Blue Spring (Aoi haru)

 

Director Toshiaki Toyoda

BLUE SPRING (Aoi haru)      B                                                                                                    Japan  (83 mi)  2001  d: Toshiaki Toyoda

No regrets for my youth.                                                                                                                 —Kimura (Yûsuke Ohshiba)

An often overlooked, heavily stylized movie about the disillusioned youth-gone-wild high school experience from those already on the edge, who don’t know where they’re going or have any idea where they’ll end up, as they don’t really want to be there, who are so distanced and alienated that they may as well not exist, so they invent violent games to play to force their lives to matter, turning into a nihilistic punk movie with a homoerotic and even gay subtext that is only inferred, never explicitly shown, more metaphoric than real, as it reveals the essence of the horrors of the high school experience through a grotesque and often brutally exaggerated portrayal.  Toyoda was a child chess prodigy as an adolescent before changing his interest to cinema, working as a scriptwriter and assistant director on Sakamoto Junji’s CHECKMATE (1991) and BIRIKEN (1996) before launching his own career, where this is his third film.  An unorthodox director who likes to do things his own way, featuring a strong grunge/punk rock aesthetic and a willingness to be different, Toyoda has established himself as one of the more interesting contemporary Japanese directors, but not really known outside of Japan.  Never mentioned in the same breath as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, or Takashi Miike, more familiar Japanese directors whose films have reached an international audience, Toyoda’s reputation suffered setbacks from two well publicized scandals, as he was arrested for drug possession in 2005, while in 2019 he was arrested again when a police raid uncovered an illegal antique firearm from WWII that he inherited from his grandmother, falsely as it turns out, as the firearm was no longer working, but he was shunned by the Japanese film industry afterwards, with both events becoming the subject of sensational tabloid coverage in Japan.  Often viewed as a cult director, he has an unorthodox, stylized aesthetic that includes youth crime movies, meditative dramas, documentaries, and low-budget art films, whose work is consistently introspective, vibrant, and brutal, but this early film, born in anger, touching a raw nerve, is his most scathing reflection of real-world anxieties in the economic downturn of Japan in the mid-90’s, when an economy that was the envy of the world went into a tailspin, moving from one of the fastest-growing countries in the world to one of the slowest, dismantling the job-for-life system that its corporations had previously offered, literally ripping the futures away from these disaffected kids.  Japan experienced an increase in school violence during the 80’s and 90’s, where some disturbing attacks from teenagers made big headlines and shocked the nation, like the Murder of Junko Furuta.  First and foremost is the rebellious music, [Engsub] DROP - THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT 「Blue ... YouTube (6:44), an assaultive force of teen angst that lingers in the imagination, evoking the raw and unpolished spirit of youth, often combined with a free-flowing, slow motion aesthetic from cinematographer Norimichi Kasamatsu, who also shot Junji’s BIRIKEN (1996), less plot-driven, more interested in atmosphere, abstractions, ambiguity, and the chaotic nature of the character interaction, with very limited locations, providing an honest look at the hidden anger and rage of teenage emotions, reaching the depths of the darkest realms.

Coming at a time when the adolescent high school genre already appeared passé, having been graced with a slew of films that touched upon familiar themes of alienated youth, like George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), Francis Ford Coppola’s RUMBLE FISH (1983) and THE OUTSIDERS (1983), John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club (1985), Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A Time to Live and a Time to Die (Tong nien wang shi) (1985) and Dust in the Wind (Lian lian feng chen) (1986), John Waters’ HAIRSPRAY (1988), Michael Lehman’s Heathers (1988), Allan Moyle’s PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990), Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian) (1991), Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (1993), André Téchiné’s Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux Sauvages) (1994), Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998), Lukas Moodysson’s Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) (1998), Alexander Payne’s Election (1999), Shunji Iwai’s ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU (2001), and Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001).  Based on Taiyô Matsumoto’s manga of the same title in 1993, a collection of seven different stories, this was the break-through film for both Toyoda and actor Ryuhei Matsuda, who is the undisputed star of this film, appearing earlier as the passive, overly effeminate samurai in Nagisa Ôshima’s GOHATTO (1999).  He is the enigmatic figure at the center of this teen drama that looks like it’s taking place in a post-apocalyptic war zone, as this cement bunker of a building is a run-down high school for boys that looks more like a prison, as the dark and grungy hallways are nearly always deserted, accentuated by heavy doses of graffiti on the walls that proclaim gang turf, where there’s an astonishing absence of school authority, while the outside world barely intrudes upon its secluded existence, making this a very unique portrayal, uncomfortable at times yet oddly compelling.  An aimlessness seems to define the psychological mindset of these wayward teens, which includes Kujo (Matsuda Ryuhei) his loyal childhood friend Aoki (Hirofumi Arai) who idolizes him, surrounded by a host of others, Yukio (Sousuke Takaoka), Yoshimura (Shûgo Oshinari), Kimura (Yûsuke Ohshiba), a disenchanted figure who dreams of playing on the Nationals baseball team, and Ota (Yûta Yamazaki), who seem to follow their every lead.  All dressed in the same dark school uniform, mostly they wander the hallways and bathrooms as a free-ranging gang terrorizing fellow students with impunity, going on rampages inflicting sadistic cruelty at every turn, where their lives hold little meaning, lost to a neverending world of inflicted misery, having been written off by the school long ago as lost causes.  Anyone coming from a shitty high school can relate to this, where the mantra may as well be, “Hatred hurts, but an abundance of hatred hurts the most,” leading to a regretful world of apathy and indifference.  Never once do we see any parents, while the teachers or school counselors are completely ignored, with students wandering in and out of class at will, instead this is about the social fabric of this underground group that seems to exist on its own terms, unfettered by the rules of society or the school, yet their own hierarchy is completely ineffectual, consumed by a deep-seeded sense of powerlessness in a crumbling social system, exposing a painfully rich subtext of raw, desperate emotion struggling to break through the surface.

Rebellion is the key ingredient to this film, THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT - Akage No Kelly (赤毛の ... YouTube (5:45), but rebellion against what is the question in this dilapidated school in the suburban outskirts of Tokyo that seems to have no established authority, so they seem to exist in a vacuum, with no future and no past, portraying the loneliness and isolation inside the minds of a hopeless yet excessively violent youth.  As if to amuse themselves from the boredom, they invent a rooftop game that is a test of courage, yet also plays into suicidal tendencies, as they stand on the outer railing of the roof with nothing beneath them but ground below, holding on by their hands as numbers are called out in succession.  They clap their hands to the same number being called out before latching back onto the rails, each one growing successively more dangerous, as they could easily plunge to their deaths.  It’s a modern day version of the game of chicken depicted in Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause (1955), where they drive cars off the edge of a cliff, and the last to jump out is the winner.  Whoever wins the game is declared the leader of the group, which rules all the gangs in the high school.  When Kujo wins the leadership role, Aoki is excited, but he wants his friend to exact violence and revenge to wipe out their enemies.  Kujo, however, has no interest in doing this, finding his position meaningless, as he never wanted the leadership position, where his air of aloofness is stunning, bored by the violence and hatred that surrounds him, apparently ruling by disinterest, explaining to a strangely sympathetic teacher, “People who know what they want scare me.”  Aoki soon tires of his secondary role, as Kujo hardly pays any attention to him anymore, spiraling into a void, losing interest in everything, so he starts pummeling kids on his own to assert his dominance.  In their last year of high school, most kids are preparing for their future, but in this film they have no future, where the only thing that awaits their dead-end path is a place in the hierarchy of the yakuza, a criminal underworld enterprise who recruit directly from the high school ranks, which are little more than a training ground for organized crime, Blue Spring (2001) - best scene YouTube (3:03).  Aoki transforms himself into an entirely new look, embarking on a campaign of terror hoping to impress Kujo, but he’s devastated when he instead ignores him and couldn’t care less.  As Aoki becomes disillusioned, alienated, and even hostile toward Kujo, who has no interest in the violence of the yakuza lifestyle, friends around them slowly disappear, as whatever friendships or allegiances that once existed seem to have faded away, like a dried up flower.  The nonchalance of Kujo and the bleakness of school life are contrasted with the bright, colorful appearance of cherry blossoms in bloom, which are seen everywhere around the school, offering a luxurious glimpse of beauty, with suggestions that more lies beyond what we see onscreen, which includes Kujo, who grows increasingly philosophical, even taking an interest in the flower gardens run by a diminutive teacher (Mame Yamada) who urges him to tend to flowers in bloom, a clear metaphor for adolescence.  An impressively stylish time-lapse sequence leads to a stunning finale exhibiting a kind of reckless impulsiveness, Blue Spring (青い春, Aoi haru) 2002 YouTube (6:37), where you literally stare into the eye of fatalistic gloom, and all that’s left is a harrowing sense of unending despair. 

West Side Story (1961)

Jerome Robbins (top) and Robert Wise

Jerome Robbins (left) and Robert Wise

Jerome Robbins working with George Chakiris

Jerome Robbins working with Russ Tamblyn

The Jets on the set

Jerome Robbins with the dancers

Rita Moreno working with Jerome Robbins

Rita Moreno having a moment

Jerome Robbins (left) and Robert Wise with their Oscars

Chakiris, Robbins, Wise, and Moreno (left to right)

Stephen Sondheim (left), Leonard Bernstein, and Robbins

Stephen Sondheim

Sondheim and Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEST SIDE STORY             A                                                                                                      USA  (152 mi)  1961  ‘Scope  directors:  Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins                                                                                                                                                         “Things are alright in America / If you’re all white in America.”

As Allen Ginsberg was constructing the beat imagery from Howl (1956), “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” some of the generation’s better minds were working on this film which followed the 1957 Broadway production, including exquisite music from Leonard Bernstein several years after composing the music for On the Waterfront (1954), his only two film scores, socially relevant lyrics from Stephen Sondheim in his first assignment, the brilliant Jerome Robbins doubling as the choreographer and co-director along with Robert Wise, who worked as Orson Welles’ film editor on CITIZEN KANE (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).  This collection of artistic forces, like the perfect alignment of the stars, defines what’s so special about this film, creating an abstract, thoroughly modern work that brilliantly synthesizes artifice with social realism through dance movement, amusingly clever lyrics, gorgeous melodic tone, excellent camerawork that creates pace through kinetic energy, and a heartbreakingly sorrowful story that parallels the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, but with a different outcome.  Noted for its shifting rhythms, spectacular music and unusual economy, one of the shortest books in musical theater, it brilliantly intermingles lyrics and dance to provide marvelous insight into character, where we become intimately familiar with the leads.  The sheer magnificent beauty of this ‘Scope film is undeniable from the quiet opening aerial shots over Manhattan to the Saul Bass designed end credits.  In terms of both historical timing and political messaging, West Side Story responded to the Civil Rights Movement by putting race and immigration on center stage.  With its bold artistic vision and unflinching engagement with social concerns of the day, like racial unrest, urban gang violence, immigration, and altercations with the police, the Broadway production opened at the exact same time as the forced racial integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to force an all-white school to enroll nine black students.  In his personal copy of Romeo and Juliet, now housed at the Library of Congress, Bernstein wrote that West Side Story was “an out and out plea for racial tolerance.”  As this is largely a clash of cultures, where whites feel threatened by the Puerto Rican Spanish invasion into their neighborhood, the warring gangs represented immigrant groups at different stages of assimilation, as the Sharks were newly arrived Puerto Ricans, derided for their distinct differences, while the Jets were initially identified as “Polacks” in the theatrical show, having arrived in the U.S. a generation or so earlier.  Racism was rampant in New York City, much as it was across America when this movie took place, where the police are white and blatantly favor the Jets over the Sharks.  Realistic casting might have helped delineate the differences between the rival gangs that share the same turf, instead Natalie Wood, fresh off her Academy Award nominated performance in SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961), plays Maria with a fake accent, the young Puerto Rican girl who falls for Tony, Richard Beymer (Benjamin Horne on Twin Peaks thirty years later), an ex-Jet, where time literally stops when their eyes meet across a dance floor.  Looking back, what work against it are the limitations of its own era, where whites were typically cast as the leads even when portraying other ethnic backgrounds, more egregious was the despicable practice of brownface, darkening the faces of Puerto Ricans, including Rita Moreno who is Puerto Rican, along with various racist stigmas, such as the prevalence of inaccurate accents and offensive remarks, with the movie as well as the Broadway version exporting dangerous stereotypes.  Most Puerto Ricans who grew up in America find the musical outdated, like something their grandparents may have liked, finding the dialogue reprehensible, something no self-respecting Puerto Rican would ever say.  While the musical is supposed to be a representation of the Puerto Rican experience, unfortunately the storyline relies upon stereotypes, with some believing it’s a betrayal of their culture.  There was a massive Puerto Rican exodus from the island in the postwar period of the late 40’s and early 50’s, many moving to Spanish Harlem in New York, presumably in search for a better life for their families, immigrants who have their own national identity, defined primarily by their Hispanic roots and values, and by having Spanish as their language. 

On an interesting note, the on-location slums that were used to provide authentic backgrounds, in contrast to the dream-like atmosphere, were leveled after the film to make room for the Lincoln Center.  The street where the film was largely shot was W. 61st Street, which is where Lincoln Center is now situated, but they didn’t have a playground.  For that, they moved to E. 110th Street in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in East Harlem, often juxtaposing both neighborhoods into the same shot.  Essentially a biracial love story that takes place during an era of urban renewal and gentrification, depicting a fight for urban space, where Manhattan is divided territorially, economically, and ethnically, with different racial groups perceiving any existing space as “their” neighborhood, often breaking out into gang turf fights generated by bigotry and race hatred.  Rita Moreno as Anita plays a controversial role, as her character actually exhibits scorn for her homeland and is in support of total assimilation, at odds with her own boyfriend Bernardo (George Chakiris), who discredits her exaltation of the American dream, believing they are living a different reality.  However, she is a force of nature in this film, never anything less than superb, as if finally offered the role of a lifetime to play exactly who she is and she easily outshines everyone else in the film.  Check her out in the fabulously upbeat “America,” West Side Story(1961) - America YouTube (7:54), one of the most rhythmically energetic and vital hits in the history of Broadway musical comedy (also a racist and defamatory excoriation of Puerto Rico, with lyrics softened for the movie version), where she simply sizzles on camera, kicking those legs, strutting her stuff, and relishing her moment to shine, winning and Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.  While this may be a racially polarizing experience, it also feels as if it’s been placed in a time capsule and we have the opportunity to look back to earlier times and revel in the extraordinary complexity of the work.  On Broadway, this number was performed only by the Shark women, but in the film, Jerome Robbins brought in the boys to elevate the material, adding a lot more pizzazz, often changing the tempo, adding complexity to their dance routines.  Why they dubbed Moreno’s voice with Betty Wand in the fiercely personal “A Boy Like That” in the “I Have a Love” duet with Maria, West Side Story - A Boy Like That (1961) HD - YouTube (4:14) remains a dubious decision as her instant shift of mood in that scene from downright hatred to sympathy is truly remarkable, as she couldn’t have been more “in her element.”  Natalie Wood’s voice was also dubbed by Marni Nixon, a professional dubber who also sang Audrey Hepburn’s part in MY FAIR LADY (1964) as well as Deborah Kerr’s in THE KING AND I (1956), while Jimmy Bryant dubbed all of Richard Beymer’s songs.  This sort of thing simply wouldn’t be done today, but that speaks to social progress within the movie industry itself.  The songs themselves are as sublime as ever, as this is one of the best scores ever written in American musicals where the range of emotion is simply outstanding, from rousing jubilation to petty humor to first love to unadorned hatred to raw, agonizing grief.  But cinematically the dance interpretations are what really excel, as the constant motion makes excellent use of the entire widescreen, and the dances are always in character, reflecting the angry sarcasm directed across gang lines, contrasted against the quieter, more personalized solo moments.  The gang leaders themselves are excellent, Russ Tamblyn as Riff, the hot headed leader of the Jets (also making his career reprise thirty years later as Dr. Jacoby in Twin Peaks) and George Chakiris as Shark leader Bernardo, Maria’s down to earth older brother and Anita’s boyfriend, a guy who previously escorted Marilyn Monroe in the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” Marilyn Monroe Diamonds are a girl's best friend YouTube (5:35) number from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953).  So there’s talent galore in this film and you feel it from start to finish, the top grossing film of 1961, winning 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, becoming the biggest Oscar-winning musical of all time. 

The film is as timeless as the music, as it’s a staged musical shot on location in the streets of New York that’s actually about something that remains socially relevant fifty years later.  Unfortunately, the mindset of neighborhoods still remains closed where people don’t accept outsiders, where racial hostility is rampant, and even with the election of the first black President, there isn’t an ounce of sympathy for new immigrants.  America remains divided along racial lines and still does not exactly embrace interracial romances within the family.  At the time of release, even with hatred and bigotry built into the storyline, much of the racist aspects were completely overlooked, largely by white critics who had yet to grapple with this subject, instead accentuating the urban problem of juvenile delinquency, a new phenomenon evidenced by Blackboard Jungle (1955), yet there is no presence of blacks at all in this film, with racism the elephant in the room that nobody wished to talk about.  It is the underlying current of the entire musical, responsible for the jarring events that do occur, yet if you listen to Stephen Sondheim, “Many people think West Side Story is about prejudice, and I suppose it is, if you look at the text, but that’s not really what it’s about, it’s about the theater.  It’s about how to use music and lyrics, and book, to combine in a sort of new way, not that we tried to do it new, it’s just that’s the way it turned out, because it seems to be a musical, but it’s about movement.”  According to Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book of the musical, “You couldn’t do a story where there were going to be murders, and attempted rape, where there’s bigotry and hatred, you couldn’t do that in conventional musical comedy style.”  So according to the original authors, what transformed this piece was the ballet and jazz-like dance movements that took the place of the action, as it was a stand-in for all the built-up energy and emotion, both hostile and heartwarming, with kinetic bodies in motion telling the story, providing character through their individualized dance movement.  That this film is able to deal with such complex issues through song and dance is a testament to its concept and design, brilliantly exemplified by the “Quintet” sequence that takes place before the rumble, West Side Story - Tonight Quintet and Chorus (1961) HD YouTube (3:19), which is pure Sondheim carried out to a stunning musical climax by Leonard Bernstein, where five separate characters are lost in their own thoughts, each wondering what’s going to happen, all singing various melodies and themes simultaneously in a truly bravura moment in the film.  Impossible not to have a weak spot for “One Hand, One Heart,” West Side Story (1961) - One Hand, One Heart - YouTube (3:01), which has such a sacred feel that it could be sung in church, to the whispered anthem of crushed hopes and dreams reflected in “Somewhere,” West Side Story 1961 - Somewhere - YouTube (3:19), dreaming of that mythical “place for us” where hatred subsides and everyone finally accepts one another.  What was particularly compelling was the youth of the performers, a contrast from the Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire musicals, bringing contemporary movement into the theater, creating such a wildly imaginative, wonderful depiction of youth’s idealized expectations which collide with reality at some point, sending a jarring message to those in the audience, as we’ve all been there.  We’ve felt exactly as Maria has, a girl who dreams that things will be different, and most likely never handled the situation with as much grace as she does when she discovers it isn’t.  Death is a prominent theme, foreshadowed throughout by the lyrics, especially in the love songs, “Only death will part us now,” but the integration of life and death, love and hate, and ultimately joy and sorrow is as dramatically powerful here as any other musical on record.  Repeatedly staged in high school and college productions, along with regional theater revivals, this is one of the most often-produced musicals all across America, yet it works both as a staged Broadway musical and a cinematic experience, where the striking visual originality of the film, especially blown up to 70 mm, may best encapsulate the full scope of the drama.