Not many Americans have read the Hagakure, which is the book that became the code of the Samurai in Edo period Japan. Written in the early 18th Century, excerpts were popular during the 80s, when Japan's economic star was ascendant, giving American managers lessons in Bushido, the way of the warrior. Of course, what get left out were the queer bits. Yup, not unlike ancient Greece where a man had the responsibility of training a younger man in the arts of war, and love, so too in Japan. The Hagakure recognizes these relationships (within the larger context of family responsibility, not unlike Greece). But there was nothing like this:
Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims is a wildlly surreal, genre busting musical road trip, somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and Kurosawa's Dreams on drugs. Lots of drugs, because KIta is a drug addict. And to heal him (and get out of town fast for reasons not revealed until late in the film) he convinces him to go on a pilgrimage to one of Japan's three great shrines, Ise.
Imagine if Brokeback Mountain had been a musical comedy. As if it had been invaded by Oklahoma. And then Blue Man Group.
So anachronisms abound, from the very start, when the two lovers leave Edo (what Tokyo was called until the late 19th Century) they jump on a motorcycle Easy Rider style, only to be hailed down by a cop for breaking dramatic narrative rules. Well. Giant babies. A local lord who requires people to make him laugh or face torture. A bar serving magic mushrooms straight out of Alice. Sword fights. Love scenes. Hip hop dance numbers. It's a very wild ride. Don't miss it.
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