Karura no Yume

Zeze Takahisa was represented during the last festival by a film in the Pink Pictures from Japan programme, and this film is also in the pink genre. Zeze has interwoven several old myths in a modern, violent and erotic story. The protagonist is Ikuo, a trader in old paper and junk. For Zeze he is the modern personification of the bird god Garuda, a figure from Indian Buddhist mythology that represents evil. Zeze incorporates slow-motion dream-like images of flying birds in the film to contrast with the realistic shots of the desolate districts and industrial landscapes where the film is set. Ikuo has been in jail because with his boss Tomimori he forced his way into a woman's home and raped her while they were collecting junk. After his release, Ikuo visits a prostitute who works in a so-called soapland, a place where women wash men, a cover for illegal prostitution. He thinks he recognises the woman, Mieko, as the one he raped years before. She tells him she doesn't know him so he cools his rage on her. (The Mieko figure is for the film-maker Zeze a modern version of the Saigu, a holy woman who washed the gods in ancient Japan.) Ikuo kills a girl and loses contact with reality. He becomes increasingly disturbed and starts losing his sight. He prepares for the last flight.