Tokyo senso sengo hiwa / The Man Who Left His Will On Film

Tokyo senso sengo hiwa: Eiga de ishi o nokoshite shineda – otoko no monogatari / He Died After the War / [Mies, joka teki testamenttinsa filmille] / [Mannen som upprättade sitt testamente på film]. JP 1970. PC: Sozosha-ATG. EX: Takuji Yamaguchi. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Masataka Hara ja Mamoru Sasaki – based on a story by Nagisa Oshima and Tsutomu Tamura. DP: Toichiro Narushima – shot on 16 mm and 35 mm – print 35 mm – b&w. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Toru Takemitsu. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Kazuo Goto (Motoki Shoichi, student), Emiko Iwasaki (Yasuko, Shoichi's girlfriend). Members of the POSIPOSI, a film society of young radicals: Sugio Fukyama (Yazawa), Tomoyo Oshima (Akiko), Kenichi Fukuda (Matsumura), Hiroshi Isogai (Sakamoto), Kazuo Hashimoto (Takagi), Kazuya Horikoshi (Endo). 94 min. Print: New Yorker Films (New York), English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 13 Sep 2009. - A good definition of light in a print that has signs of wear and tear, but not too much. - Anti-film, metafilm, a film that questions itself and student radicalism. The story of an impasse. - Ironic, witty, philosophical. - The cinematography is remarkable. The sense of landscape and urban living is on the level of Antonioni, but brilliantly original. Many shots can be appreciated as independent photographs. - The man who left his will on film mostly shot cityscapes. He maybe never existed, and at least there is a vicious circle of young men who leave their wills on film, as the story starts again in the end. - Disturbing: the theme of sexual violence. The young men seem to enjoy taking their girls violently, and the girls seem to enjoy it. - I have now seen all Nagisa Oshima's cinema films, and I can confirm that they are all different: each has a different way of storytelling, a different cinematography, and different music and sound solutions. - In Godard's work, the parallel to this would be Weekend.

Akiko Koyama and others

Watching a complete Nagisa Oshima retrospective one starts to recognize recurring artists in the films.

1. Akiko Koyama (Mrs. Nagisa Oshima) is one of the most important. These weeks, I have seen her in:
- Shiiku (The Catch) as one of the villagers
- Nihon shunka-ko (Sing a Song of Sex) as the long-term lady friend of the professor
- Hakuchu no torima (Violence at Noon) as the teacher wife of the serial killer
- Koshikei (Death by Hanging) as the Korean woman
- Natsu no imoto (Dear Summer Sister) as Tsuru Omura, the Okinawan woman
Previously, I had seen her in Nihon no yoru to kiri (Night and Fog in Japan), Shonen (The Boy), Gishiki (The Ceremony), Ai no corrida (In the Realm of the Senses), and Ai no borei (Empire of Passion), but hadn't made the connection.

2. The cinematographer Akira Takada filmed at least four Oshima films in 1965-1967. Yasuhiro Yoshioka at least seven Oshima films in 1967-1991. Takashi Kawamata at least three Oshima films in 1960.

3. The editor Keiichi Uraoka has edited at least 16 Oshima films in 1960-1978.

4. The composer Riichiro Manabe has composed the music for at least six Oshima films in 1960-1962. Hikaru Hayashi for at least seven Oshima films in 1966-1969. Toru Takemitsu for at least five Oshima films in 1968-1994.

Nihon shunka-ko

Sing a Song of Sex. JP 1967. PC: Sozosha. P: Takuji Yamaguchi. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Toshio Tajima, Nagisa Oshima. DP: Akira Takada - Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1 - colour. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Hikaru Hayashi. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. GRADUATE BOYS: Ichiro Araki (Toyoaki Nakamura), Koji Iwabuchi (Hideo Ueda), Kazumi Kushida (Katsumi Hiro), Hiroshi Sato (Koji Maruyama). GRADUATE GIRLS: Nobuko Miyamoto (Sanae Satomi), Hiroko Masuda (Tomoko Ikeda), Hideko Yoshida (Sachido Kaneda, Korean). - Ichimo Itami (Professor Otake), Akiko Koyama (Takako Tanigawa), Kazuko Tajima (Mayuko Fujiwara, 69). 103 min. Print: Japan Foundation, with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2009. - The colour print looks great to begin with, but the definition of light is uneven. - One of Oshima's most disturbing films. - It is winter in Tokyo. Graduates from the countryside want to enter Tokyo University. Their mentor, Professor Otake, invites them to a pub and they sing together old Japanese bawdy songs. The professor is killed at night in an inn in a gas oven accident. - Akiko Koyama plays the late professor's long-term lady friend. - The story takes place on the resurrection of the Emperor's Day, the celebration of which had been banned during the U.S. occupation. There is a demonstration against it, where workers' songs, the Warsawjanka, "This Land Is Our Land", "We Shall Overcome", etc. are sung along. - The film is almost a musical. - The protagonists interrupt the rebellious singing with bawdy songs, male and female. But the bawdy songs have also a strong dimension of social protest. - Also here there is a Korean theme: the origin of the Japanese is in Korea. - The film is deeply nihilistic and pessimistic. The boy students' sexual fantasies are violent, about raping and humiliation. The young generation does not seem better than the old one. - The girls' fantasies seem to be about being dominated, humiliated and raped, willingly. - Despite the title, there is hardly any sex and only fleeting nudity in this film. - It's more about extreme awkwardness and shyness in sexual matters.

Koshikei

Death by Hanging / [Hirttotuomio] / [Dömd att hängas]. JP 1968. PC: Sozosha, Art Theatre Guild. P: Nagisa Oshima, Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaiki, Michinori Fukao, Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka - b&w - VistaVision. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Hikaru Hayashi. ED: Sueko Shiraishi. CAST: Do-yun Yu / Yun Do Yun (R, the convict on death row, to be hanged), Hosei Komatsu (district attorney), Kei Sato (prison warden), Fumio Watanabe (education officer), Toshiro Ishido (catholic priest), Masao Adachi (chief of guards), Mutsuhiro Toura (doctor), Masao Matsuda (secretary of the D.A.), Akiko Koyama (Korean woman), Shizui Sato (prison guard), Takashi Ueni (prison guard). Commentary read by: Nagisa Oshima. 118 min. Print: New Yorker Films, with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 29 Aug 2009. - A duped print with an uneven quality of definition, from soft to better, but never worthy of the film's VistaVision origins. The subtitles are sharp. - One of three of Oshima's greatest masterpieces, together with Gishiki and Etsuraku. - The brilliant black comedy starts as a thesis film in the tradition of André Cayatte and Fritz Lang, with text and commentary only, but then there is a sharp turn to an original and macabre development. - The execution fails, the convict called R survives, but his personality has changed, and he has lost his memory. He does not even recognize concepts like "family" and "desire". - The desperate officials start to perform an elaborate series of reconstructions to teach R from scratch who he is... what his crime is... and what life is... The boundary between reality and hallucination is blurred, as a simulated woman materializes at least to many of those present. The woman is the most eloquent of them all. - The woman is Korean, and the theme of racism surfaces. In the drunken revel of the officials, their own sexual and violent obsessions surface. - The film is a witty philosophical reflection. What I did? What I am? - R accepts being R for the sake of all the R's. - In the final double execution there is a void at the end of the rope.

Natsu no imoto

Dear Summer Sister / [Kesäsisko] / [Sommarsystern]. JP 1972. PC: Sozosha-ATG. P: Takashi Ueno. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka - Eastmancolor - 1,37:1. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Toru Takemitsu. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Hosei Komatsu (Kosuke Kiguchi, the judge), Hiromi Kurita (Sunaoko, Kosuke's daughter), Lily (Momoko Kotoda, Sunaoko's private teacher), Akiko Koyama (Tsuru Omura), Shoji Ishibashi (Tsuruo Omura, Tsuru's son), Kei Sato (Shinko Kuniyoshi, a policeman), Taiji Tonoyama (Takuzo Sakurada), Mutsuhito Toura (Rintoku Teruya, singer of Okinawa folk songs). 96 min. Print: New Yorker Films, with English subtitles by Noël Burch. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2009. - The image of the print has a duped look, the colour definition is off, the print has low contrast, but the subtitles are sharp. - Nagisa Oshima's last Japanese cinema film: from then on, his films were international co-productions or tv films. - One of Oshima's strangest and curious films is about the secrets of Japan. The generation that has experienced the war as grown-ups seems to have a general mutual understanding of many things that remain incomprehensible to the younger generations and, of course, for the non-Japanese. - The sense of being puzzled in a company where the others seem to know. - Okinawa is returned to Japan after the end of the U.S. occupation. - Sunaoko, the 14-year-old girl, is in search of a boy that may be her brother. - The key sequence is towards the end of the picture. - Sunaoko and Tsuruo the apparent brother swim in the ocean, in the red sunset. - Tsuru the mother is with Shinko Kuniyoshi the policeman. Rintoku "the killer" is with with the bald drunkard in white suit Takuzo Sakurada, "the victim". Kosuke Kikuchi the judge is with Momoko "the private teacher", his new bride-to-be. Sunaoko and Tsuruo are "the savior" and "the saved one". - No one will know who is the father of Sunaoko and Tsuruo, the candidates being Kosuke or Shinko. - And if Sunaoko is now pregnant, the father can be Tsuruo her possible brother or another guy. - Further strange revelations: the strong sex drive of the Okinawan women. Okinawa as a center of prostitution during the American occupation. - Shinko Kuniyoshi had been to prison as a student rebel. He raped Tsuru Omura when his best friend Kosuke Kiguchi was in prison. Both left only pregnant women behind them. Both confess everything smilingly, and Tsuru Omura smiles, too. - "Your daughter likes mixtures, too". - It would be interesting to hear the interpretation of this film from Donald Richie, for whom this is "essential Oshima".

Century of Cinema: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema

British Film Institute: Century of Cinema: 100 Years of Japanese Cinema / Elokuvan vuosisata: Japanin elokuva. GB/JP © 1994 NHK / BBC. PC: Bob Last, Colin MacCabe. P: Eiko Oshima. D+SC: Nagisa Oshima. M: Toru Takemitsu. ED: Tomoyo Oshima. Format: video. Original in English and with English subtitles. 52 min. From: BFI Distribution, Digibeta.
The excerpts and the stills (the Finnish names are literal YLE translations, on the BFI Digibeta the films are identified by their English titles only):
Daisuke Ito: Chuji tabi nikki (Chujin matkapäiväkirja) (1927) - the silent excerpts are at overspeed, probably 25 fps
Momiji gari (Vaahterainkatselua) (1899)
Shozo Makino: Chushingura (47 roninia, 1914)
Norisama Kaeriyama: Sei no kagayaki (Synkkien vuorten neito) (1918)
Eizo Tanaka: Ikeru shikabane (Elävä ruumis) (1918)
Junichiro Tanizaki ja Thomas Kurikasa: Amateur Club (1920)
Kaoro Osanai, Minoru Murata: Rojo no reikon (Tien sielut) (1921)
Eichi Matsumoto: Kago no tori (Häkkilintu, 1924)
Yoshinobu Ikeda: Sendo kouta (Laivamiehen laulelma) (1923)
Teinosuke Kinugasa: Kurutta ippeiji (Sivu hulluutta) (1926)
Teinosuke Kinugasa: Jujiro (Tienristeys, 1928)
Tomu Uchida: Ikeru ningyo (Elävä nukke, 1929)
Kenji Mizoguchi: Tokyo koshinkyoku (Tokio-marssi) (1929)
Shigeyoshi Suzuki: Nani ga kanojo o son sasetaku? (Mikä sai hänet tekemään sen?, 1930)
Yasujiro Ozu: Umarete wa mita keredo (Synnyin, mutta… ) (1932)
Kenji Mizoguchi: Naniwa hika (Osakan elegia) (1936)
Kenji Mizoguchi: Gion no shimai (Gionin sisarukset) (1936)
Tomu Uchida: Kagirinaki zenshiu (Loputon eteneminen) (1937)
Sadao Yamanaka: Ninjo kami-fusen (Ihmisyys ja paperipallot) (1937)
Yasujiro Shimazu: Okoto to Sasuke (Okoto ja Sasuke) (1935)
Heinosuke Gosho: Jinsei no onimotsu (Elämän taakka) (1935)
Mansaku Itami: Akanishi Kakita (1936)
Hiroshi Shimizu: Kaze no naka no kodomo (Tuulen lapset) (1937)
Tomotaka Tasaka: Gonin no sekko hei (Viisi tiedustelijaa) (1938)
Mikio Naruse: Hataraku ikka (Koko perhe työssä) (1939)
Shiro Toyoda: Kojima no haru (Kevät luodolla) (1940)
Fumio Kamei: Tarakau heitai (Taisteleva armeija) (1939)
Kajiro Yamamoto: Enoken no chakkiri Kinta (Enokenin Kinta, taskuvaras) (1937)
Kajiro Yamamoto: Hawai Marei-oki kaisen (Merisota Havaijilta Malaijille) (1942)
Hiroshi Inagaki: Muhomatsu no issho (Rikshakuski) (1943) excerpt followed by the most heart-breaking superimposition in Oshima's oeuvre - the Hiroshima mushroom - and a close-up of the female star of the film, killed in Hiroshima - the only moment in an Oshima film that makes me cry
Akira Kurosawa: Waga seishun ni kui nashi (Emme kadu nuoruuttamme) (1946)
Keisuke Kinoshita: Osone-ke no asa (Aamu Osonen perheessä) (1946)
Fumio Kamei, Satsuo Yamamoto: Senso to heiwa (Sota ja rauha, 1947)
Kozaburo Yoshimura: Anjokeno butokei (Tanssiaiset Anjoken talossa) (1947)
Tadashi Imai: Aoi sanmiyaku (Sininen vuoristo) (1949)
Senkichi Taniguchi: Akatsuki no dasso (Pako aamunkoitteessa) (1950)
Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon / Rashomon (1950)
Yasujiro Ozu: Bakushu (Alkukesä) (1951)
Mikio Naruse: Meshi (Ateria) (1951)
Kenji Mizoguchi: Saikaku ichidai onna / O’Haru (1952)
Kenji Mizoguchi: Ugetsu monogatari / Kalpean kuun tarinoita (1953)
Heinosuke Gosho: Entotsu no mieru basho (Missä savupiiput näkyvät) (1953)
Shiro Toyoda: Gan (Villihanhi, 1953)
Yasujiro Ozu: Tokyo monogatari / Tokyo Story (1953)
Akira Kurosawa: Shichinin no samurai / Seitsemän samuraita (1954)
Keisuke Kinoshita: Onna no sono (Naisten puutarha) (1954) - the turning-point for Oshima: the work that revealed to him what can be done with film 
Nagisa Oshima: Seishun zankoku mono-gatari (Julma tarina nuoruudesta) (1960)
Osamu Takahashi: Kanojo dake ga shittei-nu (Vain hän tietää) (1960)
Yoshishige Yoshida: Rokudenashi (Tyhjäntoimittaja) (1960)
Masashiro Shinoda: Koi no katamichi kippu (Menolippu rakkauteen) (1960)
Tsutomo Tamura: Akunin shigan (Roisto omasta tahdostaan) (1960)
Nagisa Oshima: Nihon no yoru to kiri (Japanin yö ja usva) (1960)
Ko Nakahira: Kurutta kajitsu (Hullu hedelmä) (1956)
Kon Ichikawa: Shokei no heya (Rangaistushuone) (1956)
Yasuzo Masumura: Kuchizuke (Suudelma, 1957)
Shohei Imamura: Hateshinaki yokubo (Kyltymätön himo) (1958)
Kihachi Okamoto: Dokuritsu gurentai (Itsenäinen häirikköjoukko) (1959)
Masaki Kobayashi: Ningen no joken / Ihmisen kohtalo (1959)
Kaneto Shindo: Hadaka no shima / Alaston saari (1960)
Susumu Hani: Furyo shonen (Pahat pojat, 1961)
Hiroshi Teshigahara: Otoshi ana (Ansa, 1962)
Shohei Imamura: Nippon konchuki (Japa-nin hyönteisnainen) (1963)
Koji Wakamatsu: Akai hanko (Punainen rikos) (1964)
Koji Wakamatsu: Taiji ga mitsuryo suru toki (Kun sikiö metsästää, 1966)
Koji Wakamatsu: Okasareta hakui (Häväistyt enkelit) (1967)
Tetsui Takechi: Hakujitsumu (Päiväuni, 1964)
Tetsui Takechi: Kuroi yuki (Musta lumi, 1965)
Shuji Terayama: Sho o suteyo, machi e deyo (Kirjat hiiteen, painutaan kadulle) (1971)
Nagisa Oshima: Koshikei (Hirttokuolema, 1968)
Susumu Hani: Hatsukoi jigoku-hen / Nanami on rakkaus (1968)
Kikachi Okamoto: Nikudan (Ihmisluoti, 1968)
Masahiro Shinoda: Shinju ten no amijima (Kaksoisitsemurha) (1969)
Yoshishige Yoshida: Eros + gyakusatsu (Eros + verilöyly) (1969)
Nagisa Oshima: Shonen / Poika (1969)
Kei Kumai: Chi no mure (Joukko maan päällä) (1970)
Toshio Matsumoto: Bara no soretsu (Ruusujen hautajaissaatto) (1969)
Kazuo Kuroki: Nippon no akuryo (Japanin paha henki) (1979)
Akio Jissoji: Mujo (Katoava maailma, 1979)
Soichiro Tahara & Kunio Shimizu: Arakajimi ushinawareta koibitotachi yo (Kauan sitten menetetyt rakkaat) (1971)
Koji Wakamatsu: Tensi no kokotsu (Enkelin orgasmi) (1972)
Seijun Suzuki: Kenka ereji (Väkivallan elegia) (1966)
Seijun Suzuki: Koroshi no rakuin (Leimattu murhaajaksi (1967)
Shinsuke Ogawa: Nippon kaihosensen sanrizuka no natsu (Kesä Naritassa, 1968)
Noriaki Tsuchimoto: Partisan zenshi (Partisaanin esihistoria) (1969)
Nagisa Oshima: Gishiki / Seremonia (1971)
Kinji Fukasaku: Jingi naki tatakai (Kunniaton taistelu) (1973)
Yoji Yamada: Otoko wa tsurai yo (Miehenä olemisen tuska, Tora-san –sarjaa, 1973)
Shogoro Nishimura: Danchi zuma hi-rusagari no joji (Kotirouvan iltapäivärakkaus) (1971)
Toru Murakawa: Shiroi yubi tawamure (Valkoisten sormien flirtti) (1972)
Tatsumi Kumashiro: Nureta kuchibiru (Kosteat huulet) (1972)
Seiichiro Yamaguchi: Koi no karyudo (Rakkauden metsästäjä) (1972)
Tatsumi Kumashiro: Koibitotachi wa nureta (Kastuneet rakastavaiset) (1973)
Noboru Tanaka: Maruhi, joro seme jigoku (Prostituoidun helvetti) (1973)
Toshiya Fujita: Virgin Blues (1974)
Noboru Tanaka: Jitsuroku, Abe Sada (Tosi kertomus Abe Sadasta) (1975)
Nagisa Oshima: Ai no corrida / Aistien valtakunta (1976)
Nagisa Oshima: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence / Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Yoshimitsu Morita: Kazoku geemu (Perhe-peli) (1983)
Shinji Somai: Taifu kurabu (Taifuunikerho, 1985)
Toshihiro Ishii: Kuruizaki, Thunder Road (1980)
Kazuki Omori: Hipokuratesu tachi (Hippokrateen opetuslapset (1980)
Yojiro Takita: Komikku zasshi nanka iranai (Ei enää sarjakuvalehtiä, 1986)
Jun Ichikawa: Busu (1987)
Masashi Yamamoto: Robinson no niwa (Robinsonin puutarha) (1987)
Tsuyoshi Takamine: Untamagiru (1989)
Junji Sakamoto: Dotsuitarunen (Tyrmäysisku) (1989)
Shunichi Nagasaki: Yuwakusha (Viettelijä, 1989)
Naoto Takenaka: Muno no hito (Saamaton nahjus) (1991)
Masayuki Suo: Shiko Funjatta (Sumopainijan askelet) (1992)
Ryu Murakami: Topaz (1992)
Joji Matsuoka: Kirakira hikaru (Kimallus, 1992)
Takeshi Kitano: Sonatine / Sonatine (1993)
Hayao Miyazaki: Kaze no tani no Naushika (Tuulilaakson Nausikaa) (1984)
Kazuo Hara: Yuki yukite, Shingun (Keisarin alaston armeija marssii) (1987)
Makoto Sato: Aga ni ikiru (Elämää Agano-joella) (1992)
Katsuhiro Otomo: World Apartment Horror (1991)
Mitsuo Yanagimachi: Ai ni tsuite, Tokyo (Rakkaudesta, Tokio) (1993)
Yoichi Sai: Tsuki wa dochi ni dete iru? (Missä kuu on?) (1993)
Shozo Makino: Goketsu Jiraiya (Sankari Jiraiya) (1921)

I'm aware of the critical remarks that have been made about Oshima's Centenary of the Cinema tribute to the Japanese cinema. But Japan is one of the world's biggest and best film countries, and in crystallizing it into 52 minutes for a non-Japanese viewer Oshima has done a marvellous job. He has avoided much of the obvious, yet is always relevant and exciting. Certainly, one excerpt from Oshima's films would have been sufficient in a presentation like this, and Ichikawa and Kobayashi would have deserved film excerpts, not just still reproductions.

The Director's Place: Kyoto, My Mother's Place

GB/JP (c) 1991 BBC Scotland. D+SC+Presenter: Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka - shot on film - Eastman Kodak. LOC: Kyoto. A documentary film. Format: video. Original in English: Oshima speaks in English, and the interview parts have English subtitles. 50 min. Viewing format: Betacam SP. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2009. - An affectionate portrait of Nagisa Oshima's mother - she loved flowers in her garden - interviews with two of her childhood friends - Kyoto was traditional, the dress was the kimono - the wife's place was tough and hard - Kyoto was hot in the summer and cold in the winter - her fingers hurt with frostbite - serious, frank, tenacious - the woman's place: impossible to do anything but marry - arranged marriage - I was born in Kyoto, the family moved, but then the father died, the family returned to Kyoto - the history of Kyoto, the capital of Japan until 1868 - a city like a castle, strictly North-South = Up-Down - we lived South - Genji monogatari - Kyoto became the city of commerce - people believed in the spirits of the dead - I was the bespectacled schoolboy in an age that admired physical strength - I was crazy about history - Oshima was a long established samurai warrior family - Genji and Heike the samurai clans - the double power of the Emperor and the Shogun - slowly Kyoto changed into the capital of commerce and manufacture - during wartime, there was no big bombing of Kyoto - we were shocked by the defeat - the shortage of food was very serious - mother had to sell her kimonos for rice - calligraphy - KANNI = PATIENCE - Shingaku philosophy of the heart: don't gossip, don't meddle, careful with fire, patient with everything, clean up carefully - I could not be patient - student movement, student theatre: I was a clumsy actor, and not a promising director - 1954: assistant director at Shochiku Ofuna studios, expelled - Chiomi - graveyeard, husband's family, Japanese cemeteries different from the Western ones, paradise is far away in the West - my mother was not an original Kyoto woman, she was different, a stranger, but she looked like a born Kyoto woman - she kept to that way all her life - when I became a film director in 1959, married an actress and our first son was born I invited my mother to live with us - she devoted the rest of her life to our two sons - she said that she was deceived to become a nursemaid - there was a terrible truth in that joke - only once she left our home, but she returned on the same day, and my wife apologized - she was always cheerful, always with a sense of humour, always joking, never stopped smiling - never free - forced by Kyoto - Kyoto had such power - I hated Kyoto - but my life, my work, my kimono are from Kyoto

Kaette kita yopporai

Three Resurrected Drunkards / Sinner in Paradise [title on screen] / [Kolmen juopon ylösnousemus] / [Tre uppståndna supare]. JP 1968. PC: Sozosha. P: Takuji Yamaguchi. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Masao Adachi, Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka – Eastmancolor – Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Hikaru Hayashi. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Kazuhiko Kato ("O-noppo" The Big One), Osamu Kitayama ("Chunoppo" The Smallest One), Norihiko Hashida ("Chibi" The Smallest One) - Kei Sato (I Chong-Iru, Korean soldier), Cha Dei-Dang (Kim Fhua, Korean college student) - Fumio Watanabe (Dokumushi), Mako Midori (The Beautiful One, Dokumushi's adopted daughter and lover) - Taiji Tonoyama (the old lady of the tobacco shop), Hosei Komatsu (fisherman), Masao Adachi (policeman), Takashi Ueno (policeman), Mutsuhiro Toura. 80 min. A Japan Foundation (Tokyo) print with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 28 Aug 2009. - A brilliant print in perfect 1960s pop colour. - A complete change for Oshima: a pop film with affinities with The Beatles, Frank Tashlin and Jean-Luc Godard. - A parodic romp of three young pop boys on the beach. Their clothes are stolen by illegal Korean immigrants, and the boys themselves are taken for Koreans. - Oshima's only real comedy? - Yet with serious thems such as the situation of the Koreans, the Vietnam War, and the generation gap (the oppression of Mako Midori by Fumio Watanabe). - The music, always interesting in Oshima's 1960s films, is funny. - In the middle of the film there is a great narrative surprise for the audience.

Hakuchu no torima

Violence at Noon / [Keskipäivän demoni] / [Demonen mitt på dagen]. JP 1966. PC: Sozosha. P: Masayuki Nakajima. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsuton Tamura – based on a short story by Taijun Takeda. DP: Akira Takada - b&w - Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1. AD: Jusho Toda. M: Hikaru Hayashi. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Kei Sato (Eisuke), Saeda Kawaguchi (Shino), Akiko Koyama (Matsuko), Mutsuhiro Toura (Genji Hiuga), Hosei Komatsu (Shino's father), Hideko Kawaguchi (Matsuko's mother), Teruko Kishi (Shino's grandmother), Taiji Tonoyama (schoolmaster), Sen Yano (village counsel), Hideo Kanze (Inagaki), Fumio Watanabe (inspector Haraguchi), Ryoko Takahara (the woman in the hospital), Shigemi Kayashima (teacher). 99 min. A Janus Films print with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 28 Aug 2009. - A clean, intact print of a film with an extremely original definition of light. The definition of light in the print is not perfect but pays justice to the concept. - One of Oshima's seminal films. - Based on a true story of a serial killer, a rapist and a murderer in the 1950s, who became the "High Noon Killer" of the headlines. He is not insane, but devoid of conscience. - The film is a hard look at brutal crime, which has no rational explanation, not even insanity. - The reality of the crime is strange and complex in itself, but Oshima also builds his film as a jigsaw puzzle which starts to make sense first after the screening. - The setting is a mountain village in the Shinshu district in the north of Honshu. A group of young people establish a collective farm, but the experiment is a grave disappointment, which leads to the suicide of Genji, the son of the village chairman, and the suicide attempt of his girlfriend, Shino. Eisuke, who had followed them with the assignment to prevent the suicide attemps, is married to the teacher Matsuko. The double suicide scene triggers in him a strange reaction: he rapes what he thinks is the corpse of Shino. But Shino is revived. Eisuke starts his rapist-homicidal spree with 35 victims. In the end Matsuko and Shino try to repeat the double suicide, but again, Shino survives. - This film demands repeated viewings to be fully appreciated. - Uniquely original cinematography, montage, and a brilliant jazz-like score in counterpoint to the subject.

Etsuraku

Pleasures of the Flesh / [Lihan ilot] / [Köttets lust]. JP 1965. PC: Sozosha. P: Masayuki Nakajima. D+SC: Nagisa Oshima – based on the novel Kan no naka no Etsuraku by Futuro Yamada. DP: Akira Takada - Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1 - Eastmancolor. AD: Yasutaro Kon. M: Joji Yuasa. The theme song "Etsuraku". ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Ketsuo Nakamura (Atsushi Wakisaka), Mariko Kaga (Shoko Inaba), Yumiko Nogawa (Hitomi), Masako Yagi (Shizuko), Toshiko Higuchi (Keiko), Hiroko Shimizu (Mari), Shoichi Ozawa (Hayami), Shoji Kobayashi (the rapist), Masahiko Naruse (Shoko's father), Daigo Kusano (Kudo), Mutsuhiro Toura (Sakurai), Hosei Komatsu (Eshiro), Shinko Ujie (Shoko's mother), Kei Sato (inspector Keji), Akira Hamada, Toru Emori, Fumio Watanabe (Hitomi's goons). 104 min. A Janus Films print with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 27 Aug 2009. - A delicious print with a beautiful photochemical colour quality. - My favourite Nagisa Oshima film so far. - He made it after a three year silence as a cinema director. The approach is completely different, still bold, daring and original, but more assured than before. - The story has affinities with La Chienne, Vertigo and Peeping Tom, but there is no imitation there. - There is a strong dream feeling. - A subjective first-person story. The first-person-viewpoint is unreliable, but the hallucinations are immediately revealed as such. - It is a nightmarish story of a decent man drawn to crime and promiscuity. - Having made a great sacrifice to his beloved Shoko and having lost her to another man, Atsushi has access to a stash of 30 million Yen of embezzled public funds. In his desperation, he decides to spend it all to women and then die. - But because of his basic decency Atsushi is not able to be as cynical as he would like. The women he buys emerge as real human beings, whom he is unable to objectify as paid playthings. The first woman is a married showgirl connected with the yakuza, the second woman is a poor married countrywoman whose child is sick, the third woman is a doctor who has left her job in a hospital because of sexual harassment, the fourth woman to whom Atsushi spends his last yens is a promiscuous mute prostitute Mari under the protection of a petty gangster. - The gangster wants to employ Atsushi to find out about a hidden stash of money, because its owner has died in prison... And finally Shoko appears, impoverished, wanting to borrow a large amount of money... - Despite the title, there is hardly any sex in the film, and no nudity. - It is an ironic crime story of a pathologically shy man who is afraid to live. Among the women in the film, the repressed woman doctor is most closely his soulmate. - The final revelation is that Shoko has never really loved Atsushi, nor has she ever been worthy of him. - Excellent cinematography, profoundly cinematic storytelling, a haunting score and soundtrack. - The Ibsenian concept "livslögn" (life-lie, life-deception, life-illusion) is the keyword here.

Ninja bugei-cho

Band of Ninja / Ninja [the English title on screen] /[Ninjan sotakirja] / [Ninjas krigsbok]. JP 1967. PC: Sozosha. P: Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Nagisa Oshima and Mamoru Sasaki – based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato (1957). DP: Akira Takada – b&w - 1,37:1. M: Hikaru Hayashi. Theme song: "Ninga bugei-cho". Singer: Sumito Tachikawa. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. Voices in the Japanese version: Shoichi Ozawa (commentary), Kei Yamamoto (Jutaro Yuki), Akiko Koyama (Akemi), Kei Sato (Shuzen Sakagami), Noriko Matsumoto (Hotarubi), Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Mufu-dojin), Hideo Kanxe (Nobutsuna Kamiizumi), Shigeru Tsuyguchi (Mitsuhide Akechi), Fumio Yatanabe (Nobunaga Oda / Kynnyo), Hikaru Hayashi (Tokichiro Kinoshita), Mutsuhiro Toura (Kagemaru), Hosei Komatsu (Onikichi / Zoruko), Nobuo Tanaka (Munetoshi Yaguy), Juro Hayano (chief of Raiunto). [Japanese version 131 min.] On display was the short English-language version, 100 min. Print: Kawakita Memorial. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 27 Aug 2009. - A decent print of the short version. The film is probably more watchable in the short version. - This is a ninja action manga film. This is not animation (or anime) in the true sense, as the film is photographed from the frames of Sanpei Shirato's manga, and the cinematic impact is based on movement inside and into the manga frames, on montage, and on the soundtrack (music, song, commentary, voices, sound effects). - The birth of the ninjutsu and the ninja in the 16th century. A rebellious jidai-geki based on the manga favoured by the student radicals of the 1960s. - At first the film based on static drawings feels jarring and disappointing. Towards the end it gets more effective. - The story is very cruel and violent, and there are endless battle scenes. - Women have a prominent role as fearless fighters, including a pregnant lady and a nude ninja fighter. - The final message: "keep on fighting until all men can live equally". - The music by Hikaru Hayashi is original and effective. There is a theme song resembling of the western. The singer Sumito Tachikawa has an attractive voice. - Not a profound or sophisticated film, but an interesting experiment, one that one would not wish to be repeated in a feature film. - Antti Suonio remarked that a similar approach is now commonplace in dvd extras.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada / Shiro Amakusa: The Christian Rebel

天草四郎時貞 / [Shiro Amakusa: kristitty kapinallinen] / [Shiro Amakusa: den kristna rebellen]. JP 1962. PC: Toei. EX: Yasutaro Kon. P: Hiroshi Okawa. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Nagisa Oshima, Toshira Ishido. DP: Shintaro Kawasaki ‒ b&w ‒ Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1. M: Riichiro Manabe. ED: Shintaro Miyamoto.
    CAST: Hashizo Okawa (Amakusa Shiro Tokisada), Satomi Oka (Sakura), Ryutaro Otomo (Shinbei Oka), Rentaro Mikuni (Uemonsaku), Sayuri Tachikawa, Takamaru Sasaki, Choichiro Kawarazaki, Takao Yoshizawa, Kei Sato, Mutsuhiro Toura. 100 min.
    A Kawakita Memorial print with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 26 Aug 2009.

Another surprise from the young Nagisa Oshima: a full-blooded jidai-geki, with grand, tragic action, and reversing samurai expectations with a novel aspect: Christianity, which takes (or should take) literally Jesus' word of turning the other cheek.

In 1637, peasants are bitterly oppressed by the landlord, and the oppression is enforced by the cruel samurai. The sadism of the oppressors with their torture chambers is underlined. Women are fair game for the landlord, too. The debates among the Christian peasants are thrilling. But finally they are driven to such despair that they start to rebel against impossible odds. 37.000 Christian believers died in action led by Shiro of Amakusa.

The visual concept is bold (DP: Shintaro Kawasaki): the picture starts in the dark, and much of the action takes place at night. The takes are often static but intensive. Then there are huge, expressive close-ups. In the action scenes the scope frame is brilliantly put into use.

The music by Riichiro Manabe is original and effective: muted but compelling, portentous without over-emphasis, relying on the power of the image, his sound is unique and memorable.

A film of tragic grandeur.

The print is watchable but with a duped look, deep black often missing. The image gets better towards the end.

Shiiku

The Catch / [Saalis] / [Bytet]. JP 1961. PC: Palace Film. P: Saburo Tajima, Masayuki Nakajima. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Toshio Matsuma, Toshiro Ishido, Shomei Tomatsu – based on the short story (1957) by Kenzaburo Oe. DP: Yoshitsugu Tonegawa - b&w - scope 2,35:1. AD: Itsuro Hirata. M: Riichiro Manabe. ED: Miyuri Miyamori. CAST: Hugh Hard (the black U.S. war prisoner), Rentaro Mikuni (Kazumasa Takano), Sadako Sawamura (Katsu), Eiko Oshima (Mikiko), Masako Nakamura (Hisako), Kyu Sazanka (Denmatsu Tsukada), Teruko Kishi (Masu), Yoko Mihara (Sachiko), Shigeyuki Makie (Osamu), Masaomi Kyosu (Takashi), Yoshi Kato (Yoichi Kokubo), Toshiro Ishido (Jiro), Toshio Irizumi (Hashiro), Ton Shimada (Kadoya), Meiji Kurosaka (Haruo), Tsune Imahashi (poacher), Toshio Kokota (Tadao), Hoichi Takeda (Jisaku), Akiko Koyama (Hiroko Ishii), Kyoko Uehara (Yurie), Itsuko Uehara (Momoko), Toura Mutsuhiro (village official), Hosei Komatsu (village policeman). 104 min. Print: a new print from Kawakita Memorial with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 25 Aug 2009. - Unfortunately the image is soft in this otherwise immaculate print (the subtitles are sharp, the image is soft, and at ca 65 min the image has low contrast). - A complete change for Oshima: a war period drama based on Kenzaburo Oe, the future Nobel prize winner. This is a compact study of the wartime psychodynamics of a remote village, where a wounded black US air force soldier is taken as prisoner just before the end of the war. The whole spectrum of reactions is evident: tenderness, sympathy, courtesy, indifference, bullying, bigotry, sadism. There are decent people, cruel manipulators, a lecherous rich and influential boss, a village fool lady, children, and old people. The black catch is a catalyst to a whole gamut of reactions. - The takes are long, there is a tendency to real duration. Therefore the film gets somewhat flegmatic, and it is at times difficult to keep the attention. The film is somewhat loose, rambling and extends a compact subject a bit too much. - The black man becomes a scapegoat for everything.  Some would like to have him escape into the mountains. But the cruel boss shoots him. - This is an account of cowardice. - The picture is overlong, but there are interesting solutions in cinematography and music there.

Taiyo no hakaba

The Sun's Burial / [Auringon hautajaiset] / [Solens begravning]. JP 1960. PC: Shochiku. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Nagisa Oshima, Toshiro Ishido. DP: Takashi Kawamata - Eastmancolor - Shochiku Grandcope 2,35:1. DP: Koji Uno. M: Riichiro Manabe. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Kayoko Hondo (Hanako), Junaburo Ban (Yosematsu, Hanako's father), Fumio Watanabe (Yosehei), Kamatari Fujiwara (Batasuke, the ragman), Tanie Kitabayashi (Chika, Batasuke's wife), Eitaro Ozawa (The Agitator). English subtitles. Print: Japan Foundation. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 20 Aug 2009. - Brilliant print. - Oshima's grim vision, the counter-image of Japan's economic miracle, the slum with its human misery, organized robbery, even murder, illegal blood banks, trading identities, rags, guns, women's flesh. - The cruelty of the crimes is accompanied by gentle guitar music. - The colour scheme is bold, dominated by red. - Crueller than Miracolo a Milano and Dodeskaden, crueller than even Los olvidados. - Hanako, the woman without soul, love and conscience, is the most shocking figure in the film.

Muri-shinjo: Nihon no natsu

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide / [Japanilainen kesä: kaksoisitsemurha] / [Japansk sommar: dubbelsjälvmord]. JP 1967. PC: Sozosha. D: Nagisa Oshima. SC: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Nagisa Oshima. DP: Yasuhiro Yoshioka - b&w - scope. AD: Toda Jusho. M: Hikaru Hayashi. ED: Keiichi Uraoka. CAST: Keiko Sakurai (Nejiko), Kei Sato (Otoko), Mutsushiro Toura (Television), Shunsuke Mizoguchi (Tsukibito, Television's assistant), Taji Tonoyama (Hanging Tree), Masakazu Tamura (Boy). 98 min. Print: Janus Films, with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 17 Aug 2009. - Brilliant definition of light. - Cinema of the absurd in an universe of sex and violence. The leading lady Nejiko wants to find a man to make love to her. The leading man Otoko wants to find someone to kill him. - The yakuza prison milieu does not make sense. - There is a sniper who is being hunted by the police. - In the final shoot-out the desperadoes escaping from the yakuza prison meet the sniper and the police. - This picture is a mad show of the death instinct.

In the Realm of Oshima (opening event)

Cinema Orion, 17 Aug 2009. Inaugurating the first complete Nagisa Oshima retrospective in Finland, as a part of the Helsinki Festival, launched by James Quandt in Cinematheque Ontario, and starting its European leg in Helsinki. The event is also a part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Finnish-Japanese diplomatic relations. The Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Hiroshi Maruyama, honoured the occasion with his presence. Professor Jarmo Valkola made the opening presentation. He also screened his tv interview documentary
Aistien visioita: Nagisa Oshima [Visions of the Senses: Nagisa Oshima]. FI 1989. D+SC: Jarmo Valkola. Video. 30 min. - Invited by Jarmo Valkola, Nagisa Oshima visited Jyväskylä, Finland, for a week in 1989, and this tv documentary, shot with the best available video camera, was filmed then. Oshima insisted in speaking in English.
The cinema was packed.