Happy Birthday, Nagisa Ôshima! Born today in 1932, this Japanese screenwriter and film director created artistically challenging motion pictures that defied social conventions.
Among his credits, Ôshima is best known for directing the 1976 French-Japanese pornographic drama/thriller art film 'Ai no korīda' ('In the Realm of the Senses'), the 1983 British/New Zealand/Japanese war drama film 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and the 1999 Japanese drama/history film 'Gohatto' ('Taboo').
Of these, Ôshima is best known for directing ‘In the Realm of the Senses’ and ‘Taboo’.
As for the film, it generated great controversy during its release; while intended for mainstream wide release.
It contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors Fuji and Matsuda, among others. Inevitably, the film received an NC-17 rating.
The latter film tells about homosexuality in the Shinsengumi (“New Chosen Brigade”) set during the bakumatsu period. This was the end of the samurai era in the mid-19th century.
The film was also based on his other work, being the 1962 historical fiction novel Moeyo Ken (Burn, O Sword). The former depicts the stories of the Shinsengumi.
Of these, Ôshima is best known for directing ‘In the Realm of the Senses’ and ‘Taboo’.
The former film tells of erstwhile prostitute Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda). Now working as a servant, she begins a torrid affair with her married employer, Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji).
'In the Realm of the Senses’ had been based on notorious prewar Japanese woman, geisha and prostitute Sada Abe.
Also a murderess, she had strangled her married lover in an erotic game of death. On May 18, 1936, she cut off his penis and testicles and carried them around with her in her kimono.
As for the film, it generated great controversy during its release; while intended for mainstream wide release.
It contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors Fuji and Matsuda, among others. Inevitably, the film received an NC-17 rating.
The latter film tells about homosexuality in the Shinsengumi (“New Chosen Brigade”) set during the bakumatsu period. This was the end of the samurai era in the mid-19th century.
The film observes life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting.
A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda).
A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda).
However, the school's stern master Kondō Isami (Yoichi Sai) can either choose to intervene or to let Kano decide his own path.
The film also co-stars Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author Takeshi Kitano (‘Fireworks’) as Vice-Commander Hijikata Toshizō.
‘Taboo’ was a Japanese television jidaigeki (period drama) that was broadcast in 1998. It was based on Japanese author Ryōtarō Shiba's eponymous 1967 novel Shinsengumi Keppūroku.
The film was also based on his other work, being the 1962 historical fiction novel Moeyo Ken (Burn, O Sword). The former depicts the stories of the Shinsengumi.
Throughout his career, Ôshima confirmed the boundary-pushing filmmaking status as perhaps the greatest director of postwar Japanese cinema.
Japanese film director Shôhei Imamura ('The Ballad of Narayama') once made a famous pronouncement: “I’m a country farmer; Nagisa Ôshima is a samurai."
Perhaps Ôshima himself provided the clue for this transition: he once commented that, along with sex and crime, that over the years love had become the third element in his cinema.
Ôshima had been active from 1953–1999.
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