Taboo (Gohatto)
御法度
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A beautiful recruit destabilises the Shinsengumi — desire inside the samurai code.
Kyoto, 1865. The Shinsengumi, the shogunate's corps of swordsmen, is taking recruits. Two stand out: Sozaburo Kano, a beautiful boy from a rich family who says he is eighteen and gives even the corps' finest swordsman, Soji Okita, a hard fight, and Hyozo Tashiro, nearly his equal. Asked why he joined, Kano says he wants to try cutting a man. Ordered to behead a condemned member, he does it so cleanly that the vice-commander, Toshizo Hijikata, knows it is not his first killing. Alone among the men, Kano keeps the forelock of a boy who has not come of age.
Tashiro draws him into a love affair between men; at first Kano holds him off with a blade at his throat, but soon they are said to be lovers, and other men in the corps begin to court him. The commander, Isami Kondo, seems charmed. Hijikata, who guards discipline above everything, is troubled. A member named Yuzawa, who has slept with Kano and demanded he give Tashiro up, is found cut down, and Hijikata suspects a jealous rival. Kondo tells him to deal with Kano, meaning: teach him about women. Hijikata sends the inspector Yamazaki to take Kano to the Shimabara pleasure quarter, but Kano spends the night calling Yamazaki's name instead of going with the courtesan. Soon after, Yamazaki is attacked in the dark. The attacker drops a short sword, and it is Tashiro's.
Attacking a comrade is punishable by death, and Kondo has Kano kill Tashiro, with Hijikata and Okita watching from a distance on the riverbank at night. Tashiro shouts that Kano stole his sword to frame him; the attacker was Kano. Losing his footing, Kano whispers something to Tashiro, who falters, and Kano cuts him down. On the way back Okita says he has something left to do and turns back, and Hijikata understands that Kano had set out to seduce Okita, not the other way round. Kano's voice calls Okita's name and is cut off by Okita's sword. Hijikata calls the boy a monster and slashes through a cherry tree in early bloom.
Starring
Takeshi Kitanoas Toshizo Hijikata
The Shinsengumi's vice-commander, who guards its discipline and watches the beautiful recruit unsettle his men.
Toshizo Hijikata’s story
Hijikata admits Kano and Tashiro, saying the corps exists to cut down whoever stands against it, then watches the talk of love between men spread through his ranks. He complains to Kondo, who only seems charmed by the boy, and to Okita, who laughs that Hijikata is the king of the madmen. When Yuzawa is found cut down, he suspects a jealous rival. Told by Kondo to deal with Kano, he pays Yamazaki out of his own pocket to take the boy to Shimabara. When the short sword dropped by Yamazaki's attacker proves to be Tashiro's, he reluctantly accepts that Kano must kill Tashiro, and watches from the riverbank. Seeing Okita turn back, he understands that it was Kano who had been seducing Okita. He calls the boy a monster and slashes a cherry tree in early bloom.
Ryuhei Matsudaas Sozaburo Kano
A beautiful, gifted recruit from a rich family, who joins because he wants to kill and draws the desire of the men around him.
Sozaburo Kano’s story
Kano, who says he is eighteen, keeps his boy's forelock, saying he has made a vow, and the clean way he beheads a condemned member tells Hijikata it is not his first killing. When Tashiro first comes to him at night, he holds a blade to his throat; soon they are said to be lovers, and other men court him. Yuzawa, who sleeps with him and demands he give Tashiro up, is found cut down. Taken to Shimabara, he spends the night calling Yamazaki's name. Then Yamazaki is attacked, and the short sword left behind is Tashiro's. Ordered to kill Tashiro, Kano faces him on the riverbank while Tashiro shouts that he was framed, whispers something that makes him falter, and cuts him down. When Okita comes back alone, Kano calls his name, and Okita cuts him down.
Shinji Takedaas Soji Okita
The corps' finest swordsman, gentle and sharp-eyed, who says he dislikes the love affairs among the men.
Soji Okita’s story
Okita is fond of children and in poor health, and at the entrance trial Kano gives him a hard fight. Asked by Hijikata what he thinks of the love affairs among the men, he says flatly that he dislikes the fashion, and laughs that Hijikata is the king of the madmen. He tells a lie to cover for old Inoue, and when Inoue sets out with Kano to face two swordsmen, he wakes Hijikata and leads the men who cut the two down. Watching Kano kill Tashiro on the riverbank, he tells Hijikata the story of the Chrysanthemum Vow, a pledge between two men, and wonders aloud whether it is about Hijikata and Kondo. On the way back he says he has something left to do and turns back alone. When Kano calls his name, he cuts him down.
Tadanobu Asanoas Hyozo Tashiro
A recruit who joins alongside Kano, nearly his equal with a sword, and draws him into a love affair between men.
Yoichi Saias Isami Kondo
The commander of the Shinsengumi, who seems taken with Kano and in the end orders him to kill Tashiro.
Masa Tomiizuas Susumu Yamazaki
An inspector told to take Kano to the Shimabara pleasure quarter, who is attacked in the dark soon afterwards.
Why it matters
Taboo looks at desire between men inside an institution built on discipline, and at what such an institution does with a feeling it cannot order away. Nagisa Oshima's first film in thirteen years, and his last, it drew on stories by Ryotaro Shiba, and a letter Isami Kondo wrote in 1864 records that love between men was in fashion in the corps. What unsettles is the way each man who looks at Kano sees his own wanting in him and then blames the boy for it; the word Hijikata finds at the end is monster. It is also about a young man who learns early that being desired is a kind of power, and uses it to frame the first man who wanted him. The film is less interested in condemning the desire than in watching a brotherhood of killers that can tolerate almost anything except what its members feel for one another.