Helter Skelter (2012): The Hideous and Addictive Nature of Beauty

    

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FILM DISCUSSION 

HELTER SKELTER (2012) dir. by Mika Ninagawa: 

The Hideous and Addictive Nature of Beauty

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DISCLAIMER

Before I begin the discussion on this film, I feel the need to mention that I am not impressively knowledgeable on the analysis of film, therefore I will not be able to notice and critique on certain techniques and themes that are typically visible to a learned eye. I am just a girl who wishes to discuss a film that she really enjoyed watching, and things that she picked up on while watching it. I don't believe my inexperience and ignorance regarding film automatically renders my opinions disposable, however I recognise the limits and faults of that.

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Helter Skelter (2012) is a beautiful movie. It is ridiculous, really, how beautiful and hypnotising and seductive this movie can be, even when devastating and disheartening things are being portrayed. The beauty of this movie is so powerful that it precedes its name - I had seen Erika Sawajiri's beautiful face so many times before it was brought to my notice that the pictures came from a movie and not a timelessly popular Japanese photoshoot. The beauty of this movie is so powerful that the plot of the movie did not matter to me when I chose to watch it, what mattered to me was seeing the scene where she bathed in rose petals. What I wanted when I chose to watch this movie was to view beautifully crafted scenes where a beautiful woman was featured and did beautiful things.

Thinking about it as I write this fills me with shame and disgust for myself. The way I became this greedy, starved and obsessive monster when I was presented a piece of media that featured a beautiful woman. Watching the movie, I acted exactly like those high-school girls who idolised the image of Lilico at the beginning. Just like them, I needed need an image (a person selling an image) to project my desires upon, to place upon an altar so that I may worship it and aspire to become it. Just like them, I fall so easily into this idolatry that even when confronted with the realtiy of its artifice and counterfeit, I refuse to step away. Beauty has become a religion for me, as it has for many women.

Beauty, as in the flawless, ageless, poreless, changeless, polished ideal that almost all of us strive to achieve. Beauty as in the god that is widely worshipped in modern society that is always photographed and portrayed, yet, ironically, has never been seen, the god of many faces and the god of one face, the god that is constantly changing, but never stops being flawless, ageless, poreless, changeless and polished. In the myth, Beauty can always be found in every person, but effort is needed to bring her out. I always wonder how something so unhuman can ever be preached to be found in us; I always wonder how we ended up believing that to some extent we can ever be flawless, ageless, poreless, changeless and polished. I always wonder why we want that, why I want that.

This movie openly expresses our nasty worship of Beauty and how no matter how many times its hideous nature is exposed and portrayed, and how no matter how many blog posts we write discussing how embarassed and regretful we are to have fallen into this worship, we will never stop.

The beginning of the movie introduces us to the world in which the movie would mainly cover, the world of the beautiful. We are to become familiar quickly, the beautiful world is colourful, it is vibrant and it is painful. It is characterised by time-consuming, expensive and artificial practices, it is on these practices that it bases its confidence.

The movie begins with Lilico/Erika Sawajiri saying: "a word at the start: laughing sounds a lot like screaming." Within the context of the movie, it's safe to say that she's refering to how her suffering and her pleasure were identical, similar. Her sources of pleasure and pain were intricately woven: She was pleased with her beauty which she got for work, she was pained with her work which she got for being beautiful. Throughout the movie are scenes where we see how Lilico clutches to her work because it gives her validation, money, fame and recognition, and we see how this clutch kills her from the inside out.

Following this quote, we are bombarded, at an increasing rate, with close-ups of the eyes, lips and faces of women on fashion posters; with quick glimpses of highschool girls disussing their beauty procedures and magazines; with the application of fake nails and fake eyelashes; with beauty products in so many varieties, yet so little differences, in stores; with soul-sucking camera flashes; and, most important out of all these, we are shown the reveal of the butterfly out of the cocoon, the unwrapping of fashion's latest plaything, LILICO.

From this introduction to the newest flawless face, we leave the highschool girls behind and are blessed with Lilico's photoshoots, the camera flashes become even more erratic, basically blinding you, and you realise this is what Lilico witnesses as she poses effortlessly.  Watching this scene, the old belief of how cameras take a bit of our souls comes to mind because it feels as though the camera steals a bit of our (or maybe Lilico's) soul(s) to immortalise that moment in time and produce a picture fit for a magazine. 

Again, we hear Lilico's voice and she says that she always hears a clock, as if she's being reminded that her days of being the most beautiful, most coveted are running out. That she only has fifteen minutes. 

It is a fear that she repeats for most of the movie until her pitiful descent into obscurity, then she mostly screams and cries. It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but she truly has such a short amount of time. Beauty maintains its ageless status by changing faces so often that they all blur into one indistinguishable mess. The world of beauty is always moving, as laziness and a sedentary lifestyle are discouraged. Today it was Lilico, Tonight it is Kozue. 

   

BEAUTY: You're either born with it or you die chasing it

 The world that Lilico lived in was drastically different from the world that the Prosecutor, Mr Asada, and his colleagues, and everyone else really, lived in. The world of Beauty was bright and dazzling, whether the sun was out or not because it did not need the sun (unless there was a photoshoot outside), it had all the lights in the world and more. The world of beauty was saturated in colour: red and yellow and green and blue and purple and pink and orange. There was no showcase of the dull and plain. To be dull and plain in this world was to be drowning in debt, and to repay this debt, one must have the talents to contribute to or create something beautiful. These talents include being a make-up artist (Kinji Sawanabe), being a manager to ensure that the careers of beautiful people flourishes (Mama), being a humble and obedient assistant that fulfils the desires of the beautiful people (Ms Hada).

The world of everyday people was not nearly as adorned, decorated and bedazzled. The glimpses into this world shown in the scenes with Mr Asada were in stark contrast with the world that Lilico resided in. This world was not devoid of colours as much as it was devoid of intensity, it might as well be purely grey. It was uninteresting as most people refused to partake in any sort of entertaining performance; all the acts in this world were for the sake of etiquette, rather than the sake of theatrics. This, however, is unsurprising because this world has no quality to attract an audience, there is no herd of screaming fans waiting for any member of this world. Why should you want to stay in such a place? Don't you want to be adored? Be revered? Be remembered? Do you not want to be a god among men? Why be alive if you are not chasing the high of fame?

These two worlds reside in the same place, exchanging members: Beautiful people who are so unfortunate to be born into everyday life are often catapulted into the Beautiful world, becoming Beauty's new face, and those who have been used and discarded and have faded into obscurity or, even worse, ugliness, are spat back into everyday life. Beauty surrounds the world of everyday people in this film. It is advertised and displayed in every single aspect of everyday life. One must consider beauty when dressing, when shopping, on the way to work or school, in the living room on the television after work or school, and even when eatind a delicious Ice Bar. In the film, Lilico (and then, Kozue) advertises a 'Beauty Ice Bar' that ensures that the Ice Bar is on a level more than 'cute' or 'pretty,' it is BEAUTIFUL.

If you are not beautiful, you must try your best to go as near it as possible. Get cosmetic surgery, shop for the latest trends, get a stylish haircut, go on a diet and become the real you - the skinny you, wear makeup, get an effective skincare routine featuring the five chemicals we are currently advertising to you, post aesthetically pleasing pictures on your social media account!!! If you do not do these things, you are lazy and noncommitant, it is not clear to us that you contribute much to society because even if you do on a deeper level, you do not contribute anything to the superficial and shallow surface level on which we greatly judge you :(

It is hard to remain indifferent when confronted regularly with something so attractive. To do this, a person must become older and preoccupied with work and family so that all the models' and actresses' faces blend into an unrecognisable and undiscernable mesh because to distinguish them you must look away from your bills and paper work for too long. However, this will mainly serve you if you are a man.

Beauty as...

The movie shows Beauty in many of the ways that it is presented, understood and used in life. Although it is one word, Beauty is not one concept. Beauty is understood as a resource, a currency, a religion, a drug, a necessity, a luxury, as what gives women value, etc.

✵ what gives women value

 In the scene where Prosecutor Asada, his colleague and his superior look at pictures of a young lady's blood corpse, the superior says that it is a waste for she was so young and beautiful. In my humble opinion, her being young barely makes it a waste for him, not when compared to the fact that she was beautiful. She could have done so much for herself in life with all the ears ahead of her, but when you begin to imagine all the supposed benefits the society would have enjoyed from her beauty, oh it is then that this death - this suicide - becomes such a waste. If she were only young, it would be a pity, but she is beautiful so it has become a waste.

He even goes on to shout about how women are so greedy. We want Beauty so much that we would rather die beautiful, unable to enjoy the benefits, than live ugly. We put ourselves through pain, through starvation, through immobility, through burns, through so much discomfort just to become Beautiful because what else can we do? If we stop, then the childhood we sacrificed for being a lady would be for what? The times we were shamed and scolded out of interests, hobbies and sports? We watched our mothers and teachers and female elders lose value for not remaining beautiful. Mama, in the movie, lost value for not remaining beautiful. Lilico and her sister, Chikako, had no value in the time that they were ugly. We have not been allowed to live fulfilled without this. If Lilico decided to let herself decay, the money and time that had been spent on her transformation would all go to waste just so she could once again become the unnoticable girl she was once? How can you say it is a waste for Beauty to die and then ask why women want to mean something to the world? No ugly woman in the movie is given much thought if a beautiful woman isn't in the same frame or if she isn't being discussed. Ugly women are even denied humanity if no one is making use of them. Before her intensive and intrusive beautification process, Lilico is described to have been just a "lump of meat." It is now that she has lost most semblance of humanity in exchange for Beauty that she truly is a person.

All the male characters are known to live a life outside the beautiful women in the movie, except the makeup artist but that's only because he chose to beautify for his career. 

✵ a necessity and a luxury

There is a scene where Ms Hada drives Lilico and gives her the itinerary for the next day. Lilico chooses to comment on Ms Hada's face, giving her some advice: "You've got beautiful skin...Why don't you ever wear makeup? Try to look pretty sometimes."  This conversation between two women who are treated so differently in society, Lilico beckons Ms Hada to use makeup more often, yet warns her that it is like a drug. At this I scoff, if my skin is so enviable and nice, do I still need makeup? It is by pure luck that a person could get the features needed to be beautiful, but no matter how a person looks, you must MUST use makeup. Even if it is bad for your skin, even if you will never feel content in your own skin again. Not everyone can beautiful, but everyone must try.

✵ a drug

Drugs and things that work like drugs all have the same effects. Merely knowing that the activity/substance/thing that one is addicted to will never be enough to break the addiction. The longing and yearning for a better life, for a life without it, will never be stronger than the chains that hold a person to a bad habit. Addiction is a slow and sweet phantom death because you can never live properly again without your addiction: the knife must be in your heart before you walk, the noose around your neck before you speak. Lilico has already been killed by her addiction. There is no life underneath her skin, her organs are rotting from decay, smoking, drinking and drug abuse. There is barely any Lilico left, and the little of her that remains clutches on helplessly to Beauty even as it slips from her hands. The only reason she persists and continues living is Beauty. 

She is so addicted that she has covered her living space from wall to wall with pictures of herself and mirrors. No wall lacks a reminder that Lilico is beautiful. To your right is a mirror surrounded by a scattered array of beauty products and blinding lights, in front of you is a full length mirror that also exists as a gateway to stare lifelessly into the eyes of the audience. In this room, there is a wall dedicated to all of Lilico's favourite magazine features, and on this wall is - you guessed it! - another vanity with even more beauty products. We have a collection of every single magazine released with Lilico's face in it and a gorgeous wall with the sensuous image of cherry red lips, isn't this just amazing. What's not to love in this sensory attack of a living space?! 

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A recurring theme I noticed throughout the film, which is even reflective of our real lives, is the way that beauty was mainly hated because of its inaccessibility. Beauty is constantly coveted and desired by everyone in the film, save for Kozue and Mr Asada. These two do not treat Beauty the same way as everyone else. Yes, they may deal with it but they have not made it their god, they do not salivate over the fantasy of ever fully possessing for their own distinct reasons: Kozue has never lived life as a stranger to Beauty. It has been a lifelong companion, a best friend and, dare I say, she and Beauty have never even existed in separate bodies. She recognises the value others give it (and, by extension, give her) but has become so used to it. She will not, for a long time, experience the world when it does not want to gaze upon you and cherish you for your looks. Mr Asada, on the other hand, is not a lifelong companion to Beauty but he is disillusioned by its tricks, artifice and deception. He has seen Beauty stripped bare, in its heinous nakedness and he values a life where experience and feeling triumph over appearance and spectacle. He understands how it works, empathises with its doting followers and appreciates its art but he does not succumb to it. 

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Let's talk about sex, baby

In movies, sex is never about the passionate and lustful activity that it is typically defined as. Instead, sex is about power, about exchange, about liberation, about suppression, about every single thing under the sun but sex itself. The characters do not even have to truly enjoy the sex, it could be a performance of a performance, as it is Lilico's case with her theatrically loud moans.

In this movie, sex is the device that Lilico employs to ensure that her career is going in the direction she wants it to and it is the confirmation that she remains desirable and valuable. All her sexual scenes in the movie demonstrate how she uses her body to purchase the loyalty and obedience of those around her: She fucks her boyfriend so he'll stay with her; she fucks that producer so that he will give her even bigger exposure; she has Ms Hada give her head so that she re-confirms her Beauty and acquires her as a dutiful disciple; she fucks Shin, Ms Hada's boyfriend, to remind Ms Hada that she is able to take anything of hers she desires because she is beautiful and Ms Hada is not, and also to acquire him also as a dutiful disciple. What she wants from these people is not their love, their bodies, neither does she even want sexual gratification. The sex is just the means to an end, it is not the point.

Because of all this, it is not all that surprising that Lilico takes refuge in a fetish club. She is no stranger to sexual perversion and being outcast and humiliated in a world that you long to serve.

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This movie was such a fun ride. It exposed my obsession and allowed me to really confront why I idolise and desire the things that I do. It allowed me to see the scenes that occur when the camera is switched off and what is left is someone with half a soul, pondering and deciding whether they want to salvage the little that is left or surrender their souls completley to the devil. Lilico is impossible to hate because she is a reflection of most of my desires, she is the person who I'd be if I dared to realise my dreams, no matter how perverse or wrong they are. I hope I didn't write a whole bunch of noonsense too lol