Map of the Human Heart

Saw Map of the Human Heart, a strange twisty film. Based on the title I was not going in with high hopes, but the film surprised me. It followed a half-white-half-Inuit boy who was taken from his tribe by an English cartographer to Canada in order to treat his (the boy's) tuberculosis. There the boy falls in some kind of pre-pubescent love with a half-indian girl. She has a heart condition and he steals her chest x-rays. The film is using unusual symbols here but the meaning, I think, is clear. From there we flash forward in time and spend most of the rest of the film on a love triangle between the protagonist, the girl, and the English cartographer.

The film had a strange, clumsy quality to it. Things just seemed to happen. The acting was flat and weirdly delicate. The film's symbols are laid out but not connected in a way I understood. We see many maps, anatomical diagrams, and that chest x-ray, folded like a butterfly. The characters struggle with societal and internal racism, their relationship colored by the girl's ability to pass for white and the protagonist's inability to do so. Lots going on. I think I may have missed some of the point of this film. At one point we see the cartographer's office. There's a manikin in a cupboard covered with maps. This suggests a far more whimsical or sinister film. Very strange.

The film comes off as kind of clumsy, like a made-for-TV movie. Everything is kind of obviously shown to us. A cruel nun is introduced shrilly teaching about hell, the protagonist boy is introduced giggling and smiling. Later the film becomes surprisingly complex, interweaving heavy concepts of race and identity and nationalism with a knotty plot that keeps unfolding. There's film-poetry flights of fancy and that weird acting.

I don't know what to make of this film. It was certainly unlike most other films I've seen but I don't know that I liked it. Very inconsistent but maybe worth a look. A rare curiosity.

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

Saw Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, sequel to "Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto". We now find the protagonist, Musashi, a great warrior. He's very skilled but, to ascend higher up the hierarchy of needs, he must develop his humanity. He has a reputation of vicious ruthlessness. To help him master his emotions, he encounters a courtesan and two female characters from the previous films. All of this is kind of set-dressing for the big fight scenes.

The fight scenes are soul of this film. We open with one and close with another. Character progression is shown when, in the second big fight, Musashi uses his wits to overcome his enemy and, ultimately, embraces compassion. The rest of the film is neat and complex, but I feel the fights are the real interest of the filmmakers.

There's also some weirdness with the courtesan. She lives in some compound surrounded by creepy identical little girls in red kimonos who speak in a mannered, falsetto voice, and robotically move about the place. They feel like they're form another, much stranger film and they've somehow broken into this one.

There's also a young samurai warrior who shows up. He spends most of his time bemusedly observing fights and making arch comments. In this way he acts as a sort of Greek chorus, pointing out the important bits and dropping plot when needed. Because he's so arch and knowledgeable, I expect he'll also inevitably be the final boss fight for our hero to become a true man/warrior/cool guy.