Fighting Elegy (Criterion Collection)

One of the classics themes of Japanese literature is the way of Koha, the "Hard School." A path of absolute masculinity, Koha requires absolute repression of sexual desires and avoidance of "weak" women, who are distractions from what make a man a man. Men are forged through intense, focused martial arts training and constant fighting to harden the warrior's soul. The way of Koha can be found is such seminal Japanese works as Mishima's "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea." Seijun Suzuki thinks this is pretty funny.

"Fighting Elegy" ("Kenka Erejii") is a sharp parody of Koha, taking a cynical look at the culture of boys in Japan, where the slogan "Boys be Ambitious!" can be heard shouted by mothers to their male children. All of the standards of a Koha flick are here; Kiroku Nanbu, the young upcoming tough with more spunk than ability. Turtle, an upper-student who becomes Kiroku's mentor in the ways of fighting. Michiko, a beautiful Catholic school girl who seeks to reveal Kiroku's soft side and lead him into love and marriage. Kiroku's inner battle between his lust for Michiko and his loyalty to Turtle is captured in the climatic line "I don't masturbate, I fight!"

Under Suzuki's directorial hand, this mockery of Koha is both hilarious and insightful. The military culture of WW II is one of the legacies of Koha, and "Fighting Elegy" takes place in a Japan on the brink of the Martial Law of 1935. Suzuki takes the fangs out of this ultimately destructive philosophy. One of his two non-Yakuza films (the other being "Story of a Prostitute"), it is nice to see Suzuki tackle this politically-charged topic so capably.

The Criterion Collection DVD for "Fighting Elegy" is fairly bare-bones, with no extra features other than two helpful essays, one on the film itself and one on Ikki Kita, founder of the militarization movement. Being a satire, it is impossible to truly appreciated "Fighting Elegy" without the necessary historical and political background that it dastardly mirrors and these essays go a long way towards filling in these missing pieces.

There's nothing quite so frustrating as a satire that totally doesn't work. "Fighting Elegy" is supposed to be some kind of brilliant attack on, I dunno, machismo or militarism or whatever, at least according to film critics and scholars. Funny, isn't it, that I interpreted this thing as a really poorly made and juvenile film about a bratty kid who gets into a lot of fistfights (rather like a Z-grade version of "Fight Club," which is also overrated).

Where do I start complaining about this film? The character development of our poorly acted protagonist is very minimal. We know that he's in love with a girl named Michiko, though we don't really know why, because he has zero chemistry with her. Because he can't have Michiko, our hero works out his frustrations by getting into a series of totally unconvincing - yet still rather violent and borderline sadistic - fights. The fights come with comedy sound effects, reminiscent of the Adam West Batman (THWACK! POW! ARRGH!) Every once in a while, the director tosses some Catholic imagery into the mix, like a crucifix with a big spotlight on it. What does all this mean? I'm afraid my poor brain was not up to the task of unpacking imagery of such, um, depth. I just thought it was pretentious.

Despite the fact that the film is quite short, it's repetitive and draggy, as the hero constantly gets into fights and then gets into trouble for having the fights. My interest was somewhat sustained by some good imagery - like the two "lovers" holding hands through a rip in a shoji screen - but a few good images do not a good film make. And, as is common with director Suzuki's pictures, the editing is so scatterbrained that I often had trouble following the action. (Shortly after making this film, Suzuki was sacked by his studio for making incomprehensible films. Some critics think this was a tragedy, but I'd have been tempted to fire the guy too.)

I suppose I'm being too hard on this movie, because it at least tries to be distinctive. But "Fighting Elegy" happens to belong to a sub-genre of cinema that I particularly dislike; it pretends to lampoon and condemn violence (I guess), but also seems to celebrate violence at the same time, and in the end I thought its message was garbled beyond comprehension. Honestly, I'm really not sure why Donald Richie, a usually razor-sharp critic of Japanese film, is so fond of Suzuki and his work; I much prefer the quiet dramatic force of an Ozu movie, or even the pop culture bliss of a Godzilla extravaganza, to a lurid and tacky film like this one.

"Fighting Elegy (Kenka Elegy), the masterpiece of director Seijun Suzuki known for his many B-movies for Japan's oldest major movie studio, Nikkatsu Company from 1956-1967.

Known for creating Yakuza films which include his popular 1963 film "Youth of the Beast" (Yaju no Seishun), the 1966 film "Tokyo Drifter (Tokyo Nagaremono) and the 1967 film "Branded to Kill" (Koroshi no Rakuin), despite his films not being big box office hits, he was known for creating films with striking compositions, hallucinatory images, flamboyant colors which were among his most well-known traits as a filmmaker.

"Fighting Elegy" is much different from his other three masterpiece films as this film was about rival gangs which would be the pre-cursor to Japan's Yankii culture, in black and white and would bring together humor and violence altogether in one film. The film was adapted from a novel by Takashi Suzuki courtesy of filmmaker Kaneto Shindo.

The film revolves around the character of Kiroku Nanbu (played by Hideki Takahashi), a teenager who lives in a boardinghouse and now a practicing Catholic and attends a military middle school in Okayama during the mid-1930's. Kiroku is in love with his landlord's daughter Michiko, a talented pianist.

But although Kiroku tries to make it to mass and be there for Michiko, he is also involved with the local gang known as the OSMS. Having trained in fighting and has quick reflexes, he's not very good at expressing how he feels and also has a problem with containing his love for Michiko. In fact, each time he thinks of her, he literally gets a hard on and feels that he needs to masturbate.

Torn by wanting to be by Michiko's side, unfortunately his gang doesn't appreciate such things. They have strict rules which involve becoming a rebel, getting into trouble and not having any girlfriends. Despite having a father who doesn't want for him to get into any trouble, Kiroku is so far into the gang and rebellious lifestyle that he seems he wants to create as much trouble as possible, although Michiko does what she can to stop him.

The film is broken down to two arcs. The first half, being a blend of comedy and violence features Hideki trying his best to be a tough guy and gang member of OSMS but also having feelings for Michiko to a second half in which he moves to Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima where he goes on to create his own gang and trying to get used to his new living area.

Will Hideki find love with Michiko or will he continue to get deeper into a life of violence?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Fighting Elegy - THE CRITERION COLLECTION #269' is resented in black and white (2:35:1 aspect ratio). Fora film that is 45-years-old, the film looks very good courtesy of the new, restored high-definition digital transfer from Criterion. According to Criterion, the HD digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm print struck from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System.

The soundtrack is in monaural and was mastered at 24-bit from the optical print track and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle. The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 1.0 but for those with modern home theater receivers can easily select stereo on all channels for a more immersive soundscape.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Surprisingly, for a Criterion Collection DVD release from 2005, there are no special features included with this release but the original theatrical trailer (2:34) and a three-page essay by Tony Rayns (filmmaker, critic and festival programmer).

Also a two page note on Ikki Kita, the radical political thinker who wrote "An Outline of a Plan for the Reconstruction of Japan" in 1919 about his socialist views and providing land for farmers and equal profits for workers and their bosses. He became a hero for young military officers who came from poor families especially during a time of Japan's poor economy and having come off a devastating earthquake, the stock market crash of 1929 and eventually in Feb. 1936, over a thousand soldiers took to Tokyo and executed government officials.

JUDGMENT CALL:

Why is there a mention of Ikki Kita in this insert? It's because Kita plays a significant role in the end of "Fighting Elegy" and also was to play more of a role in the sequel which was not made because director Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu in 1967.

"Fighting Elegy" is definitely a quirky but fun and action-packed Nikkatsu film by director Seijun Suzuki. Sure, its different from his yakuza hits but I really enjoyed how Suzuki created a film about Japanese youth, especially ones that deal with the territorial youthful gangs and as mentioned, the precursor to today's yankii gangs.

The film does away with the guns and the strippers and features fist fighting and whatever weapons these gangs created. But what an interesting way to feature the film's protagonist by somewhat making him a compassionate and violent Catholic man going through a sexual time of his life and using comedy to feature his masturbating tendencies. You're definitely not going to see this type of character anywhere but "Fighting Elegy". So, one can expect comedy and action in this film.

But I have to really give a thumbs up to the cinematography and the editing. Crazy camera angles and weather conditions which Suzuki pulled of despite the film being created with such a low budget. Plenty of memorable scenes from the gang war to the various areas of where Kiroku is getting in a fight. May it be in a chicken farm or a field full of weeds. This is Suzuki at his prime but trying to capture that Japanese mid-'30s flair through its characters and rebellious political and social beliefs of the Japanese people during that time.

Personally, "Fighting Elegy" may not be the first Suzuki film that fans who want to learn about Suzuki's work should see until they see "Tokyo Drifter" or "Branded to Kill" first but nevertheless, this film is just entertaining, quirky but fun throughout.

Overall, "Fighting Elegy" is an enjoyable film but for a Criterion Collection release, I was surprised by its lack of special features. Something I would expect to see from a 1998 release, not in 2005. But nevertheless, this is the only way to catch this film and the picture quality on the DVD is just awesome! Overall, "Fighting Elegy" is definitely recommended!

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