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Conflagration (1958, Jp.) (aka Enjo)
In Kon Ichikawa's adaptation of Yukio Mishima's 1956
novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, told in non-linear
fashion with intercut flashbacks:
- the story (told in flashback during police interrogation)
of young, shy, internally-tortured, tormented Buddhist acolyte-novitiate
Goichi Mizoguchi (Raizo Ichikawa) (with a stuttering speech impediment
that kept him silent) who was serving at a Kyoto Zen temple, known
as Shukaku or the Golden Pavilion (originally owned by Goichi's
terminally-ill father)
- the idealistic, withdrawn, shy, socially-awkward,
neurotic and sensitive Goichi's harsh and dysfunctional family, including
a psychologically-abusive adulterous mother Aki (Tanie Kitabayashi)
whose infidelity with Goichi's uncle led to his father's sudden death,
and also contributed to Goichi's fractured personality and mental
disintegration
- the final, desperate catharctic and cleansing climax
- the increasingly-mad and disillusioned Goichi's decision (after
becoming hopeless in believing that he could ascend to the high priesthood)
to commit arson and burn down the corrupted defiled temple - in a
conflagration, to rid it of its errant ways due to the chief priest
Dosen Tayama's (Ganjiro Nakamura) greedy actions to bring in revenue
(the temple had become a tourist attraction), and his taking of a
mistress-geisha
- the end sequence of Goichi's successful suicide before
he was to be transported to prison
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Buddhist Acolyte-Novitiate Goichi Mizoguchi
(Raizo Ichikawa)
Setting Fire to the Temple
Defiled Kyoto Temple Burned Down
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