Pop Avant-Garde Violence: The Films Of Koji Wakamatsu by Hunter Jack

Author:Hunter, Jack [Hunter, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Film Studies
ISBN: 9781908694676
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2013-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

NOTES

[1] Tetsuji Takechi’s Daydream (Hakujitsumu) is generally considered to be the first major pink film. Tachechi has since became known as the “Godfather of Japanese porno cinema”. Produced by Shochiku Studios, this was the first of the so-called “Japanese New Wave” films to present a blatantly erotic storyline, featuring female nudity and even a brief glimpse of armpit and pubic hair, very much taboo in Japanese society. The “daydream” of the film’s title is experienced by a young artist whilst under anaesthesia at his dentist’s. He hallucinates about a pretty young girl whom he met in the waiting-room, seeing her subjected to all kinds of sexual molestation, rape and torture by the sadistic dentist. This includes hanging her from the ceiling and electric shock treatment. When he wakes up, the reality – or otherwise – of his voyeuristic experience becomes ambiguous. Guaranteed wide distribution by dint of deriving from a work by popular, respected novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, Daydream opened at the same time as the Tokyo Olympics, causing much embarassment to the Japanese government, who strongly objected to the “amoral” image of their nation the film might give to the rest of the world. Takechi followed this with the even more controversial Kuroi Yuki (Black Snow, 1965), a Nikkatsu production whose explosive mix of sex and politics finally proved too much provocation for the governmental censors. Takechi was arrested on charges of obscenity and sent to trial. The trial became a media event, with many participating intellectuals and artists defending the film director, as in the Western cases against books like Lady Chatterley and Last Exit To Brooklyn. And as in those trials, the defendant won, shaming the repressive state and opening the floodgates for a new era of nudity and permissiveness.

[2] Born in Kyoto, 1932, Nagisa Oshima was a graduate in Marxist history before joining Shochiku as an assistant director and scriptwriter in 1954. His first film as director was Ai To Kibo No Machi (Town Of Love And Hope, 1959), followed by Seishun Zankoku Monogatari (Cruel Story Of Youth, 1960) and Taiyo No Hakaba (The Sun’s Burial, 1960). Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, these films focused on youth crime and abusive relationships to comment on the state of contemporary Japan. Nihon No Yoru To Kiri (Night And Fog In Japan, 1960) was withdrawn by Shochiku due to its politically sensitive nature, prompting Oshima to quit the studio and direct Shiiku (The Catch, 1961) and Amakusa Shiro Tokisada (The Rebel, 1962) independently. He then formed his own production company, Sozosha, and worked in television for three years before going on to make such films as Etsuraku (Pleasures Of The Flesh, 1965), Hakuchu No Torima (Violence At Noon, 1966), Koshikei (Death By Hanging, 1968), Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief, 1968), Shonen (Boy, 1969) and Gishiki (The Ceremony, 1971). Throughout this body of work – which established him firmly as the leader of Japanese cinema’s “New Wave” – Oshima largely rejects conventional modes of narrative and uses the cinematic medium to promote his own political analysis of Japan.

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