Allan Fish Bonanza: A Promise (1986)

Note: This seventeenth entry in the towering Allan Fish Bonanza Encore series was recommended by Allan’s great friend ‘James’, who has long appreciated Allan’s tireless attention to great cinema that never received the proper exposure.  ‘A Promise’ was directed by one of Allan’s favorite directors, Yoshishige Yoshida.

by Allan Fish

(Japan 1986 123m) DVD2 (France only, no English subs)

Aka. Ningen no Yakusoku; A Human Promise

Let me die

p  Yusuyo Saito, Matsuo Takahashi  d  Yoshishige Yoshida  w  Yoshishige Yoshida, Fukiko Kiyauchi  ph  Yoshihiro Yamazaki  ed  Akira Suzuki  m  Haruomi Hosano  art  Yoshie Kikukawa

Rentaro Mikuni (Ryosaku Morimoto), Sachiko Murase (Tatsu Morimoto), Choichiro Kawarazaki (Yoshio), Orie Sato (Ritsuko), Tetta Sugimoto (Takao), Kumikmo Takeda (Naoko), Koichi Sato (Detective Yoshikawa), Choei Takahashi (Takeya Nakamura),

It was one of those returns from the wilderness, like Moses leading the faithful through 40 years in the desert.  Like Lean before him and Kubrick and Malick to come, Yoshida’s return was something to rejoice about, or at least would have been if anyone in the west (France aside) had cared or known who he was.  His previous film, Coup d’Etat, had been 13 years previously, and he had entered middle-age, 52 when the film was shot.

An old woman, Tatsu, has died.  The police arrive and ask questions of her old widow, Ryosaku, who openly confesses to killing her.  He’s suffering from dementia so the authorities take his confession if not lightly then with due caution.  The film then goes back to the events leading up to the death, with Yoshio shown to be unfaithful to his wife, Ritsuko, whose bitterness about having to take care of her in-laws and Tatsu’s hysterical accusations towards her, are turning her inside out.  Meanwhile, Yoshio’s children have differing feelings about the subject, from daughter Naoko’s concern for her elderly grandparents to Takao’s callous references to them as no longer their family, merely animals to be put in a home like animals in a zoo.  

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Allan Fish Bonanza, Melanie’s Baltimore Video and Birdman on Monday Morning Diary (October 20)

by Sam Juliano

The extraordinary Allan Fish Bonanza Encore Series will continue unabated till Tuesday, October 28th, but in reality it will not end there by a long shot.  The site will continue to exhibit Allan’s priceless work every Saturday and every Sunday until the middle of May, at which point it is anticipated Allan’s new reviews will be ready to post.  I also reserve the option to post one of Allan’s reviews during the week should the new material lag off.  In any case no matter how you read it, Allan will be here with us, even as he continues to make great progress from his recent operation in a British hospital.  Thanks again to all who have stepped up to the plate with their selections, as well as with insightful comments and page views to keep the celebration going full throttle.  Anyone wishing to make further suggestions, by all means add them to any current site thread, and they will be honored.

The supremely talented young lady Melanie (Jane) Juliano has again completed a stupendous short video, this time on the recent trip to Baltimore.  Though it is up on FB getting some much appreciated raves this eight-minute summation of the trip will also be posted as the very first comment under this thread.  As always’s Melanie’s editing and musical selections are fantastic.

With a school presentation (for Melanie) occupying a good part of the weekend, Lucille and I visited some older family members and the young son of a very close friend who went through an operation to solve a collapsed lung.  We were running around all week, and only got to see a single film on Saturday night.  But what a film it was.  I’ll play conservative right now and go with a 4.5 of 5.0 rating, but this could still go to 5.0 after I take in a second viewing.

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