Meiro Koizumi's two channel video installation gives a piercing image of an actor rehearsing for the part of a young samurai saying goodbye to his family. For Portrait of a young samurai, Koizumi has the actor read scripts typical of monologue that would be spoken by kamikaze pilots in World War II movies, with Koizumi continually adding directions. The tone gradually becomes more and more harsh, until the relationship between the actor and Koizumi has become one of a martyr and a tiran, rather than an actor and his director. This work evolved from the performance Melodrama for Men # 1 (2008), in which the artist played Ohnishi Takijiro, the Imperial Japanese Vice Admiral known for instigating the suicide bombings. Once again, Japanese sentimentalism is the theme adopted by Koizumi.
(excerpts from: Kondo Kenichi, 'Prologue to the Human Opera - Koizumi Meiro', in: Koizumi Meiro, exh.cat. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2009, p. 53)
(from: Meiro Koizumi, 'My Voice Would Reach You - Koizumi Meiro', in: Koizumi Meiro, exh. cat. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2009, p. 9)