Due to scarcity of discs, I've only seen Cruel Story of Youth, Boy and Gohatto, all recommended esp the first two, and Max Mon Amour (not so much). There's a comprehensive Lincoln Center retro now, to be followed by a multi-city tour.
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006729.html
http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/oshima/program.html
It's gonna be tricky with the October baseball, but I'd like to get to Night and Fog in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses, Empire of Passion, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 19:56 (4 years ago) Permalink
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief is really fried and good.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 21:56 (4 years ago) Permalink
Basically its a doc/fiction mash-up like WR: Mysteries of The Organism, only with less decapitations.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 22:03 (4 years ago) Permalink
I really liked Taboo. In the Realm of the Senses is a snore though.
― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 23 September 2008 22:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
Rosenbaum declares the retro the NYFF highlight:
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/issue=200808&id=21140
Where Oshima differs most strikingly from an antisentimental, leftist provocateur like Buñuel is in the relative absence of humanism in his work. (Boy, a mainly sympathetic look at a lonely ten-year-old con artist, is a rare exception.) If The Sun’s Burial (1960)—an early shocker about rival street gangs in an Osaka slum—was partly inspired by Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (1950), as the British DVD’s liner notes maintain, the notion of Oshima showing any tenderness toward his doomed punks, as Buñuel does toward Jaibo, is unthinkable—even if Oshima is no less outraged by corpses being dumped like garbage. And the repeated occurrences of sexual assault (mainly rape) in Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun’s Burial, Violence at Noon (1966), Sing a Song of Sex (1967), Death by Hanging, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968), The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), Empire of Passion, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence—usually committed by his protagonists and often seen as acts of rebellion against the Japanese state (a view at least contested in Death by Hanging)—suggest that, with the possible exception of In the Realm of the Senses, feminism and nonviolence are not exactly hallmarks of his leftist positions....
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 14:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
merry christmas mr lawrence is great, though bowie might put you off. also, one of the greatest ever film soundtracks (composed by ryuichi sakamoto who also stars)
― rio (r1o natsume), Wednesday, 1 October 2008 14:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
between its relentless cutting and moral quicksand, Violence at Noon is exhausting on first look. Apparently Kino put out a DVD in '02 that's out of print.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:36 (4 years ago) Permalink
saw Taboo this weekend – great kitsch.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:38 (4 years ago) Permalink
have only seen in the realm..., which i liked lots. the rare erotic-obsession movie that manages to be actually erotic and obsessive. feels really crazy by the end.
― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:52 (4 years ago) Permalink
The 'renegade' thing is correct, yes. He is my fave of all the big Japanese auteurs, really all schizo and critical and at war with anybody and himself, almost irrationally so...but he doesn't forget to make his films look good at the same time.
'Ceremony' is another must see.
Would love to see so many more of his, esp 'Night and Fog in Japan', its kinda right he takes the title from a Resnais doc.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 20:34 (4 years ago) Permalink
I think I have to choose btwn The Ceremony & The Man Who Left His Will on Film this Sunday, cuz I'm not sure I can take two of his back-to-back.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 20:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
Don't know about 'The man who left his will' but 'The Ceremony' has quite a lot of stuff about baseball (had to read the notes about it). Don't know if that helps..
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 10 October 2008 20:02 (4 years ago) Permalink
!
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 10 October 2008 20:04 (4 years ago) Permalink
yeah, the baseball-related pain was notable. Oahima's melodramas are unhinged and exhausting but never risible.
I didn't know going in that Death by Hanging was a black comedy.
Anyway, this retro is touring Minneapolis, Vancouver, Cambridge, Seattle, Berkeley, D.C. and Rochester.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 13 October 2008 18:09 (4 years ago) Permalink
also, the Cinematheque Ontario's essay on the series (w/ recommendations at end):
http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca/programme.aspx?programmeId=228&page=1
I didn't like Diary of a Shinjuku Thief very much just cuz I don't like the late '60s 'political' Godards it approximates all that well either.
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 13 October 2008 20:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
Oshima's dramas tend to walk the line -- I think that wedding in 'Ceremony' is something Haneke is totally capable of doing, and happens to also be an overtly political film in the way it tries to portray a dissatisfaction in the direction Japan followed post-WWII right?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 10:06 (4 years ago) Permalink
Oshima is much funnier (on purpose) than Haneke.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 13:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
I am pressed to find any occasions where Haneke tried to infuse any of his films with humour!
Anyway, picked up 'Night and Fog...' DVD on a sale. It turns out to be a bit like 'Ceremony' but centered on a single wedding. DVDs seem to cause distractions, yet to finish, but so far so great.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 17 October 2008 09:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
Night and Fog in Japan has some amazing lighting & compositions, but I felt lost a lot re the postwar radical politics. I'd like to watch it w/out subtitles. (also the quick lateral pans wore me down)
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 3 April 2009 02:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
DItto. Frustrating and kinda irritating overall.
― Nurse Detrius (Eric H.), Friday, 3 April 2009 03:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
Oshima retro at the NFT in September. Watching Diary of a Shinjuku Thief and one more.
Is Empire of Passion worth a watch?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 21:39 (3 years ago) Permalink
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief drained me => this was great.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 19:39 (3 years ago) Permalink
Did the decent thing and posted a thread on ILB about it:
Best bookshop scenes on film
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 22 September 2009 19:48 (3 years ago) Permalink
Coming In May
― Roomful of Moogs (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 February 2010 17:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence out from Criterion this week... A lot of it is POW camp-camp, but lawd a'mighty, Ryuichi Sakamoto looked like one of the most beautiful men to ever walk the earth (and wrote a good score too).
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 September 2010 17:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
the interviews on the criterion in the realm of the senses are p entertaining; lol @ a story by an asst director abt auditioning a young actor for the lead who after being unable to get it up suggests "i might be able to get an erection if oshima fondles it"
― johnny crunch, Monday, 13 June 2011 21:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.asahi.com/obituaries/update/0115/TKY201301150349.html
Seems that he has died today, of pneumonia, at the age of 80.
He was a great filmmaker. RIP.
― my chemtrails romance (c sharp major), Tuesday, 15 January 2013 12:10 (4 months ago) Permalink
RIP.
'In the Realm of the Senses' was one of the Scala in Kings Cross' regular rep bankers; I saw it there on a double bill with '9 1/2 Weeks', of all things
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 12:27 (4 months ago) Permalink
Sad news, but a full life!
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 12:36 (4 months ago) Permalink
damn, rip
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, 15 January 2013 12:46 (4 months ago) Permalink
Was watching Double Suicide: Japanese Summer just last week.
What a run of his films, with In the Realm of the Senses to come too:
1967 Sing a Song of Sex (A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs)1967 Double Suicide: Japanese Summer 1968 Death by Hanging 1968 Three Resurrected Drunkards 1969 Diary of a Shinjuku Thief 1969 Boy 1970 Man Who Left His Will On Film 1971 The Ceremony
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 14:08 (4 months ago) Permalink
ok I have yet to see Three Resurrected Drunkards but how tell me how it can't be anything less than great w/this synopsis:
A trio of bumbling young men frolic at the beach. While they swim, their clothes are stolen and replaced with new outfits. Donning these, they are mistaken for undocumented Koreans and end up on the run from comically outraged authorities. A cutting commentary on Japan’s treatment of its Korean immigrants, this is Nagisa Oshima at both his most politically engaged and madcap.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 14:12 (4 months ago) Permalink
it's bananas, but not one of my favorites.
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 January 2013 15:21 (4 months ago) Permalink
merry christmas mr lawrence is great (...) also, one of the greatest ever film soundtracks― rio (r1o natsume), Mittwoch, 1. Oktober 2008 15:58 (4 years ago)
― rio (r1o natsume), Mittwoch, 1. Oktober 2008 15:58 (4 years ago)
^bears repeating
― M. M. 54ND, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 17:13 (4 months ago) Permalink
damn, really need to watch more of his stuff. there's about a dozen of his films on hulu+ fyi
― steaklife (donna rouge), Tuesday, 15 January 2013 17:22 (4 months ago) Permalink
― meisenfek, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 19:56 (4 months ago) Permalink
For all of you who were once boys or girls, we include you in our prayers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn0L_z02oXw
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 20:05 (4 months ago) Permalink
RIP. Watched Cruel Story of Youth tonight in tribute.
― Jah Creature (WilliamC), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 04:59 (4 months ago) Permalink
His Obit, v slight, has this factoid:
Oshima gave up directing to become a popular talkshow host on Japanese television
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 12:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
lol
― things that are jokes pretty much (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 12:58 (4 months ago) Permalink
seeing he had done nothing since gohatto at the turn of the century, i assumed he was too old/unwell to make films
― things that are jokes pretty much (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 12:59 (4 months ago) Permalink
Knew he had a stroke so knew not to expect anything.
Must've been a treat. Imagine coming back tired week at work blah blah...and there is Nagisa Oshima to erm entertain you for an hour or two by slipping in a few Marxisms and interviewing Japanese porn stars.
Beats Jonathan fkn Ross, that's for sure.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 January 2013 13:26 (4 months ago) Permalink
I liked his appearances as a judge on Iron Chef.
― Jah Creature (WilliamC), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 15:58 (4 months ago) Permalink
apparently he had his first stroke before Gohatto
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 16 January 2013 16:03 (4 months ago) Permalink