[Anime] Aoi Bungaku Ep 5-6: In the Woods Beneath Cherries in Full Bloom / 桜の森の満開の下
As I was saying, Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita [桜の森の満開の下] by Sakaguchi Ango [坂口安吾] was my most anticipated storyarc in the anime series Aoi Bungaku produced by Madhouse. I have read the original story and also watched the 1975 film adaptation by Shinoda Masahiro [篠田正浩]. I sometimes think of that story as the Japanese answer to Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and J.K. Huysmans’s novel À rebours.
Screenshot of the OP of "In the Woods Beneath Cherries in Full Bloom"
The story itself is full of subtle juxtapositions. For example -
- The man represents an animal-like existence. He takes what he needs from nature and kills for his physical survival. There is no Law of Property in nature to judge whether he is a thief. When the man killed the woman’s husband, it was a primitive fight in which two males fight a duel to decide who should get the female.
- The woman, on the other hand, embodies “civilization”. Civilization is complicated. It produces people who judge whether something is good or bad, but it also produces people do not judge whether something is good or evil, only what is beautiful or not beautiful. In her case, it is the latter. In the original story, it is more explicit that the man is outright in awe of her. She knows and understands culture. She lusts for beauty and likes to surround herself with beautiful things. She lives for pleasure instead of mere survival. All these things are “the unknown” to him.
At this point, I want to mention Shinoda Masahiro’s 1975 film adaptation which seemed to have added an interesting layer of nuance to the original story. In the original story, when she asked the man to kill his existing wives, it was out of jealousy. In the film, in addition to jealousy it was also out of aesthetic grounds. Her feeling was not simply:
“I don’t want to become just one of your women like them.”
But also:
“So these are the women you have been sleeping with? I am disappointed in you and your taste. The least you could do to redeem yourself in my eyes is to eliminate these women.”
At least that was my instinctive perception when I watched the film. It was the lack of refinement of those women that she could not stand. I think it was a fine point of observation on human nature on Shinoda-sensei’s part. (He is one of those great directors of style in Japanese cinema whom I admire, by the way.) I can see some traces of that interpretation in this anime adaptation. (Did anyone else also notice that?)
A scene where the woman decorates the severed heads the man brings to her.
In the second half of the story, the woman asks the man to bring her severed human heads. There are several points I wish to make about this:
- The human head embodies the human spirit beyond animal-like existence, and that is why (or at least one of the reasons why) she is passionate about human heads. She decorates them very beautifully, uses them to act out human dramas and enjoys those dramas. If you ignore the fact that her raw material is severed human heads and imagine that the raw material she had used were paper, clay or the like, her behaviour would normally be seen as “the creation of art” and “the enjoyment of art”. That is the controversial part – would the fact that her raw material is severed human heads disqualifies her work as “art”?
- On the other hand, there are clearly murders involved in obtaining those human heads. Civilized people kill each other for abstractions – be it “justice,” “honour,” “nationalism” or what have you. In the case of the man and the woman, it happens to be “beauty” (and perhaps “love” as well). Before the man knew about “beauty” or “love,” his existence on the mountains was a simple one. However, the beginning of his yearning for “love” and “beauty” was also the beginning of his “fall”. First he yearned for the beauty of sakura flowers in full bloom, which drove him into fits of madness. However, it was when he yearned for the woman’s beauty that the loss of his “innocence” was complete. (ie. He killed the woman’s husband and servant when he could have just stolen the woman and let them walk away.)
- Civilization has a flowering face and civilization also has a decadent face. In fact, civilization is like some kind of diseased beautiful flower. I believe that is the point that Sakaguchi Ango, along with followers of 19C Aestheticism (see Wikipedia entry here), would like to make.
A scene after the man strangled the woman to death under sakura flowers in full bloom.
The ending scene where the man strangled the woman to death under sakura flowers in full bloom is also controversial, because there are at least three ways to interpret it:
- The man mistook the woman for an oni and mistakenly strangled her.
- The woman was an oni to begin with. He saw her true face at last and strangled her.
- The woman turned from a human being into an oni, and he strangled her.
Either way, it depends on whether the woman was or was not an oni, but I suppose in the light of the story, it does not really matter. She has, as Chūzenji Akihiko would say, “gone over to the other side”.
By word of conclusion, this anime adaptation fell somewhat short of my expectations. It does have some creative and stylish storyboarding in the song sequences, but I wish Director Araki had kept to the overall tone “darkly beautiful” in the style of his previous work Kurozuka. As it is, the added scenes of humour just seem… forced and unnatural.
So what did people make of this story? Please feel free to let me know in the comment section.
I have not (yet) read the original story, but I somehow have a better overall impression from the “Ningen Shikaku” arc.
You explanation as to why the woman wants the men to kill his previous wives was a bit enlightening. Watching it I had the impression that she was rather spoiled and simply wanted to have them out of her way, since they seemed disgusting and would be bad for her convenience.
The scenes with her decorating the heads reminded me of one episode in the Jigoku Shoujo series, wherein there was a family of ikebana masters and it was said that the highest sort of ikebana there was to decorate skull, because the skull represents some sort of the death’ beauty and contrasts the flowers.
I don’t really think this is very much related at all, but the idea of taking heads as decorations seems not to be unique in just this story.
As for the humourous scenes I agree with you, they seemed out of the place. Especially when she was attacking him trying to kill her. At first her movements looked quite elegantly to me, but then the SD scene totally ruined the impression.
Maybe this is my more shallow personality talking but I didn’t mind the humor, it even made me chuckle a few times. Apparently this adaptation didn’t take itself very seriously, but I liked the lighter mood, especially after Ningen shikkaku.
My problem was with the writing – to me it seemed the nature of the relationship between Shigemaru and the woman wasn’t made very clear. I haven’t read the original story but the anime didn’t really emphasize neither her hold on him, nor his submission (if we can call it that) to her. It was clear that he she captivated and confused him but it was more like an inferred knowledge… er, I hope I’m being clear. In short, something was missing.
Aside of that, my biggest problem was actually Sakai Masato as Shigemaru. I really like his voice (I first took notice of it in Sentou yousei Yukikaze where he played Rei) and I think he added a lot to Ningen shikkaku, but here he was utterly unconvincing as a rough mountain man. It’s obvious that he tried very hard but his voice is just not cut out for roles like this, and sometimes it was downright jarring. I really wonder why they chose to cast him in this role. (However, I loved Mizuki Nana as the woman.)
Other than these I had no real problems – sure, it could have been better, maybe as a more straightfoward/serious or faithful adaptation, but it was stylish, it entertained me and made me want to read the original story so I guess it has served its purpose.
By the way, I think the anime definitely went with the film’s interpretation as to why she told him to kill his former wives, especially with her song about her splendid and brilliant existence made it obvious that such base creatures as the wives have absolutely no place in her world and have to be eliminated because their very existence pains her aesthetic sensibilities.
Overall, I think the anime did a good job showing the dissonance between the two: one is a simple man content with a simple life, the other is a sophisticated and decadent woman who needs to be surrounded by beauty. That said, without your explanation I probably wouldn’t have thought of the nature-civilization parallels, but I think the story (as presented in the anime) works well on a less symbolic level, too.
Shina Luna:
>I have not (yet) read the original story, but I somehow have a better overall impression from the ”Ningen Shikaku” arc.
I take the ”yet” to mean that you will read it soon? ^_^
I agree that ”Ningen Shikaku” was the more accomplished adaptation of the two.
> You explanation as to why the woman wants the men to kill his previous wives was a bit enlightening. Watching it I had the impression that she was rather spoiled and simply wanted to have them out of her way, since they seemed disgusting and would be bad for her convenience.
The film showed the woman as more ”commanding” and ”forceful”. She commands rather than whines. So the balance of power was very interesting – the moment he made her his captive by killing her husband and servant, she also made a slave of him, and throughout the relationship she orders and he obeys. Somehow the anime just made her out to be like a whining little girl.
> The scenes with her decorating the heads reminded me of one episode in the Jigoku Shoujo series, wherein there was a family of ikebana masters and it was said that the highest sort of ikebana there was to decorate skull, because the skull represents some sort of the death’ beauty and contrasts the flowers.
I have not seen ”Jigoku Shoujo” but I guess I see your point.
> I don’t really think this is very much related at all, but the idea of taking heads as decorations seems not to be unique in just this story.
But were people explicitly killed for that purpose, as it would seem to be the case in this story? (ie. They don’t just happen to pick up a skull somewhere from someone who is already long dead.)
> As for the humourous scenes I agree with you, they seemed out of the place. Especially when she was attacking him trying to kill her. At first her movements looked quite elegantly to me, but then the SD scene totally ruined the impression.
That scene was an original addition in the anime. I don’t even know what kind of point they were trying to make with that. I guess they just wanted to throw in a fight scene somewhere. It was a well-animated sequence, but also just added more confusion to the audience. (ie. If she is that good a fighter, why didn’t she defend her husband and servant?)
But speaking of her husband and servant, it was a kind of deliberate blank in the original story that no great detail about them was mentioned. So assuming that the woman was human and not an ”oni” to begin with, one wonders what sort of life she used to live. Was she ”normal” before and merely went funny in the head after their deaths?
kuromitsu:
Long time no hear! How are you doing lately?
> Maybe this is my more shallow personality talking but I didn’t mind the humor, it even made me chuckle a few times. Apparently this adaptation didn’t take itself very seriously, but I liked the lighter mood, especially after Ningen shikkaku.
Of course I never meant that humour must be ”shallow” – my problem is that some of the humour throws confusing signals to the audience. The scene where he listens to music through some sort of mp3 player is an example. It just made it more confusing to see that he was meant to be antithesis to ”civilization”.
> My problem was with the writing – to me it seemed the nature of the relationship between Shigemaru and the woman wasn’t made very clear. I haven’t read the original story but the anime didn’t really emphasize neither her hold on him, nor his submission (if we can call it that) to her. It was clear that he she captivated and confused him but it was more like an inferred knowledge… er, I hope I’m being clear. In short, something was missing.
If I remember correctly, the film made it clear that she is his master with great economy. I believe when they show the man and woman having lived together at his mountain hut for some time, the hut was full of products of Kyoto-style refinement, so the audience can immediately infer that man must have slaved day in day out, combing every inch of the mountains to rob all these goods for her. I wish they had done the same to make this more clear in the anime. It would have only taken a few seconds of screentime.
> Aside of that, my biggest problem was actually Sakai Masato as Shigemaru. I really like his voice (I first took notice of it in Sentou yousei Yukikaze where he played Rei) and I think he added a lot to Ningen shikkaku, but here he was utterly unconvincing as a rough mountain man. It’s obvious that he tried very hard but his voice is just not cut out for roles like this, and sometimes it was downright jarring. I really wonder why they chose to cast him in this role. (However, I loved Mizuki Nana as the woman.)
Oh yeah, that was my complaint too. Thanks for bringing it up here.
> Other than these I had no real problems – sure, it could have been better, maybe as a more straightfoward/serious or faithful adaptation, but it was stylish, it entertained me and made me want to read the original story so I guess it has served its purpose.
Please come back and let me know what you think about the original story once you have read it.
Just want to add two points I forgot to mention:
1) The man did not kill himself in the original story. I personally like this ending better as it seems to hint at his return to simplicity/innocence – that death should come to him in the course of nature (instead of induced by some abstraction).
2) I seriously doubt that there had been any sexual intercourse taking place between the two. The man is in awe of her beauty the same way he is in awe of the beauty of sakura flowers, and unless one is really strange in the head indeed, one does not develop erotic feelings per se for sakura flowers. Her hold on him is aesthetic rather than sexual. In any case, I doubt that she would have allowed him.
>I take the ”yet” to mean that you will read it soon? ^_^
It meant I plan to read it, once I get my hands on it. (Through I have yet to decide, whether I’ll read a translation or in original. My poor Japanese might be just not enough…)
Has the adaption of “ningen shikkaku” also deiverted so much from the original story?
>But were people explicitly killed for that purpose, as it would seem to be the case in this story? (ie. They don’t just happen to pick up a skull somewhere from someone who is already long dead.)
The plot of this episode ran somehow like this: There is a family of Ikenaba masters and there is one female heir, who actually doesn’t want to be heir and one other woman, who wants to be. I don’t know the details anymore, but the latter set up some occasion in which the former would drink some sort of strong poison and die by it.
The victim however has a fiancee (or husband) who overheard. But instead of calling the police, he drank the poison in her stead.
It was then described that the highest art of Ikebana in this family was decorating skulls and he knew that and wanted to be with her in her art forever, when he dies. (Which he did some days later.) She then went and sent that person who killed him into hell, while decorating the skull of him, ending up continuing the Ikebana tradition she actually wanted to get free of.
This episode was one of the above average episodes of the series.
Shina Luna:
Personally, I think the adaptation of “No Longer Human” was more of less right in line with the original in plot and atmosphere.
Thanks for the summary of that episode from “Jigoku Shoujo”. That sounds very interesting indeed. I will remember to check it out at some point.
“I can see some traces of that interpretation in this anime adaptation. (Did anyone else also notice that?)”
Yup it was quite obvious that it wasn’t only a matter of competition. The cam focuses on their bare dirty feet and the flies around them. And the song that was mentioned above.
I still don’t understand completely the ending…if the woman was the civilization and man the nature, why by “killing” the civilization, the bandit, hence nature or a primitive lifestyle died?
Plus why is the city woman associated with the cherry tries? The bandit says after killing his ex wives that this feels like under the sakura…And why is he scared of woman? Plus when the woman asked him to go to the city he said in three days when the sakura bloom. Did he want to test his courage?
I also wonder about that note the woman left to her maid about returning…what can it imply for the story? that she was an oni and wanted to kill the man all along? for what purpose? that she knew that she would make him return in the end?
Yes, the humour made you wonder what was it about, but I still liked it. I think that I couldn’t be able to watch the massacre if there wasn’t the song and the humour in the middle.
Sorry for the many questions, but I’m tortured by them.
Oh and sth else. I didn’t find the way of commanding whinning. There were moments of her ‘making the sweet eyes to him’ or blackmailing him but mostly commanding him. This reminded me of the movie “my greek fat wedding’ (i really don’t like it, although there are some characteristics of greeks that are satyrised well) when the mother says to her daughter (adult) that the man may be the head of the house, but we are the neck that make the head turn wherever we want to.
ayame:
If it really bothers you that much, then I would suggest reading the original story. None of those questions actually apply to the original – they are all add-on stuff in the anime.
Is there somewhere on net a good english translation?
What’s wrong with reading a book?
Nothing is wrong. But I live on a greek island, where you barely can find books in other languages in bookstores ,even more in libraries. And I’d prefer not to spend much money in this period of my life, when there’s a better option. I’ve found Kokoro on internet, that’s why I asked about this one ,too.
I live on an island where I can barely find books in the languages I want to read too. I order books.
I hate to say this: What’s so hard with saving money for a book? What’s wrong with searching on Google yourself?