| Despite the existence of more than seventy gay bars in Tokyo alone, the subject of homosexuality is taboo in Japan. In the film Okoge (1992) two 1990s lovers break the taboo at a banquet of coworkers, though one lover eventually marries a woman, whereupon the other lover divorces his wife to live with a transvestite. Now in Taboo (Gohatto) Nagisa Oshima takes us back to 1865, twelve years after Commodore Matthew Perry’s black ships appeared in Tokyo Bay. A personal militia of samurai was still protecting the shogun, whose rule from Kyoto was being challenged by rival clans. The militia, known as the Shinsengumi, triumphed at the Battle of Ikedaya in 1864 over the Chosu and Higo clans, which resented the shogun’s treaty with the United States. When the film begins, Sozaburo Kano (played by Ryuhei Matsuda) and Hyozo Tashiro (played by Tadanobu Asano) are being inducted into the militia in a test match with Captain Hijikata (played by Beat Takeshi, aka Takeshi Kitano). Kano is the eighteen-year-old son of a rich merchant; when asked why he joined up, he responds enigmatically that he seeks the license to kill. Tashiro, the son of a poor peasant who is a few years older than Kano, becomes sexually attracted to him. Soon, the two are rumored to be lovers. Indeed, many of the samurai are dazzled by Kono’s beautiful face and ponytail (rather than a samurai’s topknot), though his swordsmanship is thoroughly masculine and his body movements never effeminate. Gentle gossip among the samurai about the two lovers, as if sex were a minor matter, betrays a widespread desire to sleep with Kono. The samurai are too poor to afford the prostitutes of Kyoto but never before did they live with such a beauty as Kono. In due course another samurai falls for Kono, performs anal intercourse on a passive Kono, but soon is found dead. Sensing that the disorder should be solved by introducing Kono to a prostitute, Commander Kondo (played by Yoichi Sai) assigns Yamazaki (played by Masa Tommies) to take Kono to the nearby whorehouse. But the scheme is unsuccessful, as Kono will have nothing to do with any women, having professed an unrequited love for Yamazaki. Next, Yamazaki is attacked in the dark, but the attacker leaves a small sword behind. When Tashiro’s small sword is observed to be missing, Kondo assumes that he has been on the rampage again, so he orders Kono to kill Tashiro, telling him that he and Hijikata will be observing from afar. Kono then arranges to meet Tashiro for a rendezvous, and then surprises him by drawing his sword, whereupon Tashiro professes that he is innocent, but to no avail, as Kono slays Tashiro. Filmviewers then know that Kono was behind all the violence. In the end, Hijikata and Kondo silently realize that Kono is the guilty one, and we are led to believe that Hijikata goes off to kill Kono in order to stop the turmoil in the militia. Based on two novellas by Ryotaro Shiba, Taboo clearly informs filmviewers that same-sex attraction has ancient roots in Japan, and that lust of one man for another is an inevitable part of the human condition, even if often inconvenient. The major puzzle presented in the movie is why Kono joined the militia, and our only clues are that he enjoys seducing men, but he never kisses or shows emotion, he enthusiastically acknowledges orders, his swordsmanship prowess declines after being admitted to the militia, he submits to anal intercourse, and he kills lovers. The obvious inference is that he was raped at an early age, and thus works out his rage by first attracting lovers and then killing them. Although discussion of gay life in Japan today is taboo, more than seventy gay bars dot the landscape of Tokyo alone, so the film appears to say that Japanese should get over their timidity in dealing with the subject, while also warning that sexual obsessions and sexual repression can be carried too far. MH |