For 3 a long time, filmmaker Takeshi Kitano was fixated on a interval of Japanese historical past, wherein Lord Oda Nobunaga was inexplicably betrayed by one in every of his closest allies, Akechi Mitsuhide, in an ambush at Honno-ji Temple. The explanations behind Mitsuhide’s deception are unknown, however Kitano devoted years to concocting his personal theories, going as far as to pen a novel imagining the occasions that led to the incident.
Tailored from his personal ebook, “Kubi” is an outrageously exhilarating replace of the samurai epic, dialing up the blood and guts and sprinkling within the sick humor to match. Its title derives from the Japanese phrase for head, alluding to the samurai’s penchant for decapitation. And from its opening scene, wherein crabs slowly crawl out of a soldier’s gaping orifice the place a face needs to be, it’s clear that many, many heads will roll.
It’s the late-Sixteenth century, and Oda Nobunaga (Ryo Kase) faces a rise up from one in every of his vassals, Araki Murashige (Kenichi Endo). Indignant and erratic, he orders his inside circle of warlords, together with Mitsuhide (Hidetoshi Nishijima), to trace him down, promising that “whoever works hardest” will take over as his successor. On paper, it is a comparatively easy story, however Kitano constructs it as one thing rather more convoluted, because of a flurried rush of character and placement introductions full with title playing cards for the handfuls of recent faces.
There’s extra to Nobunaga’s rage than simply political betrayal. Including one other layer to this spiderweb of allegiances, Nobunaga, Murashige, and Mitsuhide are in a type of sordid love triangle, although you’re by no means actually positive if their feelings are true, or in the event that they’re courting one another for the alliance. In that sense, “Kubi” is refreshingly queer, not shying away from scenes of intimacy and romance. Kitano’s screenplay faithfully displays the queer historical past of samurai that’s absent from classics of the style from, say, Akira Kurosawa.
“Kubi” strikes at a breathless tempo, and Murashige is rapidly captured earlier than he’s taken in by Mitsuhide for defense. We be taught that Murashige pretends to be enamored with Nobunaga, however that it’s Mitsuhide who he’s really in love with. As a lot as there’s an ostensible emotional undercurrent to the movie, chemistry is definitely not its greatest energy. Hidetoshi Nishijima, who offered a lot of the inside complexities of “Drive My Automotive,” is blank-faced all through, delivering proclamations of affection with as a lot ardour as a moist sponge.
Emotion performs second to manic motion replete with gore. Bold battle scenes are scarce however efficient, with lengthy stretches of brutish sword fight captured in prolonged single takes. Kitano additionally delights in capturing the extra intimate clashes, as blood spurts from severed heads, misplaced limbs, and even an occasion of Harakiri that performs out painfully slowly. Ryo Kase revels in all of it, his Nobunaga an unhinged warlord whose voice is a everlasting hundred decibels louder than the well mannered sycophants who encompass him. Infantile, hot-headed, and violent, he’s a pacesetter irrevocably drunk on energy.
The truth is, each character is trying to find energy. There’s an emphasis positioned on one other member of Nobunaga’s courtroom, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (performed by Kitano himself), and his place as a former peasant who rose to grow to be a revered chief. Native villagers concern the plundering samurai as a lot as they envy them. In ruthless pre-Edo Japan, social mobility is a necessity for survival. However as demonstrated by the nation’s figureheads vying for the highest, no quantity of energy is ever sufficient. For individuals who wield a sword, it’s additionally a sport that comes at a value they don’t acknowledge. Kitano stops for uncommon moments of solemnity, as a nonetheless digital camera observes the lifeless our bodies of harmless bystanders.
Before everything nevertheless, “Kubi” is pure bloody thrills by means of and thru, reveling in a sort of Monty Python-esque humor the place numerous samurai are stabbed, slashed, and eviscerated by spears attacking from all sides out of nowhere. The deaths come so often that it’s complicated simply to maintain observe of who’s nonetheless alive, and off the battlefield, it’s an equal battle to grasp the fixed offers, betrayals, and allegiances that change inside the identical dialog. However the enjoyable of Kitano’s ardour undertaking is simply watching all of it unfold.
“Kubi” was as soon as rumored to be Kitano’s last movie, although different studies since then have steered that that is not the case. If it was although, it might’ve been one hell of a swan tune. For a director in his late 70s, Kitano levels this blood-soaked epic with the intoxicating vitality of an artist who’s solely simply getting began. We will solely be grateful, then, that Kitano is barely simply shifting gears. [B]
‘Kubi’ Evaluate: Takeshi Kitano Phases A Blood-Soaked Samurai Epic [Cannes]
