Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

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zedz
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#101 Post by zedz » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:40 pm

Death By Hanging / Three Resurrected Drunkards

I know I’ve gone on and on about the first of these films elsewhere on the forum – probably more than once – so I’ll try to limit my comments to how it relates to the films in the Eclipse set which surround it.

If you know that this is where Oshima is heading, then the two films that precede it make more sense to me. Violence at Noon and Pleasures of the Flesh could be considered as culminations of Oshima’s experiments with established genres, and the two films that follow, though both nodding towards genre at points, are really stepping beyond it, and stepping outside traditional narrative in significant ways as well. In them, Oshima is experimenting with different modes through which he can explore particular themes – specifically those of modern Japanese identity and Japanese youth – and he’s taking a risk in not tying those themes down to the provisional, disrupted narratives of the films. He’s juggling a lot of things at once, but for me (at first sight, it has to be noted) all of that stuff doesn’t quite coalesce into a coherent vision – at least not like it does in Death by Hanging.

This is the film where the ‘Japanese Godard’ tag really starts to look threadbare. I’ll try to put this in as uninflammatory manner as possible, but I don’t think Godard has ever been as intellectually focussed as Oshima is here. He’s tackling his themes on multiple fronts in a really audacious way, creating matrices of meaning that hang together as a solid structure, rather than the feints and provocations of the previous films.

I think another big factor in the success of Death by Hanging is that Oshima has realigned his theme of Japanese identity in a small but hugely significant way. In A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Song and Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, he’s exploring notions of Japanese identity in relation to American identity, which is sort of like shooting fish in a barrel. In Death by Hanging, he’s exploring it in relation to Korean identity, which is a much more challenging prospect, dredging up as it does the whole buried history of Japanese racism, imperialism and exploitation. And at the same time, he’s using those parallel explorations to interrogate the very nature of identity in a much more universal and ambitious form than he ever had before. The scope of his cinema effectively explodes in two different directions with this film, though you can also see very clear continuities with the two features that preceded it.

And then, with Three Resurrected Drunkards, Oshima revisits similar thematic material as absurdist comedy, before doubling back on himself and attacking, with Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, the sexual and gender material from Treatise and Summer with the same kind of redoubled fervour (and a fair bit more anarchy) as he had their identity politics with Death by Hanging.

Three Resurrected Drunkards may be the comic flipside of Death by Hanging (with its themes reimagined as a lost couple of episodes of The Monkees that make Head look sober as a judge), but that’s not to say that the preceding film eschewed absurdist comedy (one of my favourite lines is the doctor’s complaint that the medical literature on post-execution ailments is rather sketchy).

Oshima adds the Vietnam War to the mix for Drunkards, but the film is hardly ‘about’ the war. It’s using the circumstances and imagery of Vietnam to explore some favourite themes, in particular the nature of identity and Japanese / Korean relations. The film takes as its starting point the re-enactment of a real-life crime, an element borrowed from Death by Hanging (in Death it was R’s rapes / murders; here it’s General Loan’s notorious execution of an enemy officer), and then riffs up that whole idea of play-acting into the entire structure of the film, with a round-robin of impersonations, costume changes, identity thefts and mislaid nationalities building onto one another. And just as in Death by Hanging, when R’s mysterious sister (he has no sister) only becomes visible to certain characters at certain times, there’s a sense that if the players can’t figure out how to play the game, the game is quite happy to play the players.

Underlying all of this is the foundational idea that identity, specifically racial / national identity, is precisely this kind of game, and it’s only everybody else’s investment in the game that keeps us all playing. In the terms of Three Resurrected Drunkards, if everybody just agreed to call themselves Korean (as we see various people in the street, including Oshima, do in a faux verité sequence), there would be no narrative conflict. (And that pseudo-documentary sequence is another point of comparison with Death by Hanging, which opens rather like Bunuel’s L’Age d’or as a documentary – in which the execution facility is helpfully and pointedly compared with an ‘ordinary domestic house’ – before collapsing in on itself).

For all that I wanted to tackle Drunkards analytically this time around, it’s so much fun I was seduced by the film, which is pretty damn cuddly for something so Brechtian. The first half, where we’re frog-marched by titles through a perfunctory narrative that ‘goes’ to Korea and Vietnam much in the way that old Doctor Who episodes would go to various quarry-like planets, seems to be running out of ideas quickly, but this is part of the joke, and the second half of the film is the payoff. The first time I saw the film, I had the great pleasure of knowing nothing about where it was going, so no spoilers from me.

The Eclipse transfer of the film is superb, by the way. Some of you have no doubt seen what I was working with before, so I wasn't hard to impress, but I was still surprised and delighted.

Finally, a word about Masao Adachi. He co-wrote Drunkards and Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, and he also acts in Drunkards and Death by Hanging – in which film he’s temporarily elevated to the status of Oshima’s Unholy Trinity of Sato, Toura and Watanabe. Earlier in this thread there was talk about Kei Sato as Oshima’s key collaborator, but I think Adachi, at least during this concentrated run, is a more significant figure. He was collaborating rather intensely at the same time with Koji Wakamatsu (who would, in turn, collaborate with Oshima on In the Realm of the Senses), and there’s some sort of crazy overlap between their films of this period, if only in their manic intensity. Even more interesting is Adachi’s one-of-a-kind 1969 feature film A.K.A. Serial Killer, which makes Oshima’s oddest films of the era look positively mainstream, but which seems of offer his mentor the conceptual jumper leads he needed to get The Man Who Left His Will on Film up and running.

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knives
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#102 Post by knives » Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:26 pm

Zedz, I'm going to blame you if that song never leaves my head. I wish I could say something about Resurrected Drunkards, but Zedz just put so much of it forward. It's amazing how he can destroy audience expectations and most any concept of what a film should be while keeping everything entertaining and brisk. Now I really have to see Death by Hanging which seems like more greatness.

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zedz
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#103 Post by zedz » Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:52 pm

knives wrote:Zedz, I'm going to blame you if that song never leaves my head.
Do you mean that Chipmunky "I just up and died" number? I watched Diary of a Shinjuku Thief last night and Kara Juro's "Town of Ali Baba" song has thoroughly dislodged it. Not that this is a good thing. Bero-bero-bero-bero-bero-bero. . .

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#104 Post by Peacock » Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:22 pm

"I am Ali Baba, Town of Mysteries, suddenly appearing on screen topless addressing the camera"

So many great Oshima films without english friendly releases!

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knives
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#105 Post by knives » Mon Jun 14, 2010 8:24 pm

zedz wrote:
knives wrote:Zedz, I'm going to blame you if that song never leaves my head.
Do you mean that Chipmunky "I just up and died" number? I watched Diary of a Shinjuku Thief last night and Kara Juro's "Town of Ali Baba" song has thoroughly dislodged it. Not that this is a good thing. Bero-bero-bero-bero-bero-bero. . .
God yes, it's like squeaky nails on a poppy chalkboard. Took Elmo's World to get out of my head.
Also, where's DH with the rest of his input? Too busy hunting Jackalope?

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#106 Post by Yojimbo » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:11 am

Watched 'Japanese Summer...' for the first time last night with English subs, and absolutely loved it, confirming my first impression
I may have missed some of the detail watching it with Carlotta's French subs but I don't think it was significant.
I won't claim to understand the significance of every element of it, and I don't particularly care to read any geeky Bob Dylan-esque forensic dissection of it, other than that its some kind of Oshima-commentary on contemporary Japanese youth's obsession with sex and guns,..(and rock'n'roll?)

With those beautiful widescreen black and white compositions and its somewhat off-kilter script and performances it would give Suzuki's delirious 'Branded To Kill' a run for its money.

Watching it I wondered would Yoshida have been taking notes for his equally fun, 'Heroic Purgatory'?
(and who's to say Quentin Tarantino wasn't watching?)


Would make a great triple bill with 'Purgatory' and Cronenberg's 'Crash'

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#107 Post by swo17 » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:46 pm

My library just added this set to its catalog under the title Oshima's Outlaw Sexties. They're not completely wrong though, amirite?

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#108 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:18 pm

swo17 wrote:My library just added this set to its catalog under the title Oshima's Outlaw Sexties. They're not completely wrong though, amirite?
Now there's a 'Freudian Slip'! :D

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TheRanchHand
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#109 Post by TheRanchHand » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:45 am

Well, with the Criterion sale going on I may just have to pick the set up now that it is about $35. Was wavering but that may just do it......

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#110 Post by aox » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:09 pm

Promise me this is worth a blind-buy?

I love Godard, but even without ever seeing a single frame of this guy's work, that comparison is maddening.

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Peacock
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#111 Post by Peacock » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:17 pm

Promise!
I haven't seen any Yoshida, but other than that, I'd say Oshima is the best of the Japanese New Wave. Each film deals with important issues at the time in ridiculously creative ways...

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knives
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#112 Post by knives » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:30 pm

Why I wouldn't go as far as Peacock, Immamura all the way, this is really a great set and worth more than the BN price.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#113 Post by Steven H » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:12 pm

aox, go for the blind buy, promise. In a lot of ways these films share Godard's sense of rebellious 60s adventure with genres, but maybe they have more polish than Godard's works of the same time. Perhaps Contempt, or Pierrot le fou, is their most similar work? Then again, I'm not that well versed on Godard.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#114 Post by Yojimbo » Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:15 pm

Ever since I sampled Oshima's 60's output, and realised how the ridiculously overrated 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' was in comparison, I've felt that Oshima was far more committed, politically, but without losing sight of the essence of cinema.

Godard is still a valid copmparison in that I think both were exploring cinema's outer boundaries at the time, and both could still make great, fresh, and exciting cinema.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#115 Post by TheGodfather » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:06 pm

Over the last few days I watched the complete set. I think this can turn out to be my favorite of all the Eclipse sets that I own so far.
My favorite was Pleasures of the flesh, really loved that. An excellent film.
My least favorite was Japanese Summer. Will revisit it in the future though.
A set that`s highly recommended in my book.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#116 Post by HistoryProf » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:59 pm

So i've watched Pleasures of the Flesh and Violence at Noon the last 2 nights and am about to settle down with Sing a Song of Sex this afternoon. I can't stop really...as the first two intrigued me so much I have to see what's next. I think Violence at Noon is a better film than Pleasures, but I can't fully articulate why just yet. Have to let these percolate a bit. But man, Eisuke was one psychotic bastard...as intense a character as i've seen in any Japanese film from this period. It almost had a hint of Honeymoon Killers in it, w/ a sheen of pulpy lewdness driving the story. As for the 2000 cuts silliness, I had forgotten about that and the only moment at all where editing really stood out to me was in the retelling of one of the crimes where Oshima added filters and blurred the shots cutting quickly in a pseudo verite moment to coincide with the narrative. Otherwise, nothing about the cutting stood out. Framing, however, was fascinating, particularly his penchant to place faces on the side of the frame in a 2.35 layout.

Which leads to my one technical question. 2.35 seems like an odd choice for these films, particularly in a period where it was fairly rare - Europe was still in 1.66 mode, and the U.S. was experimenting but mostly in a 1.78-85 range...w/ the occasional David Lean epic getting the 2.35 treatment. Has Oshima ever discussed why he chose to use it? did he before this with the studio films or is this a break from their standards (which were what?) I find it very striking, and it fits the films perfectly, but you don't expect it in the first independent films of the 60s where $ was a serious issue and they often used whatever they could get. The quality of the production is impressive.

I'm also guessing that from here the two obvious stops are Nikkatsu Noir and Imamura? I have PP&P - but have yet to crack it. I was originally going to go back and forth with Imamura and Oshima....but i'm loving the Oshima's so much i'm just rolling with it. I'm also intrigued by the "Pink Films" Pleasures is supposed to be a contribution to - but apparently my definition of soft core is different from 1960s Japan. Are there suggestions of any other titles/directors on other R1 labels to look for? Like the Evil in Japan trailer someone posted before....that looked great! And while I do enjoy boobies, it's not so much of a prurient request as it is a fascination with seeing the breakdown of systemic taboos in films, and frankly, I had NO idea that this was happening in Japan this early - given that it's a nation that still won't show pubic hair, exposed breasts in the mid 60s is a bit of a shock to me. Would love to know more about that movement that these films apparently reside alongside. (but also don't want to hijack the thread...so feel free to point me to an extant thread if it exists!)


allright....now for some bawdy songs!

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#117 Post by zedz » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:10 pm

I don't know the historic reasons for it, but a lot of Japanese directors in the sixties favoured 2.35:1, and tended to do arresting and original things with it. See, for example, Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge, Imamura's Profound Desire of the Gods, Harakiri, High and Low - all very different from one another, and different from Oshima's use of that frame, but all radically inventive. I think there was even a thread around here a while back celebrating Japanese B&W widescreen films of the sixties.

Those two Criterion / Eclipse sets are good starts, but you'll need to look further afield (and maybe under some rocks) for real immersion. For exploration of the pink film / arthouse border, the man you want is Wakamatsu, and he's recently had a couple of box sets of his 60s work released in France. I believe the second of these (and not the first?) has English subs. And if you have any facility with written French, the complete works of Yoshida from Carlotta are utterly essential.

Closer to home, don't forget Shinoda, with a couple of films apiece available on Criterion and MoC, all of which are essential. And if you liked Violence at Noon, Imamura's take on similar material in Vengeance Is Mine is a fantastic film and provides a fantastic contrast.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#118 Post by Peacock » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:23 pm

Also remember Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.


I thought the reason for the 2.35.1 was because Hollywood would sell to Japan cheaply a lot of its old equipment once it had got bored of it, hence why Death by Hanging for example was shot on Vistavision. Although this doesn't make complete sense (or does it?) because they were shooting anamorphic features in Tohoscope rather than Cinemascope.. could they work in the same cameras?

As zedz will surely agree, 60s Japanese cinema is in a world of its own! Enjoy.. And don't forget the Fantoma Masumuras....

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#119 Post by Wu.Qinghua » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:26 pm

There are optional English subtitles on the discs of the second of Blaq Out's Wakamatsu sets (but there are no English subs on the first set!), as well as forced trailers and forced anti-piracy clips (bah!) ... Unfortunately I can't comment on the quality of the discs/transfers as I couldn't watch them due to some weird technical problems ...

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#120 Post by HistoryProf » Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:01 pm

zedz wrote:I don't know the historic reasons for it, but a lot of Japanese directors in the sixties favoured 2.35:1, and tended to do arresting and original things with it. See, for example, Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge, Imamura's Profound Desire of the Gods, Harakiri, High and Low - all very different from one another, and different from Oshima's use of that frame, but all radically inventive. I think there was even a thread around here a while back celebrating Japanese B&W widescreen films of the sixties.

Those two Criterion / Eclipse sets are good starts, but you'll need to look further afield (and maybe under some rocks) for real immersion. For exploration of the pink film / arthouse border, the man you want is Wakamatsu, and he's recently had a couple of box sets of his 60s work released in France. I believe the second of these (and not the first?) has English subs. And if you have any facility with written French, the complete works of Yoshida from Carlotta are utterly essential.

Closer to home, don't forget Shinoda, with a couple of films apiece available on Criterion and MoC, all of which are essential. And if you liked Violence at Noon, Imamura's take on similar material in Vengeance Is Mine is a fantastic film and provides a fantastic contrast.
thanks for the suggestions! I picked up Vengeance Is Mine in the B&N Sale LAST november, and it's been in the kevyip since - but i've unrwapped it and even had it in the player a couple of times, but then shit came up and i never got to it. Perhaps i'll change that this week and start there w/ Imamura instead of with the Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes films (which I also have on hand). I'm also very curious to see more Suzuki (Gate of Flesh in particular for the WWII context) beyond Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill.

I guess that's kind of my biggest revelation here, as my admittedly sparse exposure to Japanese cinema had left me with an impression that it's either Samurais (Kurosawa) or Yakuza flicks (70s+ & Kurosawa as well) and lots of fables taking western classics and re-imagining them in the east (more Kurosawa!)...and then there is Ozu with quiet pensive studies of Japanese family life and social mores. All of which are great, but I simply didn't know this world of Oshima in the 60s existed. I don't know what I expected, but this ain't it....and it's awesome. I've never really embraced Japanese cinema because it always felt, i don't know....too formal? That's not quite the right word, but I hope you can get my drift. It's of course a reflection of the society itself, and not in any way meant to impugn Kurosawa or Ozu - both are of course geniuses and I love their work. But this is something different altogether...rebelling not just from the societal issues at their center, but from the formalism of the Japanese studio system as well. What's so great is having learned from masters like Kurosawa and Ozu, guys like Oshima and Imamura seem have really benefited from that foundation by bringing their own immense skills and visions to the table. I like it.

If I may, i'd like to make one more request of Zedz: can you suggest a reading or two on Japanese society from Hiroshima to Vietnam? The remaking of Japan has always fascinated me, but I know painfully little about it - and surely there must be plenty written on how they literally rose from the ashes and the social/economic/political upheaval that defined that process. As is my nature, as I watch films like these i start longing for more historical context of the setting, and right now, saying a character's father was part of the "Left" in the 1950s means nothing to me. a basic primer on the politics of the period would help, but more so would be socioeconomic history...the kind of stuff we have tons of about the homefront during Vietnam for instance.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#121 Post by HistoryProf » Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:07 pm

As for Sing a Song of Sex...it kind of lost me, but I think I need to watch it again. The ending was incredibly abrupt, and I simply did not understand what was happening once they hit on the students singing We Shall Overcome and what happens to the girl who stands up in their midst and sings the "woman's song" -
SpoilerShow
did they carry her off and rape her? is that what the dress was for? Is there some cultural significance to that?
What I couldn't quite follow is why they insisted on telling her they fantasized about raping her. Is there some cultural foundation for this? As with the recurring theme of double suicide, rape seems to figure centrally in the power structure of genders and classes in Japan....but I can't discern whether Oshima is riffing on politics or sexual mores or both or something else altogether.

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zedz
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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#122 Post by zedz » Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:24 pm

HistoryProf wrote:If I may, i'd like to make one more request of Zedz: can you suggest a reading or two on Japanese society from Hiroshima to Vietnam? The remaking of Japan has always fascinated me, but I know painfully little about it - and surely there must be plenty written on how they literally rose from the ashes and the social/economic/political upheaval that defined that process. As is my nature, as I watch films like these i start longing for more historical context of the setting, and right now, saying a character's father was part of the "Left" in the 1950s means nothing to me. a basic primer on the politics of the period would help, but more so would be socioeconomic history...the kind of stuff we have tons of about the homefront during Vietnam for instance.
I don't know about straight history texts, but my reflex recommendation for 60s Japanese cinema, Desser's Eros Plus Massacre, contains a lot of fantastically helpful historical context for the New Wave films of the era. Plus it gives you a good background for their cinematic and production context. Plus it's excellent on analysing the films themselves. A great book.

You're correct in assuming that many of these films, and particularly Oshima's, assume a lot of pre-existing knowledge about Japanese society and politics of the era. Japanese imperialism and anti-Korean racism play an important role in the films you're about to encounter, and something like Night and Fog in Japan gets its teeth deep into the recent history of the radical left, so the more you know about that, the more you can get out of the film. This is a hopeless generalization, but the New Wave directors tend to engage with recent history and contemporary events much more intensely and allusively than the more mainstream filmmakers of the era.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#123 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Sep 14, 2010 1:01 am

It's not as broad as HistoryProf probably wants, but this is an interesting primer that ties into some of Oshima's '60s work.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#124 Post by feckless boy » Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:24 am

Wu.Qinghua wrote:There are optional English subtitles on the discs of the second of Blaq Out's Wakamatsu sets (but there are no English subs on the first set!), as well as forced trailers and forced anti-piracy clips (bah!) ... Unfortunately I can't comment on the quality of the discs/transfers as I couldn't watch them due to some weird technical problems ...
They are unfortunately unconverted NTSC-PAL transfers.

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Re: Eclipse Series 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties

#125 Post by feckless boy » Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:04 am

HistoryProf wrote:As for Sing a Song of Sex /.../ I simply did not understand what was happening once they hit on the students singing We Shall Overcome and what happens to the girl who stands up in their midst and sings the "woman's song" -
SpoilerShow
Kaneda, the girl that's carried off, is in all probability of Korean descent and the "bawdy" song she sings is about women forced into prostitution (during the 30s and 40s). Much more on this in Dessers and Turims books.

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