The issue of the Zainichi Koreans was one that interested Nagisa Oshima significantly, with him having shot the TV documentary “Forgotten Soldiers” in 1963 and the experimental short “Diary of Yunbogi” in 1965. Two events revolving around the problems of Koreans in Japan, the Kim Hiro and the Komatsugawa Incident, were also roots of inspiration for him, resulting in two films, “Death by Hanging” and “Three Resurrected Drunkards” both of which use irony, theatricality and intense avant-garde elements to portray his take on the subject.
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The overall directorial approach here becomes apparent from the beginning, as it shows three Japanese students at the beach, reenacting one of the most famous pictures of the Vietnam war, before they decide to strip to their underwear and go for a swim. While they are swimming, a hand emerges from the sand and steals their clothes,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The overall directorial approach here becomes apparent from the beginning, as it shows three Japanese students at the beach, reenacting one of the most famous pictures of the Vietnam war, before they decide to strip to their underwear and go for a swim. While they are swimming, a hand emerges from the sand and steals their clothes,...
- 4/13/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
by Palomo Lin-Linares
How does one categorize the films of Nagisa Oshima? Even among his brethren new wave directors, he stands as an auteur independent of any particular movement. “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide,” in all its absurdism, provocation, and politically charged imagery, is a perfect example of Oshima's non-conformist method of expression.
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The film opens with a series of left hook vignettes, connected by cultural imagery which serve as an introduction to the film's language and style. Nejiko, a young sexually obsessed woman (Keiko Sakurai) meets Otoko, a man obsessed with death (Kei Sato). This pseudo romance is interrupted when the couple are taken prisoner by mysterious gangsters and placed in a hideaway. Here they meet the rest of the movie's characters that are composed of equally obsessed oddballs: a television loving fascist, a trigger happy kid, an anarchist,...
How does one categorize the films of Nagisa Oshima? Even among his brethren new wave directors, he stands as an auteur independent of any particular movement. “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide,” in all its absurdism, provocation, and politically charged imagery, is a perfect example of Oshima's non-conformist method of expression.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film opens with a series of left hook vignettes, connected by cultural imagery which serve as an introduction to the film's language and style. Nejiko, a young sexually obsessed woman (Keiko Sakurai) meets Otoko, a man obsessed with death (Kei Sato). This pseudo romance is interrupted when the couple are taken prisoner by mysterious gangsters and placed in a hideaway. Here they meet the rest of the movie's characters that are composed of equally obsessed oddballs: a television loving fascist, a trigger happy kid, an anarchist,...
- 5/21/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Okinawa and its status is one of those difficult subjects not often discussed when considering it as an island paradise. Part Japanese holiday destination, part US army base, it is used and controlled by those other than Okinawans. In one of his lesser-known works, Nagisa Oshima explores Okinawa as the illegitimate child of distant parents, but one rich in culture.
Dear Summer Sister is screening at Japan Society
14-year-old Sunaoko (Hiromi Kurita) travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father’s young fiancée Momoko (Lily) in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. On arrival, she meets a young tour guide and musician (Shoji Ishibashi) who translates Okinawan dialect for tourists. Searching for her brother’s mother, Tsuru (Akiko Koyama), it soon becomes clear that the tour guide is the brother she has been looking for. With the arrival of Sunaoko’s father Kikuchi (Hosei Komatsu), discussions...
Dear Summer Sister is screening at Japan Society
14-year-old Sunaoko (Hiromi Kurita) travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father’s young fiancée Momoko (Lily) in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. On arrival, she meets a young tour guide and musician (Shoji Ishibashi) who translates Okinawan dialect for tourists. Searching for her brother’s mother, Tsuru (Akiko Koyama), it soon becomes clear that the tour guide is the brother she has been looking for. With the arrival of Sunaoko’s father Kikuchi (Hosei Komatsu), discussions...
- 5/6/2022
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Perhaps best known to Western audiences for his films “Death by Hanging”, the erotic “In the Realm of the Senses” as well as the war film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” which stars David Bowie, Nagisa Oshima’s 1969 drama “Boy” is maybe the Japanese director’s most approachable and straightforward work.
In 1966, a family of con artists are desperately trying to make ends meet. The father, Takeo (Fumio Watanabe), is a diabetic war veteran who routinely abuses his spouse, Takeko (Akiko Koyama), and his son Toshio (Tetsuo Abe), the child from a previous marriage. To earn money, he makes Takeko throw herself into traffic and fake injuries in hopes of extorting money from hapless drivers. When she becomes pregnant, however, he recruits Toshio to assume her role. Things go well at first until the boy is eventually caught, forcing the family to pack up and hurriedly move across the country.
Faced...
In 1966, a family of con artists are desperately trying to make ends meet. The father, Takeo (Fumio Watanabe), is a diabetic war veteran who routinely abuses his spouse, Takeko (Akiko Koyama), and his son Toshio (Tetsuo Abe), the child from a previous marriage. To earn money, he makes Takeko throw herself into traffic and fake injuries in hopes of extorting money from hapless drivers. When she becomes pregnant, however, he recruits Toshio to assume her role. Things go well at first until the boy is eventually caught, forcing the family to pack up and hurriedly move across the country.
Faced...
- 4/18/2022
- by Fred Barrett
- AsianMoviePulse
Before he would come to be known as one of cinema’s most controversial provocateurs with his most infamous title, 1976’s In the Realm of the Senses, Nagisa Oshima was heralded as one of the most influential voices in the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s. The decade prior showed the director contemplating urban youth issues, showcasing the moral quandaries of a new, disenchanted generation struggling to define notions of identity in Post WWII Japan. In the early 60s, Oshima spent most of his time working in television before returning to features predicated on lurid social issues usually involving a fascinating mixture of sexuality and crime. But 1968 saw the auteur tackling the treatment of Korean immigrants in Japan in two striking portraits, Three Resurrected Drunkards and the dark comedy Death by Hanging.
Based on an actual criminal case from a decade prior concerning a Korean immigrant who murdered two Japanese girls,...
Based on an actual criminal case from a decade prior concerning a Korean immigrant who murdered two Japanese girls,...
- 2/16/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
You want radical? Look no further. Nagisa Oshima's near-legendary issue drama makes a wickedly frightening protest against the death penalty, but then proceeds into formal abstraction and the endorsement of a violent radical position. You can't find a political 'gauntlet picture' as jarring or as potent as this one. Death by Hanging Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 798 1968 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Kôshikei / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 16, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Do-yun Yu, Kei Sato, Fumio Watanabe, Toshiro Ishido, Masao Adachi, Rokko Toura, Hosei Komatsu, Masao Matsuda, Akiko Koyama. Cinematography Yasuhiro Yoshioka Film Editor Sueko Shiraishi Original Music Hikaru Hayashi Written by Michinori Fukao. Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Nagisa Oshima Produced by Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nagisa Oshima is a radical's radical, a cinema stylist completely committed to his politics -- which...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nagisa Oshima is a radical's radical, a cinema stylist completely committed to his politics -- which...
- 2/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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