Charisma (Home Re-Release) | The Deight Night Review

Charisma (1999, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Eureka Entertainment)

After failing to resolve a hostage situation, resulting in the death of both the hostage - a high profile politician - and his captor, overworked police detective Goro Yobuike (Koji Yakusho) is forced to leave his job and take some annual leave to give him a long overdue break. On his compulsory holiday, he stumbles into a dying forest that has within it a disused sanitorium and a singular tree that's protected by an eccentric young man called Naoto Kiriyama (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi). The tree is called Charisma and, as Yobuike finds out, there are many sides who all have different intentions with the tree and Yobuike must decide which side to take in the fight for Charisma's fate. 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has a knack for making films that have a lot more going on under the surface. Charisma is absolutely no exception, as soon as the mystery behind Charisma the tree and the reasons why so many are fighting over it start to unravel, the greater aims of the film's narrative start to become clear. Films that present a philosophical debate as a story are often some of the deepest out there, thematically speaking at least. Charisma ultimately is about absolutism and the dangers of having any form of extreme opinion, exploring the depths humanity will go for their beliefs. Given the central narrative debate of the film is an environmental one, Charisma, despite being made in 1999, is still a very pertinent film in our climate conscious world.  

Charisma (1999, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Eureka Entertainment)

The trouble, however, when creators want to make a film with thematic depth is that sometimes the themes come at the cost of story and emotional investment. Charisma is very cryptic with its themes so the script isn't overly obnoxious with its exploration as many other films can be and as a result, the film still evokes a feeling that it's an elaborate puzzle aching to be solved - rather than a laborious lecture. Kurosawa seems to deliberately try and detach the audience, making every scene ethereal and distant. While admirable, the audience never gets the chance to know the wide cast of characters as people and instead, they feel more like avatars for all the various ideas that come to play in the debate of Charisma's narrative and therefore the film's actual story loses momentum and doesn't feel like it has much weight. 

What isn't a debate is Kurosawa's craftsmanship. Charisma is a masterfully put together film and is a vibrant portrait that's at least a joy to simply look at.  Adding to the film's partially environmental debate, the film shows the desolation of Charisma's countryside locations majestically with many shots dedicated to wide views of the vast landscape of dead trees and dried out grass. In keeping with the director's usual style, there are several long shots that show the characters as miniature compared to the wide expanse of nature - this does add to the disconnect between the audience and the cast though. 

Charisma (1999, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Eureka Entertainment)

Charisma is one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's lesser known efforts and is an example of work by an auteur who has great care for the craft of film with a product that's both expertly created and written with a commendable ideological debate at its heart. Even so, the film's ideas come at the expense of a more interesting story with deeper, more nuanced characters and what's left is a film that remains a slow burn mystery, but one with not much of a gripping hook.

★★★

Cloud/Charisma: Two films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa will have a limited physical release on January 26th 2026

Pre-order HERE