SARABA HAKOBUNE(Farewell to the Ark)
Color / Vista / 1983 / 127min./ Gekidan Himawari = Jinriki Hikoki-sha = ATG

TERAYAMA Shuji died in 1983. "Farewell to the Ark" was not released until over a year after his death.

TERAYAMA first became known as a writer of TANKA (Japanese verse in 31 syllables), when he was still a young man. He branched out into drama, criticism, and fiction, and in 1967 he established his own theater company, called "TENJO SAJIKI." He thus played an important role in the flowering of the experimental theater in Japan in this period. At the same time, he produced such experimental films as "The Emperor Tomato Ketchup" (TOMATO KECHAPPU KOTEI) 1970, and wrote scenarios for #The Inferno of First Love" (HATSUKOI JIGOKU-HEN) 1968, directed by HANI Susumu, "Third" (SAADO) 1978, directed by HIGASHI Yoichi, and other films. In 1971, with "Throw Away Your Books, Let's Go into the Streets" (SHO O SUTEYO, MACHI E DEYO), he made his debut as a commercial feature-film director. He continued to draw on his experience in experimental film, poetically mixing illusion and reality; "Pastoral Hide and Seek" (DEN'EN NI SHISU) 1974 is one good example.

In "Farewell to the Ark," he telescopes 100 years of time into the events of his imaginary village. The family that tries to control time by collecting clocks, the strange pit in the field, the husband and wife putting labels on everything around them, the girl whose associates are all destined to die: these are typical of TERAYAMA's symbolic vision.
(Kinema jumpo #5)