I loved the cinematography techniques they used, it must have been a revolution in early 70's Japanese cinema. But the film was too long and boring. Its a good thing that they picked a taboo subject, otherwise no one would bother watching walls, trees and the buddha statues for 2,5 hours. I watched the first 2 hours and i'm not impressed by the message they were trying to give either. I feel like they wanted to use Marquis de sade's technique, he set very extremist examples of immortality in his books, in order to break the taboos of society which were less extreme like women's right to have sexual intercourse before marriage. I don't know why but his incestious relationship didnt seem very realistic/impressive either.

This Transient Life (Mujo) is, on the surface, a sordid tale about the interaction between incest, immorality and Buddhism. Dig a little deeper and that's exactly what it continues to turn out to be. The lead character is Masao, a young man who shuns the path laid down by his rich father to take over his trading business, instead we see him idolise Buddhist sculpture and spend his days laconically with prostitutes and reading books. His sister Yuri similarly lives how she chooses having turned down two marriage proposals preferring to be close to home and the local monastery. When a playful scene between Yuri and Masao turns into a lustful embrace, the siblings' bond becomes sexual rather than familial and this sets the tone for the rest of the film.

When the monk Ogino discovers their secret, he urges Masao to leave the village and he does so to become the apprentice of a master sculpture of icons of the Buddha. Throughout the film, Buddhism shows us that life fades quickly and existential questions of how to live ones life are asked. Should one be pure and live by the codes set by religion, or should those very teachings, of the impermanence of life and its swift passing, be a reason to create ones own morality and fear no hell and covet no afterlife?

Director Jissoji Akio develops these stories masterfully with constantly shifting camera movements (Ozu he is not) and angles that would make Orson Welles brim with admiration. The expressive film language ranges from pendulum-like tracking shots to extreme close- ups reminding us of the film's arts roots. The film is stunningly crisp and beautifully shot and it is this style that carries the viewer into the heart of the story's conclusion. At times surreal, always spellbinding, this film deserves to be among the pantheon of the greats of 60's and 70's Japanese cinema.

Don't you just love movies where a personification of the director or writer monologues with no opposition for twenty minutes and people for some reason call it "controversial debate"? I sure do. But more than that I like when the plot bends in favor of that borderline self-insert, at the expense of making every single character in the movie seem completely unrealistic, because when everyone around you is an immoral pathetic pervert or a doormat, who only exist to satisfy basic desires your words will sure have more weight, even if the gist of these words is "dude there is no heaven and that means no hell because I said so, that means no one's life but mine matters, if I want something I'll just do it, it's my desire and nothing else matters, since there is no one to judge me in the end, that's why I will bring Sodom wherever I go and this script will in fact let me do just that and that's why I'm right". And that's a good take away from this film.

As you probably have guessed I completely disagree with the nihilistic masturbation presented in this movie, and especially this type of storytelling where the only thing that can respond to a preacher is his echo, not because he's right but because the opposing side of this pseudo-debate just spills spaghetti and in literal terror backs away from him. Other than that, you should in fact watch this film and make your own judgment. The movie has a very good shot composition and it's very interesting to watch. Despite the fact that not much happens if you consider the run time. Although, if you hate the sound of someone raping the violin like I am, lower the volume, there is lot of this in the Tmasturbathis Transient Life.