ENJO Movie Review

Conflagration
The Flame of Torment

A young priest (Raizo Ichikawa) develops an obsession with what he perceives as the perfection of a beloved temple; rather than see it corrupted or commercialized in any way, he vows to destroy it. Adapted from the story The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by novelist and militarist/cult figure Yukio Mishima, Kon Ichikawa's Enjo (also known as Conflagration) may be the most delicately perceptive and engaging film to come from any of the writer's works. Though filmed in widescreen, Ichikawa's film has an intimacy and intensity that is in no way diffused by the size of the image, nor is the director attempting to graft any external, “cinematic” notions of beauty on the young man's obsessive vision. That vision—and its accompanying obsession—remain his, and remain appropriately mysterious. His passion, on the other hand, together with the decision he must make as a result of it, are presented logically and without judgment. The true story that forms the basis of Enjo was also depicted as one section of Paul Schrader's unjustly overlooked 1985 biographical film, Mishima.

NEXT STOP … The Burmese Harp, Odd Obsession, Mishima

1958 98m/B JP Raizo Ichikawa, Ganjiro Nakamura, Tatsuya Nakadai; D: Kon Ichikawa; W: Natto Wada, Keiji Hasebe, Toshiro Mayazumi; C: Kazuo Miyagawa. VHS NYF