Magnificent Obsession

The other day I went down to the International House in Tokyo to watch the film Magnificent Obsession. No, not the campy melodrama from the fifties featuring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. This Magnificent Obsession was made by Karen Severns and Koichi Mori, who wrote and produced it as a documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright and his influence both on, as well as from, Japan. I knew that Wright had lived in Japan and designed about twelve buildings here, but frankly few countries are as bad about architectural preservation as this one and sadly almost all of Wright’s work has disappeared. One remaining building, the Jiyugakuen in Tokyo, was actually the site of a small American music festival called Pacific Crossings a few years ago, and so Tokyo audiences could listen to Sarah Cahill and David Tannebaum’s wonderful performances of Terry Riley and others there. But alas, if one wants to see Wright’s signature piece, the Imperial Hotel, one needs to travel to a Disneyland-like “preserve” about four hours away, where a few examples of historic architecture have been transferred.

But back to Magnificent Obsession. The film was made in 2005 and features a soundtrack performed by the American koto performer Curtis Patterson, who is another Tokyo resident and the first non-Japanese to graduate from the NHK’s training program for young performers of Japanese traditional instruments. It was a nice choice by the filmmakers, because Curtis himself is a kind of bridge between America and Japan, and, like Wright, a midwesterner.

He had to deal with a film chockablock with narration from the moment it begins until it ends, with hardly a second to let the music come to the forefront and speak on its own. A bit of a shame. Still, I enjoyed his performances while learning more about Wright in Japan, especially how the architect’s presence transformed the people who worked with him, many of whom, like Arata Endo, went on to their own brilliant careers.