Balance is key in the world of “The Yin-Yang Master”. Light and darkness, science and music, beauty and horror, the real and the unreal: none of these things can exist without the other in the fantastical works of author Baku Yumemakura, which have served as inspirations for cinema, manga, stage plays, video games and even ice skating sets! 2001's “Onmyoji” was the first big-screen outing for Yumemakura's complicated folklore figure Abe no Seimei, laying the groundwork for the celebrated yin yang master to become a popular hero for audiences around the world. With the exception of its 2003 sequel, each subsequent film exists in a vacuum, with viewers new to the lore and character able to pick up any one of them in any order and thankfully still get the full experience. The latest is Shimako Sato's “The Yin-Yang Master Zero”, a well-mounted and entertaining origin story for Abe no Seimei that creates a fine, symbiotic balance between established martial arts fare and cutting-edge digital cinema.
The Yin-Yang Master Zero is screening at Nippon Connection
Kento Yamazaki takes on the role of Abe no Seimei for Sato, who we meet as a pompous, precocious apprentice at the Yin Yang school. His skills in the art of persuasion are unmatched; an early scene sees him convince a group of naysayers that he has made a nearby toad explode by uttering a magic word into a leaf, and his aptitude for the mystic is noticed by Minamoto no Hiromasa (Shota Sometani, as boyishly charming as ever), a musician who believes his would-be lover Yoshiko (an impressive Nao) is possessed. Their uneasy companionship grows as a murder at Seimei's school casts an eye of suspicion on its best student, and the laws of reality become uncertain as the duo are forced to clear their names or run for their lives.
The murder mystery at the centre of “The Yin Yang Master Zero” isn't its most compelling element, but the presentation of Abe no Seimei as a cold-hearted sleuth proves to be one of its best. The logistics of how the unfortunate victim ended up at the bottom of a well are rudimentary (maybe even elementary!), yet that's not really what fans of the character are here for. What is here is an ace portrayal of a genius detective who can unpick the fabric of dreams to get his man, and Yamazaki's distant, pithy take on the character proves to be a brilliant foil to Sometani's sensitive flute player. As a Holmes and Watson-style duo, there is a vein of unexpected buddy comedy that proves to be a real treat, and working on this chemistry going forward will doubtlessly reap great rewards should a sequel come by in a few years.
Sato has a keen and sumptuous eye for a period setting inflected with magic after years of honing her craft in sci-fi and fantasy, and that is on full display here; even the impeccably arranged school courtyards have an eye-catching beauty, captured in anything from a lightly billowing curtain to an energetic twenty-person brawl to a sword fight where the duelists are literally on fire. Occasionally, some anachronistic touches prove baffling, like some on-screen text that would look more appropriate aboard a spaceship than in Heian Era Japan, but it's tough not to be involved in Sato's crisp, handsome vision. There are inflections of ghostly horror in some of the film's many hypnotism sequences that deepen the visual palette of the action to pleasing results too, and the climactic showdown between morally-grey heroes and villains is given real heft because of its commitment to a rich variety of styles.
Whether this stands as demonstrably better or worse than any other adaptation of Yumemakura's version of Abe no Seimei is up for debate, yet it's for absolutely certain that “The Yin-Yang Master Zero” is an involving and enjoyable tale that finds its best moments in exploring what makes good good and what makes bad bad. There is a balance to everything, and Sato has struck a great one in her updated yet traditional take on a beloved classic.Â
