is a 1966
satiric
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...
Japanese film directed by
Shōhei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...
. It is based on the novel ''Erogotoshitachi'' by
Akiyuki Nosaka
was a Japanese novelist, singer, lyricist, and member of the House of Councillors. As a broadcasting writer he used the name and his alias as a chanson singer was .
Early life
Nosaka was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Sukeyuki Nosak ...
.
Plot
''The Pornographers'' tells the story of porn filmmaker Mr. Subuyan Ogata, whose business is under threat from thieves, the government, and his own family.
Cast
*
Shōichi Ozawa
was a Japanese actor, radio host, singer, and prominent researcher and expert on Japanese folk art. He also founded the Shabondama-za theater company.
Ozawa, who was born in Tokyo, graduated from Waseda University. He began acting after college, ...
as Subuyan Ogata
*
Sumiko Sakamoto as Haru Matsuda
* Keiko Sagawa as Keiko Matsuda, Haru's daughter
*
Haruo Tanaka
was a Japanese film actor noted for his supporting roles in a career that spanned seven decades.
Career
Tanaka was born in Kyoto and quit school in order to become a film actor, joining the Nikkatsu studio in 1925. He eventually moved up to seco ...
as Banteki
*
Nakamura Ganjirō II
was a Japanese kabuki and film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1941 and 1980, directed by notable filmmakers such as Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed t ...
as Elderly executive from Hakucho Company
*
Masaomi Kondō
is a Japanese actor.
Career
Born in Kyoto, Kondō made his film debut in Shohei Imamura's ''The Pornographers
is a 1966 satiric Japanese film directed by Shōhei Imamura. It is based on the novel ''Erogotoshitachi'' by Akiyuki Nosaka.
Plot ...
as Kōichi Matsuda, Haru's son
*
Akira Nishimura
is a Japanese composer from Osaka.
Biography
Nishimura studied composition and musical theory on a graduate course at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He also studied Asian traditional music, religion, aesthetics, cosmology an ...
as Detective Sanada
*
Ichirō Sugai
was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1930 and 1971. Sugai often worked with Kaneto Shindo, Kenji Mizoguchi and Kōzaburō Yoshimura.
Selected filmography
* '' The Water Magician'' (1933)
* '' Spring on Leper's Isla ...
as Shinun Ogata, Subuyan's father
*
Akiji Kobayashi
* Shinichi Nakano as Kabō
* Chōchō Miyako as Virgin House Madame
*
Kazuo Kitamura
was a Japanese actor. His son is actor Yukiya Kitamura. Kitamura met Shōhei Imamura when he was a student of Waseda University and became a close friend so often worked with Imamura. Kitamura joined Bungakuza theatre company and started his acti ...
as Doctor
Production and reception
The film is a dark comic satire, depicting the underbelly of the
Japanese post-war economic miracle, in this case pornographers and small time gangsters in Osaka. It has been called Imamura's best-known film outside Japan.
Release
''The Pornographers'' was released in Japan in March 1966 where it was distributed by
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...
. It was released in the United States by
Toho International with English subtitles in August 1966.
References
External links
*
*
*
1966 films
1966 comedy-drama films
1960s black comedy films
Japanese comedy-drama films
Japanese sex comedy films
Japanese erotic drama films
Films about pornography
Films directed by Shohei Imamura
Films based on Japanese novels
Films set in Osaka
1960s Japanese films
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