Even though I have only seen one other Shimizu picture, Mr. Thank You (1936), it would be safe to say that the director has taken the frontal tracking shot as his own. On numerous occasions, his camera slowly backtracks, keeping the rhythm of the subjects walking towards us on a mountain or forest road while sporadically cutting to a reverse shot from behind them, the camera now moving forward. The former type of shot starts the film off as we see Toku and Fuku, two blind masseurs walking north towards a mountain spa in search of work for the summer. At the spa, Toku gets infatuated with a girl from Tokyo, guessing where she's from by her smell. They both befriend a lonely orphan boy who is staying with his uncle, whom the girl gets better acquainted with. While the spa's residents and masseurs interact with one another, a series of thefts are heard to be taking place in the Inn. The narrative thrust of Masseurs is very minimal and therefore leaves plenty of room to appreciate to sumptuous visuals we are being treated too. The interior shots of the spa are soothingly poetic, often moving laterally as the camera slides from room to room to follow the boy who is looking for someone to play with. Rivers, dirt roads and practically empty rooms all come to life under Shimizu's refined and calm gaze that thends to prioritize people over events.
There are all sorts of interesting things going on in this film, and Shimizu is clearly an underappreciated master filmmaker. The next one of his you should look at is An Ornamental Hairpin.
ReplyDelete