Thoughts on the film: Hoichi the Earless
Please indulge me as I set the background for the content of this blog in regards to the short film, Hoichi the Earless:

A Japanese narrator sings the story of the last battle between two clans. The losing clan had an infant emperor. His caretaker sings a line, “though I am only a woman, I will not let them kill the emperor, I will escort him to the next land”, and she jumps into the sea holding the child. Those who fought for the clan followed the emperor to his death.

The main body of the story unfolds as a young, blind orator named Hoichi is visited by a warrior spirit. The spirit asked Hoichi to retell the last battle story to an assembly. The young man complies; he is blind and unaware of the identity of this spirit. Slowly we see this young musician’s strength and life drain from his face as every night he is required to retell this emotional story. He seems to be half in this world and half absorbed elsewhere. Finally we are allowed to see where Hoichi is taken every night. At first we see an assembly of high officials requesting the story of the last battle. It is his visual idea of his surroundings. As he begins to sing the story we can see his mental picture change into the last battle scene. The man is so involved in his chant. It is complex, like remembering history and the passion of the clan as they took their own lives. You could see that he needed to tell the story; he knew the battle as well as anyone who had been there. He was blessed with the ability to see beyond a time and place, though his sight was gone, his imagination was vivid. His need to sing the song was as moving as the story of the battle itself. Then we realize that the Hoichi is actually in a cemetery and the assembly is composed of the clan’s spirits, longing to remember their last days. When his caretakers find Hoichi, he is overwhelmed in layers of his imagined worlds. It seemed like sleepwalking and how it can be dangerous to wake someone from their mental place. All the others can see is a cemetery and a man who may be crazy or possessed.

Hoichi is taken home and is painted with Holy Scripture so that the spirit could not find him (as the scripture makes him invisible). Having forgotten to paint his ears, the spirit sees him and decides to take the ears back to the emperor. Hoichi is left, without ears and without sight. People from all over heard about the events and wanted to hear the stories that so overwhelmed both the spirits and the storyteller. When asked he says that he will play the stories forever, he has to; he will play for the spirits so they can always hear.

The movie seemed to be about the creative life of an individual. It was about the ability to see beyond this world and believe in the reality and necessity of that vision. His vision of the story was so full and clear that he realized how much the spirits had gone through, how much they needed to hear and be remembered. He was a part of something he never literally witnessed. Though retelling and reliving the story of these events was killing this young man, he had to do it. Even after his ears were ripped off, he felt the need to continue his task. I wish we could believe in the power of our imaginations. Our minds should be capable of building a world so completely that we no longer question the validity of our stories. It’s like Henry Darger and the worlds he created. He had a belief in his world and an amazing need to makes these places materialize in some way. But this is to close to madness. It is the balance between belief in imagination and its place in reality that creates beautiful stories.