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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.
I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.
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title: 立喰師、かく語りき。
(Thus Spoke Tachiguishi)
release: 04/30/2006
publisher: Tokuma Shoten
[contents]
interview with Toshio Suzuki and Mamoru Oshii
Oshii explains each tachiguishi
Oshii's essay about character-making
history of the Tachiguishi universe
history of Tachiguishi characters
It's Time to Summarize Showa History: interview with Mamoru Oshii
interviews with Masaki Yamada, Shoji Kawamori, Kenji Kawai, Shinji Higuchi, Katsuya Terada, Kenji Kamiyama
Why Did the Fire of Revolution Go Out?: interview with Kiyoshi Kasai and Mamoru Oshii
Even If the Whole World Is Our Enemy: interview with Tou Ubukata and Mamoru Oshii
Q & A with Mamoru Oshii
[review]
I'm not sure how many people have watched Tachiguishi Retsuden, so let me explain the film itself first.
Tachiguishi Retsuden is Oshii's feature film. It's not a live-action nor anime. It is officially called "super live-animation". Oshii took pictures of his friends or acquaintances and animated them by computer. It's like paper puppet play. Oshii and Tetsuya Nishio already tried computer-generated paper puppets in Minipato, so he utilized that system in this film.
The story is set in a parallel history. After Japan's utter defeat in WW2, weird fast food grifters called "tachiguishi" appeared. They used unique talking skills and eccentric behaviors to eat without paying. Oshii used that idea from his early days in Tatsunoko. The film was released in 2006, but Oshii developed the Tachiguishi video series project before 1990.
The story is told from a perspective of a nonfiction writer. The writer analyzes an essay written by a crazy academician called Kiichi Inukai. Inukai argued the importance of tachiguishi in the folklore society, but he was ignored by other researchers. The writer critically analyzes Inukai's argument and tachiguishi's history. To sum it up, Tachiguishi Retsuden is a fake documentary film.
Oshii fully used his humor and gag style in this film. As some Oshii fans already know, Oshii is good at comedy. Some people grin during the film, but other people/ the majority of the audience fall asleep. Tachiguishi Retsuden is that kind of film.
This film also has a serious message. Oshii put nostalgia and criticism about the Showa era, especially about its "ideological side", into the film. The characters are professional grifters, but some of them are metaphors of left activists/ideologues.
Finally, we came to the main topic. In this book, Oshii talks about the inspiration sources for those tachiguishi. In other words, Oshii talks about the new-left movement and the Showa history.
For example, Oshii talks about Ginji and Ogin like this:
O: I put Senchu-ha/wartime writers' image into Ginji. He is similar to the post-war intellectuals in "Arechi" magazine.
- Like Takaaki Yoshimoto?
O: Right. Takaaki Yoshimoto, Ryuichi Tamura, Gan Tanikawa... They were a sort of pioneers to our generation. They had a sense of failure from the beginning.
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- the narrator said Ginji's activity was "enlightenment".
O: Actually, our generation hated that word. I despised "enlightenment" when I was in the high school movement. In the post-war context, it meant the Communist Party's indoctrination of the working class. They arrogantly tried to enlighten the ignorant masses. However, it originally meant something different. I showed the original meaning in this film.
There is no other good word for that concept. It is different from "propaganda". I put the "propaganda" theme into Ogin's chapter. Ginji's enlightenment and Ogin's propaganda are deeply connected.
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- If Ogin was alive, she would be the same age as Isao Takahata.
O: Yeah, she is from that generation. The people who believed in propaganda... Well, those oldtimers are doing propaganda even today. Propaganda means... how should I explain? Propaganda was useful until some point. Even '60s Zengakuren was just doing propaganda. It was not an armed struggle like they said.
Propaganda suddenly lost its power after 1960, but even '70s Zenkyoto did the same thing. I came to hate it during high school and college life.
- Were you not interested in the Communist Party?
O: No, I have consistently hated them.
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O: Inumaru has to deny his identity as a tachiguishi.
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O: He has to deny himself because his philosophy doesn't have a real basis. When he tries to be true to tachiguishi's thesis, he falls into self-destruction. Inumaru symbolizes that kind of thing.
(In another chapter, Oshii says Inumaru is similar to Oshii himself.)
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Tachiguishi Retsuden's core theme is tachiguishi's self-destruction from 1964 to 1970. Tachiguishi's story ends there.
(Oshii says, he remembers nothing about the world from the 1980s to the 1990s, except for Gulf War.)
In another chapter, he talks with Kiyoshi Kasai and tells his thoughts on the new-left experience. Both Oshii and Kasai share the same type of high school experience. They were both at the bottom of the classes, so they dreamed of total destruction by civil war. Personal depression and ideology were deeply connected. It's like the "egg first or chicken first" problem.
They also talk about conflicts between sect groups and non-sect people. Oshii belonged to the so-called "black-helmet"/ non-sect group, so the sect groups often criticized him. Sect group's power was needed to organize the protest, but Oshii didn't like those groups. That kind of story was depicted in Oshii's novel called "Night of the Beasts".
