Emperor Tomato Ketchup

[The following essay, my submission for the Avant-garde blog-a-thon, is a reworking/abridgement of an article I wrote several years ago on the films of Shuji Terayama for the magazine Cashiers du Cinemart.] A group of pre-pubescent children clad in military uniforms rebel against their parents and begin hunting adults. A choir of schoolgirls strips while singing 'when I grow up to be a whore'. A young man struggles in vain to break through his cousin's chastity belt. These are but a sampling of images culled from the mind of revolutionary poet, playwright, and filmmaker Shuji Terayama. Virtually unknown in this country (the exception being 1981's Fruits of Passion, an uncharacteristically mainstream bit of erotica with Klaus Kinski), Terayama was a major figure in the heady wave of Japanese experimental cinema in the 1970s. Born in 1936, Terayama spent a good portion of his formative years in hospital being treated for nephritis (the disease that would ultimately kill him). It was there that he began writing Tanka poetry, while at the same time developing a voracious appetite for books. His most significant discovery was the French surrealists, particularly Lautréamont, whose Les Chants de Maldoror was to have a tremendous and lasting impact on his art (including a short film adaptation of the poetic novel in 1977). Though he continued to write poetry, he soon took to composing novels, essays, plays, and screenplays.

When Terayama was twenty-one, he wrote and produced a radio play (Adult Hunting) that was presented in the form of an emergency news broadcast (à la Orson Welles' riff on War of the Worlds). The broadcast claimed that a revolution was taking place, and young children were rising up to claim Tokyo as theirs. This theme would later be reworked into one of his earliest films, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1970). With its cryptic title (more commonly recognized as the name of a Stereolab album), Emperor Tomato Ketchup is one of Terayama's most challenging and controversial works. Lacking a conventional narrative, the film's rough, often over-exposed imagery at times resembles a home movie gone horribly wrong. Set in a Japan where children have mysteriously gained control, its revolutionary gaze is as much sexual as it is political. Some of the rules that the young dictators establish include: Adults who upset children, use physical strength, or are too protective will have their civil status removed Adults who steal our snacks, who deprive us from freedom of speech or sex, or who try to impose their prejudice in matters of education will be given the death penalty In the name of God, all children will enjoy their freedoms: freedom of conspiracy, freedom of treason, freedom to practice sodomy, and the freedom to use the bible as toilet paper. Terayama has referred to Emperor Tomato Ketchup as a joke, but not a comedy. Japan at this time was caught up in a wave of protests; the renewal of the Japan-US Security Treaty, the corporate dominance of Osaka Expo 70, the Vietnam War, and corruption at the universities drew students to the streets by the thousands. Is the film a parody of these protests, or rather an exaggerated representation of the public's worst nightmare — i.e., what if the revolutionaries won? But what of the film's sexual politics? Here we find the earliest example of a major theme that will recur through nearly all his films — the oedipal nature of a mother-son relationship tied to the boy's sexual initiation by an older, more experienced woman. It is in Emperor Tomato Ketchup that this idea is (literally and figuratively) at its most explicit. A young boy brandishing a rifle makes sexual advances on a nude woman. "I seduce my mommy and I become my daddy" appears as an inter-title on the screen. Later in the film, a boy is the sexual partner of three women whom Amos Vogel describes as "magical…yet protectively maternal."

Emperor Tomato Ketchup isn't an easy film to watch. Its lo-fi realism and non-diegetic soundtrack only aid in enhancing the already taboo nature of the film — as if we've just discovered a 16mm roll of film buried in an attic that we're not meant to be watching. The children in the film appear to be having fun with the mayhem, but that doesn't reduce the chilling effect of seeing them play ping-pong over a bound and gagged nude woman, dragging a charred corpse through the streets, or cutting off the head of a chicken. The sex in the film is uncomfortably graphic, and it has prompted some to (unjustly) cry child pornography. There's nothing stimulating about Terayama's negative utopia, and the exploration of taboos, including incest and childhood sexuality, can be found in nearly all of Terayama's works. As revolutionary objects, these early films were intentionally provocative. If, as it has been suggested, the function of the avant-garde is to disturb the established order and to "keep culture moving in the midst of ideological confusion and violence" (Clement Greenberg, Partisan Review, 1939), then this is very much in keeping with Terayama's ideals, though he was less interested in bringing about change in the art world than he was the real one. Terayama has cited an oedipal crisis as a key factor in the problems besetting Japan. At the same time, he was interested in a sexual revolution where women would take the active role in heterosexual relations. As film scholar Steven Clark puts it, "women should stop marrying ugly balding men with secure jobs for their money." By taking younger lovers, they will in effect breed such men out of existence, leaving a world where youth reigns supreme. An exaggerated form of this idea is at the core of Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Equal parts anarchy and poetry, Emperor Tomato Ketchup is Terayama using the cinematic canvas to create a work that is revolutionary in both form and spirit.

Comments

[Peter Nellhaus]

I hope Terayama's films become available on DVD. I checked his IMDb credits and realized he co-wrote Susumu Hani's Nanami: Inferno of the First Love, another filmmaker and film overdue for rediscovery.

[Brian]

Another filmmaker in the Blog-a-Thon I've not been exposed to.

Is Cashiers du Cinemart still around? Seems to me I haven't noticed it on a newsstand in years. (didn't know you'd written for it)

[HarryTuttle]

Really interesting Filmbrain!
I had the chance to watch a few of his short films last year (Emperor Tomato Ketchup is one I missed though). There was one short film, Rolla, half-perforamnce half-film, with the actor in attendance who was literaly coming in and out of the screen (through a slit in the screen) synchronized with his appreance/disappearance on screen, creating an off-screen space in the audience's reality.
Another one, where the audience was asked to plant nails on the (wooden) screen.
I wish I could remember more, what stroke me was this over-exposed aesthetics you mention and the curious a-temporality of his universe. The films could have been filmed at the XIXth century or something.
Oh yes there was this one where a door frame would be travelled to different locations, in the sea, in the street, in the country and protagonists forced to go through. Kinda surrealist and fetishist too, sometimes just trash though.

[Filmbrain]

Cashiers du Cinemart is technically still around, though it's been over a year since the last issue.

[Filmbrain]

Harry --

I've not had the opportunity to see many of his short films, but I have seen most of his features. It's a real shame his work isn't better known -- films like Pastoral: To Die in the Country and Throw Away Your Books, Take to the Streets, which are both minor masterpieces.

[Filmbrain]

Peter --

I recently obtained a pristine copy of Nanami on DVD. I hope to post something about in the next few weeks.

[tofuman]

It seems there'a book out about him although it mainly deals with his stage works.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0824827961/sr=8-2/qid=1154677169/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-8509035-4382426?ie=UTF8

Here's a review of the book on midnighteye

http://midnighteye.com/books/unspeakable-acts.shtml

[Todd]

Great piece. I'm definitely adding this to my next superhappyfun order.

[girish]

Filmbrain ~ I had never heard of Terayama, and am ashamed to say, have seen almost no Japanese experimental cinema. So, thank you for this fascinating post!

Just in the last few days, I have learned an enormous amount about the sheer variety of a-g cinema out there...

[Sarmoung]

I'm still smarting from my visit to Japan last year where I spent a considerable sum on Terayama and Tenjo Sajiki ephemera and posted it back to myself. Never to arrive, alas...

There's a series of links over at Grey Lodge to a huge selection of Terayama. Since the files seem to be hosted by Ubuweb/WFMU, they would seem to be kosher-ish!

http://www.greylodge.org/gpc/?p=420

One of my favourite random finds on the internet is the site of the artist Kimiaki Ishizuka who has made a series of figurines of various Japanese cultural figures including Terayama!

http://www.kimiaki.net/z-japan.htm

[Filmbrain]

Samoung --

Wow! That's quite a find. I've wanted to see many of those short films for ages. Thanks so much for the links.

[Jenna]

Filmbrain - this is an extremely interesting post, thanks very much for this! I had never heard of Terayama before so I read this with great interest.

I hope this isn't a silly question, but the similarities do strike me: how influential, if at all, was Terayama's work in affecting the post-apocalyptic/"negative utopia" streak that seems to particularly dog Japanese films, like the famous Akira (which has a similar "children-gone-nuts" element), or Kinji Fukasaku's Fukkatsu no hi? Or was he not at all (I know there are also other factors responsible for that, including Japan's post-war chaos)? Also Battle Royale, which might even be a sort of sequel ("children who have gone so nuts the adults punish them by forcing them to kill each other")? Just a speculative question, really.

Thanks again for the fascinating introduction - will definitely keep a lookout for his work!

Cheers Jenna

[The Cinesthete]

I'm glad you went into detail about the cultural influence on the film. I have seen it, but my lack of knowledge of the society and of Tereyama himself hurt my understanding of the film. I'm looking forward to rewatching it after reading this. Also, I have both the black and white film and a longer, colorized version... anybody happen to know why the two versions exist?

[Filmbrain]

Jenna -

An excellent question, and you're right in that Japanese cinema does have more than its fair share of films of this nature.

It's hard to say exactly what effect Terayama (and the other major artists of the Japanese avant-garde) had on directors such as Otomo, but given that he was around 20 at this time, it's likely that he was caught up in the political furor, much of which was expressed through music, art, theater, film, etc.

As for Fukusaku, I've not seen Fukkatsu no hi, but I do know that Battle Royale was very much a reaction to the media's tendency to lay the blame on many of Japan's problems on the youth -- something Fukusaku was quite critical of.

An excellent subject for a book. . .

[Filmbrain]

Cinesthete (great name!) --

The longer version (which is in fact sepia-toned) was the original version released in Japan. The shorter black & white version was targeted to a European audience (which might explain the German inter-titles, though I'm not sure about that.)

Personally, I think the longer version works better. The shorter version lacks some of the context, and is more a catalog of the shocking bits.

[Anon]

Don't you mean unjustly cry child pornography? I hope that's what you mean.

[Filmbrain]

Yes, you're right. Complete misuse of the word. Reason #63 why I need an editor.

[HarryTuttle]

I just remember (because of your German intertitle comment) that at the Maldoror Q&A, Terayama's editor (I think) said that Terayama didn't want his films subtitled because he used French, German and Japanese on-screen quotes for graphic qualities rather than narrative meaning, so it didn't matter if we didn't understand. He was a true silent filmmaker ;)

[Alışveriş]

Thank you in advance for your quick answer !. Very nice post.