Review: The Blessing Bell (Kofuku no Kane)

By kevin on October 15, 2006 at 11:06am EDT

The Blessing Bell may take fans of Sabu’s other directorial work by surprise. It’s not completely unlike some of his other films thematically or stylistically but the pacing definitely is. This film is extremely slow and methodical. We get a preview of what we’re in for right from the start when we’re presented with 8 full minutes of Susumu Terajima walking. That isn’t a just an oddity presented specifically for the title sequence, it’s a glimpse of what’s to come for the rest of the movie. If you’re not a patient person you may want to skip this one or you may just end up shutting it off early. However, those that stick around for the duration will ultimately be rewarded with an occasionally-absurd, yet completely quaint story which delivers a simple message that really resonates.

Igarashi (Terajima) is a blue collar worker who arrives at the factory he works at one morning to find it’s been closed down and he no longer has a job. Instead of staying there with the other workers he begins walking through the industrial park, eventually coming to a Tokyo bus. He stares at it for a while and the next we see of him he’s wandering aimlessly around Tokyo. When he stops to sit down on the edge of a grassy hill overlooking a nearby river a yakuza starts talking to him. After the yakuza is done talking about all the regrets he has in his life he slumps over dead with a knife protruding from his stomach. Just then a bicycle cop happens upon the scene and, noticing the recently stabbed corpse, he arrests Igarashi on the spot.

While waiting in a jail for the police to sort out the details of what actually happened Igarashi’s blood-spattered cellmate begins explaining how he was arrested for killing the man his wife was cheating on him with. He goes on to mention that his only regret is that he didn’t kill his wife instead because chances are she’d be with some other guy by now. When Igarashi is finally released from jail he decides to head over to the bar where the prisoner’s wife works, apparently intrigued by the man’s story. When he arrives he sees the woman completely drunk and trying to pick up another guy while mocking her imprisoned husband. He casually decides to settle the score with the help of a nearby potted plant.

After some more wandering around the city Igarashi sees a building on fire with a crowd of people outside waiting for help to arrive. When he catches the gaze of a despondent mother reduced to tears he makes the decision to go inside and rescue her children. When next we see him he’s getting a certificate from the local police department for bravery during a time of crisis. The rest of the film continues on much like this. Igarashi meets more unique people, both good intentioned and bad. He listens to their problems and wanders into even more unlikely situations. He gets hit by a car, talks to a ghost, wins the lottery, gets robbed of his winnings, witnesses a suicide, and falls in a ditch amongst other things.

Throughout all his crazy encounters and several odd chains of events Igarashi unwittingly walks into he doesn’t utter a single word. In this way he becomes the eyes and ears of the audience, listening to people’s stories and witnessing all the things people are capable of when they feel like they’re pushed into a corner. In the end The Blessing Bell is a beautifully woven tale about appreciating the little things in life when faced with adversity and not overlooking the things that are truly important. Igarashi comes away from all his experiences with a new perspective on life and that perspective is simultaneously transferred to the audience that took the journey with him.

There probably couldn’t have been a better choice for the lead role in The Blessing Bell than Susumu Terajima. He has an intense presence that’s both empathetic and non-judgmental and that becomes a pretty indispensable trait when playing a character that doesn’t speak. Through Terajima’s silent narrative and subtle wit he almost single-handedly rescues this film from seeming pretentious in its lack of a traditional—or even believable—storyline and instead brings the most absurd scenes across in an engaging way with all the intended humor left intact. Up until the very last scenes of the film we still know nothing about him but just want things to work out well for him in some way. Instead of just wishing the movie would be done with already out of the sheer boredom created by the slow pacing, I had built up enough interest in Igarashi that I wanted to find out how his trip would end. And given all that had happened to him up to that point, it couldn’t have had a more perfect conclusion.