Nagisa Oshima, 1932-2013
Japan’s Enfant Terrible of Cinema Dies
By DENNIS LIM
Mr. Oshima, who challenged Japanese society with his movies, gained international notoriety with “In the Realm of the Senses.”
以反傳統著稱的導演大島渚(Nagisa Oshima)於周二（1月15日）在東京附近一家醫院逝世，卒年80歲。他的電影挑戰並顛覆了日本社會的虔誠傳統，以及日本電影的慣例。1976年露骨展現性慾的影片《感官世界》(In the Realm of the Senses)為他在國際上獲得惡名。
據日本媒體報道，大島渚的辦公室宣布他的死因是急性肺炎。自1996年中風以來，他的健康狀況一直欠佳。
對於大島先生那一代導演來說，藝術上與政治上的叛逆是統一的。在事業的高峰期，他以瘋狂的節奏工作，在20世紀60年代尤為高產，徹底重新變換風格對他來說好像理所當然之事。他的電影激進卻從不武斷；儘管他毫無保留地堅持電影是政治工具，但他的影片卻始終拒絕意識形態。
《感官世界》一直都是他最著名的代表作。該片根據20世紀30年代一樁震驚日本的真實事件改編，講述一個女僕愛上僱主，兩人陷入虐戀關係。片中有真實性愛場面，並在生動逼真的閹割場景中達到高潮。
該片成了轟動話題，在好幾個國家陷入與審查制度的鬥爭。在美國，海關總署稱其為淫穢物品，禁止它在1976年紐約電影節上公映；一個月之後，這項決定被一位聯邦法官推翻。
甚至在這樁確鑿無疑的醜聞之前，大島先生就喜歡扮演離經叛道的淘氣鬼角色。他是日本新浪潮運動的創始人，但卻聲稱自己憎惡這個作為群體的概念，並對一個採訪者說：“我憎恨日本電影的一切東西。”他1994年的紀錄片《日本電影百年》(100 Years of Japanese Cinema)以一個希冀作為結尾：日本電影應當去除自身的“日本氣質”。
但在一部又一部電影之中，“日本”仍是大島先生的重大主題，特別是關於日本的精神氣質，乃至它在幾個世紀以來的封建制度乃至“二戰”中所受的損害。他曾經說過自己電影的目的在於“逼迫日本人凝視鏡子深處” 。
大島先生於1932年3月31日生於京都一個富裕的家庭，有武士血統。他在京都大學學習法律期間成了學生政治活動的活躍分子。
畢業後，他到松竹映畫擔任助理導演，很快獲得提升。他的最初兩部電影分別是1959年的《愛與希望之街》(A Town of Love and Hope)，一部關於堅強少年的情節片；以及1960年的《青春殘酷物語》(Cruel Story of Youth)，一個關於問題青少年的瘋狂故事，甚至在那個時候，大島先生對青年和無依無靠者的同情便已顯露無遺。
“在這個世界上，拍電影就是一種罪行，”大島先生在1966年的一篇隨筆中寫道。他的主人公大都是不法之徒，他的電影經常揭示出犯罪行為是社會造成的，或者是反抗社會的結果。
1960年日美續簽共同合作和安全條約事件成為日本學生抗議運動的導火索，同時也刺激了大島先生的電影事業。
1960年的《日本夜與霧》(Night and Fog in Japan)是他第一部具有明顯政治意味的影片，詳細描繪了一群學生激進分子之間的內訌。該片放映期間，一場政治暗殺運動發生後，松竹映畫把這部影片撤下 院線。為示抗議，大島先生從公司辭職，開辦了自己的公司。
和《感官世界》一樣，大島先生的很多影片靈感都來自真實事件。1966年的《白晝的惡魔》(Violence at Noon)講述一個連環強姦犯與兩個試圖保護他的女人之間的三角關係，它改編自真實事件。1969年的《少年》(Boy)講述一個家庭中的兒子被迫在欺詐活動中擔任假裝撞車並詐傷的角色，同樣也是根據真實事件改編。
1968年的《絞死刑》(Death by Hanging)是關於一個因強姦和謀殺被判死刑的朝鮮人，探討日本的朝鮮少數民族受到的不公正待遇。
作為一個永無休止的創新者，大島先生在多種電影類型之間任意轉換，有時甚至創造出屬於他自己的類型。《絞死刑》從反對死刑的紀錄片風格片斷開始，最後變成滑稽劇風格。1968年的《歸來的醉鬼》(Three Resurrected Drunkards)是一部鬧劇式的喜劇，在中間戛然而止，然後重演前半部，但卻帶有重大變化。
大島先生從未發展齣電影風格上的獨有特性，而是在各種極端風格之間轉換。100分鐘的《白晝的惡魔》有2000餘個剪輯鏡頭，而《日本夜與霧》則是以長鏡頭拍攝，不超過50個鏡頭。
大島先生出道14年來導演了18部影片（以及許多電視紀錄片），20世紀70年代，他開始放慢腳步。人到中年的他成了日本電視脫口秀上的常客。
大島先生回憶，《感官世界》來自他與製作人安納托爾·道曼(Anatole Dauman)的會面，道曼曾與許多法國新浪潮導演合作，他主動提出同大島先生合作，說 “咱們拍個色情片吧”。大島先生邀請了同事若松孝二（他是一位高產的導演，拍攝帶有政治意識的軟色情片）擔任聯合製作人；他們合作拍出了這部電影，為了規 避日本的色情製品相關法律，剪輯工作是在法國完成的。
道曼先生還擔任《愛的亡靈》(Empire of Passion)的製作人，這部1978年的影片是《感官世界》的續作，但比前者要剋制得多。這也是一部關於通姦情侶的古裝戲，它為大島先生贏得了戛納電影節最佳導演獎。
大島先生晚期的另一部電影，1983年的《戰場上的快樂聖誕》(Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence)由大衛·鮑依(David Bowie)和坂本龍一主演，該片主要在新西蘭拍攝。此外他還與路易斯·布努埃爾(Luis Buñuel)的御用編劇讓-克勞德·卡瑞爾(Jean-Claude Carrière)合作，在1986年的《馬克斯我的愛》(Max Mon Amour)這部法國性愛鬧劇中玩了一次新花樣，片中夏洛特·蘭普林(Charlotte Rampling)和一隻黑猩猩是一對兒。
他的最後一部電影是1999年的《御法度》(Taboo)，這是一部19世紀的武士片。他在導演該片過程中第一次中風發病，該片延續了他晚期一貫的禁忌之戀主題，令《戰場上的快樂聖誕》中的同性戀潛流浮出水面。
大島先生的家人包括他的妻子小山明子（她是一個演員，曾在他的若干影片中露面），以及他們的兒子大島武和大島新。2011年，小山女士出版了回憶錄《女人與演員》(As a Woman, as an Actor)講述她與大島先生共度的生活。
自從減少拍片以來，大島先生的名氣有所下降，但是隨着近年來舉辦的巡迴回顧展以及他的影片DVD可以方便地買到，情況有所好轉。
在一個日本法庭上為《感官世界》辯護時，大島先生的辯護詞可以應用到他所有的作品中去：“能表達出來的不是淫穢。隱藏着的才是淫穢。”
大島渚|1932-2013
大島渚先生一直在扮演離經叛道的淘氣鬼
報道 2013年01月24日
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
日本導演大島渚（左）與夏洛特·蘭普林（中）和安東尼·希金斯(Anthony Higgins)出席1986年戛納電影節《馬克斯我的愛》一片放映式。
據日本媒體報道，大島渚的辦公室宣布他的死因是急性肺炎。自1996年中風以來，他的健康狀況一直欠佳。
對於大島先生那一代導演來說，藝術上與政治上的叛逆是統一的。在事業的高峰期，他以瘋狂的節奏工作，在20世紀60年代尤為高產，徹底重新變換風格對他來說好像理所當然之事。他的電影激進卻從不武斷；儘管他毫無保留地堅持電影是政治工具，但他的影片卻始終拒絕意識形態。
《感官世界》一直都是他最著名的代表作。該片根據20世紀30年代一樁震驚日本的真實事件改編，講述一個女僕愛上僱主，兩人陷入虐戀關係。片中有真實性愛場面，並在生動逼真的閹割場景中達到高潮。
該片成了轟動話題，在好幾個國家陷入與審查制度的鬥爭。在美國，海關總署稱其為淫穢物品，禁止它在1976年紐約電影節上公映；一個月之後，這項決定被一位聯邦法官推翻。
甚至在這樁確鑿無疑的醜聞之前，大島先生就喜歡扮演離經叛道的淘氣鬼角色。他是日本新浪潮運動的創始人，但卻聲稱自己憎惡這個作為群體的概念，並對一個採訪者說：“我憎恨日本電影的一切東西。”他1994年的紀錄片《日本電影百年》(100 Years of Japanese Cinema)以一個希冀作為結尾：日本電影應當去除自身的“日本氣質”。
但在一部又一部電影之中，“日本”仍是大島先生的重大主題，特別是關於日本的精神氣質，乃至它在幾個世紀以來的封建制度乃至“二戰”中所受的損害。他曾經說過自己電影的目的在於“逼迫日本人凝視鏡子深處” 。
大島先生於1932年3月31日生於京都一個富裕的家庭，有武士血統。他在京都大學學習法律期間成了學生政治活動的活躍分子。
畢業後，他到松竹映畫擔任助理導演，很快獲得提升。他的最初兩部電影分別是1959年的《愛與希望之街》(A Town of Love and Hope)，一部關於堅強少年的情節片；以及1960年的《青春殘酷物語》(Cruel Story of Youth)，一個關於問題青少年的瘋狂故事，甚至在那個時候，大島先生對青年和無依無靠者的同情便已顯露無遺。
“在這個世界上，拍電影就是一種罪行，”大島先生在1966年的一篇隨筆中寫道。他的主人公大都是不法之徒，他的電影經常揭示出犯罪行為是社會造成的，或者是反抗社會的結果。
1960年日美續簽共同合作和安全條約事件成為日本學生抗議運動的導火索，同時也刺激了大島先生的電影事業。
1960年的《日本夜與霧》(Night and Fog in Japan)是他第一部具有明顯政治意味的影片，詳細描繪了一群學生激進分子之間的內訌。該片放映期間，一場政治暗殺運動發生後，松竹映畫把這部影片撤下 院線。為示抗議，大島先生從公司辭職，開辦了自己的公司。
和《感官世界》一樣，大島先生的很多影片靈感都來自真實事件。1966年的《白晝的惡魔》(Violence at Noon)講述一個連環強姦犯與兩個試圖保護他的女人之間的三角關係，它改編自真實事件。1969年的《少年》(Boy)講述一個家庭中的兒子被迫在欺詐活動中擔任假裝撞車並詐傷的角色，同樣也是根據真實事件改編。
1968年的《絞死刑》(Death by Hanging)是關於一個因強姦和謀殺被判死刑的朝鮮人，探討日本的朝鮮少數民族受到的不公正待遇。
作為一個永無休止的創新者，大島先生在多種電影類型之間任意轉換，有時甚至創造出屬於他自己的類型。《絞死刑》從反對死刑的紀錄片風格片斷開始，最後變成滑稽劇風格。1968年的《歸來的醉鬼》(Three Resurrected Drunkards)是一部鬧劇式的喜劇，在中間戛然而止，然後重演前半部，但卻帶有重大變化。
大島先生從未發展齣電影風格上的獨有特性，而是在各種極端風格之間轉換。100分鐘的《白晝的惡魔》有2000餘個剪輯鏡頭，而《日本夜與霧》則是以長鏡頭拍攝，不超過50個鏡頭。
大島先生出道14年來導演了18部影片（以及許多電視紀錄片），20世紀70年代，他開始放慢腳步。人到中年的他成了日本電視脫口秀上的常客。
大島先生回憶，《感官世界》來自他與製作人安納托爾·道曼(Anatole Dauman)的會面，道曼曾與許多法國新浪潮導演合作，他主動提出同大島先生合作，說 “咱們拍個色情片吧”。大島先生邀請了同事若松孝二（他是一位高產的導演，拍攝帶有政治意識的軟色情片）擔任聯合製作人；他們合作拍出了這部電影，為了規 避日本的色情製品相關法律，剪輯工作是在法國完成的。
道曼先生還擔任《愛的亡靈》(Empire of Passion)的製作人，這部1978年的影片是《感官世界》的續作，但比前者要剋制得多。這也是一部關於通姦情侶的古裝戲，它為大島先生贏得了戛納電影節最佳導演獎。
大島先生晚期的另一部電影，1983年的《戰場上的快樂聖誕》(Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence)由大衛·鮑依(David Bowie)和坂本龍一主演，該片主要在新西蘭拍攝。此外他還與路易斯·布努埃爾(Luis Buñuel)的御用編劇讓-克勞德·卡瑞爾(Jean-Claude Carrière)合作，在1986年的《馬克斯我的愛》(Max Mon Amour)這部法國性愛鬧劇中玩了一次新花樣，片中夏洛特·蘭普林(Charlotte Rampling)和一隻黑猩猩是一對兒。
他的最後一部電影是1999年的《御法度》(Taboo)，這是一部19世紀的武士片。他在導演該片過程中第一次中風發病，該片延續了他晚期一貫的禁忌之戀主題，令《戰場上的快樂聖誕》中的同性戀潛流浮出水面。
大島先生的家人包括他的妻子小山明子（她是一個演員，曾在他的若干影片中露面），以及他們的兒子大島武和大島新。2011年，小山女士出版了回憶錄《女人與演員》(As a Woman, as an Actor)講述她與大島先生共度的生活。
自從減少拍片以來，大島先生的名氣有所下降，但是隨着近年來舉辦的巡迴回顧展以及他的影片DVD可以方便地買到，情況有所好轉。
在一個日本法庭上為《感官世界》辯護時，大島先生的辯護詞可以應用到他所有的作品中去：“能表達出來的不是淫穢。隱藏着的才是淫穢。”
Nagisa Oshima, Iconoclastic Filmmaker, Dies at 80
January 24, 2013
Nagisa Oshima,
the iconoclastic filmmaker who challenged and subverted the pieties of
Japanese society and the conventions of Japanese cinema and who gained
international notoriety in 1976 for the sexually explicit “In the Realm of the Senses,” died on Tuesday at a hospital near Tokyo. He was 80.
His office said that the cause was pneumonia, the Japanese news media reported. He had been ill since having a stroke in 1996.
Mr. Oshima belonged to a generation of filmmakers for whom artistic
and political rebellion were one and the same. At the height of his
career he worked at a furious pace, most productively in the 1960s,
reinventing himself as a matter of course. Radical but never dogmatic,
his films rejected ideology even as they insisted implicitly that cinema
was a political tool.
He remains best known for “In the Realm of the Senses.” Based on a true story that scandalized Japan in the 1930s, it tells of a maid who falls into a sadomasochistic affair with her employer. It features unsimulated sex and culminates in a graphically depicted castration.
The film became a sensation and the subject of censorship battles in several countries. In the United States, the Customs Service barred it from being shown publicly at the New York Film Festival in 1976, calling it obscene; the decision was overturned about a month later by a federal judge.
Even before this defining scandal, Mr. Oshima relished the role of enfant terrible. He was a founding figure of the Japanese New Wave but claimed to detest the idea of such a grouping and told an interviewer, “My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it.” His documentary “100 Years of Japanese Cinema” (1994) concludes with the hope that Japanese cinema rid itself of its “Japaneseness.”
But in film after film Japan was Mr. Oshima’s great subject, specifically the Japanese psyche and the damage it had endured from centuries of feudalism and later from World War II. He once said that the goal of his films was “to force the Japanese to look in the mirror.”
Mr. Oshima was born on March 31, 1932, to an affluent family in Kyoto with samurai ancestry. He studied law at Kyoto University and became active in student politics.
After graduating he worked as an assistant director at the Shochiku studio and was soon promoted. Even in his first two films, “A Town of Love and Hope” (1959), a tough-minded adolescent melodrama, and “Cruel Story of Youth” (1960), a feverish tale of troubled teenagers, Mr. Oshima’s sympathy for the young and dispossessed is evident.
“To make films is a criminal act in this world,” Mr. Oshima wrote in a 1966 essay. Most of his protagonists were outlaws, and his films often showed criminal behavior as a product of society or as a reaction against it.
The event that ignited the Japanese student protest movement — the 1960 renewal of Japan’s mutual security treaty with the United States — also galvanized Mr. Oshima’s filmmaking.
“Night and Fog in Japan” (1960), his first explicitly political film, details the infighting among a group of student radicals. Days into its run, in the wake of a political assassination, Shochiku pulled the movie from theaters. In response Mr. Oshima quit the studio and set up his own company.
Like “In the Realm of the Senses,” many of Mr. Oshima’s films were inspired by real-life events. “Violence at Noon” (1966), about a triangle that forms among a serial rapist and two women who protect him, was based on an actual case, as was “Boy” (1969), about a family whose son is forced to fake traffic injuries in an extortion scheme.
“Death by Hanging” (1968), about a Korean man sentenced to death for rape and murder, addresses the prejudicial treatment of the Korean minority in Japan.
A restless innovator, Mr. Oshima switched genres at will and sometimes created his own. “Death by Hanging” goes from a documentarylike tract against capital punishment to absurdist farce. “Three Resurrected Drunkards,” a 1968 slapstick comedy, stops midway through and replays the first half, with crucial variations.
Mr. Oshima never developed a stylistic signature and in fact veered between extremes of style. The 100-minute “Violence at Noon” includes some 2,000 edits, while “Night and Fog in Japan,” filmed in long takes, is composed of fewer than 50 shots.
After directing 18 features (and many television documentaries) in 14 years, Mr. Oshima slowed down in the 1970s. In middle age he also became a fixture on Japanese television talk shows.
Mr. Oshima recalled that “In the Realm of the Senses” had originated in a meeting with the producer Anatole Dauman, who had worked with many French New Wave directors and who proposed a collaboration, saying to Mr. Oshima, “Let’s make a porno flick!” Mr. Oshima asked his colleague Koji Wakamatsu, a prolific director of politically minded soft-core erotica, to serve as a producer as well; together they had the film processed and edited in France to circumvent Japanese pornography laws.
Mr. Dauman also produced “Empire of Passion,” the more subdued 1978 follow-up to “In the Realm of the Senses.” Another period piece about adulterous lovers, “Empire” won Mr. Oshima the directing prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Among other later films, “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983), a prisoner-of-war drama starring David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, was shot mainly in New Zealand. Mr. Oshima, collaborating with Luis Buñuel’s frequent screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, also put a twist on the French sex farce with “Max Mon Amour” (1986), which paired Charlotte Rampling and a chimpanzee.
His final film, the 19th-century samurai drama “Taboo” (1999), which he directed after suffering his first stroke, continued his late-career theme of forbidden love, bringing to the surface the homoerotic currents of “Mr. Lawrence.”
Mr. Oshima’s survivors include his wife, Akiko Koyama, an actress who appeared in some of his films, and their sons Takeshi and Shin. In 2011 Ms. Koyama published a memoir, “As a Woman, as an Actor,” about her life with Mr. Oshima.
Mr. Oshima saw his reputation somewhat eclipsed as his productivity dwindled, although that had changed in recent years with traveling retrospectives and the increasing availability of his work on DVD.
Testifying in a Japanese court about “In the Realm of the Senses,” Mr. Oshima formulated a defense that could apply to almost all his work: “Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden.”
His office said that the cause was pneumonia, the Japanese news media reported. He had been ill since having a stroke in 1996.
按图放大
Cinematheque Ontario/Film Society of Lincoln Center
Eiko Matsuda atop Tatsuya Fuji in Mr. Oshima’s 1976 film, “In the Realm of the Senses.”
Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nagisa Oshima in 2000.
按图放大
Cinematheque Ontario, via Film Society of Lincoln Center
A scene from Mr. Oshima’s “Death by Hanging” (1968), which addressed the prejudicial treatment of Japan’s Korean minority.
He remains best known for “In the Realm of the Senses.” Based on a true story that scandalized Japan in the 1930s, it tells of a maid who falls into a sadomasochistic affair with her employer. It features unsimulated sex and culminates in a graphically depicted castration.
The film became a sensation and the subject of censorship battles in several countries. In the United States, the Customs Service barred it from being shown publicly at the New York Film Festival in 1976, calling it obscene; the decision was overturned about a month later by a federal judge.
Even before this defining scandal, Mr. Oshima relished the role of enfant terrible. He was a founding figure of the Japanese New Wave but claimed to detest the idea of such a grouping and told an interviewer, “My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it.” His documentary “100 Years of Japanese Cinema” (1994) concludes with the hope that Japanese cinema rid itself of its “Japaneseness.”
But in film after film Japan was Mr. Oshima’s great subject, specifically the Japanese psyche and the damage it had endured from centuries of feudalism and later from World War II. He once said that the goal of his films was “to force the Japanese to look in the mirror.”
Mr. Oshima was born on March 31, 1932, to an affluent family in Kyoto with samurai ancestry. He studied law at Kyoto University and became active in student politics.
After graduating he worked as an assistant director at the Shochiku studio and was soon promoted. Even in his first two films, “A Town of Love and Hope” (1959), a tough-minded adolescent melodrama, and “Cruel Story of Youth” (1960), a feverish tale of troubled teenagers, Mr. Oshima’s sympathy for the young and dispossessed is evident.
“To make films is a criminal act in this world,” Mr. Oshima wrote in a 1966 essay. Most of his protagonists were outlaws, and his films often showed criminal behavior as a product of society or as a reaction against it.
The event that ignited the Japanese student protest movement — the 1960 renewal of Japan’s mutual security treaty with the United States — also galvanized Mr. Oshima’s filmmaking.
“Night and Fog in Japan” (1960), his first explicitly political film, details the infighting among a group of student radicals. Days into its run, in the wake of a political assassination, Shochiku pulled the movie from theaters. In response Mr. Oshima quit the studio and set up his own company.
Like “In the Realm of the Senses,” many of Mr. Oshima’s films were inspired by real-life events. “Violence at Noon” (1966), about a triangle that forms among a serial rapist and two women who protect him, was based on an actual case, as was “Boy” (1969), about a family whose son is forced to fake traffic injuries in an extortion scheme.
“Death by Hanging” (1968), about a Korean man sentenced to death for rape and murder, addresses the prejudicial treatment of the Korean minority in Japan.
A restless innovator, Mr. Oshima switched genres at will and sometimes created his own. “Death by Hanging” goes from a documentarylike tract against capital punishment to absurdist farce. “Three Resurrected Drunkards,” a 1968 slapstick comedy, stops midway through and replays the first half, with crucial variations.
Mr. Oshima never developed a stylistic signature and in fact veered between extremes of style. The 100-minute “Violence at Noon” includes some 2,000 edits, while “Night and Fog in Japan,” filmed in long takes, is composed of fewer than 50 shots.
After directing 18 features (and many television documentaries) in 14 years, Mr. Oshima slowed down in the 1970s. In middle age he also became a fixture on Japanese television talk shows.
Mr. Oshima recalled that “In the Realm of the Senses” had originated in a meeting with the producer Anatole Dauman, who had worked with many French New Wave directors and who proposed a collaboration, saying to Mr. Oshima, “Let’s make a porno flick!” Mr. Oshima asked his colleague Koji Wakamatsu, a prolific director of politically minded soft-core erotica, to serve as a producer as well; together they had the film processed and edited in France to circumvent Japanese pornography laws.
Mr. Dauman also produced “Empire of Passion,” the more subdued 1978 follow-up to “In the Realm of the Senses.” Another period piece about adulterous lovers, “Empire” won Mr. Oshima the directing prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Among other later films, “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983), a prisoner-of-war drama starring David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, was shot mainly in New Zealand. Mr. Oshima, collaborating with Luis Buñuel’s frequent screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, also put a twist on the French sex farce with “Max Mon Amour” (1986), which paired Charlotte Rampling and a chimpanzee.
His final film, the 19th-century samurai drama “Taboo” (1999), which he directed after suffering his first stroke, continued his late-career theme of forbidden love, bringing to the surface the homoerotic currents of “Mr. Lawrence.”
Mr. Oshima’s survivors include his wife, Akiko Koyama, an actress who appeared in some of his films, and their sons Takeshi and Shin. In 2011 Ms. Koyama published a memoir, “As a Woman, as an Actor,” about her life with Mr. Oshima.
Mr. Oshima saw his reputation somewhat eclipsed as his productivity dwindled, although that had changed in recent years with traveling retrospectives and the increasing availability of his work on DVD.
Testifying in a Japanese court about “In the Realm of the Senses,” Mr. Oshima formulated a defense that could apply to almost all his work: “Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden.”
 Japanese theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Nagisa Oshima |
|---|---|
In the Realm of the Senses (Japanese: 愛のコリーダ Ai no Korīda, literally Bullfight (Spanish: Corrida) of Love;[1] French: L'Empire des sens) is a 1976 French-Japanese romantic drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima.[2] It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of an incident from 1930s Japan, that of Sada Abe.[3] It generated great controversy during its release;[3] while intended for mainstream wide release, it contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, among others).
Nagisa Oshima (大島 渚 Ōshima Nagisa , 31 March 1932 – 15 January 2013) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His films include In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
Contents |
Early life
After graduating from Kyoto University, where he studied political history,[1] Oshima 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 1959.1960s
Oshima's cinematic career and influence developed very swiftly,[2] and early watershed films Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan all followed in 1960. The last of these 1960 films explored Oshima's disillusionment with 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 by a right-wing extremist, there was a risk of "unrest". Oshima left the studio in response, and launched his own independent production company. Despite the controversy, Night And Fog In Japan was placed tenth in that year's Kinema Jumpo's best-films poll of Japanese critics, and it has subsequently amassed considerable acclaim abroad.[3]In 1961 Oshima 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 Oshima's major works, though it did notably introduce 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.[4]
Oshima then 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 was made by Oshima after a trip to South Korea.[3][5]
One of Oshima's more formally unusual films was Band of Ninja (1967), an adaptation of the popular manga by Sampei Shirato, Ninja Bugei-chō, a 16th-century saga of oppressed peasants and deadly ninja. It is not a live-action film, or even an animated one; Oshima simply photographed close-ups of Shirato's drawings and added voices. Oshima had used the technique previously in some documentaries, and a willingness to make use of unorthodox techniques was an indication of the mature period of experimentalism which would soon surface in Oshima's work. The film was a modest critical and commercial success in Japan.
Oshima 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.[6] 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 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.[7] Death By Hanging inaugurated a string of films (continuing through 1976's In the Realm of the Senses) that clarified a number of Oshima's key themes, most notably a need to question social constraints, and to similarly deconstruct received political doctrines.[8]
Months later, Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief unites a number of Oshima'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,[9] 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 an underground noh performance troupe, a psychoanalyst, and an impromptu symposium featuring actors from previous Oshima films (along with Oshima himself), all dissecting varied aspects of shifting sexual politics, as embodied by various characters within 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.
1970s
The Ceremony (1971) is a satirical look at Japanese attitudes, famously expressed in a scene where a marriage ceremony has to go ahead even though the bride is not present.In 1976, Oshima made In the Realm of the Senses, a film based on a true story of fatal sexual obsession in 1930s Japan. Oshima, 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.
In his 1978 companion film to In the Realm of the Senses, Empire of Passion, Oshima 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.[10]
1980s and beyond
In 1983 Oshima had a critical success with a film made partly in English, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, set in a wartime prison camp, and featuring rock star David Bowie and electronic musician Ryūichi Sakamoto, alongside future director Takeshi Kitano. The movie has become a cult classic.[citation needed] 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 the Directors Guild of Japan.[11] (He actually won the inaugural Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award in 1960.[12])
A collection of Oshima's essays and articles was published in English in 1993 as Cinema, Censorship and the State.[13] A critical study by Maureen Turim appeared in 1998.[14]
In 1996 Oshima suffered 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. Ryūichi 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. Oshima died on 15 January 2013 of pneumonia.[15][1] He was 80.
Filmography
| Year | English title | Japanese title | Romaji | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Tomorrow's Sun | 明日の太陽 | Ashita no taiyō | Short (7 min), color. |
| 1959 | A Town of Love and Hope | 愛と希望の街 | Ai to kibō no machi | 62 min, B&W. |
| 1960 | Cruel Story of Youth | 青春残酷物語 | Sēshun zankoku monogatari | 96 min, color. |
| 1960 | The Sun's Burial | 太陽の墓場 | Taiyō no hakaba | 87 min, color. |
| 1960 | Night and Fog in Japan | 日本の夜と霧 | Nihon no yoru to kiri | 107 min, color. |
| 1961 | The Catch | 飼育 | Shiiku | 105 min, B&W. |
| 1962 | The Rebel | 天草四郎時貞 | Amakusa Shirō Tokisada | 101 min, B&W. |
| 1963 | A Small Child's First Adventure | 小さな冒険旅行 | Chiisana bōken ryokō | 60 min, color. |
| 1964 | It's Me Here, Bellett | 私はベレット | Watashi wa beretto | 60 min, color. |
| 1965 | The Pleasures of the Flesh | 悦楽 | Etsuraku | 90 min, color. |
| 1965 | Yunbogi's Diary | ユンボギの日記 | Yunbogi no nikki | 24 min, B&W. |
| 1966 | Violence at High Noon | 白昼の通り魔 | Hakuchū no tōrima | 99 min, B&W. |
| 1967 | Tales of the Ninja/Band of Ninja | 忍者武芸帳 | Ninja bugei-chō | 131 min, B&W. |
| 1967 | Sing a Song of Sex (A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs) | 日本春歌考 | Nihon shunka-kō | 103 min, color. |
| 1967 | Double Suicide: Japanese Summer | 無理心中日本の夏 | Muri shinjū: Nihon no natsu | 98 min, B&W. |
| 1968 | Death by Hanging | 絞死刑 | Kōshikē | 117 min, B&W. |
| 1968 | Three Resurrected Drunkards | 帰って来たヨッパライ | Kaette kita yopparai | 80 min, color. |
| 1969 | Diary of a Shinjuku Thief | 新宿泥棒日記 | Shinjuku dorobō nikki | 94 min, B&W/color. |
| 1969 | Boy | 少年 | Shōnen | 97 min, color. |
| 1970 | Man Who Left His Will On Film | 東京戰争戦後秘話 | Tōkyō sensō sengo hiwa | 94 min, B&W. |
| 1971 | The Ceremony | 儀式 | Gishiki | 123 min, color. |
| 1972 | Dear Summer Sister | 夏の妹 | Natsu no Imōto | 96 min, color. |
| 1976 | In the Realm of the Senses | 愛のコリーダ | Ai no corrida | 104 min, color. |
| 1978 | Empire of Passion | 愛の亡霊 | Ai no bōrē | 108 min, color. |
| 1983 | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence | 戦場のメリークリスマス | Senjō no merī Kurisumasu | 123 min, color, UK/Japan. |
| 1986 | Max, Mon Amour | マックス、モン・アムール | Makkusu, Mon Amūru | 97 min, color. France/USA/Japan. |
| 1999 | Taboo | 御法度 | Gohatto | 100 min, color. |
TV documentaries
- Kōri no naka no sēshun (Youth on Ice, 1962, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
- Wasurerareta kōgun (The Forgotten Army, 1963, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
- Sēshun no ishibumi (The Tomb of Youth, 1964, documentary, 40 min) (TV)
- Hankotsu no toride (A Rebel's Fortress, 1964, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
- Gimē shōjo (1964) (TV)
- Chita Niseigo taihēyō ōdan (Crossing the Pacific on the Chita Niseigo, 1964) (TV)
- Aru kokutetsu-jōmuin (A National Railway Worker, 1964) (TV)
- Aogeba tōtoshi (Ode to an Old Teacher, 1964) (TV)
- Aisurebakoso (Why I Love You, 1964) (TV)
- Ajia no akebono (1964) (TV)
- Gyosen sonansu (The Trawler Incident, 1965) (TV)
- Daitōa sensō (The Pacific War, 1968) (TV)
- Mō-takutō to bunka daikakumē (Mao Tse-Tung and the Cultural Revolution, 1969) (TV)
- Kyojin-gun (The Giants, 1972) (TV)
- Joi! Bangla (1972) (TV)
- Goze: Mōmoku no onna-tabigēnin (The Journey of the Blind Musicians, 1972) (TV)
- Bengal no chichi laman (1973) (TV)
- Ikiteiru nihonkai-kaisen (1975) (TV)
- The Battle of Tsushima (1975, documentary, 50 min)
- Ōgon no daichi Bengal (The Golden Land of Bengal, 1976) (TV)
- Ikiteiru umi no bohyō (The Sunken Tomb, 1976) (TV)
- Ikiteiru gyokusai no shima (The Isle of the Final Battle, 1976, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
- Denki mō-takutō (The Life of Mao, 1976) (TV)
- Yokoi shōichi: guamu-to 28 nen no nazo o ou (Yokoi and His Twenty-Eight Years of Secret Life on Guam, 1977) (TV)
- Shisha wa itsumademo wakai (1977) (TV)
- Kyōto, My Mother's Place (1991)
- 100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994) (TV)
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