Tomato Kechappu Kōtei

An almost complete disconnection between the effect of expressive means and the message that the film broadcasts to the viewer. The dystopian warning condemning a radical turn as an event, after which a worse power takes hold than the one that governs us today, is in absolute contrast to the form of the film as a whole - which is totally avant-garde, underground, and subversive. The film mocks the youth movement of the 1960s, its revolutionary leftism, etc., but paradoxically it is their perfect reflection in terms of appearance. I am confused. (Somewhere on the internet, I read the opinion that it could actually be just an ironic embodiment of the fantastic ideas that conservatives had about that movement – that’s interesting, but I don't think so). Terayama is once again on the edge of symbolism, surrealism, and naturalism. Uncompromising. The most interesting aspect is the use of various types of literary sources ("non-plot" texts like statutes, bureaucratic regulations, etc.) explaining the overall situation, but often only loosely or not at all related to the current plot. (I saw the 72-minute version.) (03.11.2015)