Kôkyû sôpu tekunikku 4: Monzetsu higi (1994) Online

I am told 'The Dream of Garuda' is an example of Japanese Pink Cinema. I confess that I am almost completely ignorant about this phenomenon: I know these films are highly formalised, a kind of 'illegitimate' form of underground cinema, and deal, almost pornographically, with erotic subject matter. So, in this comment, I will simply note a few elements that struck me, and hope an expert on the subject will take up the theme.

Firstly, 'Garuda' has many features in common with pornography, of the soft variety at any rate - there are lengthy sex sequences, mostly in an apartment where a 'masseuse' bathes and later 'massages' a client with enviable lubricity and flexibility. Unlike pornography, however, the function or presentation of these scenes militate against onanistic pleasure. They are either comic (in one scene, a harried wife comes home to find her husband and his mistress in flagranto delicto, unfazedly deciding whether they should eat in or out), oppressively voyeuristic (the opening sequence, similar to the one I've just mentioned, where a man poking around an unlit apartment (the same one?) hears sounds of mounting excitement, taking a peek), or so distanced as to be mechanical, or, at best, ritualistic.

The various scenes at the masseuse's fit that description, and the anti-hero's need for them seems to be in some way spiritual, a desire to wash away his sins. In this scenario, the emphatic focus on the body (not just sexual; there are muggings and shootings too) seems intended to express something spiritual, just as Bresson's relentless filming of the material world evoked an immanent spirit.

There is a plot of sorts (a rapist comes out of prison and tries to find the woman he violated, seeing her in every one he meets), but because of the degraded-stock style, the distant framing with very few close-ups, and the obscuring lighting, which is either impenetrably dank or blindingly bright, it is very difficult to follow, to tell which characters are which, which person fits which name fits which narrative function. This isn't just Occidental racism on my part - the film is called 'The Dream of Garuda', and the narrative, set in vast, unnaturally empty, unnaturally quiet spaces (scrapyards, city outskirts, fields etc.) has the illogic of the dream, with much walking; repetition of incidents, motifs, places; random violence and chasing.

It's difficult to know what exactly the dream is - apparently Garuda is a mythical, birdlike Hindu god who is worshipped s the protector of Buddhism: if I'd known this beforehand the film would have made a lot more sense! The principle has repeated visions of flying birds against a pale blue sky, filmed on even more degraded stock, with their flapping sound like wooden clappers. The climax involves a doomed Icarean flight, and the relentless constriction of the film, with its remote Antonianian style, its suffocating interiors and bleak, labyrinthine exteriors, its small, vicious circle of characters, suggests some desire of flight or escape; perhaps from the film's recurrent formal motif, a tiny box of light surrounded by unfathomable darkness, even in a place as supposedly reassuring as home.

I gather that "pink cinema" practically saved the Japanese film industry in the early 60s by introducing low-budget soft-porn movies that were surprising, or even shocking, to Japanese audiences and were lucrative. The budgets for these films were tiny, by any standard. The only requirement was lots of nudity and sex. Within these strictures the movie-makers were free to do what they wanted.

Sometimes that kind of license leads to a certain stylishness, as it did with Randolph Scott's Ranown westerns, and Val Lewton's minimalist horror films at RKO.

I've seen two examples of pink cinema now and would like to recommend them but I can't. Both seem like strikeouts.

Without going into it in too much detail, I'll give an example. A Japanese guy is (apparently) riddled with guilt for a crime he and his partner committed, for which he served several years in prison. The crime involved a rape.

The guy sees an ad the victim has posted. She now gives private baths. He visits her establishment. She doesn't recognize him as the man who raped her. He lies there sullenly while she soaps him up and slides her nude body around on top of his. I would like to direct your attention to the sound that accompanies this ablution. It doesn't sound like two soapy bodies rubbing against one another. It sounds like someone trying to stir a pot of molasses with a wooden spoon. Or somebody crinkling sheets of stiff cellophane in his palms.

I admit this is a small thing, but that's precisely my point. It would have been so EASY to avoid. It's distracting, irritating, and cheap. It belongs in the same shoe box as the shot in which the heroine looks into a mirror to fluff herself up, only instead of looking at her own image she's staring directly into the camera, because the mirror is at an angle to her face. A pointless and jarring discordance.

The photography doesn't help. It's blurry, dark, and lurid with dank colors.

The acting isn't bad, and some effort went into the script -- the story of a failed attempt at redemption. Yet it's clumsily put together, with a lack of subtlety whose presence would not have affected box office returns much one way or the other.

We know its possible to make engaging films for minuscule amounts of money because it's been done before. "The Littlest Fugitive," for instance. This film doesn't clear the bar, but there may be other examples of pink cinema out there that do.

I'm lukewarm on the whole Japanese "pink" genre. Not that I have anything against erotic film in general. Or Japanese erotic film in particular. But I've found most pink films to be a little flimsy. There just doesn't seem to be much film there to grab onto. Stuff like "A Wife to be Sacrificed" and "The Bedroom". Can you really even call these films? It's more like someone with money had an "idea" for a movie, got a bunch of people together who were willing to take off their clothes (but could still act! Important point!) and they went out and made a movie. Seems half-baked.

Dream of Garuda I found pleasantly surprising. Not only is it erotic, it's more erotic than any pink film I've seen yet. Great stuff! It is also engaging. Well written. Nicely directed and acted. Compelling all around. Not to mention a singularly perverse piece of entertainment (as any good pink film must be).

A couple of guys rape a girl. One goes to jail for it. The other doesn't. The one who does is tormented by feelings of guilt. That he has "sinned". And that he must be purified. He also has recurring and haunting visions of birds. Garuda is the Hindu (I believe it's Hindu) god of birds. The guy who doesn't go to jail ends up living with the girl the two guys raped. And being her pimp! The film spends a lot of time in these Japanese massage parlors where guys go to get (nudge-nudge) massaged and bathed in private rooms by girls.

Dream of Garuda progresses in a nice linear fashion. You truly become caught up in the plot. What a shocker! Not to mention the faux-sex scenes are hot stuff!