Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?
Director: Shinji Aoyama
Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Aoi Miyazaki, Masaya Nakahara
Year Released: 2005
Genre: Drama
See Also: Eureka, Wild Life
Everything about Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani? screams "difficult." First, there's that title. Apparently it's Aramaic for, "God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Right. Next, it's by Shinji Aoyama, whose best known film is Eureka, a nearly four-hour, practically wordless, sepia-toned marathon of a film loosely about post traumatic stress disorder. And then there's Eli, Eli's noise-music soundtrack. Of course, I made it my mission to track down a copy the second I learned of it.
It's the year 2015 and the world's population is being ravaged by a virus. Dubbed Lemming Syndrome, it induces its sufferers to kill themselves. The fear surrounding the virus—no one knows how it's transmitted—is such that corpses are left uncollected. Bodies are seen hanging from lamp posts along the highway and languishing in abandoned homes. It is in the latter that we first see Mizui (Tadanobu Asano) and Asuhara (Masaya Nakahara) in action, noise musicians scavenging for materials with which to make music. An electric fan and lengths of plastic tubing become a whirring drone machine, while a shotgun is cocked into a microphone and recorded for future use. For much of the first part of the film, this is all that happens. Mizui and Asuhara make music, contentedly, and we watch them make music.
Into this idyll comes a sick teenage girl, her wealthy father, and an edgy private eye who's tracked down our musicians, known to the world as Steppin Fetchit. Yes, that's "world." Steppin Fetchit are world-famous, for it seems that those that listen to their music stop exhibiting Lemming symptoms. The wealthy father wants his daughter to stay alive and take over his company, so he asks Steppin Fetchit to play for her. It seems, however, that Mizui and Asuhara just want to be left alone. "We don't really play benefits," Mizui straight-facedly tells the father.
Of course, he does play for the girl, and it's one of the most beautiful sequences in recent film, of any genre, from any country. The film itself is crammed with gorgeous visuals, but this one raised goose bumps. Asano, playing a squealing, crying guitar, standing in a field, a seagull super-imposed over him in mid-flight. It's a curious image, yet is no less powerful for being so enigmatic. When he collapses at the end of his performance, after giving his all, you really feel that exhaustion. Some online have complained that the sequence is too long. To them I say, watch it again, and this time really listen.
As with Eureka, Aoyama isn't so much looking for answers as he is musing on questions. "How can you tell the difference between virus suicide and real suicide," Mizui asks. You can't, of course. It comes down to the will to live. All that time devoted to two guys making music? It's music as catharsis, a reason for living. Even in such a bleak world, it's a reason to live.
Otaku Alert: Tadanobu Asano and Masaya Nakahara played their own instruments in the movie. Asano is also in a noise band called Mach 1.67 that also features film director Ishii Sogo.
Availability Note: Import only. Region-free copies available on the Internet and through specialist shops.
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