Elegant Beast


The American Dream wasn’t exclusive to America.  In post-war Japan, the boom years led to rampant consumerism and a rise in middle class aspirations that usurped traditional ideas of family honor.  In short, it was every salaryman for himself.  And Yuzo Kawashima’s Elegant Beast (1962) pulls back the curtains on one family living well above their means…by any means necessary.

 

The Maeda’s live in a stylish danchi housing complex – modern apartment units with all the amenities.  But their lifestyle is supported by their children, Yuko and Hisano, who they’ve coached to become unapologetic grifters.  Things gets dicey however when Hisano’s lover, also his partner in an embezzling scheme, walks away from the relationship with all the money.  After the boss threatens to go public with the crime – and his own extramarital affair – the family scrambles to find a new source of income to keep up with the neighbors…even at the neighbor’s expense.

 

Elegant Beast is satire at its most cutting, populated by characters we know we shouldn’t root for but can’t help but admire for their tenacity.  The Maeda’s are representative of changing social mores, casually condoning their son’s hedonistic tendencies while selling out their own daughter to a wealthy sugar daddy.  But they’re not alone.  The world at large – at least every character in Kawashima’s film – is also ethically compromised, circling each other like sharks just waiting for the right opportunity.  It’s a sell-out society where cash is king and emotion is, at best, a petty entertainment.

 

Yet for all its pessimism Elegant Beast is a remarkably quick-witted film, lampooning the absurdity of our modern rat race with almost feral intensity.  The similarities to Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (2019) are easy to spot, but Kawashima’s visual approach is uniquely his own.  Shot on a soundstage that allows for a Rear Window-like point of view, the director tucks his camera into the most unlikely spaces, creating a multi-angled masterpiece of cramped modern life.  It’s genius filmmaking on every level.

 

So raise a toast to Radiance for lifting this one out of obscurity and delivering a gorgeous Blu-ray premiere on its 3000-copy limited edition.  The new 4K restoration makes for a proper debut along with interviews, writings and a visual essay on the rise and fall of the danchi architectural explosion.

 

 

  

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