Themes: Obsessive Quests, Haunted By the Past, Journey of Self-Discovery
Main Cast: Koji Yakusho, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Ren Osugi, Yoriko Doguchi, Jun Fubuki
Release Year: 1999
Country: JP
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Idiosyncratic auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this bizarre allegorical tale about a tree named Charisma. Goro Yabuike (Koji Yakusho) is a burned-out hostage negotiator called to rescue an MP from a gun-toting lunatic demanding that "rule of the world" be restored. In a moment of indecision, he fails to act; as a result, both the MP and the lunatic die, while Yabuike is sent on a forced vacation to an unnamed forest area. There he comes upon a single tree surrounded by an I.V. pole, metal supports, and strange altar-like objects. Yabuike soon discovers that the locals are enmeshed in a battle over the tree's future. The plant is staunchly, sometimes violently defended by Kiriyama (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), a young resident of an abandoned sanitarium who believes that Charisma is unique and should be preserved. On the other hand, Mitsuko (Jun Fubuki), a do-gooder botanist, credits the mysterious tree with poisoning its fellow plants and upsetting the eco-system. Other characters include thuggish lumberjacks and rapacious tree-hunters hoping to buy or steal the rare tree at any cost. As things come to a head, Yabuike is forced to make the sort of decisions of which he was incapable as a hostage negotiator. Is Charisma a force of evil or the victim of the obsessions of those around it? Is it the unique specimen that should be saved or the entire forest? Again Yabuike is flummoxed, but this time he acts before it is too late. This adventurous, psychedelic film explores many of the same themes of the individual's fate in modern society as Kurosawa's early work, Cure (1997). Charisma was screened in the "Directors Fortnight" section of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and as a part of the director's spotlight at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Charisma(カリスマ,Karisuma?) is a 1999film directed by JapanesedirectorKiyoshi Kurosawa. The film is about a dispute between a number of people about a unique but possibly toxic tree growing in an un-named forest.
The film is largely seen from the point-of-view of Goro Yabuike (Koji Yakusho), a police negotiator who has been relieved of his duties following his failure to prevent the death of an important hostage. His stands in the middle of the conflicting opinions about the future of the tree, and has to decide which course to commit himself to.
The film has been interpreted by some as an allegorical tale about the structure of Japanese society [1], and the tension between the importance of individuality on the one hand, and the importance of the group on the other. It is also possible to discern an ecological message.
Yabuike is a hostage negotiator. He attends an incident where an MP is being held at gunpoint. The captor's ransom note reads "Restore the Rules of the World". When Yabuike has a chance to shoot the hostage-taker he hesitates. The captor kills the MP, and is in turn killed by the police. Afterwards Yabuike explains that he thought he could help both men. He is suspended from duty.
He is dropped off in the middle of a mysterious forest. He comes across various people who are in a dispute about an apparently unique tree named 'Charisma' growing in a clearing in the forest. Jinbo believes the plant is toxic will eventually kill the whole forest. She wants to poison the whole forest so that it can be restored to its original condition. Kiriyama, a former sanatorium patient, wants to protect the tree, even if this leads to the death of the rest of the forest. Other military figures want to take the tree away for a collector.
Yabuike becomes the central figure in the dispute, somehow able to decide what will happen. After the tree has been stolen by the milias, recaptured by Kiriyama with Yabuike's help, and burned by Jinbo, a new, bigger tree appears, possibly similar to Charisma. Yabuike mulls over the two choices he faces: saving the individual tree, or saving the whole forest. He decides that the dichotomy is a false one. First that life and death are part of the same force, and second that every tree is a special tree and together they are a forest, but simultaneously no tree signifies anything more than any other. Ultimately some will live and some will die and some will be killed and some will be saved.
When the head of the militia takes Jinbo hostage, Yabuike has no hesitation in shooting, though not killing, him. The final scene shows Yabuike making his way back to the city to seek treatment for the injured militia. In the distance, the city can be seen in flames.
