Suzuki's Swansong: Princess Raccoon (2005)

 

At the age of 82 Suzuki Seijun completed his final film, Princess Raccoon. Even at this advanced age, his  cinematic sense of style, flow, and flat-out cool is intact and evolved from his previous film, Pistol Opera. In most cases a filmmaker’s final film (whether it was planned out to one or not) is not the most audacious and outrageous film in their catalog but for Suzuki it is. Which is saying a lot given, this is the man who delivered Branded To Kill and Zigeunerweisen. To some his work gets tossed off as weird for the sake of weird with little or no craft attached, and to those people I feel sorry for you. Princess Raccoon gets that reputation from my research. This isn’t a gritty yakuza picture with gunfights and the chipmunk cheeked Shishido Jo, nor is it an obtuse arthouse epic examining the artistic and sexual desires of men in the Taisho Era. It strikes that middle ground with the precision of a veteran 50+ years into his career who purely knows the art of cinema. Realism and logic are fine but to Suzuki, that’s boring.

 

Princess Raccoon - A corrupt and vain king, Azuchi Momoyama (portrayed by Hira Mikijiro), exiled his son, Prince Amechiyo (Portrayed by Odagiri Joe) and wife years ago. His wife was killed but the son lived. The king's Catholic psychic, Virgen Hag (portrayed by Yuki Saori), foresees that Azuchi is no longer the fairest of them all. It’s his exiled son. Azuchi wants to kill Amechiyo but…he’s in love with Princess Raccoon (portrayed by Zhang Ziyi). If you kill a royal raccoon, you’re cursed. Amechiyo and Princess Raccoon have a whirlwind romance but Azuchi ends up killing her. The Frog of Paradise is the only thing that can revive her. After retrieving it, he saves her. Tragedy strikes again. Dad kills son now. She kills herself but the Frog of Paradise saves the couple. They get to be together for an eternity.

Throughout Suzuki’s 50+ years of filmmaking, a consistent thread links everything together. The love of films and the unlimited possibilities of that artistic format is present from the beginning. The air of artificiality is on full display. Nothing resembles real life in the most beautiful ways. Surrealist fantasy, Chinese art, and Japanese myth are the key to this musical. Everything presented is purely cinematic. This could only be a film. The planes of reality and dimensions jarringly shift between cuts and edits. In the meet cute, the environment and setups change and shift with great ease - Princess Raccoon emerges from a Chinese landscape background, then they’re in a boat together in the foreground, then the boat is a part of the background, then its further into the foreground (we are in the boat with them), and return to the Chinese landscape but clearly a set. This scene structure repeats throughout the film. The playful volley between foreground and background, impossible blocking and actor placements while having a casual conversation are a Suzuki staple. It’s refreshing to see an elder statesman still completely in love with film and still furthering an experimentation streak. He managed to expand his style even more at a point where some artists have lost it or gotten lazy.

  

It’s based on traditional fables surrounding the tanuki, trickster shape-shifting spirits with a spark of mischievous delight. Tanukis and North American raccoons look a like but they not the same animal. Tanukis are dogs that walk on all fours. The myths always include shape-shifting, tricking humans, and huge testicles. Suzuki did not include the huge testicles but managed to capture the rest of what makes them so special and magnetic. They love life. They live to the fullest every moment they can. Life is a party at the Raccoon Palace. He especially portrayed how different tanuki are from humans, with the casting of a Chinese actress. Zhang delivers her dialog in Mandarin but sang in Japanese. As much as they like to trick and make humans look stupid, they ultimately don’t trust humans. Princess Raccoon’s mother has a song about the horrible things humans have done to their kind. "People are a plague," the sentiment is legitimate. Azuchi’s confidence wavers when he learns his son is with the princess, tanuki mean business. It’s the one time that he shows weakness. Tanuki are not to be fucked with.

Key to the melodramatic romance and forbidden love is the relationship of parent and child. In the case of Amechiyo, his father rejected him and his mother. Left her to die, but he had the slightest mercy to let a baby live. Once he’s a fully grown man that humanity is gone. He’s consumed with vanity. The princess’ parents love her and never want her to leave. The outside world is scary and full of humans. There is a reason to fear humanity. The 2 extremes of the 2 sets of parents drive these star-crossed lovers together. It’s a classic fable structure thrown on top of a nonsensical framework. The stylistic approach is radical but the key of relatable simplicity is there. Parents are complicated, some wanna kill you and others are too protective. They make you who you are. Amechiyo is reserved and unsure of himself. Princess just wants to be free. She’s wild. These characteristics drive and pushed their fates onto the same road.

Appropriately, the film opens and closes with the same line. It’s both poetic and mythical, and ridiculous and transgressive. It has that Suzuki playfulness but reminding us that it’s a movie. Immediately, it brings up that bestiality is central to the plot but it’s also a fable presented in a literal fashion. A great companion piece with this would be Jacques Demy’s Donkeyskin. If you haven’t seen Donkeyskin, it’s a classic fable about incest. It also takes the most literal and straightforward way to show it. We are raised on mythology and fables but there lots of are weird and fucked up aspects to them. Suzuki did not shy away these. He completely embraces the absurdity and bizarre qualities.

Arguably, the strangest aspect is the kaleidoscopic mix of cultures. Azuchi’s right hand woman is a psychic. Not an ordinary, she’s a Catholic psychic. Royalty fetishizing foreign religions and peoples is nothing new. Seeing an Eastern kingdom doing that with the Pope’s religion is brilliant. Adding to the spiritual ambiguity, Amechiyo’s most prized possession is his rosary. As mentioned above, Princess is played by a Chinese actress. There are several scenes where she’s speaking Mandarin. She’s first seen on a Chinese landscape. In the human kingdom, the only Japanese present are the psychic and king. The rest are a mix of other races. The only notable set piece in the human palace is a gigantic print of Andromeda by Sir Edward John Poynter. Suzuki was always cryptic when it came to explaining himself (which is better than over explaining his own art like some artists do). The exact intention is mysterious but so his style to begin with.

Princess Raccoon is a colorful and explosive celebration of life, film, and love. This barely scratches the surface, to appreciate Suzuki. You have to watch and experience his work, words don't do proper service. He never bullshits you into a fabricated real or conventional reality. It’s a movie and never lets up that it’s a movie. Reality is boring, limited, and finite. Film is unlimited. You can create anything you want. Suzuki was a lifelong maverick with an explosive streak of abstract creative fury that goes unmatched.

Princess Raccoon is available on DVD.