“Kyoko House”: Inside Yukio Mishima

The plot promises a romantic story in the spirit of “The Dreamers” by Bernardo Bertolucci – a conspiracy of youth against boring reality. Beauty Kyoko runs something like a secular salon. Four young people regularly come to her to conduct idle conversations – an actor, an artist, a boxer, an office clerk. In the second half of the 1950s. Japan has already recovered from the catastrophe of World War II, young people have some kind of career prospects and time for idleness. But all the heroes are unhappy with what is around. They boyishly reject authority and convention. Well, they have the right – who at the age of 20-25 was not a maximalist?

But already the first chapter evaporates all romantic expectations. Yes, they are young – but boring, empty, obsessed with themselves and their appearance. Their protest is a consequence of narcissism and past traumas. Tokyo rebuilt, and inside the poor fellows are still smoldering ruins. A semblance of stability and some prosperity only feed the longing for the apocalypse. The very first episode – the heroes go on a picnic outside the city, but without the slightest enthusiasm. Do you need to kill time somehow? And the views of the revived spring nature are not able to drive away their satiated boredom. “What does the sea smell like?” Kyoko will ask one of her companions. “Urine,” he replies calmly.