The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead – It would be vulgar to say that The Book of the Dead (2005), a sedate Japanese film that its director has dedicated to “the war dead of the world” illustrates the logic of sublimated sexualilty into religion and art. But here is the evidence: Princess Iratsume is a pious and beautiful aristocrat. She lives in a house surrounded by a huge wall to protect her from suitors. She is desired by all. Iratsume receives the Amida sutra from her father, who is in another province. She immediately sets herself to copying the sutra, ultimately making 1000 copies – a task that takes her about a year. After completing this work, she is exhausted, leaves the palace compound, and wanders in a delirium toward a holy mountain. During her sutra-copying she has repeatedly seen a vision of a bare-chested and beautiful man rising between the horns of the two peaks of the mountain; this apparition rises skyward, a kind of pale erection, where the sun rises during the autumn equinox and the figure of the naked man also looks like the Buddha. Seeking the source of this vision, Iratsume learns that two-hundred years earlier (the story takes place in 9th century Japan), a young prince was beheaded by a mountain stream. Just before the young man died, a mirror held by a beautiful young woman fell from her hands – nerveless due to the execution – and attracted the prince’s attention. The young man died desiring the woman, who looked very much like Iratsume, and, therefore, did not achieve a favorable rebirth, but, instead, weighed down by his lust, wanders the mountains as a naked ghost. Iratsume has a vision of the young man’s ghost and returns to her castle. There she, and her maidens, gather ten-thousand lotus blossoms and use their stalks to manufacture white thread. The thread, in turn, is used to make a huge shroud – the young woman wants to put the shroud on the body of naked ghost and warm him. However, instead, she paints an image of the young man on the huge piece of cloth. As it turns out, the young man’s face and body are exactly the same as temple-representations of the Buddha. And everyone who looks at the painting sees “an infinity of Bodhisattvas” on the huge tapestry-like cloth. Did I mention that the film is stop-action animation using lavishly detailed eight-inch dolls posed against painted backdrops? Everything verges on kitsch – in fact, the overly bright Hello Kitty! colors are, perhaps, the definition of kitsch. The picture was directed by Japanese animator, Kihacharo Kawamoto.