山女 「Yama Onna」
Release Date: June 30th, 2023
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Takeshi Fukunaga
Writer: Takeshi Fukunaga, Ikue Osada (Screenplay)
Starring: Anna Yamada, Masatoshi Nagase, Toko Miura, Mirai Moriyama, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Denden, Ayame, Haya Nakazaki, Yota Kawase, Taiga Komie,
Takeshi Fukunaga’s third feature film, Mountain Woman, ushers audiences into an atmospheric recreation of a dark chapter of Japan’s past in a story of discrimination enforced by social hierarchy and exacerbated by a real-life disaster. It is an effective contemplation of how societies, whether a family unit or a village, can turn on people for survival.
Taking place in the late 18th Century, Mountain Woman is set almost entirely in and around a small and impoverished village that lies in the shadow of Mount Hayachine in the Tohoku region. The date and location of the film suggests it draws upon the real history of the Great Tenmei Famine which followed the volcanic eruption of Mount Asama. Tensions are running high as cold weather continues to blight the village harvest and emergency rice rations run low. The picture is the same across the countryside as we see half-starved hunters roam the land in forlorn forays to find game.
Immediately establishing the brutal conditions in this famine-hit village, the film opens with a disturbing scene of a woman giving birth and the father of the child soon smothering the baby while he tearfully says, “we have nothing to feed it.” He won’t be the last father holding a dead infant.
We are next introduced to our lead character, Rin (Anna Yamada), as she takes the body of the baby away. Handling the dead was the work of outcasts. This is the status of Rin, her brutish father Ihei (Masatoshi Nagase), and her younger brother Shokichi (Taiga Komie), all of whom carry the stigma of being a criminal family due to an infraction committed by an ancestor.
It is here that Fukunaga clearly and vividly delineates class distinctions as the villagers hold this over Rin and her clan, dole the worst jobs to them and little of the remaining rice ration. A sense of Rin’s oppression is built upon further through dialogue and it can be felt through the cast’s body language which feels full of contempt.
The constant talk of famine and folklore, of sacrifice and social order, the sight of discrimination and punishment. It continually loads the narrative with a dread dramatic fate that seems destined to hurtle towards Rin. This is effectively delivered by a set of A-tier acting talent like Toko Miura (Drive My Car) and Denden (Cold Fish). With dirt-streaked and sunburnt faces, worn clothes, and dishevelled hair, they look and sound like characters from the past and create a heady world of duplicity, desperation, and fundamentalism that dogs Rin’s life.
What little relief is to be found in small contemplative scenes set on riversides where we see that Rin hangs on to living in that society and takes solace in the folklore surrounding Mount Hayachine.
Under glorious rays of sunshine and in the midst of beautiful flowers, she recites her belief of how the goddess of the mountain will accept all souls. This pure-hearted solace proves necessary as people wield what little power they have in wrath when Rin’s father steals rice from the storehouse and the village turns on them. As the villagers slowly turn to other gods with more drastic offerings of tribute to save themselves from hunger and Rin faces betrayals.
With Rin positioned as an outsider in the village, with a capacity for spirituality and an acceptance of oneness with nature, slight parallels can be made with Joan of Arc or Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. That may be coincidence but she is part of a pantheon of characters that exhibit a feminine purity that allows her to be selfless and strong, to stand in opposition to a tyrannical and closed-minded world and to transform herself by letting go of control and plunging into the wilderness, which is what happens here as she flees into the mountains.
What audiences are treated to is a deft and dramatic transformation where the natural landscape becomes a character that shapes the narrative. Its influence, both sublime and terrifying is delivered through mighty fear-inducing scenes set at night in the open where moonlight or the faint flickers of a tiny fire highlight branches and trees that hustle, rustle, and bustle from gusts of strong winds. The introduction of a mysterious mountain dweller (played by an unrecognisable Mirai Moriyama) who roams with beasts seems like the worst folktales of mountains come true but as Rin yields herself to her situation, she frees herself from the fear and the location becomes wondrous and beautiful – surely gorgeous on a big screen. Perhaps we know she has escaped from society’s strictures in a scene where she presents herself nude to the mountain man only to discover that he has no interest in her sex and allows her to forage alongside him for food and make use of skills that the villagers took for granted. That liberation provokes a feeling of relief in the viewer, especially as the screen is brighter and Anna Yamada’s performance as Rin goes from taciturn and defensive to more open and peaceful.
Inevitably, Rin grows in confidence through the egalitarian dream promised by Mount Hayachine and a higher power. Of course, the plotline of the village needing some way to bring a better harvest will be woven together with her character growth for a dramatic ending that, again, recalls the famous maidens mentioned above. If a little predictable, the film’s construction is still brilliant and is certainly filled with convincing drama. The dark undercurrent of the way humans will betray and exploit each other plays out believably and parallels between our climate crises are eerily present but Anna Yamada’s strong performance keeps us rooted in her predicament and hopeful of a happy ending.
Ultimately, the film slowly weaves a rich atmosphere of the distant past thanks to the costuming, props, and location. It all gives a great sense of verisimilitude while the drama takes place. Do not expect many thrills but expect a lot of food for thought as Fukunaga creates a scarily believable society driven to fundamentalist craziness due to famine and folklore and offers us a central figure in Rin whose journey exhorts us to challenge this descent into madness.
Mountain Woman will be screened complete with an introduction and Q&A with director Takeshi Fukunaga and on Monday, July 24 at 21:00 at the Walter Reade Theater