Shikoku

The title refers to the double meaning of the word shi, that can mean 'four' but also 'dead'. In normal language 'Shikoku' refers to the island Shikoku (four lands), the smallest of the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago, but it also means 'land of the dead': the empire where dead and vengeful spirits live. On the island Shikoku are 88 holy shrines visited by Shinto and Buddhist pilgrims on their pilgrimage. According to a legend, the dead can be invoked if the pilgrimage is made in the reverse order. A mother clamps onto this when she tries to call her daughter back from the realm of the dead. When she returns from a valley where according to legend the gods live, she is not alone. For Shikoku, a new type of ultra-sensitive film was used so the pictures have unusually deep colours. In one of the scenes the dead can be seen in the light of the setting sun: a frightening moment for the viewer aware that they are not living people. Of course this is also thanks to the excellent directing of Nagasaki. The girl's affection for the friend from her youth, from whom she was separated by her premature death, provides evidence of an emotionalism that we know from Nagasaki's earlier films, and that is at odds with a society that undermines human morals with its coercive role models. (K.O.)