Friday, June 10, 2005

The Greatest Film Ever Made...

...is Tokyo Story, directed by the gentle nihilist of Japanese Cinema, Yasujiro Ozu. The honour of promoting the film to the top spot goes to Halliwell film guide.

This is the only Ozu film I have seen so far, but I can't wait to see more. I will write about the film in detail sometime. Till then I will let you read Peter Bradshaw of The Observer:

It is certainly his masterpiece: tender, profoundly mysterious and desperately sad. But its exquisite melancholy is not derived from something esoteric or exotic, but a very real human anxiety, instantly comprehensible. How do we look after our elderly parents as they confront imminent death? How far can we afford to expose ourselves to their secret pain and fear? And when it is our turn to grow old, can we expect our children to share the burden?


This article says, "in many ways he was a pessimist".

In many ways Ozu was a pessimist - he saw life changing for the worse, the Japanese losing traditional values, children tolerating rather than loving their parents.


Actually he was much more than a simple pessimist. He was a nihilist, but his nihilism is not tinged with bitterness or anger at all, rather it reflects a mature, deeper and stoical, although melancholy acceptance of the profound truth of the meaningless and nothingness of life. Although all his films are family dramas, he himself never married or had any children. In fact he was so certain of the futility of everything that he even had the Chinese symbol for nothingness engraved on his tombstone. Now that's what is called living by what you believe in. Great artist. Great man.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

He was a nihilist, but his nihilism is not tinged with bitterness or anger at all..
Guess that doesn't make him a nihilist, actually.
may be a non-believer, agnostic (in the general sense and not w.r.t. God).

Anonymous said...

great blog, btw!

Alok said...

thanks Zero!

As for nihilism, I think it is possible to be a nihilist and at the same time be at peace with the world and self. Buddhist philosophy is a very good example.

Anonymous said...

may be a non-believer, agnostic (in the general sense and not w.r.t. God).
If Nihilism does mean "not believing in anything" (and reacting with equanimity) to anything I think you are right.
I somehow related Nihilism to (self-)destruction by mistake, since it had been used in that sense in many places (from where I inmported the "bogus" meaning) or I bungled it all up.
But refreshed things from here
I AM a nihilist myself, then!

But then what was the necessity to say gentle Nihilist? So there is a sinister meaning it seems to have inherited. am I right?

Alok said...

So you are a Nihilist? Not I very healthy philosophy to live your life with, I would say :)

Yes, you are right. Historically Nihilists have been associated with violence and chaos. In fact in nineteenth century people used "Nihilist" to designate those people who we now call Terrorists. Russian literature of that time is full of such characters. I don't know if you have read Turegenv's Fathers and Sons or Dostoevsky's Possessed (Demons). They are classics which explore nihilism from psychological perspective and place it in social-historical context. (I haven't read Possessed completely myself!).

It was this fact that made me tone down the meaning of the word and take it close to its philosophical/etymolgical roots. Philosophically it is just an extreme from of scepticism. And as I said Buddhist philosophy is very close to this meaning of the word.

Anonymous said...

Hmm.. yeah, when I heard you say Ozu (the least agitated/angered of artists) was a nihilist, thts why I was surprised. At least now (as against the wiki page), it seems to mean something which is radically different from what one could describe Ozu as. But, "gentle Nihilist" does drive the point home.

I AM a nihilist myself, then!
This was just an instant reaction to the alternate (and original) meaning of Nihilism and all its state of non-belief. I still have a dislike for the term.
For the records, I am a non-believer. Period. That is, I am the toned down (to zero degree, perhaps :)) meaning.

Alok said...

Non believer? Welcome once again to my Blog :)

btw, I wrote something on "Happy Atheists"