Introduction

While very few Japanese know director Umetsugu Inoue, many will remember Yujiro Ishihara. Little did he know that he, after withdrawing from Keio University to play the lead in Kō Nakahira’s celebrated film adaptation of his older brother’s novel Crazed Fruit, he would slowly cement himself as Showa-icon, to be remembered long after his death. One of the movies that helped launch him as singer and actor – and catapulted into stardom, was none other than Inoue’s Man Who Causes A Storm. Yet, does this musical film retain its power to charm and engage the spectator after so many years?  

Review

Ever since the rise of consumerism and capitalism in post-war Japan, Tokyo has known a wild multiplication of neon lights and entertainment businesses. More and more people seek fun and pleasure and, more and more, jobs appear to please these hungry customers. Yet, what such rise in the thirst for pleasure and consumption leads truly leads to is a new societal field marked by hopeful dreams, vicious competition, crude conflict and supported by the claws of organized crime. Of course, the conflictual field of desire also blossoms within this cutthroat entertainment industry.

One night, during one of the Six Jokers’ performances, the band’s manager Miya Fukushima (Mie Kitahara) is approached by Eiji Kokubu (Kyoji Aoyama) to ask if she can consider giving his brother Shoichi (Yujiro Ishihara), who is a good drummer and singer, a job. When, not much later, the main attraction of the band, the highly popular drummer Charlie Sakurada (Toshio Oida), does not show up for a performance, she takes her chance and asks Shoichi to replace him.

Man Who Causes A Storm is a musical melodrama that does not only explore the world of Japanese Jazz and the role organized crime played in the rise of entertainment in the post-war Japanese society, but also illustrates how love and desire is the ultimate mainspring of conflict, criminal intervention, interpersonal manipulation, and betrayal. Given the emphasis in the narrative on desire and love, it is not surprising that the story unfolds via a multitude of interlocking conflicts.

The conflict that is first introduced in Man Who Causes A Storm is the one between Miya Fukushima and her big-headed drummer Charlie. His popularity does not merely fuel his thirst for wealth – he wants to get a higher salary, but strengthens his phantasmatic belief in his desirability for the Other and thus his irreplaceability. While Miya, his manager and lover, understands his importance for the band, she is unwilling to fulfill his quite outrageous wishes.     

Charlie’s conceited stance, of course, creates discord between him and the other members of the band. He considers the others but mere supports for his stardom – merely objects to allow himself and his desirability shine for the female Other (Narra-note 1, narra-note 2). Rather than being a cog within the musical machine, he considers himself the diamond that needs to sparkle upon the pedestal the others create with their jazzy tunes.  

The second conflict and the main one is between Charlie and Shoichi. This conflict, which is phallic in nature is played out on two levels: romance and drumming.  The source of their conflict is a shared assumption of possessing what the Other desires. This phantasmatic assumption speaks through their acts and signifiers towards Mary Oka (Mari Shiraki), as well as towards each other.

Shoichi’s belief in his desirability is, first, signalled by the trouble he keeps causing and the myriad of fights he instigates (Narra-note 3). While the source of this hot-headedness remains somewhat vague in the beginning of the narrative, it is obvious that these acting-acts are an attempt to prove his desirability and to combat the mother’s disapproving gaze. His violent escapades of masculinity are but a mere response to the ‘castrating’ stance of his mother – you are a failure, you are just like your troublemaking and womanizing father. His continued passion for drumming is driven by the need to prove his mother wrong. Yet, while fame as a drummer change his mother’s stance towards him?

Thanks to the televised intervention of critic and editor Sakio Tooru (Nobuo Kaneko), the stage is literally and figuratively set for Charlie and Shoichi to ‘drum’ out who, within the field of subjective fantasy, truly possesses what Other desires. As so much is at stake – i.e. phallic ego, fame and money, it is not unlikely that underhanded tactics will be employed to force the pleasure-seeking audience to support one’s self-satisfying position of desirability. Of course, within such highly competitive and mediatized field, every move to ensure one’s artistic dominance can also lead to one’s demise and the evaporation of one’s position of desirability for the Other. 

The composition of Man Who Caused A Storm is a fairly static affair. Inoue mainly relies on the static shot to bring the myriad of conversations to life and to establish the setting of a given scene. The various instances of slow dynamic movement, on the other hand, are utilized for a three functions: to shift the focus from one character to another within a certain narrative space, to slowly introduce the space itself, and to follow, for a fleeting instance, a character.

The influence of the American occupation on the Japanese post-war societal fabric is evident in the visuals. It permeates every visual element, from dress-codes to hairdos. The myriad of neon-lit places of pleasure and consumption that blossom in Tokyo aim to replicate, beyond any doubt, the American cultural style. This style, as characterized by inviting and sparkling neon-lights and an enticing flair of Western modernism that marks both exteriors and interiors, aims to seduce the Japanese subject into subscribing to the joyous cycle of pleasure and consumption.  

Man Who causes A Storm does not merely offer the spectator lots of jazz music, but succeeds in enclosing these musical moments in a rather intricate and emotional exploration of the destructive effect the interaction of desire, organized crime, and fame can have. Inoue’s rags-to-riches narrative might not escape the territory of predictability, but he puts enough thematical meat on the table so that the spectator, in full knowlegde of how the narrative will unfold, still comes away fully satisfied.  

Notes

Narra-note 1: Charlie’s mistaken belief in his phallic desirability allows Mochinaga (Toshiyuki Ichimura), a rival manager, to steal him away from the band. His intoxication with his imaginary phallic position, furthermore, underpins the ease by which he leaves his manager and lover Miya for dancer Mary.

Narra-note 2: While it is not stated explicitly, the spectator can still easily surmise that Charlie’s sudden surge in phallic arrogance is due to careful manipulation by reporter and critic Sakio Tooru. The reason for this manipulation is simple: he desires Miya.

Shoichi smartly exploits this desire to further his career and manipulate Sakio into catapulting him into stardom.

Narra-note 3: Eiji Kokubu, Shoichi’s younger brother, is marked by a desire to create music about the pursuit of dreams in the entertainment industry and the release of one’s sublimated libido for the other’s enjoyment on the stage. It should be evident that his infatuation with this dynamic also underpins his decision to approach Miya to recommend her his talented brother.