THE HOUSE OF HIMIKO (Mezon do himiko) (2005) (Japan) (Isshin Inudou) (Language: Japanese) (Subtitles: English .srt file)
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" The elegant Auntie of
Tokyo, cashes in 'her'
club and opens a
retirement home on
the sea for gay
gentlemen . . and that
is just the beginning
of the story . ."
In the film, Min Tanaka plays Himiko, a terminally ill gay man, and the founder of the titular gay seniors home Maison de Himiko. According to producer Osamu Kubota - quoted here - "the inspiration for the film's story came from his having read an Asahi newspaper article on the Home for Golden Gays, a gay seniors home founded in Manila by Justo C. Justo."
Maison de Himiko takes a highly novel point-of-view on the issue of a burgeoning aging Japanese population by centering its story around a retirement home for elderly gay gentlemen. Directed by Isshin Inudo (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish), who is one of those quality directors deeply respected in Japan but all but unknown in these parts, it manages the increasingly rare feat of being a mainstream tragicomedy that refuses to resort to quick and easy sentimentality. Saori (Shibasaki) is a young woman who seems to have given up on self-esteem. She is permanently short of cash, screws around with the boss at her part-time job, and spends her lunch breaks leafing through recruitment ads for phone sex workers. One day, handsome Haruhiko (Odagiri) shows up at her workplace, with a peculiar job offer: to come work part time as a maid at the retirement home where her estranged father (Tanaka) is spending his final days. The old man is dying and mostly bedridden. The pay offered is exceptionally good for a part-time position but the prospect puts her off; Saori has never forgiven her father for running out on her mother. That he has been openly gay, going under the name of Himiko while running one of the most popular gay establishments of his time and the fact that this dashing young man of her own age is her father's lover only adds insult to injury.
The themes of Maison de Himiko run, as themes tend to do, deeper than the subject of homosexuality alone. The titular retirement home is in many ways an enclave, a safe haven within society at large, where people are allowed to be themselves without fear of judgment or exclusion. Here, the need for tatemae, the public face, has disappeared. Despite her resistance, Saori is to all intents and purposes right at home there, since she too refuses to hide her disillusionment and anger from the real world. Her obstinate behavior and her refusal to look cute and act proper set her apart from her colleagues at her day job. But where she allows her grudges to isolate her, the inhabitants of the maison refuse to be hemmed in. The film derives much of its power from this investigation into human facades and their purpose. Saori hates her father for abandoning her mother, but fails to take his feelings into account. However, she comes to realize that the bond between her parents was more complex and tighter than she thought, even after their separation, and that it showed an ability to accept and forgive that she never even imagined possible.
Concurrently, Maison de Himiko also views its characters and their choices in life with acceptance and tolerance. It is not free of gay stereotypes, with two of the most enduring putting in appearances, that of the screaming queens and the romanticized pretty boys that are so dear to shojo manga readers. Most of the peripheral characters adhere squarely to the former sort, while Odagiri's is an exponent of the latter tradition. The film nevertheless manages to overcome such stereotyping because it cares for the people it depicts. The screenplay gives minor personages a trait or a back story that allows these men to gain an extra, usually tragic, dimension. A solid effort was made to present more than a cardboard cut-out. The actors latch on to these vestiges of humanity, while at the same time relishing the opportunity to run around in pastel frocks. The result, it must be said, is quite infectious.
On the other end of the scale, this motley bunch is balanced out nicely by a pair of grave, dignified performances courtesy of Joe Odagiri and Min Tanaka, who lend an unerringly dark heart to what could otherwise easily have turned into farce. In a role that most young actors with a following of teenage girls would turn down flat, Odagiri transforms his character into another of those enigmatic, troubled souls that are quickly becoming the ubiquitous young thespian's trademark. Tanaka meanwhile, is perhaps the most impressive presence in the film, even though he does little but sit at the sidelines of most scenes and observe. A dancer in real life, Tanaka cuts an imposing figure, giving Himiko a thoroughly unexpected air of unmistakably masculine cool, despite being dressed pretty much exclusively in silken night gowns and a head wrap ala Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.
A thoroughly de-glamorized Kou Shibasaki, finally, falls neatly in between these two extremes. For much of the film, she slouches around with a scowl, making no effort to hide her disdain and disgust for this community of queers, but at the same time she gets along with them phenomenally when it comes to boogying down on the dance floor or mimicking characters from TV Anime.
Maison de Himiko dances into camp with some over the top dance routines. A subplot follows the plot twist of the coming out process of a harassing underage neighborhood bully who spearheaded the anti-gay graffiti painted across the front wall of the Maison. Himiko's house is a pleasant place to while away an hour or two, no matter what your personal inclination may be. ~
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FILM INFORMATION: ' The House of Himiko'
Web: Additional Cast, Details and Bios at IMDb
Director: Isshin Inudou
Writer: Aya Watanabe
Full Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Drama
Awards: 3 Wins
Runtime: 130 minutes
Spoken Language: Japanese
Subtitles: Download English .srt file
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FILM PREVIEW: 'The House of Himilo'
DOWNLOAD & EXTRACT FILM FILES: 'The House of Himiko'
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| Method 1.) File Self Extraction. (For PC) Download files into the same folder. then click on the 'xxxx.part01.exe' file and the film will self extract. (For Mac) You will need a Command Line Archiver like Rar for Mac OS X' |
| Method 2.) Download and rejoin files with a program like HJ Split/Join (For PC) and (For Mac) use either MacHacha or Split and Concat. |
Subtitles: Download English .srt file
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