The Sun's Burial
(Taiyo no hakaba, 1960)

Oshima Nagisa

Japan

87 min, color, Japanese (English subtitles)

Review © 2001 Branislav L. Slantchev

Gratuitous shot of Honoo Kayoko	The Agitator moving in on Hanako's operation

Hot on the heels of Oshima's stark Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun's Burial is a sort of a sequel (and it was planned as such) that outdoes its predecessor in unrelenting gloom and hopelessness. Set in the harbor town of Osaka, the film depicts the anti-world of slums, where small-time crooks compete for domination, human flesh and blood are traded for cash, and where senseless murder, rape, and violence are the everyday norm. Mostly lacking in political commentary, Oshima's film is still a social indictment of a land, where rampant modernization has left behind a part of the population that dwells in the murky background of wealth and prosperity. Unlike Kurosawa, who also pointed his deft lens at the wretchedly poor, Oshima foregoes the temptation to offer an explanation or a cure. His poor brutalize one another, and are ultimately betrayed or murdered by the ones to whom they show any human emotion. In fact, in this world such emotion is equivalent to weakness. Some hide it, others exploit it.

Hardly a place for a pregnant woman	The streets of postwar shame

Hanako (Honoo Kayoko) runs a scam that involves selling blood on the black market. By night, she supplements her income by selling her body. She walks a tight rope between the territories of two rival gangs, which constantly lands her in trouble. Shin (Tsugawa Masahiko) is the leader of the gang that is trying to operate on the turf of Ohama's. The gang is constantly on the move, afraid that if they stop for a longer time in one place, Ohama will find them and kill them. They take two newcomers, one of which, Takeshi (Sasaki Isao), is a reluctant participant, who tries to find ways to either run away or do some (minor) good. His efforts are thwarted for once you join, there is no way out. The underworld keeps pulling him in, deeper every time he attempts to break out. Still, his efforts go mostly unpunished, at least by gang code, for Shin has an inexplicable soft spot for Takeshi and takes him under his wing. In the merciless world of Oshima, this will be his undoing.

Romance in the slums	Takeshi pulled back into the gang

One might discern a weak political message in the figure of Agitator (Ozawa Eitarô), who is looking forward to the "inevitable" conflict with the Soviet Union that will supposedly restore Japan to her former imperial glory. Even his patriotism rings hollow when he scams the destitute into selling their census registration (identities) to foreigners. He pockets the cash, supposedly ready to supply weapons to the fantasy army of his. Still, one of the pivotal scenes in the film involves a dialogue between Agitator and Hanako. After witnessing the gruesome death of the one she had started falling in love with, she confronts Agitator, asking, Will there be no slums in this new world? Will there be a place for the bums, the homeless, the hopeless? She would have none of that "return to former glory" crap, history is not for her. She wants to know about the future. But even in the brilliant future that Agitator sees, there is no hope for the slums, no life for the marginalized.

Hanako covers up for Takeshi	The murder/rape initiation

Relentless, cold, and very brutal, The Sun's Burial paints a portrait of postwar Japan, in which there seems to be nothing but misery. There are no contrasts with the better-off, there is no sense of the two sides of the tracks. Apart from a policeman, no outsider enters the shadowy world of the gangs at the docks. Even sailors returning from trips sell their blood for a little cash. Thus, Oshima takes on a somewhat larger topic, which fingers the entire nation by depicting it as a slum. The apt choice of title reveals that he has a larger issue in mind.

Discipline enforced	Energetic political discussion

The sun, the perennial symbol of Japan, is setting down through the film. Every time the camera looks at the sun, it is closer to the ground, until it finally disappears in darkness, just as Hanako and Takeshi seem to have established some bond. Thus, the film is not really a social commentary in the sense of "This unjust society has neglected its poor" (which is usually the angle in Kurosawa's films) but rather "Japan is a slum that still has not and will never recover from the devastation of war." Physically, the images attack our senses, but Oshima's concern is with the spiritual degradation.

Hanako being cut out of the loop... again	A yen and a corpse

In the end, Hanako and the doctor she runs the blood scam with look upon the charred remains of her father's house, when the doctor remarks, "It's just like after the war." With these words, she takes his hand and tells him, "Come on, we've got work to do." This, however, is not the work of rebuilding, it is the work of a cruel daily survival.

Struggling with conscience amid decaying concrete	The love that will not bring happiness

September 20, 2001.

"Will things get better?"	Fire, Demolition, and Catharsis