1. or THE RITE OF LOVE AND DEATH
Copy !req
2. Based on the Short Story
"PATRIOTISM" by YUKIO MISHIMA
Copy !req
3. Produced, Directed, Acted and Written by
Copy !req
4. Associate Producer
Copy !req
5. Associate Director
Copy !req
6. Director of Photography
Copy !req
7. Lieutenant Takeyama
Copy !req
8. Reiko, His Wife
Copy !req
9. In February 1936,
Tokyo was placed under martial law
Copy !req
10. following a coup d'état executed
by a group of young military officers.
Copy !req
11. They maintained that they were
far more loyal to the emperor
Copy !req
12. than the corrupt cabinet members
they murdered.
Copy !req
13. Lieutenant Takeyama was
a member of this secret society,
Copy !req
14. but it was decided that he should not
participate in the coup d'état.
Copy !req
15. The others did not want
to implicate him,
Copy !req
16. because they knew how much he loved
Reiko, his beautiful young bride.
Copy !req
17. It seemed at first
that the coup had been successful,
Copy !req
18. but in a few days people began
to look on it as a minor uprising
Copy !req
19. soon to be quelled
by an imperial injunction.
Copy !req
20. Lieutenant Takeyama was still
a member of the palace guard.
Copy !req
21. The time when he would have to fight
against his comrades-in-arms,
Copy !req
22. to execute his closest friends
as rebels, was drawing near.
Copy !req
23. The Rite of Love and Death
takes place on the Japanese Noh stage.
Copy !req
24. Reiko, the lieutenant's wife,
has seen in her husband's face
Copy !req
25. his resolution to die
as he leaves for the palace
Copy !req
26. on the snowy morning
following the coup d'état.
Copy !req
27. If he should fail to return alive,
she is determined to follow him in death.
Copy !req
28. As she gathers the keepsakes she will
leave behind for her parents and friends,
Copy !req
29. she calls up tender memories
of her husband's love...
Copy !req
30. THE LIEUTENANT'S RETURN
Copy !req
31. Then, at midnight,
the snow still falling,
Copy !req
32. Lieutenant Takeyama
suddenly appears at the door.
Copy !req
33. The guard has been changed, and he
explains that he is free until the morning,
Copy !req
34. when he must go to kill
his comrades-in-arms.
Copy !req
35. "But I just can't do it!
I can't!"
Copy !req
36. Takeyama, a dedicated soldier,
Copy !req
37. cannot bear the thought
of killing his close friends
Copy !req
38. if he wishes to remain loyal
to the emperor.
Copy !req
39. The contradiction appalls him.
Copy !req
40. As the descendant of a samurai family,
the only honorable course left him
Copy !req
41. is to die by morning,
to commit hara-kiri.
Copy !req
42. "I know how you feel,"
Reiko says quietly.
Copy !req
43. "And I will follow you
wherever you go."
Copy !req
44. Takeyama is overjoyed.
Copy !req
45. "Thank you. We'll go together
to another world then.
Copy !req
46. But please let me die first,
and then you follow. I mustn't fail."
Copy !req
47. Their involuntary smiles reflect
an unfathomable mutual trust.
Copy !req
48. Death is no longer terrifying.
Copy !req
49. Reiko feels as she did
on her wedding night.
Copy !req
50. This is pure and passionate
as a ritual conducted before the gods.
Copy !req
51. They are able
for the first time in their lives
Copy !req
52. to reveal unabashedly
their most secret desires and passions.
Copy !req
53. First the lieutenant
and then Reiko,
Copy !req
54. who has lost all her shyness
in the face of death,
Copy !req
55. bids loving farewell to every
smallest detail of the other's flesh.
Copy !req
56. "LONG LIVE THE IMPERIAL FORCES!"
Copy !req
57. REIKO'S SUICIDE
Copy !req
58. THE END
Copy !req