Ningen Shikkaku – A 2 hour look into what if Toma was an alcoholic dope fiend
Based upon the iconic novel by Osamu Dazai, Ningen Shikkaku (or The Fallen Angel, as the movie is subtitled), is about the life of Yozo Oba – a handsome young man, born into a privileged family, gifted with artistic talent, smart, and all the qualities of the perfect Japanese male. Unfortunately, Yozo throws this all away carelessly as he struggles with the cruelties of life and the women that come in and out of it.
Yusuke Iseya is the only one who gives a pretty alright performance
I read a little more than half Ningen Shikkaku, or No Longer Human, two months before watching this movie and finished it after watching this movie. I’m pretty familiar with Osamu Dazai, I remember reading about him being the tragic writer who was mentally unstable and tried to commit suicide several times until his last attempt was successful when I was looking into ICU in Tokyo. So, this final piece of his is pretty much a faux autobiography of his life. Much like Yozo, he came from a rich family in Nothern Japan, moved to Tokyo, struggled as a writer, had many failed flings with women, became an alcoholic, got hooked on drugs, and eventually died.
But did the movie treat his legacy with kid gloves?
The movie opens up with Yozo’s birthday in a surreal scene of servants, sisters, and personal carriages. It ends with the young child at a shrine saying he’s sorry for being born.
It continues from there, the young boy now a young adult, and his life continues to be normal until he goes off into college and meets Hiroki, a modern individual who introduces Yozo to the world of women and booze. The two develop a uncanny friendship where it seems Hiroki uses Yozo for his own beneficial need while Yozo entertains his time for his new and unrestricted outlook on life. Once his father leaves Tokyo, Yozo tries to survive in Tokyo on his own without his family’s support. Broke, out of school, and struggling he comforts his woes with the bottle and women.
After this scene, I gave up on the movie.
Eventually, it all boils over and Yozo tries to commit a double suicide with a waitress that ends up botched. He survives, the woman dies and he’s being restricted by his family, under the care of a family friend who seems to laugh at his unconventional goals. He manages to escape, ends up a complete drunk, and throughout the course of the rest of the movie, spends his life in the care of many women until he finally settles down and marries a young, naive girl. This bliss fails to last and he becomes a starving artist who tries to kill himself, again, fails in his second attempt, becomes sick and soon a drug addict who develops a sexual relationship with a crippled pharmacist to maintain his addiction.
After becoming the neighborhood crazy drug addict, his family finds out and commits him in a mental aslyum. He is cleaned up, released, and under the care of his family, is shipped to the country side where he spends the rest of his dying days in isolation with an old servant woman, whom he develops a bizarre sexual relationship that borderlines a mother complex.
Ningen Shikkaku is difficult book to turn into a movie and this movie pretty much shows why. The book is written in the first person, a diary of thoughts written by a insane man. His approach and opinion of humans is less than worthy and he, himself, does not consider himself to be human. He considers women to be confusing and despicable yet he can not abandoned them because he is attracted by their mysticism. The first person he befriends he can not stand because he is the only one who saw past his comedic mask and his friend Hiroki is merely someone who he deals with because they both have this weird, abusive, mutual understanding that they both hate each other.
I don't get the purpose of Morita Go's character at all in this movie.
Yet, in the movie, Yozo is this lush. He’s this drunk alcoholic that spends his days sulking in his room drawing the comics and at night drinking until he passes out into the street. When he meets women, they hold no significance. They just simply come and go, fleeting memories that only add to the many reasons why he comforts his pain with the bottle and eventually pain killers. The movie fails to showcase Yozo’s complete and utter distaste for humanity and his justification as to why he simply is throwing his life away.
Essentially, the soul of Ningen Shikkaku is lost in this film and becomes nothing more than a movie showcasing the self destruction of a privileged man that throws it all away for nothing. Scenes where emphasis should have been put on to flesh out Yozo’s character are nothing but brief snapshots. The infamous double sucide that movie spends time developing and then executing is nothing more than a few quick words,
We entered the water together.
She died. I was saved.
His marriage to Yoshiko happens. There’s no explanation as to why he decided to marry the young, naive cigarette stand girl other than he just did. The book goes on about how he was entranced by her virginity and naivety and after sleeping with her, never having the experience to have slept with a virgin, he decides on the spot to marry her because her innocence maybe something he needed to rid himself of his toxic settings. In the movie, his marriage is underplayed while in the book it is the resulting factor to why he becomes the addict. Yoshiko’s innocence and naivety, coupled with his dislike and anger for her and her betrayal, is what perpetuates his drug addiction. The final scene of the two together is in the aslyum, not with Hiroki.
He'll suck your dick for a hit.
The movie makes it seem as if Hiroki is the reason why Yozo has destroyed his life. While the two never mutually spoke their true feelings in the book, Hiroki in the asylum screams at Yozo at how much he hated him after he rejects the drugs he offers him, and Yozo merely laughs as he fights back his dependency for another hit. When Yozo departs with Shizuko and basically becomes his live-in boytoy/maid/babysitter, Hiroki shows dissatisfaction and jealousy. The movie becomes the story of Yozo and Hiroki and not truly Yozo and his failed relationships.
Acting wise, I don’t know what to say. I’ve read in various other reviews that people felt Toma was miscast — and perhaps he was. His performance of Yozo is nothing more than a drunk pity case who goes through life in this downward spiral. The cynicism is lost in Toma’s performance and the only thing he really only managed to get right is when he’s stumbling through the streets of Tokyo as a complete drunk. His portrayal of a morphine/heroine addict is pretty decent too. All the other actors in the movie, except for Yusuke Iseya, is so unimpressive you forget them all. Go Morita’s character was a movie only addition that I still have yet to figure out why he was in the movie. Iseya’s performance is the strongest in the whole movie; he plays the vindictive sleazy friend well.
The movie is 2 hours too long. I won’t watch it again and I feel like it didn’t do the book justice at all. I want to blame it on a combination of poor storytelling, acting, and a direction. Its definitely something that was over hyped… And I stopped taking the movie seriously almost an hour and thirty minutes in. I’ll probably only rewatch the dopefiend!Toma scene for the lulz.
This movie is about as much of a waste as Yozo is to society.