"Yukio Mishima vs Todai-kun" is not only a documentary that Yukio Mishima fans can't miss, but also a must-see list for those who love philosophical speculation.
On May 13, 1969, Yukio Mishima went alone to attend a "Legendary Debate" held at Lecture Hall 900 on higashi-dai Komagome Campus, where he held a public debate with thousands of members of the "Higashi-Dai-kyo".
The documentary revolves around this debate, not only restoring the scene images of that year in detail, but also interspersed with historical background supplements and interviewing relevant people who participated in the debate that year.
That "debate of legends" profoundly embodied many propositions that deserve to be dialectical. Yukio Mishima, who is also a supporter of emperorism, and members of the leftist movement and the radical Todai Kwan, in a situation where their positions and ideas are very different, they deliver a shocking debate.
The meeting touched on the complex and intractable questions of nature and human beings, the history of time and space, the interpretation of the "emperor", and, above all, the power of "language". And under each back and forth confrontation, there is also an incomparable spark, which is breathtaking. Next, I would like to share with you a few wonderful conversations in the film that made me think personally after watching it.
The conversation between All-Fighting member Masahiko Isabi and Yukio Mishima is, in my opinion, the most exciting, especially when Masahiko Wasabi and Yukio Mishima talk about time and space. Yukio Mishima believes that history is accumulated precisely because of the continuity of time, but Masahiko Wasabi rejects such a concept.
He believed that space was the key to making history, and he used the example of "liberated areas" to illustrate: "The liberated areas have practiced the most primitive state of man."
Because the emergence of space is closely related to people, coupled with the actual actions of people in this space, it reflects the importance of the liberated areas as a kind of field and space, thus creating history. Masahiko Wasabi has always believed that "cognition and action are dualistic opposites", and after comparing this with Yukio Mishima's statement that "thinking is a liberated area", two distinct understandings of history and interpretations of time and space have emerged.
The German philosopher Walter Benjamin's "Messianic time" pessimistically negates the idea that history will continue to progress with time. In his essay "Outlines of the Philosophy of History," he interprets the Painting angelus novus by the Swiss-German artist Paul Klee:
"Paul Klee's The New Angel depicts an angel who seems to be leaving from something he is preoccupied with... And the ruins and broken walls in front of him were piled higher and higher into the sky. This storm is what we call progress."
Banjamin constantly questions the progressive view of history that moves forward linearly, so Messianic time is like a rupture and pause in linear history. When we seem to be progressing towards the historical future, the angels with our faces facing the past, but in the broken walls of the past, we really see a complex person.
But does history have the continuity of time? Returning to the discussion between Yukio Mishima and Masahiko Wasabi, Yukio Mishima questioned Masahiko Wasabi's argument, if the Liberated Areas could not be maintained for a long time, what was the point?
However, if we think about Masahiko Wasabi's words again, we can see that he is trying to use the space of the Liberated Zone to liberate mankind from an overly single view of time and deny time.
Masahiko's thoughts may have been closer to Benjamin's, and he was more concerned with each moment that occurred than with the continuation of a long collective time. On the other hand, Yukio Mishima believes that whether it is the Liberated Areas or any event, it immediately becomes a piece of history, and the continuous occurrence and accumulation of history can become history.
Obviously, we still can't be sure which of the two is more correct, but their conversation is certainly meaningful. We may be able to rethink whether there is another possibility of seeing the history of horizontal space in the history of vertical time?!
In fact, there are many discussions in this debate, which may be able to answer many questions in our hearts, in fact, in my opinion, sometimes the complexity is not people, but the human heart, and it is precisely because of the complexity of the human heart that the problem is complicated.
This film may only have a personal experience if you watch it yourself.
Thank you for watching, paying attention to me, and learning more about it.