Asian

MOVIE REVIEW . Charisma

by Kris   ⋅   July 22, 2005   ⋅   Comment Now

Restore the rules of the world… Freedom’s just another disease… A truly healthy human longs to obey… These [magic] mushrooms are delicious!

CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES? Kiyoshi Kurosawa became one of my favorite filmmakers rather quickly, although it has been a bumpy ride. I was enthralled by Cure, regrettably rushed through Kairo (aka: Pulse or Circuit), gleefully devoured Doppelgänger and Bright Future. Admittedly, I had to view the former in installments, periodically accessing the “rewind button of the mind” to comb through the surreal scenes and character histories, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t further confusing myself with over-analyzation. Let me just say that if you’re unfamiliar with or not a fan of Japanese cinema (or otherwise seduced and bagged by Michael Bay flicks where the camera swirls incessantly as if the POV is a housefly’s), the lackadaisical pacing and vague gestalt may frustrate you.. but even if you have to watch it in installments or twice/thrice, it’s worth it.

Okay, Charisma starts off like this: Detective Goro Yabuike (Koji Yakusho, the wavy bouffant with the kind eyes) slips into the obscurity of routine and fatigue, exhausted from insomnia and some possible unannounced domestic burden. He makes a tragic mistake, costing him his badge and the lives of a hostage and a detainee who pleads with him to “restore the rules of the world”. Suddenly, his world is tossed into chaos when he realizes that he failed doing the only thing he could rely on–his job. Instead of the conventional route home, he chooses to remain estranged from family and friends and spends the night in a seemingly secluded forest. He awakes to find his charred car and driver, left to wander through his reluctant new freedom alone. Don’t worry, he isn’t alone for long, in fact soon he’s the crown prince and Sheriff of this macabre place, realizing slowly that every creature who inhabits it is counting on him to uphold the unspoken rules. But whose rules will he govern?

Yabuike (and you) struggle to determine who and what to believe in this bizarre forest. Will it be the poachers who attempt to steal rare arbors for lucrative gain.. an idealistic botanist who may be secretly poisoning the irrigation well.. a possibly homicidal young man/devoted paladin a tree (in homage to his “mentor”).. or a sadistic girl who lures him into gin traps and frustration? Also, he has to decide whether or not to rescue the “main character” of the story–the tree named Charisma–which appears withered yet is blamed for sucking the rest of the forest dry with its irresistible intangible prowess and toxic physical sap. Maybe Yabuike should just stick to his guns, so to speak, and trust in himself as an enforcer, although he may have ingested one too many magic mushrooms earlier on in his existential trek and maybe he’s just trippin’.

I think I love the rebel in Kurosawa; that he wants to create an “anti-genre” genre, alienating himself from audience expectations and safe methods. With his mindset, you’re never sure what lurks beyond the seemingly peaceful moments, and an unnerving eclipse forcibly haunts your thoughts, which is a perfect accompaniment to his spooky screenplays. The soundtrack is perfect: strange yet welcome repeat interludes of a clanking calypso-ish melody puncture the visual canvas and appear when Yabuike has met an impass or a revelation. Another thing I love is the cinematography. In Charisma, even the act of gathering wood is captured poetically, rich with highlights and shadow, depth and interest. Simple yet almost unique horizontal pan-and-scan type dolly shots not only follow motion, but soothes your curiosity. And you will be curious.

What’s happening in the corners of Kurosawa’s mind? Just take a peek.

About the Author

dreamlogic.net -- KRISTINE KOBAYASHI-NELSON

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gus van Sant. Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.

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  1. I picked this up from the video store the other day and I didn’t really understand it. I thought it was interesting, and the images of the big tree were very pretty. At first I was frustrated, but because of your review I would like to watch it again before it is due.

    Katie on July 26, 2005

  2. I recently watched Charisma for about the third time and I think the review really hits on some small but important details.
    It hadn’t occurred to me just how much Yubieke’s situation fit into the movie’s themes. I really appreciated the observation that he becomes an ad hoc sherrif in the woods; they somehow become the one place where he is able to sieze some control over the world around him. It’s easy to see why he dreads his job; less so why he avoids his family, but all that matters is that he is a man seeking to escape. Ultimately though, I think his ‘empowerment’ has more to do with realizing that no one has any control. It’s interesting that, in the end, he takes on the role of the tree’s caretaker but then aides in the destruction of one of its incarnations. He decides to ‘come home’ only once everything has fallen apart and seems at peace.
    I recently finished a book on Japanese cinema in which it was suggested that the apocalypses depicted here and in Pulse actually have an optimistic element. Seems to me that, in Pulse, there’s a degree of choice involved when characters vanish; recgnizing the emptiness of death, they simply give up and fade away. The survivors carry on, seeking new shores.
    In Charisma, the hostage taker is a messenger of sorts, a harbinger that ‘the rules of the world’ are out of whack. I like to think that the destruction in both films is of a cleansing nature. Destroy the old, make way for the new. It’s contradictory, no question. Nonetheless (and this is a very personal reading reflecting my very specific world view) I see Charisma and Pulse as having the point of view that the inherent meaninglessness of human life (and I mean this in a universal sense; I’m not a sociopath, I just see our planet as merely a single grain of sand in the cosmic beach and don’t believe in god) need not be a horrific thing. My death, and those of everyone I care about, will not be pleasant by any means, but I have made peace with it. I’ll simply slip away one day and the universe will go on in some new permutation.
    I find this strangely comforting; I don’t matter all that much. Seems to me this whole idea of being the chosen children of a supernatural creator makes the madness of our world infinitely harder to bear.
    Pheeeew. Anyway, my compliments to you for a well thought out analysis.

    sheilah_steven on September 28, 2005

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