Nagisa Ōshima
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was a Japanese filmmaker, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and as one of the most important figures of the
Japanese New Wave The is a term for a group of loosely-connected Japanese films and filmmakers between the late 1950s and part of the 1970s. The most prominent representatives include directors Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda and Shōhei I ...
(Nūberu bāgu), alongside
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 ...
. His film style was bold, innovative and provocative. Common themes in his work include youthful rebellion, class and racial discrimination and taboo sexuality. His first major film was his second feature, ''
Cruel Story of Youth is a 1960 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima, starring Yusuke Kawazu and Miyuki Kuwano as teenage delinquents and lovers. It is Ōshima's second feature film and is known for its elements of Japanese '' nuberu bagu''. The film won the 1960 ...
'' (1960), one of the first Japanese New Wave films, a youth-oriented film with an earnest portrayal of the sexual lives and criminal activities of its young protagonists. And he came to greater international renown after ''Death By Hanging'' (1968), a film on the theme of
capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
and
anti-Korean sentiment Anti-Korean sentiment or Koryophobia describes negative feelings towards Koreans, Korean people, Culture of Korea, Korean culture, or the countries, North Korea and/or South Korea. Anti-Korean sentiment has varied by location and time. Major h ...
, was shown at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
in 1968. His most controversial film is ''
In the Realm of the Senses ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Ab ...
'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan.


Profile


Early life

Nagisa Ōshima was born into a family of aristocratic samurai roots. His father was a government official who had a large library. Ōshima spent very little time with his father, who died when he was six, which left a deep mark on him. Ōshima would point to this as the most important event of his childhood in his 1992 essay ''My Father's Non-existence: A Determining Factor in My Existence''. After graduating from
Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...
in 1954, where he studied political history, Ōshima 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 A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...
'' in 1959.


During the 1960s

Ōshima's cinematic career and influence developed very swiftly, and such films as ''
Cruel Story of Youth is a 1960 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima, starring Yusuke Kawazu and Miyuki Kuwano as teenage delinquents and lovers. It is Ōshima's second feature film and is known for its elements of Japanese '' nuberu bagu''. The film won the 1960 ...
'', '' The Sun's Burial'' and ''
Night and Fog in Japan is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It deals with the contemporary Zengakuren opposition but also evokes the 1950 protests against the Anpo treaty; this political content is related to the particular approach of memory ...
'' followed in 1960. The last of these 1960 films explored Ōshima'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 Inejiro Asanuma by the ultranationalist
Otoya Yamaguchi was a Japanese right-wing Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi-like shor ...
, there was a risk of "unrest". Ōshima left the studio in response, and launched his own independent production company. Despite the controversy, ''Night and Fog in Japan'' placed tenth in that year's ''
Kinema Jumpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...
'' best-films poll of Japanese critics, and it has subsequently amassed considerable acclaim abroad. In 1961 Ōshima directed ''
The Catch The Catch may refer to: Film and television *The Catch (American TV series), ''The Catch'' (American TV series), a 2016–2017 American mystery series *The Catch (British TV series), ''The Catch'' (British TV series), a 2023 British family drama ...
'', based on a
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
by
Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issue ...
about the relationship between a wartime Japanese village and a captured
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
serviceman. ''The Catch'' has not traditionally been viewed as one of Ōshima 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 Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. ...
'' and ''Three Resurrected Drunkards''. He 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 Ōshima after a trip to South Korea. Ōshima directed three features in 1968. The first of these - ''
Death by Hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. ...
'' (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. The film utilizes non-realistic "distancing" techniques after the fashion of
Bertold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...
or
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
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'' 1968 poll, and has also garnered significant attention globally. ''Death By Hanging'' inaugurated a string of films (continuing through 1976's ''
In the Realm of the Senses ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Ab ...
'') that clarified a number of Ōshima's key themes, most notably a need to question social constraints, and to similarly deconstruct received political doctrines. Months later, ''
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief is a 1969 Japanese New Wave film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. Synopsis The film centers around Birdie, a young Japanese book thief who is caught by a store clerk named Umeko. As their encounters grow increasingly fraught with te ...
'' unites a number of Ōshima's thematic concerns within a dense, collage-style presentation. Featuring a title which alludes to
Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...
's ''
The Thief's Journal ''The Thief's Journal'' (''Journal du voleur'', published in 1949) is a novel by Jean Genet. Although autobiographical to some degree, Genet’s exploitation of poetic language results in an ambiguity throughout the text. Superficially, the nove ...
'', the film explores the links between sexual and political radicalism, specifically examining the day-to-day life of a would-be radical whose sexual desires take the form of
kleptomania Kleptomania is the inability to resist the urge to steal items, usually for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. First described in 1816, kleptomania is classified in psychiatry as an impulse-control disorder. Some of the main ch ...
. The fragmented narrative is interrupted by commentators, including Kara Jūrō's underground performance troupe, starring Kara Jūrō, his then wife Ri Reisen, and
Maro Akaji Maro may refer to: People * Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro; 70 BC–19 BC), ancient Roman poet * Maro (name), including a list of people with the given name or surname Maro * Mark Rosewater (born 1967), American television writer and ''Magic: The ...
(who would go on to lead the butoh troupe Dairakudakan). Yokoo Tadanori, an artist who created many of the iconic theatre posters during the 1960s and '70s, plays the thief, who gets a bit part in Kara's performance. The film also features a psychoanalyst, the president of Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjuku, and an impromptu symposium featuring actors from previous Ōshima films (along with Ōshima himself), all dissecting varied aspects of shifting sexual politics, as embodied by various characters within the film. ''
Boy A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is usually described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a 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 career

'' The Ceremony'' (1971) is a satirical film on traditional Japanese attitudes, famously expressed in a scene where a marriage ceremony has to go ahead even though the bride is not present. In 1976, Ōshima made ''
In the Realm of the Senses ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a 1936 murder committed by Sada Ab ...
'', a film based on a true story of fatal sexual obsession in 1930s Japan. Ōshima, a critic of censorship and his contemporary
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
'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. A book with stills and script notes from the film was published by San’ichishobo, and in 1976 the Japanese government brought obscenity charges against Ōshima and San’ichishobo. Alexander, James R., Obscenity, Pornography, and Law in Japan: Reconsidering Oshima's 'In the Realm of the Senses' (April 17, 2012). Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, vol. 4 (winter 2003), pp. 148-168., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2041314 Ōshima testified in the trial and said. "Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden." Ōshima and the publisher were found not guilty in 1979; the government appealed and the Tokyo High Court upheld the verdict in 1982. In his 1978 companion film to ''In the Realm of the Senses'', ''
Empire of Passion is a 1978 French-Japanese film produced, written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura. The film was a co-production between Oshima Prods. and Argos Films. Plot In 1895 a rickshaw runner arrives home in a village i ...
'', Ōshima 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 The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
award for best director.


1980s onwards

In 1983 Ōshima had a critical success with ''
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , also known as , is a 1983 war film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, co-written by Paul Mayersberg, and produced by Jeremy Thomas. The film is based on the experiences of Sir Laurens van der Post (portrayed by Tom Conti as Lt. Col. J ...
'', a film partly in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
and set in a wartime Japanese prison camp, and featuring rock star
David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
and musician
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...
, alongside
Takeshi Kitano , also known as in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. During hi ...
. The movie is sometimes viewed as a minor classic but never found a mainstream audience. (1986), written with
Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
's frequent collaborator
Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing '' Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorar ...
, was a comedy about a diplomat's wife (
Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress. An icon of the Swinging London, Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film ''Georgy Girl'', which starred Lynn ...
) whose love affair with a
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...
is quietly incorporated into an eminently civilised ''
ménage à trois A () is a domestic arrangement or committed relationship consisting of three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together. The phrase is a loan from French meaning "household of three". ...
''. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, he served as president of the
Directors Guild of Japan The is a trade union created to represent the interests of film directors in the film industry in Japan. It was founded in 1936, with Minoru Murata serving as the first president, and has continued to this day apart from a period between 1943 an ...
. He won the inaugural
Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award The is given annually by the Directors Guild of Japan to a new director of a film released that year who is considered the most "suitable" for the award. The winner is selected by a committee formed of DGJ members. All formats—feature film, docu ...
in 1960. A collection of Ōshima's essays and articles was published in English in 1993 as ''Cinema, Censorship and the State''. In 1995 he wrote and directed the archival documentary '100 Years of Japanese Cinema' for the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
. A critical study by Maureen Turim appeared in 1998. In 1996 Ōshima suffered a stroke, but he recovered enough to return to directing in 1999 with the
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
film ''
Taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
'' (''Gohatto''), set during the
bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...
era and starring ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'' actor
Takeshi Kitano , also known as in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. During hi ...
.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...
, 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. Ōshima had initially planned to create a
biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...
entitled ''Hollywood Zen'' based on the life of
Issei are Japanese immigrants to countries in North America and South America. The term is used mostly by ethnic Japanese. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are (, "two", plus , "generation"); and their grandchildren are ...
actor
Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man ...
. The script had been allegedly completed and set to film in Los Angeles, but due to constant delays, declining health, and Ōshima's eventual death in 2013 (see below), the project went unrealized. Having a degree of fluency in English, in the 2000s, Ōshima worked as a
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
. He translated four books by John Gray into Japanese, including ''
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus ''Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'' (1992) is a book written by American author and relationship counselor John Gray. The book states that most common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental psychological ...
''. Ōshima died on January 15, 2013, of pneumonia. He was 80. The 2013 edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival scheduled a retrospective of Ōshima films in September.


Awards


Style

Nagisa Oshima was known for the protean nature of his work. From one film to the next, he would frequently shuffle between black-and-white and color, between
academy ratio The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 (abbreviated as 1.37:1) is an aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio of a film frame, frame of 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film when used with negative pulldown, 4-perf pulldown.Monaco, James. ''How to Read a Film: The A ...
and
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
, between
long takes In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and elaborate ...
and fragmented cutting, and between formally composed images and a
cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...
style. In multiple interviews, Oshima has named
Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
as a director he profoundly admires. The influence of Buñuel's work can be seen as early as in The Sun's Burial (1960), which was possibly inspired by
Los Olvidados ''Los Olvidados'' (, Spanish: ''The Forgotten Ones''; known in the United States as ''The Young and the Damned'') is a 1950 Mexican teen crime film directed by Luis Buñuel. It was filmed at Tepeyac Studios and on location in Mexico City. Prod ...
, and as late as in (1986), for which Oshima worked with
Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing '' Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorar ...
, a frequent collaborator of Buñuel's.


Filmography


Films


Television


Film theorists

Film scholars who have focused on the work of Ōshima include Isolde Standish, a
film theorist Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...
specializing in
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
. She teaches courses on Ōshima at the
School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
in London and wrote extensively on him as for example: *''Politics, Porn and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s''. New York: Continuum Int. Publishing Group. *'Transgression and the Politics of Porn. Ōshima Nagisa's In the Realm of the Senses (1976)'. In: Phillips, A. and Stringer, J., (eds.), ''Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts''. Abingdon: Routledge, pp 217-228).


Writings

*''Pasolini Renaissance'',


Translations

*"Ai ga Fukamaru Hon - "Honto no Yorokobi" o shiru tame ni" (translation of "Making Heart-to-Heart Love in Bed" by John Gray) *ベスト・パートナーになるために―男と女が知っておくべき「分かち愛」のルール 男は火星から、女は金星からやってきた (translation of "
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus ''Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'' (1992) is a book written by American author and relationship counselor John Gray. The book states that most common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental psychological ...
" by John Gray)


Notes


References

* * *


External links


OSHIMA PRODUCTIONS LTD
*
Profile
at Japan Zone * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oshima, Nagisa 1932 births 2013 deaths Kyoto University alumni Film theorists Japanese film directors Japanese comedy film directors Japanese satirists Japanese satirical film directors Japanese erotic artists Obscenity controversies in film Japanese essayists Japanese male screenwriters Mass media people from Kyoto Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director winners Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon