1966
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Kaneto Shindo and Takeshi Suzuki
Starring Hideki Takahashi
On the Criterion Collection's release of Godard's Band of Outsiders, there is a special feature that makes it possible for the viewer to watch only those portions of the film that directly reference other films. The probable intent seems to be that of a joke--after all, the running time of the special feature is actually very close to the running time of the regular film, pointing out in explicit fashion how sincere Godard was when he referred to the film as a "love letter to the cinema."
Fighting Elegy is cut from the same romantic cloth. Underneath the brutally cynical satire of militant Japan, Seijun Suzuki's film has an anarchic warmth to it, a sentimental attachment to his countries foray into the film world. Whether it's a fire-stand that his main character climbs much like Toshiro Mifune does in Kurosawa's Yojimbo, or a obsessive kung-fu master hiding in the same woods from Rashomon, Fighting Elegy is a non-stop reference library. Beyond that, it keeps the seat warm for the much later American masterpiece of testosterone satire, Fight Club. Weird, absurd and startlingly violent, Fighting Elegy is a film that combines aspects of every section of film culture and style, blends it into a simple coming-of-age story and then proceeds to showcase it in the most bizarre fashion possible. Whether it's a character using a sinful erection to play the piano (and play it better than he can with his hands) or the humiliation of a middle school teacher by a group of 30 year old actors pretending to be pre-teens, Fighting Elegy is a film that is as close to uncategorizable as is possible outside of the work of Stan Brakhage.
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