{"id":1910,"date":"2006-12-06T15:12:48","date_gmt":"2006-12-06T22:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2020-12-16T00:49:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T07:49:31","slug":"kagi-the-key-odd-obsession-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1910","title":{"rendered":"Kagi \/ The Key \/ Odd Obsession (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Man&#8217;s senility is believed to begin at the age of 10.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-28524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn elderly, ailing husband (Ganjiro Nakamura) tries to resurrect his waning virility by presenting his beautiful younger wife (Machiko Kyo) to his daughter&#8217;s fiance (Tatsuya Nakadai).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Black Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Japanese Films<\/li>\n<li>Jealousy<\/li>\n<li>Kon Ichikawa Films<\/li>\n<li>Sexuality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nKon Ichikawa&#8217;s provocative black comedy &#8212; based on a novel by famed Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki &#8212; makes for fascinating yet challenging viewing. Since characters&#8217; motivations aren&#8217;t always clear, we never know what to expect from them, and thus we&#8217;re kept in suspense from beginning to end. Kyo&#8217;s wifely character is particularly inscrutable &#8212; how much does she know about her husband&#8217;s plans? &#8212; and Ichikawa&#8217;s choice not to let us know what&#8217;s running through her mind differs radically from the novel (which consists of alternating diary entries written by both husband and wife).  <\/p>\n<p>As highly charged as the eroticism is in <em>Kagi<\/em>, it&#8217;s implied rather than flaunted: the characters never explicitly state what&#8217;s going on, and instead we must rely on their facial reactions to guess the content of racy photographs, or to understand that a particular character has no clothing on. Symbolism also prevails: in one unusually provocative shot, the aging husband&#8217;s dark-rimmed glasses fall onto his wife&#8217;s pale chest, hinting at the distance that exists between his lustful gaze and her sensuous availability. While not all of Ichikawa&#8217;s stylistic choices work &#8212; his freeze frames near the beginning of the film seem like mere affect, for instance &#8212; his unique sensibility ultimately adds just the right flavor of absurdity to this darkly comic tale. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An intriguingly perverse, erotically charged saga of familial dysfunction<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Still.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"214\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-28526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Still.jpg 500w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Still-128x54.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Kagi-Still-300x128.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply as an essential entry in Kon Ichikawa&#8217;s impressive oeuvre. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0052957\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/78555.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Man&#8217;s senility is believed to begin at the age of 10.&#8221; Synopsis: An elderly, ailing husband (Ganjiro Nakamura) tries to resurrect his waning virility by presenting his beautiful younger wife (Machiko Kyo) to his daughter&#8217;s fiance (Tatsuya Nakadai). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Black Comedy Japanese Films Jealousy Kon Ichikawa Films Sexuality Review: Kon Ichikawa&#8217;s provocative black comedy &#8212; based on a novel by famed Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki &#8212; makes for fascinating yet challenging viewing. Since characters&#8217; motivations aren&#8217;t&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1910\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1910"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58152,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions\/58152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}