“Kubi” has been on Kitano Takeshi’s (AKA Beat Takeshi) thoughts for thus lengthy that Kurosawa Akira was nonetheless alive to touch upon it. In 1993, the legendary filmmaker predicted: “When Kitano directs this film, it would certainly rival my very own ‘Seven Samurai’.” Sadly, it’s one of many few instances in his later life that Kurosawa was flat-out unsuitable, although Kitano’s long-in-the-works “Kubi” isn’t fully with out benefit.
A re-imagining of actual occasions within the late sixteenth century, the movie’s eye-popping, blood-soaked vistas are a wonderful sight, as are numerous its era-specific particulars, and its handful of hanging moments of queer samurai imagery. Nonetheless, for probably the most half, Kitano’s story of ambition and beheadings — many, many beheadings — loses practically all momentum in its second half, earlier than settling right into a rote, repetitive rhythm.
Oda Nobunaga was thought-about the primary “nice unifier” of Japan, and he’s performed right here with a case of cackling villainy by a Dracula-caped Kase Ryo, who — regardless of his truncated position in what is actually an ensemble piece — lights up the display. If there’s one factor Kitano is aware of easy methods to do, it’s extract enjoyable performances from his solid. The central plot considerations the disappearance of considered one of Oda’s vassals, Murashige Araki (Endo Kenichi), accused by his lordship of rebellious sympathies, adopted by Oda’s subsequent makes an attempt to each seize him and suss out dissent inside his empire, in a sport of territorial chess. He enlists numerous different chieftains to seek out Murashige — amongst them, Nishijima Hidetoshi’s diligent, easy Akechi Mitsuhide, and Kitano’s extra relaxed and world-weary Toyotomi Hideyoshi — with the promise of naming considered one of them his successor, resulting in skirmishes of ambition, and double (and triple) crosses that trickle all the best way down the social ladder.
Complicating issues additional is the truth that Oda, Murashige, and Akechi are concerned in a love-triangle of kinds. The actual Oda was lengthy believed to have been concerned with attendants of the identical intercourse, an concept Kitano makes an attempt to show into an emotional and thematic centerpiece, with Murashige being enamored by Oda, Akechi being in love with Murashige, and everybody being seduced by energy. This yields an electrifying second the place, with the intention to show his loyalty to Oda, Murashige bloodies his mouth along with his ruler’s blade earlier than they lock lips. Murashige virtually falls over himself for Oda’s approval, a cartoonish element Endo imbues with fiery humanity by way of glances alone — however it’s considered one of solely two scenes within the movie that feels remotely sexually charged (the opposite is a passionate stare between two shirtless companions, however that’s about it). “Kubi” isn’t a lot about queering samurai ambition as it’s about likening it to a sexual urge, although neither aspect of this equation is ever introduced with sufficient verve to comb viewers up in its epic story.
Then again, one thing Kitano excels at is presenting the absurdity of wanton bloodshed, an concept he units his sights on early on. As an increasing number of characters are launched (peasants, performers, gangsters, gunmen, every with their very own blood-red on display textual content), what binds their tales collectively is their remorseless need to scale the feudal hierarchy by way of the act of beheading.
The movie’s title, which suggests “neck,” refers back to the kubi bukoro (or “neck bag”), a form of basket used to hold severed heads for proof — a process that sees a number of characters stepping over each other in usually ridiculous trend. Proper from the opening scene, Kitano revels cheekily in carnage of this specific nature, which he usually depicts as cartoonish, and frames as cyclical — even meaningless. Nonetheless, the collateral injury radiating outward from these scrambles for energy are handled with a extra deft and respectful hand. If a personality loses a beloved one, it’s way more tragic than the in any other case uproarious dismemberments on the battlefield or cowardly backstabbing — a tonal distinction Kitano establishes each simply and early on,.
The period’s pomp and circumstances is commonly entrance and heart, with colourful, lumbering armors and heavy materials inflicting an irritating ruckus each time the characters transfer. Kudos to the film’s costume designers and foley staff, who assist make the legendary samurai appear uncomfortable of their pores and skin, and distinctly un-cool with each step they take (that discomfort isn’t mirrored by the movie’s queer characters, thoughts you; their love is an open secret). Nonetheless, regardless of the fantastic consideration to those era-specific particulars, Kitano’s filmmaking finally ends up about as over-eager as his scheming characters. No matter he has to say about energy constructions, about queer-ness, and about zealous aspirations, he says each clearly and rapidly into the film’s 131-minute operating time, so his story finally ends up back-ended by a repetitive show of shock assaults and a myriad of pathos-free set items that really feel virtually indistinguishable.
This flattening of violent imagery is, in some methods, your complete level of “Kubi,” however it ends in a paradoxical undercurrent to what’s primarily a battle movie. The digicam is consistently enamored with Kitano’s large-scale dioramas of mischievous motion and sudden blood-spatter. It’s usually knee-slapping enjoyable, however that’s an issue, since a lot of it additionally performs like a fatalistic rumination on the violence of males, and the way it seeks to destroy. Kitano works laborious to separate these sorts of scenes, however the change between them is commonly abrupt (the ending is equally so), and their interaction seldom has something worthwhile to say about violence or ambition — whether or not actual or cinematic.
What little stays memorable about “Kubi” is just hanging in isolation, born from threads, concepts, and slivers of photos that appear to have been rattling round Kitano’s mind for over 30 years. Sadly, they’ve grown stale; a worthwhile larger image by no means emerges.
Grade: C+
“Kubi” premiered on the 2023 Cannes Movie Competition. It’s at the moment searching for U.S. distribution.
