A Jaguar on the Road to Love

Is love the natural result of long familiarity or the product of intimate, impassioned exchanges of ideas and feelings? 1962's I Hate but I Love (憎いあンちくしょう) presents both kinds of relationship, centring on a young couple who have been together a long time but haven't slept together. Starring Yujiro Ishihara and Ruriko Asaoka, both young and beautiful, the film, for a low budget Nikkatsu film, is surprisingly captivating for its violent sensitivity to subtext.

Daisaku (Ishihara) is a multitalented celebrity, a reckless crooner, TV interviewer, and radio host who often can't be bothered to read ad copy. The film opens with tracking shots of him angrily stalking out of the radio studio then driving madly through a crowd before stumbling through his apartment, tearing off his clothes, and collapsing naked in bed. But not before writing on the door outside, "Wake me up and I'll beat you to death."

But that doesn't stop Noriko (Asaoka) who gleefully puts an alarm clock in a bowl, sliding it into his bedroom. She's not just his girlfriend but his manager as well.

The two are comfortable goofing off, dancing, and arguing--they argue quite a bit--but they have a rule, instituted by Daisaku, never to kiss or sleep together. Originally he'd been concerned over complicating their professional relationship, now it's almost a fetish as she's comfortable dancing about his apartment in just a shirt and underwear while he sings for her. Ishihara's voice, by the way, is terribly beautiful.

Then two things happen; the producer of Daisaku's TV show finds a human interest story for him, a potential juicy interview, and Daisaku and Noriko, bored in his apartment one day, decide to break their rule. At the last moment, just as Daisaku is tearing his own shirt off Noriko in bed, she decides not to go through with it.

The human interest story is centred on a young woman living in Tokyo who has been exchanging love letters with a doctor in Kyushu, far to the south. The woman has placed an ad for someone to drive a jeep to Kyushu to deliver letters to the man.

Noriko laughs that her and Daisaku's relationship is exactly the opposite of the man and woman's, insisting the two can't really be in love because they've never met. Still worked up from Noriko's rejection the previous night, Daisaku impulsively accepts the job of driving cross country in the jeep despite pleas from Noriko and the producer.

Of course, she follows Daisaku. He drives the decrepit jeep, she drives his sporty Janguar, and it becomes a road movie. The longer the trip lasts, the less his fervour seems strange and the more Noriko's intense desire to stop him seems like it reflects deeper, difficult to articulate issues. If Daisaku succeeds in completing a romantic gesture, would that mean something about romance Noriko doesn't want to acknowledge? His music is so beautiful and obviously romantic, it's hard to believe she doesn't believe in it. But maybe that's part of the job of a manager, to be only pragmatic so the artist doesn't have to be. It turns out to be a good way to talk about two different aspects of love. It helps a lot that these kids have massive star power.

I Hate but I Love is available on The Criterion Channel, in the U.S. and Japan.

A Young Yakuza can Only Sing of Escape

Life's tough for Jiro. In 1958's Red Pier (赤い波止場) he's the handsome young yakuza with a golden voice, born on the wrong side of the tracks, saviour of children, and the object of all consuming passion for two beautiful women. If you're looking for a romanticised take on yakuza with a teen heartthrob, this would be a good choice.

Starring Yujiro Ishihara as Jiro, sadly he only has one musical number, though it's effective. An oddly challenging song he sings on a rooftop by that pier.

There's also a few dance numbers involving one of the girls in love with Jiro, Mami (Yukiko Todoroki), the Bad Girl. In this movie, nothing is sexier than mambo.

The Good Girl, Mami's rival, is Keiko (Mie Kitahara), whose young nephew Jiro narrowly manages to pull out of the path of a careening taxi. Unfortunately, Jiro's gang is also responsible for the death of Keiko's brother, who gets it with a dock crane at the beginning of the movie.

Jiro laments the life which has made him a yakuza through and through but always wears a smile, albeit a bitter one. The movie doesn't really deal him as rough a hand as the heroes of some other yakuza movies, though, and this one isn't nearly as good as another Ishihara movie from the same year, Rusty Knife, also co-starring Mie Kitahara. But Red Pier has a few good action scenes and a recurring, amusing piece of business where Jiro uses firecrackers to counterfeit the sound of gunfire. There's a really effective showdown sequence between two supporting characters at a festival and a nice fist fight between Jiro and another yakuza played by Hideaki Nitani. Red Pier is available on Amazon Prime.

Twitter Sonnet #1242

A pair of feet appeared above the fence.
As Thisbe kissed the wall a silence fell.
As plaster whirled about in present tense.
A figure's hat concealed his hairpiece well.
An av'rage day decides a harder cloud.
Acknowledged moves recalled preserve the ball.
Selected horns convey the waltzes loud.
The greatest dancers list along the wall.
Pyjama beans were counted sleepy now.
In jars of beds the numbered sheets were wrapped.
A circus thought became a sturdy bow.
A team of cats would take a practised nap.
A sheet of dust creates the tomes beneath.
A language came of light and shade bequeath.