Zankoku Bi (残酷美): 'Shigurui' and the Strangely Seductive Beauty of Cruelty

I would like to discuss in relation to Shigurui a Japanese word that is used but never found in dictionaries - zankoku bi (残酷美). Mishima Yukio has an essay on this topic entitled Zankoku no Bi ni Tsute (残酷美について) which I am rather keen to track down, because if anyone in Japan is qualified to define zankoku bi then it is none other than Mishima-sensei. But being short of his essay, I humbly offer my own definition:

Zankoku bi may be roughly translated into English as 'beauty of cruelty'. It refers to beautiful images and noble sentiments framed in stark contrast to hideous images and perverse cruelty. The net effect is that the latter cast a strange veil of seductive mystery on the former and vice versa. Zankoku bi often appears in scenes of death, destruction or violence and may well be considered an offshot of hakai no bi (破壊の美) or 'beauty of destruction'.

The gory scenes in Shigurui are well documented and there is no need for me to elaborate on them. But from time to time there are odd shots of things that are beautiful in themselves, such as a stone buddha, the glossy lips of a pretty young woman, flowers, the full moon etc.

These beautiful things are all cast in a strange light in the context of Shigurui. The flowers are not just flowers in your backyard, but flowers interposed between two scenes of extreme and inhuman violence. The full moon is likewise not just the full moon, but the source of light through which a bloody duel is revealed. The gorgeous lips of the young woman are not just the lips of any tart, but the lips of a young woman who has no say on horrendous maiming of the men around her. To put it another way, the context of cruelty bestow on these beautiful things a layer of aesthetics that is at once dangerous and alluring. What is ordinarily beautiful is rendered soul-shakingly beautiful as horror strikes to the heart.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of zankoku bi.

(If there are other examples of zankoku bi you would like to share, the floor is all yours.)

Comments

[minus-one]

my favorite anime of 2007 ^__^

for some reason your post reminded me of Manabu Yamanaka ( http://www.ask.ne.jp/~yamanaka/ )

(graphic content)
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especially Fujohkan

http://www.ask.ne.jp/~yamanaka/fujohkan-e.html

or Arakan

http://www.ask.ne.jp/~yamanaka/arakan-e.html

[xiaohu]

Fascinating concept.. *nods head to the fitting applicability of Shigurui*. The only thing that springs to mind (sorry it's not anime) is the Devil in the movie Passion of the Christ - he was the embodiment of evil/cruelty, but so utterly beautiful too.

[Wabisabi]

minus-one:

My favorite from 2007 was Mononoke.

xiaohu:

Zankoku bi is more like a narration device (contrasting beautiful things with ugly things) than characterization (as in making an evil character look gorgeous). I mean, beautiful looking devil/demons are rather a dime a dozen these days...

[Paul Ryersbach]

I happened to read this blog entry just after watching Miike's contribution to the Master's of Horror series on Netflix. The episode is called, Imprint. The other commenters on that website didn't seem to be getting Miike's appeal. After I posted an explanation, incomplete at 2000 characters, I read your post, which sums up part of what I was trying to say. Imprint and Audition are powerful because of their unique fusion of the beautiful and the grotesque. The means to that end is violence, which has something to do with the esthetic, but the peak effect seems only to be fully achieved in the aftermath. Also, I remember a short that Ken Russell did for the omnibus, Aria, back in the late '80s. As I recall, the transformation of disfigurement and trauma into transcendence and poetry might have some resonance with the esthetic you talk about.

[Paul Ryersbach]

I happened to read this blog entry just after watching Miike's contribution to the Master's of Horror series on Netflix. The episode is called, Imprint. The other commenters on that website didn't seem to be getting Miike's appeal. After I posted an explanation, incomplete at 2000 characters, I read your post, which sums up part of what I was trying to say. Imprint and Audition are powerful because of their unique fusion of the beautiful and the grotesque. The means to that end is violence, which has something to do with the esthetic, but the peak effect seems only to be fully achieved in the aftermath. Also, I remember a short that Ken Russell did for the omnibus, Aria, back in the late '80s. As I recall, the transformation of disfigurement and trauma into transcendence and poetry might have some resonance with the esthetic you talk about.

[B]

This reminds me of the film "Perfume."

[Wabisabi]

Paul:

I have only seen Miike's 'The Happiness of the Katakuris' before, which I understand is something of a departure rather than a representative work of his trademark style. I can't speak for Imprint and Audition as I have never seen them before, but you are probably right - there is just a prevalent sensitivity to zankoku bi in the Japanese mind. You see streaks of that in Oshima Nagisa, Mishima Yukio and perhaps Edogawa Rampo as well.

B:

I saw 'Perfume' before and I can see your point - it is yet another example of zankoku bi in that the brutality in contrasted against the flesh of young beautiful women. Personally I did not like the film all that much though - it tried too hard to spell everything out.

[B]

The movie was awful.

But deciding halfway through to watch it as camp/parody made it much more enjoyable.(The deal was sealed as soon as Hoffman's character stepped onscreen. XD)

It felt like Tykwer just didn't know what he wanted to do (high brow? low brow?), or what his goals were beyond proving everyone wrong about the impossibility of transferring the novel to film. It was all about himself, really, and not about the original novel at all. Well. To be fair, it wasn't all bad. Those apricots sure did look delicious.

[Wabisabi]

I gave up on 'Perfume' after 20 minutes or so.

[RK]

Wonderful insight. Shigurui is the most gory animation I've ever seen to date and I still do not like it much (especially the plot) though its artistry is breath-taking. You have changed my perception on this series.

[Wabisabi]

Thank you kindly.