on an armless patient who is unable to relieve his sexual urges and who, 'though married, knows he will never be allowed to go home, since letting the public see his condition would imply that Japan is losing the battle; her attempt on a single day trip with him away from the hospital to let him regain his self-respect as a man is wincingly graphic.
She also falls in love with an older doctor at the field hospital who relies on morphine as a solace for the abuse of his surgeon's skills and for his own impotency. Their relationship is amazingly tough, yet tender, as the mutilated bodies pile up and as an outbreak of cholera further decimates the ranks. Her name translates as 'Cherry Blossom' and he comments that it is impossible to imagine anyone other than a young woman with such a symbolic name. Even if she survives the inevitable carnage, she is bound to be an old soul after all that she has experienced.
The director, Yasuzo Masamura, although very prolific, is not one of the Japanese masters well-known in the West. He was also responsible for the oddball "Blind Beast" that dazzled me a few months back, and after this film, I do feel obliged to seek out more movies from his singular vision.
I shall be away until the end of the week -- but I shall be back before you know it! See you then...
1 comment:
Excellent review which cannot be improved by any comments of mine or, probably, anyone else's.
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