Restoring the order of things

As Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1999 feature Charisma begins, burnt out cop Yabuike (Koji Yaukusho) is brought in to defuse a hostage situation. Seized by a moment of indecision, he misses a key opportunity, leading to the deaths of both the unbalanced criminal and his prisoner. Yabuike is forced to take an obviously much-needed vacation, but instead of going home, he decides to go for a walk in the woods.

At a clearing in the forest is a sickly looking tree called Charisma being fought over by various factions. Kiriyama (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) lives in an abandoned sanitarium, caring for the former director's widow. Kiriyama wants to protect the tree as it is one of a kind, brought to the mainland years before by the asylum director. The young man was a patient at the facility and now remains there as if he has nowhere else to go. The tree gives him a purpose in life and helps to keep his seemingly fragile psyche together.

A group of men belonging to an apparent militaristic branch of the EPA want to dig Charisma up and sell it to the highest bidder. Their leader, Nakasone (Ren Osugi), periodically brings his men in to do just that, but Kiyiyama has thus far been able to fend them off.

Finally, there are a botanist and her sister. Jinbo (Jun Fubuki from Seance) is convinced that Charisma is killing the other life in the forest and will ruin the ecosystem. Her sister Chizuru (Yoriko Douguchi, the doctor from Cure) is a troublemaker with a strong sense of self-preservation.

And how does Yabuike fit in to all of this? Is he playing all sides against one another, looking out for himself, trying to "restore the order of things," or just floating through this strange forest, taking things as they come? As he tries to determine his place in this ecosystem, and thus the world that surrounds it, he will once again be put into a situation like the one that effectively ended his police career. Will he have learned enough in his escape from the city to do the right thing this time around? Or has he been eating too many of those magic mushrooms he found his first night here?

As this description of the plot shows, things are complicated in Charisma, but the film is far from being as impenetrable as some reviews have suggested. Rather, this is the type of films that ten people are likely to have ten different takes on, and that's just the thematic elements. Actions on screen often approach the surreal in their oddness, from a decayed body hanging randomly in the woods to the use of oversized mallets during a creepily funny power struggle.

For all the odd goings on in the film, there is also a very strong vein of humor running through it. There are sight gags of the driest, Tatiesque variety, as well as sudden turns of the plot late in the movie that are very funny and don't fail to amuse after multiple viewings. For all its subtextual ponderings on activism, environmentalism, even politics, Charisma has a very playful tone, one that is accentuated by Gary Ashiya's quirky, instantly memorable theme music that crops up at the most unexpected times. Fans of those minimalist electronics he has brought to other Kurosawa projects fear not though: there's plenty of ambient rumbling to go around as well.

Charisma has been photographed by Junichiro Hayashi in a rich, deep palate of colors, from the vibrant green tree leaves to the dusky orange sunsets. He and Kurosawa often place the characters in the frame to stress their position in the wider landscape (this must be very impressive on the big screen). The interiors of the sanitarium could be just down the street from the locations at the climax of Cure: broken walls, water covered floors reflecting the ceiling, empty swimming pools.

In a cast full of eccentric characters all of the actors make deep impressions, whether it is Kurosawa regular Yakusho trying to establish just which side he should be on, Fubuki being the relative voice of reason (or is she?), Douguchi running about in her red & white coat, striking logs with stones and trying to knock Yakusho over, or Osugi wondering, "what the fuck is it with this forest?"

Home Vision's dvd, despite the fact that it is not enhanced for widescreen tvs, looks fantastic. Letterboxed to approximately 1.85, the image has a wonderful film-like look to it, easily besting the expensive Japanese import disc. As with their other Kurosawa dvds, there is an interview with the director and trailers for the three HVE releases. Also included is a 30-minute on the making of the film. Various scenes are shown being filmed (including a crucial special effects shot), Ren Osugi clowns for the camera, and Jun Fubuki grills banana pancakes. Loosely shot and conversational, the short benefits from its on the fly shooting and breezy attitude. Its a fun look at behind the scenes of a challenging, very rewarding film.