Zigeunerweisen is a 1980 film from Japan directed by Seijun Suzuki.
The setting is sometime in the Taisho era of Japan, or 1912-1926. Nakasago and Aochi are old friends; Aochi is a university professor while Nakasago, once his colleague, is now a wanderer. Aochi, on vacation, meets his friend by chance. They stay at an inn where they are entertained by a geisha named Koine, who afterwards tells them of her brother's suicide.
Skip forward a year. The footloose, wild, free-spirited Nakasago has at least temporarily settled down, marrying a woman named Sono who is the spitting image of Koine the geisha. (They are of course played by the same actress.) Meanwhile, Aochi and his wife, Shuko, visit her sister who is dying of TB. Koine the geisha is still around, and both men are still attracted to her—and to each other's wives.
First film in Suzuki's "Taisho trilogy", followed by Kagero-za and Yumeji.
Tropes:
- Blind Musician: While staying with Koine at the inn, Nakasago and Aochi are entertained by a trio of blind musicians who play the shamisen and sing songs. Amusingly, they play an absolutely filthy song about how a horny woman tries to get her man hard so he can screw her.
- Creepy Child: Nakasago's 6-year-old daughter Toyoka, who doesn't talk very much and is given to unsettling intense stares. In one scene Shuko screams in terror after seeing Toyoka staring at her. At the end Toyoka confronts Aochi, tells him that he's dead, and demands that he hand over his bones (Aochi and Nakasago made a weird bargain that whoever lived the longest would get the other's bones). Then the very end shows Toyoka at the beach, looking at Aochi and gesturing towards a boat that is decorated as if for a Viking Funeral.
- Dead All Along: Implied by Toyoka, Nakasago's Creepy Child. She confronts Aochi and tells him that they're all dead but they don't know it. The film ends with Aochi wandering down to the beach, only to find Toyoka waiting for him next to a rowboat, implying that he'll be taking a symbolic trip out into the darkness of the ocean. Koine near the end starts talking as if her husband is still alive, and the way she is continually changing appearance and outfits makes it seem as if she is a ghost.
- The Drifter: Nakasago, wandering about aimlessly, in contrast to the responsible married professor Aochi.
- Erotic Eating: Shuko makes a great show of eating a peach, licking and sucking it.
- Flashback: Aochi pays a visit to his sick sister-in-law and is startled to learn that Nakasugo and Shuko visited her without him. The scene then plays out in flashback. This is Aochi's first hint that his wife is cheating on him.
- Geisha: Koine, who is the classical style of geisha who dances and provides companionship and conversation, as opposed to the High-Class Call Girl version.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: A heartbeak soundtrack plays over the scene where Aochi visits Sono and apparently is seduced by her (although the scene is surreal enough that it's not quite clear what actually happens).
- Identical Stranger: Lampshaded, as Nakasago introduces Sono to Aochi and specifically mentions how she looks just like Koine the geisha.
- Jump Cut: Jump cuts are used throughout, to reinforce the sense of surrealism and disorientation. In one scene, Koine is singing while Nakasago plays a shamisen for accompaniment, followed by a jump cut to Koine recounting her brother's suicide. In another scene, Koine is sitting with Aochi when her kimono starts to slip off. Cut to Koine, topless and on the other side of the room, looking at Aochi and making a come-hither gesture.
- Mind Screw: The entire film is shot in a dreamlike, illogical manner that makes it almost impossible to tell what is "real" and what are dreams or fantasy.
- Replacement Goldfish: After Nakasago's wife Sono dies, he replaces her with her Identical Stranger lookalike, Koine.
- Sand Necktie:
- According to Nakasago he buried the two male beggars to their chests in the sand of the beach and got them to beat each other to death with their staffs. Koine says this story is nonsense.
- Later Nakasago somehow does this to himself, burying himself to the neck in a field.
- Studio Chatter: Discussed Trope. At one point in the "Zigeunerweisen" recording someone can be heard muttering on the disc. Nakasago and Aochi wonder what he's saying. (This was not done for the movie but is an actual flaw in the 1909 recording that was used in the film.)
- Surrealism: The film displays a dream-like disregard for reality and continuity throughout. Lights turn on and off by themselves. Jump cuts disorient the viewer. In one scene, Aochi is talking with Shuko when a ghostly voice out of nowhere says "You're wrong."
- Aochi and Nakasago are going through a tunnel. Nakasago suggests they swap wives. Aochi leaves the tunnel, arrives at his home—and somehow continues to talk with Nakasago, still back in the tunnel, as Aochi says that the idea is crazy. Aochi steps through his living room and into his backyard and somehow Nakasago has teleported there to continue the conversation.
- Somehow, the blind musicians turn into children. They're still singing pornographic songs, though.
- Thematic Series: The first film in a three-film series not connected by plot, but all dealing with the Taisho era, a sort of Japanese Weimar period in which culture flowered and society was riven by change, before the nation turned to militarism and war in the 1930s.
- Time Skip:
- After the opening sequence (Nakasago and Aochi meet and stay at an inn together), there is a time skip of a year, with the story having Nakasago introduce Aochi to Nakasago's new wife.
- A five year time skip between Nakasago's death and the last portion of the film, with Koine still raising his daughter.
- Titled After the Song: The film is titled after an 1878 Spanish violin composition of the same name. Nakasago and Aochi listen to "Zigeunerweisen" and talk about it.
