GOHATTO

Chairunnisa Adelia Meisie 13WJC13

Gohatto is telling one of my interest, gay relationship among men. I
have seen Ooku that has similar feeling with Gohatto because they
have the same set of samurai era. Rather than Ooku, Gohatto seems
to be more focusing about the love among men. It felt unrealistic if
we think about it with nowadays logic, but since it is a common
practice back then, maybe this movie is quite realistic. First of all, it
was militia set, which kind of practice might be common back then
but killing each other for love affair is still irrational. The ending
leaves so many questions as no exact ending to be told, and only a
piece of dialog with cutting the Sakura tree into two. Our
assumption there are four kinds of ending possibilities with that
scene.
What I noted the most from this movie is the usage of sephia colors
during the beginning and it started to become more normal as the
movie plays. As this movie basically have the feeling of diary of
Hijikata (as his words and thoughts always appear in every
important scene; moreover it indicates me as the last person on
shot was Hijikata), in my opinion, it indicates that the more sephia
colored this movie, the older the memory was. Probably less
accurate, since it was based on rumor or told by other people.
Nagisa Oshima uses lots of slide transition that push from one scene
to another scene. Sometimes I get the feeling that the transition
means a keychain of an events, or that one scene is supporting or
related to the previous scene. He doesnt use this kind of transition
when the scenes are just not related, or he simply ends it with
Hijikatas words.
I also notice that there are lots of red wallpaper with flower motives
or cranes that emphasize the old Japanese feeling in this movie.
But I can't understand the changing set during the chasing in river.
When Inoue fell off from the ladder and he wasnt wet at all. It is
quite weird since the two guys escaped from the same place soaked
the pants when jumping from the inn. Moreover, in this scene the
river simply dried out. I dont know whether they film it in different
day or it was made on purpose, but this is just weird. As if it took the
militia a really long time to catch on with the criminal. Furthermore, I
always notice the sword to be on the frame every time the senior

militia talking with the junior militia. I dont whether this sword just
be the set or it indicates that the person talking has higher rank in
militia. I assume its the second one, since it gives emphasize for
who has the higher rank in the conversation.