Emotion (1966)

  'Emotion' is a 1966 Japanese short film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.

  Emi lives in rural Japan, and becomes friends with a girl named Sari, who is like her in many ways. Emi is often beaten by her father. Soon Emi is introduced to a vampire, who sometimes appears as an old gentleman and sometimes appears as a caped fanged vampire. They fall in love, at least I think, it wasn't that clear.

  Nobuhiko Obayashi is known for his 1972 film 'Hausu', and that's it. His other twenty film are available exclusively in Japan, so I was fortunate to see this. 'Emotion' was preceded 'Hausu' by two films and was his ninth short film. It's 40 minutes long, and shows a period in his career where he was primarily experimenting with the camera, using many techniques never before used in cinema, and some techniques which were never used again.

  The plot of the film makes no sense whatsoever, the acting was dire, and character development non-existent, but that's not what this film is about. If you look at it from an experimentation point of view, the film becomes far greater. Scenes like a banana exiting from a man's mouth was shocking and partially disgusting, until I realized the shot was reversed. Like the banana scene, there's a bunch of real-life stop motion in 'Emotion', which makes it seem less like a standard film and more of a retarded hybrid.

  There are films like 'Shoah' which needs some serious editing down with it's takes, this film needs the complete opposite. The shots often last less than a second (excluding the stop animation), and important events of the plot are glanced over in seconds.

  A cowboy shoot out, Emi and Sari spazzing in the streets, experimental camera techniques, 'Emotion' feels like it was inspire by the French New Wave more than most Japanese New Wave films of the time. It definitely feels like Obayashi has seen 'Breathless' on repeat.

  The version I watched had no English subtitles, but it did have an upper-class English narration. I assume what the characters were saying would be irritating and/or pretentious. Although the film's thin story is conveyed nicely through the narration and the visuals, so this didn't take away from the experience at all.

TO CONCLUDE

Only watch after viewing 'Hausu', and you are intrigued by his experimentation. You can still miss this film, it's nothing substantial in any way, shape or form.

SCORE

63