STORY
奈良県斑鳩町にある集合墓地。夏のお墓参りにたくさんの人が集っている。撮影隊は人々にマイクを向けてインタビューを試みる。尋ねているのは墓地に建つ住居のこと。そしてかつて住居に暮らしていたとされる僧侶のこと。人々の証言が続いていく。住居の隣にはお寺があったらしい。名前は極楽寺。「もう亡くなりはったんと違いますか」僧侶はすでに亡くなったようだ。しかしインタビューを続けるうちに「まだ生きてはる」と話す人が現れて。
実在した人物の足跡を追うドキュメンタリー。「字幕」「ナレーション」など説明的な技法を使わずに、人々の証言のみで構成。揺れ動く人物像の先に「記憶」「生死」「村社会」などが浮き彫りになっていく。
時にあけっぴろげに、時にふくみを持つ、関西人特有の語り口も魅力のひとつだ。
Gokurakuji, moeta
Here is a cemetery in Ikaruga in Nara.
Many people are visiting to their family’s graves.
The staff of filming try to ask them about the house built in the cemetery and a priest who might have lived in the house.
Each statement of those people continues.
They say that there would be a temple next to the house, which was named “Gokurakuji.”
“He might have passed away.” According to them, the priest would have departed.
However, the staff find a person who says “he is still alive.”
This is a documentary film about an actual but mysterious person.
It consists of only statements of people without any descriptive techniques such as “subtitles” or “narration.”
Beyond the unstable character of the priest, “memory,” “life and death” and “village society” would be brought out clearly.
People from Kansai including Ikaruga in this film tend to talk sometimes openly, but sometimes suggestively.
Such way of telling a story is one of the fascinations of this film.
