Director- Suzuki Seijun.This is the fourth film I have seen of his.This is the second of Suzuki's Taisho trilogy and features a similar premise on the broader strokes yet again.The premise is quite similar to that of Yumeji but Yumeji I feel is much more refined in terms of plot and surreal visuals. It is also a bit more inaccessible comparatively as it doesn't have the foreshadowing I saw in this with the ghost and the man coming face to face.The use of the cherries was quite interesting and acted as a good foreshadowing tactic yet again. The female lead turns into a bunch of cherries at the end. So her soul was indeed in the cherry she gave the protagonist at the start.The film features a protagonist of a similar nature as well. He too is cowardly but to a bigger degree and isn't true to his words somewhat like the protagonist of Yumeji. In this case, it is because he wants to live when in Yumeji it was greed.The dolls hiding sensual material was quite interesting as it could work in a way to tell us that the maker's nature is instilled in them.Suzuki explores the ideas of the spiritual over the tangible by the use of dreams and ghosts. For example, at the start, a woman is scattering flower petals and saying her recently dead friend will receive them in her dream. The film aims to blur the boundaries between the two realms- ours and the one in our dreams.The play at the end could signify Suzuki exploring the state of Japanese national identity through the use of traditional cultural principles and people becoming dolls.The theater crashing down could signify the end of an era, in this case, the Taisho era.The film also covers themes of equality and traditional thinking being counter-intuitive and how it pushes the characters towards weird situations one can't escape.The sequence that spoke of the inner identity explains Suzuki's points quite well. Men are judged by their outer selves while women are by their inner selves.The film also explores themes of infidelity yet again coupled with possessiveness and misogyny.The ghosts are indicators of one's true selves in the film.

Director- Suzuki Seijun.This is the fourth film I have seen of his.This is the second of Suzuki's Taisho trilogy and features a similar premise on the broader strokes yet again.The premise is quite similar to that of Yumeji but Yumeji I feel is much more refined in terms of plot and surreal visuals. It is also a bit more inaccessible comparatively as it doesn't have the foreshadowing I saw in this with the ghost and the man coming face to face.The use of the cherries was quite interesting and acted as a good foreshadowing tactic yet again. The female lead turns into a bunch of cherries at the end. So her soul was indeed in the cherry she gave the protagonist at the start.The film features a protagonist of a similar nature as well. He too is cowardly but to a bigger degree and isn't true to his words somewhat like the protagonist of Yumeji. In this case, it is because he wants to live when in Yumeji it was greed.The dolls hiding sensual material was quite interesting as it could work in a way to tell us that the maker's nature is instilled in them.Suzuki explores the ideas of the spiritual over the tangible by the use of dreams and ghosts. For example, at the start, a woman is scattering flower petals and saying her recently dead friend will receive them in her dream. The film aims to blur the boundaries between the two realms- ours and the one in our dreams.The play at the end could signify Suzuki exploring the state of Japanese national identity through the use of traditional cultural principles and people becoming dolls.The theater crashing down could signify the end of an era, in this case, the Taisho era.The film also covers themes of equality and traditional thinking being counter-intuitive and how it pushes the characters towards weird situations one can't escape.The sequence that spoke of the inner identity explains Suzuki's points quite well. Men are judged by their outer selves while women are by their inner selves.The film also explores themes of infidelity yet again coupled with possessiveness and misogyny.The ghosts are indicators of one's true selves in the film.

This one didn’t really impact me as much. I was confused for most of it, even more than Zigeunerweisen, and it didn’t have the same hypnotic feel that that did. There were some beautiful shots towards the end tho, the one with the theater falling apart in front of the main character was breathtaking. Overall it’s well shot and stuff it just didn’t grab me. 

It also doesn’t help that I have no idea what the story was. Like I don’t know if it was incredibly confusing or I’m incredibly confused, but I seriously couldn’t you what happened at all in the last hour and a half of this movie. I started getting people mixed up and misremembering backstories for different characters, It just felt like it was not explained well at all for how complicated it is. 

After a little reading tho, this does seem to be slightly intentional. I think I may have just missed something in the initial love triangle, and then the rest of it is purposefully hazy and difficult to understand fully. It’s almost a parody of art-house movies, which makes a lot of sense actually. I like it a lil more than I did at first.

This one didn’t really impact me as much. I was confused for most of it, even more than Zigeunerweisen, and it didn’t have the same hypnotic feel that that did. There were some beautiful shots towards the end tho, the one with the theater falling apart in front of the main character was breathtaking. Overall it’s well shot and stuff it just didn’t grab me. 

It also doesn’t help that I have no idea what the story was. Like I don’t know if it was incredibly confusing or I’m incredibly confused, but I seriously couldn’t you what happened at all in the last hour and a half of this movie. I started getting people mixed up and misremembering backstories for different characters, It just felt like it was not explained well at all for how complicated it is. 

After a little reading tho, this does seem to be slightly intentional. I think I may have just missed something in the initial love triangle, and then the rest of it is purposefully hazy and difficult to understand fully. It’s almost a parody of art-house movies, which makes a lot of sense actually. I like it a lil more than I did at first.

This man had no oversight and made the most confusing and sick movie

This man had no oversight and made the most confusing and sick movie

Somehow even more incomprehensible and incoherent than Zigeunerweisen, but I felt like I was more able to grasp at symbolic strings and piece together my own interpretation. It reminded me so much of Mulholland Drive, by way of a gothic ghost story and new wave sensibilities. It’s not a perfect film—it SAGS and DRAGS in the middle (a lot). But it kept my attention through some of Suzuki’s most strikingly beautiful imagery (the lush trees that fold around all the exteriors are so dreamy and vibrant). I was a little upset after I finished Zigeunerweisen (have I come to the end of good Suzukis!?!?), but Kagero-za really restored my confidence in my new directorial obsession.

Somehow even more incomprehensible and incoherent than Zigeunerweisen, but I felt like I was more able to grasp at symbolic strings and piece together my own interpretation. It reminded me so much of Mulholland Drive, by way of a gothic ghost story and new wave sensibilities. It’s not a perfect film—it SAGS and DRAGS in the middle (a lot). But it kept my attention through some of Suzuki’s most strikingly beautiful imagery (the lush trees that fold around all the exteriors are so dreamy and vibrant). I was a little upset after I finished Zigeunerweisen (have I come to the end of good Suzukis!?!?), but Kagero-za really restored my confidence in my new directorial obsession.

Big “we live inside a dream” vibes. “It’s just some phantom show” one character says. Nothing feels material or real. Leans into Seijun Sezuki’s whole “time and space are nonsense” deal.
What I’m trying to say is that Kagero-za makes no sense, but I can dig.

Big “we live inside a dream” vibes. “It’s just some phantom show” one character says. Nothing feels material or real. Leans into Seijun Sezuki’s whole “time and space are nonsense” deal.
What I’m trying to say is that Kagero-za makes no sense, but I can dig.