The world of the samurai was not all about duels, wars and high diplomacy. During peace times, the samurai governed villages, maintaining law and order. On the backdrop of not exactly rosy-smelling urban refuse, a love story unfolds, illustrating the rift in the Japanese society towards the close of the Tokugawa family’s shogunate rule.
Perhaps every visitor to Japan has admired cutting-edge toilets with heated seats, showers, and music playing in the background at one point or another. The circumstances captured in Okiku and the World may well have been the source of this passion for toilets in Japanese culture.
The story of two bums who make their living selling urban refuse to farmers as fertiliser is set in a stark contrast with the refined manners and gentility of samurai’s daughter Okiku. The playfully minimalist film shows the complications that the rain brings to the village and the impact of the fathers’ deeds on their daughters. Only an arrogant and foolish person can believe they are somehow ‘cleaner’ than those who take care of their waste and transform it into crops. True purity dwells in the heart – not on the surface of the skin.
This film illustrates the natural circulation of resources. One person’s waste is another’s source for increasing produce. The director has chosen a black-and-white treatment, which is why the meaning of the saying ‘miso – kuso’ may continue to elude you...
An excellent fit for samurai roles, Koichi Sató plays the role of Okiku’s father. You may have seen him in one of the leading roles in When the Last Sword Is Drawn (Eigasai 2015).
festival awards
2023 Rotterdam International Film Festival
2023 Shanghai International Film Festival
2023 New York Asian Film Festival, Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award (for director Junji SAKAMOTO)
©2023 FANTASIA
