Lost In Translation

Dear Summer Sister

Many of Nagisa Oshima's films are overtly political and sometimes come across as a lecture with his didactic messages. Dear Summer Sister (1972) which is essentially a story of a fiancé, Momoko (Lily) looking for the old mistress of her husband-to-be (Kikuchi played by Hosei Komatsu), and tagging along is the man's daughter, Sunako (Hirmoi Kurita)who thinks that the mistress may have born the young girl a half-brother. However, it is also about Okinawa's relationship with Japan, the American base occupation (which was serving as a RNR spot for Vietnam soldiers), WWII war crimes committed by the Japanese among other things. These complex issue are significant, because 1972 was the year that Okinawa was returned to Japan by the US. I can say that the score by Toru Takemitsu was another impressive score. However, there are several odd aspects to the film such as the stagey dialogue, a mix of professional actors with an amateur in a major role Sunako, and some travelogue like sequences throughout. There are several complex and binary relationships between the characters such as the old codger who wants to be killed for his crimes and the Okinawan sanshin player who wants to kill someone, Kikuchi and Kuniyoshi-one of them is the father of Tsuruo, Momoko seduces Tsuruo, and the lists goes on. There is a heavy metaphorical story in the subtext which weighs down what Oshima may have conceived as a comedy? I much prefer Shohei Imamura's Okinawan film, Profound Desires of the Gods, which feels like a more universal story about the southern islands and their relationship with modern Japan. I don't rate this as one of Oshima's better efforts,it is something of an oddity and seemingly half-baked in execution.

The Catch

Nagisa Oshima's The Catch (1961) is the story of a downed black US pilot (Hugh Hurd) captured and imprisoned by rural villagers near Tokyo during WWII. Oshima is well known for his social issues films, his films are informed about his ideas about Japanese society and while these intellectual exercises are often interesting they often make for less than interesting films that feel overly didactic and contrived.The conflict arises between the village chief (Rentaro Mikuni) who wants to follow the letter of the law, while the villagers use the captive soldier as scapegoat for their frustrations related to war and the miserable life they are living in general. This theme calls to mind another Japanese film I recently saw that is set during the same time period and has the same theme, Legend of a Duel to the Death by Keisuke Kinoshita that is more effective in its critique of Japanese society. There are some interesting ideas and some artistry on display here, but it feels overlong and like something of a chore to get through.

Max Mon Amour

Nagisa Oshima's Max Mon Amour (1986) is an odd outlier of a film made between Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and his final film, the homoerotic samurai film Taboo. The films seems to take the unconventional family situation where a bored housewife Margaret (Charolett Rampling) takes up with a chimpanzee (or a man in a fake-looking suit in this film), and the cuckolded husband, Peter (Anthony Higgins) suggests having the ape move in. If it s a satire, it's not clear who is being satirized. It comes across as something of an anomaly in the Oshima oeuvre.

The Man Who Left His Will On Film

For me The Man Who Left His Will On Film (1970) is Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima's at his most oblique. I have to say I much prefer the film before, Boy, and the film that followed, The Ceremony. The cold, intellectual films of the 60s generally try my patience. It seems to be some sort of personal reaction to the politics of the day. It is an exercise in intellectual theory-repetitions of events with slight changes as well as excessive use of political sloganeering by the students in the film group, and Oshima presents a troubling sexuality throughout the film-forced sex and rape. The film didn't really start to engage me until the last 30 minutes or so. That being said there are some arresting images such as Endo, who clashed with Motoki (Kazuo Goto) over the camera, lying in a pool of blood after his suicide leap, the upside down road from Yasuko's (Emiko Iwasaki), Endo's girlfriend and fellow club member, perspective in the car, and the scene where Yasuko undresses and uses her body as a screen for Endo's testimonial film footage that has been left behind in the salvaged camera. A curious experiment in formal film-making, but not much of an entertainment.

Dairy Of A Shinjuku Thief

Nagisa Oshima's Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief (1969) is not a conventional film. In this film the artist, Tadnori Yokoo plays “Birdey Hilltop”-a book thief who is caught by Umeko (Rie Yokoyama), who we later discover is merely posing as an employee in one of the film’s many acts of role play. Umeko drags the shoplifting Birdey up to see her “boss”, Mr. Tanabe (the real life boss of Kunokuniya playing “himself”) but he isn't interested in pursuing the matter and and send them on a journey. Oshima is obviously making some sort of statement about sexuality, but what it is I am not certain. I suspect there is some sort of societal criticism lurking in the film as well. Various guides appear during the journey including some counterculture types playing themselves such as Juro Kara. Oshima uses intertiitles to comment on the action throughout the film and sparing uses color at random points in the film as well. Perhaps the documentary footage and Shinjuku locations were of most interest to me-the Kunokuniya bookstore building still exists and operates on the south side of the station. It is a challenging film, and not among my favorites of Oshima.

Throw Away Your Books, Rally In The Streets

Shuji Terayama's New Wave classic Throw Away Your Books, Rally In The Streets (1971) is a product of the times. It is a revolutionary and  experimental film that is disjointed and fragmented. Essentially it is about an angry young man dealing with his dysfunctional family. The story is inter-cut with various psychedelic and energetic vignettes throughout. Music is also a major part of the film. There are some meta fictional elements as the fourth wall is broken at the beginning and end of the film when the viewer is addressed-in addition there are some exceptionally cinematic and visually impressive aspects to the film as well. It is challenging and inventive-not your typical mass produced entertainment.

Death By Hanging (Blu-ray)

I have to admit that Nagisa Oshima's 1968 Death By Hanging is not among my favorite films. (See my previous review). However, I was enticed by the extras to get a copy of the film: a new, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, a new interview with critic Tony Rayns, a new high-definition digital transfer of director Nagisa Oshima s 1965 experimental short documentary Diary of Yunbogi, trailer, a new English subtitle translation and an essay by critic Howard Hampton. I should like to see a box set of Oshima's documentaries someday-that was the main draw here, that, and being a sort of complete-ist-especially when Criterion editions are concerned.

Boy

Boy (1969) in my opinion is one of Nagisa Oshima's best pre-European productions. It is as political as his other films of the 60s and early 70s, but in this production there is less of a theatrical, talking head affront. The political content is metaphorical as the Boy (Tetuo Abe) is bullied and manipulated by his stepmother (Koyama Akiko) and father (Fumio Watanabe) into a ruse where they fake getting hit by cars in order to extort money from innocent drivers. There are some telling details that draw out the metaphor as we have the boy praying in front of a war memorial, strategically place Japanese flags,and his father's status as a wounded war veteran, which is his excuse for not being able to work or take part in the ruse. But on another level is a simple coming of age story where the Boy finally feels culpability for his role in the family's scheme that eventually leads to the death of a young girl about the Boy's age. Oshima film reflects the recurring themes of rootless materialism, alienation, and victimization that were seen in the postwar society. Shooting the characters mostly in medium and long shots from the margins of the frame, the viewer can see the family's marginalization within contemporary society, but also the rupture of the very notion of Japanese tradition - and in particular, the support system of the extended family, since the family is constantly on the move. The story starts out in Shikoku and moves west to Kyushu, then moves north through Honshu, until they arrive in Hokkaido and things begin to unravel as they have nowhere else to go as they reach the farthest point north of the nation. In this sense it calls to mind another film that documents a crime spree that spreads throughout postwar Japan also based on a true story: Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine.

Death By Hanging

Nagisa Oshima's early films are more interesting to read about than to watch. They have lots of revolutionary ideas and much social criticism. But most of them feel like plays-there is too much exposition in them, too much preaching perhaps. They are less than cinematic, and they are an important response to the pure entertainment value of other films that were being produced at the time. Death By Hanging (1968) is a perfect example. It is a treaty on race, nationalism, identity, and the validity of the death penalty. However, it is two hours that takes place largely in a small room. There are some great performances and some interesting ideas are investigated, but it was less than engaging. Perhaps, better suited for a play. I will continue to see the films of Oshima, but I don't think he really came into prime until he was making films outside Japan with backing from Europeans, in films like Realm of the Senses, Empire of Passions, and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.

The Sun's Burial

The Sun's Burial (1960) is one of the early films that established Nagisa Oshima as one of more visible directors of the Japanese New Wave movement. He was political in his outlook and used young actors as protagonists to make his observations about contemporary Japan in the postwar era. This is not such a subtle critique of the direction of the era. It is story about how in the postwar era people in Japan are barely surviving by exploiting each other through petty theft, savaging, prostitution, selling human blood illicitly to cosmetic factories , and worst of all by selling people's identities to foreigners. This story takes place in the Kamagasaki district in Osaka, a notorious slum under the Tsutenkaku Tower that is featured prominently  throughout the film along with Osaka castle-two dominant images of Osaka, a noted city of commerce in Japan. The main protagonist and pragmatist and survivor of the challenges of postwar Japan is Hanako (Kayoko Honoo) who plays two groups of yakuza against each other while forming alliances when needed. She is the face of the new pragmatist Japan in  opposition to he character known as the "Agitator" (Eitaro Ozawa), who is a former soldier and follower of the emperor who thinks the future will result in a third war with the US or Russia. Caught in between is a sensitive youth, Takeshi (Isao Sasaki) looking to survive who cannot stomach the violence necessary to get by a a yakuza. Some of the ideas and concepts in the film feel a bit too on the nose. Oshima still seems to be finding his way as a director but there a re number of memorable cinematic images and set pieces. He has interspersed with actual documentary footage of Kamagasaki and uses a red color theme throughout that represent the burial of the rising sun of the Japanese national flag and film title.