Nagisa Ōshima (1932-2013)

[MichaelB]

Daily Telegraph obituary, riddled with factual errors.

I was intrigued to discover that Night and Fog in Japan was apparently "about Nazi concentration camps", that Anthony Hopkins co-starred with Charlotte Rampling in Max Mon Amour (Max being a gorilla), and that his documentary on Japanese cinema was made ten years earlier than previously thought, and funded by the BBC instead of the BFI. And I daresay those aren't the only surprises.

[manicsounds]

Nosaka was shitfaced drunk before the ceremony, and let out his frustrations on Oshima on stage. What the frustrations were, I don't know. But they both seemed to apologize and forgive each other later on publicly.

[Rsdio]

I'm another who was fairly ambivalent about In the Realm of the Senses. I quite liked the contents of the Eclipse box but Death By Hanging totally blew me away when I saw it a few years back.

Based on that, does anyone have any suggestions for others I should be seeking out? I think part of me enjoys the fact that I really don't know what I think about the guy's work but at the same time I'd like to see more.

[eljacko]

Daily Telegraph obituary, riddled with factual errors.

I was intrigued to discover that Night and Fog in Japan was apparently "about Nazi concentration camps", that Anthony Hopkins co-starred with Charlotte Rampling in Max Mon Amour (Max being a gorilla), and that his documentary on Japanese cinema was made ten years earlier than previously thought, and funded by the BBC instead of the BFI. And I daresay those aren't the only surprises.

I found the NY Times writeup, by Dennis Lim, to be far more thorough (and accurate) in its summary of his life and goals.

[Perkins Cobb]

Anthony Hopkins, gorilla -- you can understand the mix-up, yes?

[Brian C]

I didn't realize Instinct had such far reaching cultural effects.

[MichaelB]

Anthony Hopkins, gorilla -- you can understand the mix-up, yes?

I'd be more sympathetic if Max had actually been a gorilla...

[Yojimbo]

I find that to be one of his weakest films. He changes pretty drastically from film to film with only the clear eye for experimentation and leftist politics being consistent. The films in the eclipse set offer a good variety and are mostly great (even Double Suicide has many passionate fans) though Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is easily his most accessible film on disc and features one of the best scores of all time though the film is largely ordinary.

Count me among Double Suicide's passionate fans; I haven't yet seen 'The Ceremony', but I've seen most of his major films and would rank 'Death by Hanging' just ahead of 'Violence at Noon' as his greatest.
Agreed about Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence which I suspect may have been a calculated commercial compromise: but it was hampered by the wretched performances of two pop-star leads
(and thats speaking as a Bowie fan from my teenage years)

[Yojimbo]

I'd actually put Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs at the head of the class otherwise fully agreed.

Excellent film, also
Which reminds me, now that I have that Eclipse set, I have the opportunity to watch it with English subs

[FerdinandGriffon]

My favorite Oshima related youtube ephemera is this totally non sequitur appearance in an ad for cockroach spray.

I don't agree about Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Though not one of his major films, it's still a very fine, unsettling tone piece, and I love both pop-star performances (any weaknesses in Sakamoto's perf are more than made up for by his stunning score). It should also be remembered that Three Resurrection Drunkards is another pop-star vehicle, in that case for Monkees-esqe psychedelic trio the Folk Crusaders, so I find it hard to imagine that Bowie and Sakamoto were compromised castings. Not to mention that putting Kitano in a serious role for the first time would also have been considered stunt-casting, no matter how inspired the result was.

[Yojimbo]

My favorite Oshima related youtube ephemera is this totally non sequitur appearance in an ad for cockroach spray.

I don't agree about Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Though not one of his major films, it's still a very fine, unsettling tone piece, and I love both pop-star performances (any weaknesses in Sakamoto's perf are more than made up for by his stunning score). It should also be remembered that Three Resurrection Drunkards is another pop-star vehicle, in that case for Monkees-esqe psychedelic trio the Folk Crusaders, so I find it hard to imagine that Bowie and Sakamoto were compromised castings. Not to mention that putting Kitano in a serious role for the first time would also have been considered stunt-casting, no matter how inspired the result was.

Kitano stole Lawrence for me, Ferd; even from Tom Conti
My opinion re compromise is I just suspected that Bowie's casting might have been geared to help him win an entirely new audience

[zedz]

I'm another who was fairly ambivalent about In the Realm of the Senses. I quite liked the contents of the Eclipse box but Death By Hanging totally blew me away when I saw it a few years back.

Based on that, does anyone have any suggestions for others I should be seeking out? I think part of me enjoys the fact that I really don't know what I think about the guy's work but at the same time I'd like to see more.

The really remarkable thing about Oshima at his peak is that he practically reinvented his filmmaking style with each project, so you can get films (like Violence at Noon) which are entirely predicated on high-speed, mosaic-like montage, while others made around the same time are entirely constructed of long takes.

The films closest to the vertiginous feeling you get in Death by Hanging, where trapdoors keep opening up underneath you and you enter a somehow different world, are probably Three Resurrected Drunkards (actually available!), Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, which seems to fundamentally rethink what kind of movie it is every ten minutes or so, and The Man Who Left His Will on Film, which has that same disorienting 'recurrence through the looking glass' feel of Death by Hanging.

But the more classically mounted Boy and The Ceremony (which present their subversions / perversions more on the thematic level) are just as great.

[whaleallright]

Based on that, does anyone have any suggestions for others I should be seeking out?

Boy, if you can find it. I think it's his best film.

[Mark Metcalf]

My favorite Oshimas are The Ceremony, Night and Fog in Japan, and I love his first film, Street of Love and Hope.

[Rsdio]

Thanks everyone, that gives me plenty to be going on with providing I can track them down in some form.

[Yojimbo]

My favorite Oshimas are The Ceremony, Night and Fog in Japan, and I love his first film, Street of Love and Hope.

'Night and Fog in Japan' is a difficult watch, but worth sticking with.
I definitely want to watch it again, when I'll be better prepared

[stagefright50]

Based on that, does anyone have any suggestions for others I should be seeking out?

Boy, if you can find it. I think it's his best film.

Which is, along with 10 of his other films, available with a Hulu Plus subscription here.

[MichaelB]

That's not much (or indeed any) use for anyone outside the US.

[stagefright50]

Apologies and I'll qualify next time. Anyone that is in the US and doesn't have a subscription should use the one week free trial to at least explore Oshima.

No, I don't work for Hulu.