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Aochi (Toshiyo Fujita) provides his friend Nakasago (Yoshio Harada)
with an alibi after he is found examining a fresh corpse and has thus
become the prime suspect in a murder case, even though Aochi is more or
less convinced that Nakasago, a borderline mad vagabond with necrophilic
tendencies, is the actual culprit. The two of them then celebrate
Nakasago's release with O-Ine (Naoko Otani), a geisha whose brother has
just died who just happens to be the splitting image of Nakasago's own
wife Sono (also Naoko Otani). Since Nakasago is a vagabond out of
passion, he usually neglects his wife, but Aochi gets quite friendly with
her (though it's nevermade quite clear how far he actually goes with her).
Eventually, Nakasago meets up with Aochi's wife Shuko (Michiyo Ookusu),
and her bed-ridden sister even suggests they are having an affair - but
then again, the sister seems to suffer from illusions, so who can say if
she's right or not. Nakasago's wife gets pregnant but dies at
childbirth. Nakasago loses no time and hires geisha O-Ine to take care of
his daughter. Then he dies as well, and O-Ine is left with the task of
taking care of his daughter - which she gladly accepts, since she has
acutally fallen in love with Nakasago, even though he has treated her like
dirt, and this way she feels close to him. But eventually, O-Ine comes to
the conclusion that Nakasago has returned to his wife in the beyond, and
thus she wants everything he has ever borrowed to Aochi back, because she
figures if she has everything Nakasago has ever owned, then he has to be
hers. Oddly enough, Nakasago's daughter tells her in her dreams which
things of his Aochi still has. One day, O-Ine comes and asks a certain
recording of Zigeunerweisen from Aochi, which he is sure he has
never borrowed - and when his wife shows where she has hidden it all those
years, he finally becomes convinced she has had an affair with Nakasago
... In pure terms of storytelling, Zigeunerweisen seems
to be a mystery - but actually it's a film that more or less defies
categories and isn't so much a movie in the narrative sense of the word at
all as it is an experience - it's more atmosphere than story, the
weirdness of it all successfully and fascinatingly defies reason, and
despite the film's obvious refusal to make sense, it seems to make sense
somehow. Now this all sounds amazingly brain-heavy, but somehow the film
is not, it just moves along to God-knows-where light-footedly and at a
steady pace, and despite a running time of almost 2 1/2 hours, it remains
rather entertaining throughout. That all is not to say Zigeunerweisen
is a masterpiece though, the film does have its shortcomings, as it loses
a few too many narrative threads or doesn't properly tie them up along the
way, but that said it's still well worth a look.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Zigeunerweisen at adultvideouniverse.com
