His Motorbike, Her Island (1987)

 

This film’s narrator attributes its mixed use of monochrome and color to the main character’s “monochrome dreams”.  And yet the film will shift between color and monochrome in a continuous scene, and some shots contain monochrome and color at the same time.  Whatever is meant by “dreams” is something that overlaps with reality, such that one freely translates into the other. 

Of course, this is exactly how it should be.  Things we experience as ordinary and unremarkable worm their way into our dreams and our dreams can be implicated in our actions.  This is true regardless of how we use the word “dreams.”  It could mean the sensations we have while asleep, aimless daytime fantasies, or our hopes for the future.  We perform balancing acts with all of these, all the time.

A significant portion of this film comprises unlikely meetings and impulsive, dramatic excursions.  Men with leather coats duel for honor in dangerous motorcycle games.  But we can also see an underlying stability to the lives of the people in this film.  Their relationships last a long time, enduring even through hardships that require them to change their lifestyles.

Our protagonist’s monochrome dreams excerpt both from this stability and from his and the other romantic lead’s pursuit of excitement.  In their words, they want to "feel the wind."  There are fragments of ideal romance in the thrill of riding a motorcycle, in the chance encounters of people hiding from the rain, in composing and sharing music with friends, and in breaking the law.  They also exist in sincere words of advice from a former enemy, or the personal knowledge of an ex-lover.  Things that can only arise from firm, long-lasting social dynamics. 

At one point, the main character claims to be a “pragmatist,” but his friend tells him that no pragmatist would use a motorcycle for the kind of work he uses it for.  His motorbike lets him feel the wind when pragmatism is called for.  We see how the characters build up their own lives like works of art, and we share in their romance.  But more importantly, we share in the lasting presence of mind that holds it all together.