Conflagration(RTRFH 2022)

Ichikawa's first widescreen feature is an adaptation of Yukio Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, which is loosely based on the real-life event of the burning of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) by Zen acolyte Yoken Hayashi in 1950. Mizoguchi, a high-school student who stutters, is taken in by a Zen abbot, a friend of his late father who was himself a monk, to stay and become an acolyte at the Shukaku Temple, whose beauty has long captured his imagination. However, he is resentful to the abbot who runs the temple in ways questionable. With the latest Daieiscope process, Ichikawa worked with photographer Miyagawa to create the world of violence and beauty portrayed in Mishima's novel, highlighting the characters' loneliness and obsession in the negative Zen space created with the simple and clean black-and-white widescreen framing.

*Due to the missing of the 35mm original camera negative, the image and sound of this 4K digital restoration were scanned from the 35mm interpositive, with four absent frames in Reel 6 from a print preserved by National Film Archive of Japan.

Director: Kon Ichikawa
Cast: Raizo Ichikawa,Nakamura Ganjiro II,Tatsuya Nakadai

Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008)
Born in Mie Prefecture, Japan, Ichikawa began his career as an animator at J.O. Studio. He went on to work as an assistant director and became film director in 1947 at Shintoho, with nearly a hundred films in various genres under his belt.

^Pre-screening Introduction