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Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (aka: Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san) movie review

by Kris ⋅ June 15, 2008 ⋅ Comment now ⋅ Subscribe RSS

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dreamlogic.net's MOVIE REVIEW Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (aka: Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san)

Director: Kankuro Kudo
Starring: Shichinosuke Nakamura, Tomoya Nagase
Genre: Japan, Comedy, Curious, Fantasy

See it at SF Indie’s Another Hole in the Head June 2008!

Everyone loves a roadtrip movie. Maybe even a gay roadtrip movie. How about a couple of Edo era gay samurai who are forbidden to ride their motorcycle (by famed Susumu Terajima, no less) and must walk for the rest of the “roadtrip”? Well, there’s a lot of similar pain and disappointment to endure in Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims, bookended by the baleful and the beautifully bizarre.

Akin to the recent re-imaging of Zatoichi and the wacky yet highly enjoyable Korean animation Aachi and Ssipak, Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims has a lot of heart beyond its absurdity. Ultimately, the tale is about a peroxided junkie Kitahachi (Shichinosuke Nakamura) and his recently turned gay lover Yajirobei (Tomoya Nagase); the latter hoping to kick his buddy’s addiction by forcing them onto a pilgrimage to the renowned Ise Shrine.

The story is not a new one, based on a nineteenth century novel whose first cinematic incarnation was in 1927, but the direction is definitely modern, drawing from a recent manga. Yaji and Kita still meet various personalities and oddities on their adventure. For this version, there are shrieking groupies, a tyrannical humor-hog (Riki Takeuchi tortures Itsuji Itao and Nao Omori for telling dry jokes in his province), Excalibur meets side-show capitalist, flamboyant tea shop owner and his tone-deaf daughter, among others. The tone-deaf daughter acts as catalyst for the first turning point in the movie, eking out drama over comedy, painting a deeply somber tone as Kita suddenly goes bi, renouncing his dedication to Yaji, the clueless member of the ensuing (and abrupt!) love triangle.

We soon discover the dark side of both main characters, imbued in fantasy and escapism. While it is Yaji’s idea to travel to the land of “reality” (as promised by the Ise postcard he lovingly cherishes and whips out whenever he needs inspiration), and we confuse Kita’s pill-popping with instability, Yaji is the one desperate to outrun the reality he recently created. With a lecherous egotistical Elvis-esque private investigator hot on their heels, it might not be too long before all is revealed. Or maybe not.

Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims lobs a few more comedic elements, then settles into a wintery sob-story between Yaji and his wife in the afterlife. I heard a few sniffles in the audience, but not enough to convince me that people were actually crying. And I, who cries at every movie, could not shed a tear for these characters, who were devoid of audience intimacy, who were trying to force every major emotion as if to prove to me they were human. I just could not be convinced they were human. The film itself was trying to force every major genre as well, and while I appreciate the enthusiasm of an actor’s directorial debut, I would have much preferred it to be crazy and kooky and edgy the entire ride, unrelenting at that; more like a kabuki play (which I later discovered Nakamura is famous for this craft), steeped in sarcasm, establishing “inside jokes” with its audience.

The end of the film detours to a softer, subtler, remissive definition of love where a deceased bartender (Arata) relies on his wife’s (Aso Kumiko, Red Shadow, The Wow-Choten Hotel) dreams to keep him “alive” (pictured above). As she naps eternally on the enchanted forest floor, she sprouts magic mushrooms from her skin, obviously the synergy between Man and Nature, Reality and Fantasy converge, as one cannot exist without the other, just like two people entwined in love. The idea that intangible beliefs and wishes act as enablers for others is amazingly established in this scene that I wish would not have been interrupted by dog-humping slapstick.

Yaji and Kita’s strength lies in its many camera/set tricks, cameos and condundrums. To deflate that strength with completely tiring and drawn out antics was its downfall. Tighten it up by at least 30 minutes, and you’ll have a winner. Otherwise, watching it in installments or while high would help a lot.