|
 here's
something to be said for the power of the
imagination, and never is it more necessary to
appreciate the visual arts than when watching a
stage play, where, when well performed, the action
on stage spurs the viewer's imagination to fill in
the details that the props leave out. Now what
would a fantasy play about monsters and warriors
look like if you applied a teenager's hormonally
charged imagination and then filmed it? It might
look a lot like Yojiro Takita's "Ashura-jo no
Hitomi".
Based on a Kabuki play of the
same name, "Ashura-jo no Hitomi" is a
glitzy f/x-laden fantasy about demons, swordplay,
upside-down castles, and the very fate of mankind.
The film is set sometime in medieval
Japan
in the city of
Edo
, which we learn sits on the border between the
realms of humans and demons. It seems there is
quite a bit of crossing over between the two
realms, and it appears that the demons like to
possess humans before sprouting green fangs with
which to munch down on other humans. To combat
this scourge, an elite squad of warriors known as
Demon Wardens patrols the bridge between the
realms and slays any demon they come across.
Unfortunately these Demon Wardens are as bad as
the demons themselves, descending upon and
ransacking villages in their search for prey.
The action picks up as Demon
Wardens Izumo (Somegoro Ichikawa) and Jaku (Atsuro
Watabe) sets upon Edo (which is done up like a
garish Technicolor version of the French Quarter
in New Orleans) gleefully hacking up demons and
any unfortunate humans that happen to get in their
way. Things seem to be going fine until Izumo
loses it and cuts down a young girl. Fast-forward
five years, to find that Izumo has hung up his
swords and is now a famous Kabuki actor (oh, the
irony!), and has become smitten with part time
acrobat, part time thief Tsubaki (played by part
time actress, part time nude model Rie Miyazawa,
"The Twilight Samurai"). Things get
complicated for our heroes with the second coming
of the demon queen Ashura, the return of Jaku, and
that weird scar on Tsubaki's back. The
complications increase when unholy alliances,
double crosses, promise of immortality, and
forbidden love surface.
Unfortunately all of the
above don't amount to very much because
"Ashura-jo no Hitomi" is more concerned
with how it looks than what it is trying to say.
And that's fine, since "Ashura" looks
consistently great. The film really is a feast for
the eyes, with the sets alive with extraneous
action, covered in wild colors, and bathed in
psychedelic lighting. One only has to watch the
scene where the upside-down castle makes its
appearance to know that the f/x guys were having a
ball with this one.
But despite all the CGI
razzle dazzle, the best looking scenes in
"Ashura-jo no Hitomi" are the simplest
ones. Many of these are framed just like the sets
in a play, with singular props against open
backgrounds, with the fabulous use of color making
them quite an eyeful. On the action front, there's
plenty of wire-fu and lightning quick swordplay to
keep the viewer interested, even if the reason for
all the fighting isn't made very clear.
And yet, for all its pupil
dilating camp, "Ashura-jo no Hitomi" has
its share of standout moments. The Kabuki
sequences are great for their thorough silliness,
and there are several energetic battles to take
in. The f/x range from eye-popping to cheesy, with
the highlight being a brilliant head-spinning
battle sequence that takes place within a reject
from M. C. Escher's easel. There's also a strong
hint of kinky creepiness to the film, particularly
the relationship between Tsubaki and Izumo. Take
the climactic love scene, where Izumo nibbles on
the scar on Tsubaki's back only to have Tsubaki
return the favor by greedily slurping the blood
pouring from the wound on Izumo's back. Yeah, it's
that kind of kinky.
However, the free-wheeling
action finally spins out of control in the final
third, as the story's holes get bigger and the
acting strays too far into theatrical histrionics.
The heroic dying declarations and dramatic
monologues in the middle of pitched battles get
wearisome as the film grinds on to its somewhat
anti-climactic conclusion.
But how seriously can you
take a film where the demons expire in geysers of
green goo? "Ashura-jo no Hitomi" is very
much a flamboyant throwback to the trashy
sci-fi/fantasy films of the mid-`80s, with enough
visual excess, wry humor and outright weirdness
coupled with plenty of brisk action to keep the
viewer occupied till the closing credits, which
happen to scroll by to the sultry sounds of
Sting's cover of "My Funny Valentine." |
