207 The Pornographers

[Martha]

The Pornographers



Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend's obsession. Imamura's comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

Special Features

- New high-definition digital transfer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
-Theatrical trailer
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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[Pinback]

Came across a review of this film by Janet Maslin from the New York Times. In the spirit of restoring life to many of the post-starved threads, I thought I'd post it:

May 22, 1987
FILM: FROM '66 JAPAN, 'THE PORNOGRAPHERS'
By JANET MASLIN

THE large carp that presides over parts of Shohei Imamura's ''Pornographers'' is only one of many testaments to Mr. Imamura's real and piquant eccentricity. The carp watches over a widow named Haru (Sumiko Sakamoto), and she believes it to be the embodiment of her dead husband. It jumps, or at least she thinks it does, when it disapproves of her behavior. It seems to jump frequently in the presence of Subu (Shoichi Ozawa), Haru's lover. In any case, Mr. Imamura has any number of opportunities to stage shots near the carp, through the carp tank and from the carp's point of view.

''The Pornographers,'' which opens today at the Film Forum 2, has a bizarrely matter-of-fact tone and a great many flashes of dark humor. It's at least as engaging as it is obscure. Subu, who is one of three pornographers to whom the title refers, conducts his covert film-making business with a pragmatism that seems quite strange under the circumstances, and with an utter lack of lasciviousness or lust. He regards it as something like charitable work, and he himself seems part monk, part entrepreneur.

It's difficult to know what goes through Subu's head when he recruits a young mother to play the role of a virgin, or prepares to stage a schoolgirl-in-uniform routine for an elderly client. What's clearer is that Subu's career and his life with Haru and her teen-age daughter Keiko (after whom he does tacitly lust) are both full of little frustrations. Mr. Imamura, who subtitled this film ''An Introduction to Anthropology,'' explores a much seedier and more offbeat side of Japanese life than usually can be found on the screen. Made in 1966, ''The Pornographers'' was well ahead of its time.

Mr. Imamura, who often frames his images in intriguing and unexpected ways, can be as wrenching as he is bleakly funny. Haru's eventual decline into madness (and into the carp's life) strikes a sobering chord, as does Subu's guilty erotic fixation on a childhood scar of Keiko's and the accident that caused it. The ending of the film, which takes place some time after the main action and presents the culmination of Subu's creative efforts, is haunting in its own way. ''Into each hair I've poured all my pain,'' he observes, while crafting his ironic masterpiece.

The actors are supremely diffident, as suits Mr. Imamura's detached style, and the film's tone is quietly ironic. A scene in which a customer puzzles over his new ''G.I. cut'' in Haru's barbershop is no less consequential than the one in which Subu muses, ''I guess I'm fascinated by the pathos of being a man.''

She repeats the point that the Criterion description makes about the film being ahead of its time. I'm still not clear on what it is that makes a film ahead of its time. Is it simply the film being poorly received on release, and then 'rescued' by critics years later? This film is often associated with the Japanese New Wave, and described as being very much of its time, rather than ahead of it...

[Cinephrenic]

They probably were referring to the man being obsessed with minors, something far too common these days.

[Hrossa]

I guess I'm having trouble understanding why people don't go gaga over this film. I just watched it and am surprised that I've heard almost nothing about it to this point. In my opinion, it trumps a lot of Godard's 60's films politically, socially, aesthetically, and spiritually. It strains to say a lot about modern society, what it is to be human, sin, and existence but manages to hold its subject matter so lightly that scores of instances of subtle humor sneak in. It has moments as stylized as those in any Suzuki film, yet manages to use them to say something profound about each of its characters. It also fleshes out a handful of characters quite well by the end of its two hours.

The camerawork involves several techniques that I haven't seen duplicated very much. The scene in which the carp swims in a pool overtop of the central characters comes to mind. Each time it jumps (an important action in the plot of the film), the image is distorted by the movement of the water. Imamura also places the camera directly above characters, on its side peering at them through doorways, and also groups his subject in one corner of the frame, exploring the spaces they inhabit in the area left over.

The timeline is cut up masterfully, keeping us guessing sometimes as to whether the events we see occurred in the past, present, future, or in the mind of one of its characters. Subu continuously glimpses a prostitute from his boyhood in the background of various scenes, but no attempt is made to explain anything further - it's just one of the many things that has contributed to his present state.

Imamura is the anti-Ozu in many ways, but manages to end up with something just as profound as his stylistic opposite. I can't wait to see some more of his films.

[Michael Kerpan]

Although Imamura is one of my favorites, I find "Pornographers" a bit too cold and clinical compared to the other 60s films I like most -- "Pigs and Battleships", "Insect Woman" and "Intentions of Murder". That said, the cinematography in this is fully equal to that in my favorites.

[Hrossa]

I'm surprised that you find The Pornographers to be cold. I think it's a very moving portrait of a pathetic individual. I didn't find it to be cold at all. Now, 2001: A Space Odyssey I find cold or The Hours, but this didn't seem cold to me at all.

I definitely want to check out some more Imamura. I watched a bit of Dr. Akagi once, but couldn't really get into it. I guess the easiest of his films to see are the more recent ones. Are there any other 60's or 70's Imamura films on Region 1 DVD?

[peerpee]

Eeek, a non-multiregion/multisystem person! The players are only the price of two top-tier Criterions (three for a nice one).

[Hrossa]

Eeek, a non-multiregion/multisystem person!

No, just a poor one with a Netflix acct.

[Cinéslob]

Eeek, a non-multiregion/multisystem person!

No, just a poor one with a Netflix acct.

You could always try the Video Help hack list as a means of last resort.

[zedz]

I guess I'm having trouble understanding why people don't go gaga over this film. I just watched it and am surprised that I've heard almost nothing about it to this point. In my opinion, it trumps a lot of Godard's 60's films politically, socially, aesthetically, and spiritually.

I agree with you, and I think a big part of the problem is that the Japanese New Wave has sort of sunk below the critical horizon in the west. Personally, I think the 60s work of Oshima, Imamura, Shinoda and Hani retains far more intrigue and, for want of a better term, 'edge' than that of their French counterparts, but it's been very poorly served in recent years (while the critical establishment continues to fawn over Godard and Truffaut).

The situation isn't helped by the lack of contextual information accompanying the few recent releases of New Wave films. With this film and Double Suicide, Criterion has released two key films of the movement, but both discs are bare bones, and neither film is entirely self-explanatory to a modern Western viewer without a strong background knowledge of Japanese history and culture.

I'd strongly recommend Desser's study of the movement Eros Plus Massacre (which I recently dug out and am enjoying all over again), and MoC's superb release of Imamura's Vengeance is Mine (well worth going region-free for this!), with its great Tony Rayns commentary and typically compendious booklet.

[Hrossa]

neither film is entirely self-explanatory to a modern Western viewer without a strong background knowledge of Japanese history and culture.

Yeah, but I don't consider myself very well-versed in Japanese history and culture and the film still seemed to make sense to me. I keep hearing this about Japanese New Wave films, that you need a deeper understanding of the culture to fully appreciate them. That may be true, but I think that most of the Japanese New Wave films I've seen are completely accessible without a deep knowledge.

It does seem like a crime that Criterion would release The Pornographers without any extras.

[zedz]

Yeah, but I don't consider myself very well-versed in Japanese history and culture and the film still seemed to make sense to me. I keep hearing this about Japanese New Wave films, that you need a deeper understanding of the culture to fully appreciate them. That may be true, but I think that most of the Japanese New Wave films I've seen are completely accessible without a deep knowledge.

Oh, I agree that the films are accessible (even compelling) without that additional information, but I find after watching these films I have all sorts of questions that I want answered, and finding those answers always makes the viewing experience richer. (I think the distinction might be that many of these films are not self-contained in the way that a film by Ozu or Kurosawa - which can also be enriched by additional background - are).

Cold, Double Suicide is still a dazzling experience, but background on bunraku (and Japanese sexual politics of the 60s) enhances it no end. And with The Pornographers, I'd love to find out more about the ultra-low-budget Japanese porn industry depicted (and how Imamura researched this), for example. Both of those films are very small potatoes, however, alongside something as unruly and allusive / elusive as Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, which practically demands footnotes (but is still amazing without them).

[shirobamba]

... and how Imamura researched this.

This is a pretty good introduction to Imamura. It doesn't answer the more complicated questions of the how, who and why of the socio-political upheaval of the Japanese 50's and 60's, but at least, you might get an idea, what the man was/is after.

In addition I strongly recommend James Quant's collection of essays and interviews.

[Hrossa]

Both of those films are very small potatoes, however, alongside something as unruly and allusive / elusive as Diary of a Shinjuku Thief,

How did you manage to see Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, if I may be so bold?

[zedz]

Both of those films are very small potatoes, however, alongside something as unruly and allusive / elusive as Diary of a Shinjuku Thief,

How did you manage to see Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, if I may be so bold?

Local film society has an old 16mm print that I've seen several times. There are lots of other Oshimas that I'd love to see and may be just as impressive and amazing (they certainly sound amazing), but that's the one I'm most familiar with, so it's my default point of reference. A wild, wild film. People who find Weekend challenging should run for the hills.

[Hrossa]

A wild, wild film. People who find Weekend challenging should run for the hills.

I know we're probably a bit off topic, but I'm curious to know in what exactly you mean by "challenging". Do you mean in narrative structure or content? I mostly just find the politics of Weekend difficult and uninteresting navigation. I have no problem appreciating most of the film's events or images as unrelated as they may seem.

[zedz]

I know we're probably a bit off topic, but I'm curious to know in what exactly you mean by "challenging". Do you mean in narrative structure or content?

Both. The film layers multiple levels of reality / unreality onto one another (the characters, the actors playing the characters, the filmmakers, a theatrical troupe performing another story, which in turn involves the characters / actors, as well as documentary footage of the student unrest in Tokyo at the same time - real events in which most of these other layers of reality / unreality become involved), so you're continually dropping through false floors in the narrative (or scrabbling up to the next layer, like you're a player in a giant game of snakes and ladders). At the same time, there's a through-narrative (admittedly fractured) about the relationship between the two central characters that tends to ignore all of these y-axis shifts.

In addition to this complexity at the level of fabula (storytelling), there's a similar density and complexity to the syuzhet (story), as the film ricochets from situation to (absurdist) situation, ending up in an extended sequence in which a theatrical troupe enact the story of the rebel Yui Shosetsu (with songs), against a backdrop of contemporary (documentary) rebellion.

And there are allusions all over the place: to Japanese history; to contemporary events; to psychoanalysis; and, somewhere in the midst of the scuffle, to Genet. Plus it's consistently visually and technically arresting, and often very funny.

[Hrossa]

so you're continually dropping through false floors in the narrative (or scrabbling up to the next layer, like you're a player in a giant game of snakes and ladders).

Wow. Nice description. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see it when it comes out on some viewable format in 2010.

[souvenir]

With nearly a year and a half of inactivity, this thread seems ripe for a little discussion. Rather than cold and clinical, I thought the film showed some of Imamura's frequent playfulness. I kept half expecting the carp to start singing like one of those novelty "Big Mouth Billy Bass" that were popular a few years ago. The frequent voyeuristic placement of the camera and audience reaction bookends fit well with what I've seen of Imamura's interest in exploring the relationship between fiction and nonfiction filmmaking. I thought Hrossa's comments above were spot-on, and I too was impressed by the seamless flashbacks, transitioned well enough to avoid confusion or distraction without appearing showy. Yet, when people ask for lesser-known Criterion recommendations or favorites, almost no one ever suggests The Pornographers.

I'm guessing the dearth of extra features may be part of the reason. As was already mentioned it's frustrating that Criterion decided to release this with just an essay and the trailer, especially at spine number 207 after their commitment to insightful supplements had fully flowered. It's even more disappointing when you look at the lack of other Imamura releases with English subs, and their choice to put out Vengeance Is Mine, in a release inferior to the MoC, well over three years after The Pornographers. I don't know who owns the rights to Imamura's other 1960s films in the UK, but I think Criterion does over here. Both Intentions of Murder and The Insect Woman are supposedly forthcoming, but it seems like Criterion has been sitting on them for a very long time, and I hope we don't have to wait almost four more years until we see another Imamura release.

[colinr0380]

The frequent voyeuristic placement of the camera and audience reaction bookends fit well with what I've seen of Imamura's interest in exploring the relationship between fiction and nonfiction filmmaking.

I agree, The Pornographers is an excellent film. I especially like the way that the shots are framed so you see real life going on beyond the staged events for example looking at a building with the characters in the windows yet leaving the left edge open to show a street, or being able to see through the hairdressing salon to the life going on outside, which fits in with the ficton and non-fiction elements you mention.

I like the way that Imamura isn't afraid of stylising the events in the film though and creating amazing images such as the barred gate in the middle of nowhere showing the characters mental state, or that long walk to the camera the girl does as the mother and son talk in the foreground, with the sound of her footsteps amplified and the far background fading to black as she gets nearer. In that sense it seems strange that the carp doesn't start talking, or that the sex dolls don't come to life! I think that would tip the film too far over into fantasy though (as well as frustrating the desires from the characters for just such an event to occur). The visuals give an great insight into the psychology of the characters without needing that extra visualisation and it also speaks to the frustrated hopes of the characters retreating into fantasy as they can't connect with the people around them, and instead end up projecting their hopes and ideas onto objects that can't reciprocate.

An extremely strange but also beautifully composed film. I've had the DVD a few years now and keep returning to it, even certain sections of it, over and over again.

DVD Talk review

[Steven H]

According to the forthcoming Eclipse list there will be some Imamura on the way. To me, it would make sense to throw his early stuff in an Eclipse set (from Stolen Desire to Intentions of Murder), and keep his late 60s masterpieces, A Man Vanishes and Profound Desires of the Gods, as Criterion discs. Then again, ANY 50s, 60s, or 70s Imamura would be desirable.

It's been a long time since I've seen The Pornographers, but the final shot of the boat is permanently etched into my mind. I must revisit this film. Perhaps to help get the discussion going, here are a few reviews: Rosenbaum's capsule, and DVDBeaver, which doesn't share any thoughts about the film, instead Gary merely mentions it's lack of extras, odd subtitle color, and less than perfectly sharp image. Then there's Janet Maslin for the NY Times (in 1987), who refers to Sabu as "part monk, part entrepreneur".

[YnEoS]

Incredible film. I thought constantly placing the camera outside was a brilliant move. I can see it being read a few different ways, but for me it acted similar to the long takes in Jansco's The Red and the White reducing war to a bunch of small figures in the landscape knocking each other over. It really captures the absurdity of human sexuality and all the effort being put into helping people get off, placed right against people going about their daily routine. I can also see it as us "peeping in" on their personal lives when they're normally the ones peeping in at people's private sexual lives, but this is more a realization I came to thinking about the film later, than part of my experience of watching it. It does shift much more towards a personal family drama towards the middle, and I think that's a big part of why the film is so effective.

Lots of great imagery too, my preference is for the stuff that happens more organically to the narrative, like the using 4+ camera at once to expose multiple negatives. And the carp that may or may not be the reincarnated husband just sitting around in the background most of the time. I wasn't as into the more stylized imagery later in the film, but it was well enough motivated that it didn't disrupt the narrative for me at all.

[knives]

It probably also plays into the film's subtitle as the camera is looking in on the people like fish in an aquarium.

[colinr0380]

I think the layering of imagery and squashing public and private together also adds a lot to the sense of claustrophobia of the film. There is no escape from other people - no way to fool around or go quietly insane without it taking place in semi-public spaces, or at least in front of extended family members. Something which adds to the no holds barred hysteria when characters finally do crack and retreat into interior fantasies within their own heads as the only place where they can truly be allowed to be themselves. In that sense I find that final shot beautifully ambivalent as both a triumphant rejection of society and as a very rickety, un-thought out escape attempt, which is revealed as just as manufactured an ending as Brazil's would later be!

[YnEoS]

Indeed. I also think the film also plays off the inside/outside perverted/everyday life oppositions in the way it constantly focuses on the money driving the pornography business forward. There's a lot of public demand for the stuff, but also public condemnation whenever it surfaces. The kids likewise use it as an excuse to attack and steal from Mr. Ogata, despite being quite happy to reap the rewards of his labors. Everyone attacks him as being perverted for the business he works in, but he's one of the more functional normal characters just trying to live an ordinary family life.