After watching so many of the classics of cinema, I thought that I’d had at least heard of all the greats by now but this recommendation from our cinephile friend still managed to surprise me. It was directed by Shūji Terayama who it seems was a true artist in every sense of the word: a poet, writer, playwright etc. in addition to being a director. This highly experimental film was itself loosely adapted from his own poetry.

The story is set in a creepy small town filled with a plethora of weird and scary people. The main character is a young boy who is raised only by his mother and yearns to break away from her. He is attracted to the beautiful wife of his neighbor next door who one day asks him to run away with her. Other weird characters include a plump woman in the circus who continually asks others to pump her full of air and a seemingly crazy woman who the other villagers say is cursed. But then about halfway through, it is revealed that all this is just a film made by a director who loosely based it on his own life. The film however is incomplete. The director acknowledges that memories are imperfect and his account of past events are tainted. For example, the neighbor’s wife did not run away with him after all. Then he somehow manages to travel back to meet his past self and attempts to confront his unresolved feelings for his mother.

As you can obviously tell by now, this is arthouse experimental cinema at its most abstract and abstruse. Many characters walk around with their faces painted white and you have no idea why. There is little sense of an overall plot as the stories of the characters in the circus seems unconnected with those that involve the boy. It seems that this really is all about visualizing the director’s poems and the film frequently recites them. Yet even if you are at a loss as to what it all means, there is never a moment when it fails to stir intense emotions. This is quite possibly the creepiest film I have ever watched and the director proves to be a true genius at evoking an atmosphere of dread and disquiet. Elements like the clock in the boy’s house that never stops ringing and which his mother refuses to have sent away for repair and a traditional memorial alter that somehow floats on the river don’t have to make sense to work their magic. Even small details like how the boy constantly walks around in uncomfortable wooden clogs sticks in the mind and adds to the eeriness.

Armchair psychologists can have a field day trying to work out all of the themes that are invoked here. Beyond the obvious ones of death and mortality, there’s also an intriguing strain of a young boy being completely dominated by more powerful women. Plus of whole the whole project is very meta and the director deliberately lets the audience look behind the scenes to see that it’s all just a film, yet that doesn’t make it any less chilling. It’s worth noting that person who appears as the director isn’t actually Shūji Terayama so even that is part of the artifice. But I don’t think it’s actually necessary to try and work out what it means or if it even means anything at all. Just by being so effective at scaring you, it makes for a unique and unforgettable watching experience and that’s enough to mark it out as being one of the greats.