Yoshida's arguably most opaque work provides ample subtextual readings yet as I revisit this film it's most strikingly for me an affront to notions of objectivity in the modern world. The promise of technological advancement as a tool for collective clairvoyance is deconstructed via a formal construction that borders on impressionistic nightmare. The elusiveness of the temporal and the restrictiveness of the material world are projected to invoke the implausibility of any true form of homogeneous objectivity given the disparate nature of our souls. The planned spaces of society - apartments, offices, etc - are never given any form of objectivity to the viewer, they are deeply subjective in how they are portrayed through the camera's gaze. Invoking notions of repression, Yoshida's use of the frame - from top to bottom - amplifies the tension and isolation of these characters as they navigate the labyrinths of communal and non-communal spaces in search of their own version of the truth. Incorporating the spy motif into its narrative framework, this loose narrative device is used as a tool to elucidate the film's themes centered around objectivity vs subjectivity. Many call this film cynical or nihilistic but the film does have some optimism and beauty to it when viewed through an individualist lens. Technological progress is the god who failed to Yoshida, and with objectivity as an impossibility collectivity, he views love & affect as calcifying forces for the soul against the labyrinths of subjectivity and uncertainty to the outside world. For Yoshida, affect may be ephemeral but it remains one of the only guiding lights in a future in which information itself becomes increasingly ubiquitous and in turn malleable to any ideological persuasion
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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