INDEX
It’s an admittedly Elevated Moive
The various fragments of “culture” that appear in this film, not only music but also various works of fiction (William Faulkner’s “The Wild Palm”, Fumi Koda’s “The Tree”, Patricia Highsmith’s “11 Stories”) and old Japanese film cameras, seem to have a certain, perhaps even a bit distasteful In fact, the film is critical of the film from such an aspect.
In fact, there are many who criticize the film from this aspect. It has been pointed out that the film’s focus on and praise of Hirayama’s fictional stoicism and the protagonist’s cultured, cultured, and cultured “solitary” persona has led to its depiction functioning merely as cultural symbols and signs, and that the filmmakers may be self-sufficient in this regard. This seems reasonable to me. More to the point, it is difficult to dismiss the criticism that the film does not escape the taste for highbrow intellectualism and does not directly address the realities of many blue-collar workers or the social and economic problems that lie behind them.
(*) Although I am not defending the film further, I would like to mention the following as it relates to the film’s setting. The characterization of Hirayama as a “quiet essential worker blessed with cultural capital” may, from one perspective, seem convenient to reinforce the belief in a fictional, innocent professional. However, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that Hirayama has chosen to lead his current life due to unavoidable circumstances, and that he was once a man of high social standing.
In addition, even if there were no compelling reasons for his past, if we, the readers, were to close ourselves off to the possibility of such a person existing in “reality” and point the finger at him as “not realistic,” we would also be going too far.
Such criticisms are quite possible, and I believe there is room for more than a little credit to be given. On the other hand, however, I do not think that such criticisms immediately and totally undermine the value of the film, and to put it another way, it is not true to say that Wenders’ films that have won historical acclaim so far have not been free from the same tendency. What I am trying to say is that the beauty of Wenders’ works has often more than compensated for such “flaws,” and the same should be true of this film.
