44-508: Nagisa Ōshima ( 大島 渚 , Ōshima Nagisa , March 31, 1932 – January 15, 2013) was a Japanese filmmaker, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and as one of the most important figures of the Japanese New Wave (Nūberu bāgu), alongside Shōhei Imamura . His film style
88-639: A biopic entitled Hollywood Zen based on the life of Issei actor Sessue Hayakawa . The script had been allegedly completed and set to film in Los Angeles, but due to constant delays, declining health, and Ōshima's eventual death in 2013 (see below), the project went unrealized. Having a degree of fluency in English, in the 2000s, Ōshima worked as a translator . He translated four books by John Gray into Japanese, including Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus . Ōshima died on January 15, 2013, of pneumonia. He
132-541: A certificate . However, in the Maritimes , the film was rejected again as the policies followed in the 1970s were still enforced. In Brazil, the film was banned during the military dictatorship due to its explicit sex scenes. The ban was lifted in 1980. Due to its sexual themes and explicit scenes, the film was the cause of great controversy in Portugal in 1991 after it aired on RTP . Some deemed it inappropriate even for
176-571: A Shinjuku Thief unites a number of Ōshima's thematic concerns within a dense, collage-style presentation. Featuring a title which alludes to Jean Genet 's The Thief's Journal , the film explores the links between sexual and political radicalism, specifically examining the day-to-day life of a would-be radical whose sexual desires take the form of kleptomania . The fragmented narrative is interrupted by commentators, including Kara Jūrō 's underground performance troupe, starring Kara Jūrō, his then wife Ri Reisen, and Maro Akaji (who would go on to lead
220-591: A film on the theme of capital punishment and anti-Korean sentiment , was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968. His most controversial film is In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan. Nagisa Ōshima was born into a family of aristocratic samurai roots. His father was a government official who had a large library. Ōshima spent very little time with his father, who died when he
264-559: A number of visual techniques associated with the cinematic new wave in a densely layered narrative. It was placed third in Kinema Jumpo 's 1968 poll, and has also garnered significant attention globally. Death By Hanging inaugurated a string of films (continuing through 1976's In the Realm of the Senses ) that clarified a number of Ōshima's key themes, most notably a need to question social constraints, and to similarly deconstruct received political doctrines. Months later, Diary of
308-487: A precursor of the New Wave and had been received enthusiastically by Ōshima upon its release. In addition, Film scholar David Desser placed director Kaneto Shindō next to Masumura as a "crucial" (Desser) predecessor and contemporary of the New Wave. Themes addressed by the New Wave included radical politics , juvenile delinquency , uninhibited sexuality, changing roles of women in society, LGBTQI+ culture, racism and
352-425: A stroke, but he recovered enough to return to directing in 1999 with the samurai film Taboo ( Gohatto ), set during the bakumatsu era and starring Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence actor Takeshi Kitano . Ryuichi Sakamoto , who had both acted in and composed for Lawrence , provided the score. He subsequently suffered more strokes, and Gohatto proved to be his final film. Ōshima had initially planned to create
396-467: A thematic exploration of bigotry and xenophobia, themes which would be explored in greater depth in the later documentary Diary of Yunbogi , and feature films Death by Hanging and Three Resurrected Drunkards . He embarked upon a period of work in television, producing a series of documentaries; notably among them 1965's Diary Of Yunbogi . Based upon an examination of the lives of street children in Seoul, it
440-446: Is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima . It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Abe . An international coproduction of France and Japan, the film generated great controversy at the time of its release. The film had the involvement of pink film luminary Kōji Wakamatsu as co-screenwriter and assistant producer. While intended for mainstream wide release ,
484-575: Is available in uncut form in France, Germany, the United States (as part of The Criterion Collection), the Netherlands, Belgium and several other territories. In Canada, when originally submitted to the provincial film boards in the 1970s, the film was rejected in all jurisdictions except Quebec , Manitoba and British Columbia . It was not until 1991 that individual provinces approved the film and gave it
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#1732891117619528-429: Is most excited by strangling him during lovemaking , and he is killed in this fashion. Sada then severs his penis . While she is shown next to him naked, it is mentioned that she will walk around with his organ for four days before being arrested while smiling radiantly. Words written with blood can be read on his chest: "Sada Kichi the two of us forever." The film explores themes of sexual obsession, power dynamics, and
572-410: Is sometimes viewed as a minor classic but never found a mainstream audience. Max, Mon Amour (1986), written with Luis Buñuel 's frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière , was a comedy about a diplomat's wife ( Charlotte Rampling ) whose love affair with a chimpanzee is quietly incorporated into an eminently civilised ménage à trois . For much of the 1980s and 1990s, he served as president of
616-594: The Directors Guild of Japan . He won the inaugural Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award in 1960. A collection of Ōshima's essays and articles was published in English in 1993 as Cinema, Censorship and the State . In 1995 he wrote and directed the archival documentary '100 Years of Japanese Cinema' for the British Film Institute . A critical study by Maureen Turim appeared in 1998. In 1996 Ōshima suffered
660-490: The watershed slot, while others appreciated its airing. The film aired again on RTP2 , almost unnoticed. In France, the film sold 1,730,874 tickets, grossing approximately € 4,673,360 ($ 5,203,732). In Germany, where it was released in 1978, the film sold 693,628 tickets, grossing approximately €1,803,433 ($ 2,446,050). Combined, the film sold 2,424,502 tickets and grossed approximately $ 7,649,782 in France and Germany. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes ,
704-737: The French term "nouvelle vague") is a term for a group of loosely-connected Japanese films and filmmakers between the late 1950s and part of the 1970s. The most prominent representatives include directors Nagisa Ōshima , Yoshishige Yoshida , Masahiro Shinoda and Shōhei Imamura . The term New Wave was coined after the French Nouvelle vague , a movement which had challenged the traditions of their national cinema in style and content, countering established narratives and genres with "the ambiguous complexities of human relationships" and polished techniques with deliberately rough ones, and introducing
748-525: The Japanese New Wave began to come apart. While Ōshima had to look for investors outside of Japan, Imamura and Hani switched to documentary filmmaking for television, and Shinoda retreated to "academic" (Jacoby) adaptations of classic literature. In the Realm of the Senses In the Realm of the Senses (French: L'Empire des sens , Japanese: 愛のコリーダ , Ai no Korīda , "Bullfight of Love" )
792-472: The Realm of the Senses , a film based on a true story of fatal sexual obsession in 1930s Japan. Ōshima, a critic of censorship and his contemporary Akira Kurosawa 's humanism, was determined that the film should feature unsimulated sex and thus the undeveloped film had to be transported to France to be processed. An uncensored version of the movie is still unavailable in Japan. A book with stills and script notes from
836-538: The Realm of the Senses , Empire of Passion , Ōshima took a more restrained approach to depicting the sexual passions of the two lovers driven to murder, and the film won the 1978 Cannes Film Festival award for best director. In 1983 Ōshima had a critical success with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , a film partly in English and set in a wartime Japanese prison camp, and featuring rock star David Bowie and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto , alongside Takeshi Kitano . The movie
880-486: The Shochiku New Wave were Cruel Story of Youth and Night and Fog in Japan (both 1960, dir. Ōshima), Blood Is Dry (1960, dir. Yoshida) and Dry Lake (1960, dir. Shinoda). Pigs and Battleships , released by Nikkatsu the following year, exemplified Shōhei Imamura's status as a director of the New Wave. The (possible) influences on these filmmakers are diverse: While Ōshima's antecedents have been seen in
924-443: The blurred lines between violence and love, representing extreme consequences of resistance to social repression. The film was released under the title of In the Realm of the Senses in the U.S. and the U.K., and under L'Empire des sens ( Empire of the Senses ) in France. The French title was taken from Roland Barthes 's book about Japan, L'Empire des signes ( Empire of Signs , 1970). The original Japanese title Ai no Korīda
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#1732891117619968-582: The butoh troupe Dairakudakan). Yokoo Tadanori , an artist who created many of the iconic theatre posters during the 1960s and '70s, plays the thief, who gets a bit part in Kara's performance. The film also features a psychoanalyst, the president of Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjuku, and an impromptu symposium featuring actors from previous Ōshima films (along with Ōshima himself), all dissecting varied aspects of shifting sexual politics, as embodied by various characters within
1012-484: The controversy, Night and Fog in Japan placed tenth in that year's Kinema Jumpo 's best-films poll of Japanese critics, and it has subsequently amassed considerable acclaim abroad. In 1961 Ōshima directed The Catch , based on a novella by Kenzaburō Ōe about the relationship between a wartime Japanese village and a captured African American serviceman. The Catch has not traditionally been viewed as one of Ōshima major works, though it did notably introduce
1056-529: The egg. The film was not available on home video until 1990, although it was sometimes seen uncut in film clubs . At the time, the only European country in which the film was banned was Belgium . The ban was lifted in 1994, and Belgium has not censored a film of any kind since. At the time of its initial screening at the 1976 London Film Festival , the British Board of Film Censors recommended that it be shown under private cinema club conditions to avoid
1100-554: The film contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors ( Eiko Matsuda and Tatsuya Fuji , among others). In 1936 Tokyo, Sada Abe is a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. The hotel's owner, Kichizo Ishida, initiates an intense affair that consists of sexual experiments and various self-indulgences. Ishida leaves his wife to pursue his affair with Sada. Sada becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of Ishida, and Ishida more eager to please her. Their mutual obsession escalates until Ishida finds that she
1144-530: The film was published by San’ichishobo, and in 1976 the Japanese government brought obscenity charges against Ōshima and San’ichishobo. Ōshima testified in the trial and said. "Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden." Ōshima and the publisher were found not guilty in 1979; the government appealed and the Tokyo High Court upheld the verdict in 1982. In his 1978 companion film to In
1188-434: The film's sexual activity was optically censored using reframing and blurring. A book with stills and script notes from the film was published by San’ichishobo, and in 1976 the Japanese government brought obscenity charges against Ōshima and San’ichishobo. Ōshima testified in the trial and said. "Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden." Ōshima and the publisher were found not guilty in 1979;
1232-431: The film. Boy (1969), based on another real-life case, was the story of a family who use their child to make money by deliberately getting involved in road accidents and making the drivers pay compensation. The Ceremony (1971) is a satirical film on traditional Japanese attitudes, famously expressed in a scene where a marriage ceremony has to go ahead even though the bride is not present. In 1976, Ōshima made In
1276-482: The government appealed and the Tokyo High Court upheld the verdict in 1982. In the United States, the film was initially banned upon its premiere at the 1976 New York Film Festival but was later screened uncut, and a similar fate awaited the film when it was released in West Germany. It was also banned because of a scene in which Kichi pushes an egg into Sada's vagina , forcing her to push it out before Kichi eats
1320-504: The major studios, and favored non-actors and improvisation when possible. The documentaries Hani had made during the 1950s ( Children in the Classroom and Children Who Draw ) had introduced a style of cinéma vérité documentary to Japan, and were of great interest to other filmmakers. Kon Ichikawa , Yasuzō Masumura and Seijun Suzuki have also been encompassed with the term. Masumura's debut film Kisses (1957) has often been cited as
1364-480: The mid-1960s, Ōshima, Yoshida and Shinoda had all left Shochiku and produced their films independently, as did Imamura. At the same time, Ōshima and Yoshida were the representatives of the New Wave who rejected both the term and the notion of a "movement" the most rigorously. Other directors associated with the New Wave included Hiroshi Teshigahara , Toshio Matsumoto and former documentary filmmaker Susumu Hani . Hani directed his works almost entirely outside of
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1408-529: The need for heavy cuts, but only after the Obscene Publications Act had been extended to films in 1977 to avoid potential legal problems. The film opened at the Gate Cinema Club in 1978. It was given an official countrywide cinema release in 1991, though the video release was delayed until 2000 when it was passed with an "18" certificate (suitable for adults only). All of the adult sexual activity
1452-420: The position of ethnic minorities in Japan. The Art Theatre Guild , originally co-initiated and co-financed by Toho to distribute foreign art films, became an important factor in the distribution of these films, sometimes also acting as producer. As funding outside of the studio system became increasingly difficult in the 1970s, with the big studios finding themselves in a decline (largely owed to television),
1496-553: The theories of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Bertolt Brecht , and in the Japanese Leftist theatre (an influence of Jean-Luc Godard on Ōshima has been alleged, but also questioned), Yoshida was an outspoken admirer of Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman . Kido soon withdrew his support for these films (due to commercial failure according to film scholar Alexander Jacoby, due to the uncompromising political content of Ōshima's films according to historian Donald Richie ). By
1540-597: The theory that directors should be the auteurs of their films. Unlike the French counterpart, the Japanese New Wave originated within the film studio establishment, especially Shochiku , whose head Shirō Kido hoped that "cheaply made, innovative pictures could emulate the success of the Nouvelle Vague in Europe". This policy saw the emergence of filmmakers like Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, and Masahiro Shinoda (all three Shochiku employees). Important early examples of
1584-466: The traditional political left, and his frustrations with the right, and Shochiku withdrew the film from circulation after less than a week, claiming that, following the recent assassination of the Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma by the ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi , there was a risk of "unrest". Ōshima left the studio in response, and launched his own independent production company. Despite
1628-817: Was 80. The 2013 edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival scheduled a retrospective of Ōshima films in September. Blue Ribbon Awards 1961 Night and Fog in Japan & Cruel Story of Youth – Best New Director 2000 Taboo – Best Director & Best Film Cannes Film Festival 1978 Empire of Passion – Best Director (Prix de la mise en scène) Kinema Junpo Awards 1969 Death by Hanging – Best Screenplay 1972 The Ceremony – Best Director , Best Film & Best Screenplay 1984 Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – Readers' Choice Award for Best Film Nagisa Oshima
1672-466: Was bold, innovative and provocative. Common themes in his work include youthful rebellion, class and racial discrimination and taboo sexuality. His first major film was his second feature, Cruel Story of Youth (1960), one of the first Japanese New Wave films, a youth-oriented film with an earnest portrayal of the sexual lives and criminal activities of its young protagonists. And he came to greater international renown after Death By Hanging (1968),
1716-522: Was known for the protean nature of his work. From one film to the next, he would frequently shuffle between black-and-white and color, between academy ratio and widescreen , between long takes and fragmented cutting, and between formally composed images and a cinéma vérité style. In multiple interviews, Oshima has named Luis Buñuel as a director he profoundly admires. The influence of Buñuel's work can be seen as early as in The Sun's Burial (1960) , which
1760-471: Was later reimagined as the title of the 1979 funk song " Ai No Corrida ", originally recorded by Chaz Jankel and later brought to success by Quincy Jones in 1981. Strict censorship laws in Japan would not have allowed the film to be made according to Ōshima's vision. This obstruction was bypassed by officially listing the production as a French enterprise, and the undeveloped footage was shipped to France for processing and editing. At its premiere in Japan,
1804-491: Was left intact, but a shot in which Sada yanks the penis of a prepubescent boy after he misbehaves was reframed, zooming in so that only the reaction of the boy was shown. In Australia , the film was originally banned, but a censored version was made available in 1977. In 2000, it finally became available in its complete version. The graphic sexual content of the production also caused it to be banned in Israel in 1987. The film
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1848-562: Was made by Ōshima after a trip to South Korea. Ōshima directed three features in 1968. The first of these - Death by Hanging (1968) presented the story of the failed execution of a young Korean for rape and murder, and was loosely based upon an actual crime and execution which had taken place in 1958. The film utilizes non-realistic "distancing" techniques after the fashion of Bertold Brecht or Jean-Luc Godard to examine Japan's record of racial discrimination against its Korean minority, incorporating elements of farce and political satire, and
1892-743: Was possibly inspired by Los Olvidados , and as late as in Max, Mon Amour (1986), for which Oshima worked with Jean-Claude Carrière , a frequent collaborator of Buñuel's. Film scholars who have focused on the work of Ōshima include Isolde Standish , a film theorist specializing in East Asia . She teaches courses on Ōshima at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and wrote extensively on him as for example: Japanese New Wave The Japanese New Wave ( ヌーベルバーグ , Nūberu bāgu , Japanese transliteration of
1936-759: Was six, which left a deep mark on him. Ōshima would point to this as the most important event of his childhood in his 1992 essay My Father's Non-existence: A Determining Factor in My Existence . After graduating from Kyoto University in 1954, where he studied political history, Ōshima was hired by film production company Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959. Ōshima's cinematic career and influence developed very swiftly, and such films as Cruel Story of Youth , The Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan followed in 1960. The last of these 1960 films explored Ōshima's disillusionment with
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