Based on the homonymous novel by Shusaku Endo, which tells the story of downed American pilots in World War II who were vivisected by Japanese surgeons in medical experiments, “Sea and Poison” was a great success, winning the Silver Berlin Bear in Berlinale, Best Film and Director from Kinema Junpo and Mainichi, and Best Director from Blue Ribbon, and also an award for editing for Osamu Inoue from the Japanese Academy.
The film begins with an interrogation conducted in a cell by the American MP, headed by a Japanese officer who is quite harsh on the people he asks questions: two former interns, Suguro and Toda, and a nurse, Ueda. Through flashbacks deriving from their confessions, a rather harrowing tale is presented on screen. This story is split in two parts, with the bombings in Kyushu island, where the hospital of the story is based and the subsequent capturing of American pilots,...
The film begins with an interrogation conducted in a cell by the American MP, headed by a Japanese officer who is quite harsh on the people he asks questions: two former interns, Suguro and Toda, and a nurse, Ueda. Through flashbacks deriving from their confessions, a rather harrowing tale is presented on screen. This story is split in two parts, with the bombings in Kyushu island, where the hospital of the story is based and the subsequent capturing of American pilots,...
- 1/8/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
If you’re after real nonconformist filmmaking with a political bent, Shohei Imamura’s daring and often sexually candid pictures fit the bill. Arrow gathers three of his best from the 1980s, the international success The Ballad of Narayama, the stunning Hiroshima aftermath drama Black Rain and the largely unseen, often wickedly funny Zegen. Each is disturbing, politically pointed and relentlessly honest. Arrow appoints this three- title set with new expert audio commentaries and Tony Rayns featurettes, plus a fat essay booklet. Zegen, we are told, has never before been available subtitled in English.
Survivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura
The Ballad of Narayama, Zegen, Black Rain
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1983-1989 / Color, B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 130, 125, 123 min. / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 99.95
Directed by Shohei Imamura
Films by the Japanese director Shohei Imamura have one thing in common — they’re as provocative as a slap in the face. Our introduction to...
Survivor Ballads: Three Films by Shohei Imamura
The Ballad of Narayama, Zegen, Black Rain
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1983-1989 / Color, B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 130, 125, 123 min. / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 99.95
Directed by Shohei Imamura
Films by the Japanese director Shohei Imamura have one thing in common — they’re as provocative as a slap in the face. Our introduction to...
- 12/29/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
When asked by film scholar Tony Rayns about his take on the period drama, Japanese auteur Shohei Imamura said in an interview taking place during a retrospective of his work, that the story should present a certain kind of relevance to today’s world. You can see such a connection to a universal, but rather sad truth in Imamura’s original opening for his 1983 Palme d’Or winning “The Ballad of Narayama”, which was supposed to feature a sequence in which a family brings an elderly woman to a retirement where she, after her family is gone again, another woman of the same tells her she will never see them again, despite their promises of doing so. Even though Imamura would eventually change the opening of his script to an aerial shot of the mountain area where the story takes place, the theme stayed with the story, making “The Ballad of Narayama...
- 12/19/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
By Raktim Nandi
Shohei Imamura is the only Japanese director to see his films win the prestigious Palme D’Or twice. The first of the wins came in 1983, with “The Ballad Of Narayama.” An adaptation of Shoichiro Fukazawa’s debut novel of the same name, the film is a winner of several more awards and much acclaim, including three wins at the Japanese Academy Awards.
The story takes place in an isolated village in the 19th century. The senicidal practice of Obasute, the procedure of which involves carrying an infirm aged relative to a mountain to die, is an important part of the village traditions. In this particular village, one needs to turn 70 before being carried to a sacred mountain. Orin, played by Sumiko Sakamoto, is 69, and spends her time readying herself for the one-way trip. She is not afraid to die; tradition condemns refusal of the trip.
Shohei Imamura is the only Japanese director to see his films win the prestigious Palme D’Or twice. The first of the wins came in 1983, with “The Ballad Of Narayama.” An adaptation of Shoichiro Fukazawa’s debut novel of the same name, the film is a winner of several more awards and much acclaim, including three wins at the Japanese Academy Awards.
The story takes place in an isolated village in the 19th century. The senicidal practice of Obasute, the procedure of which involves carrying an infirm aged relative to a mountain to die, is an important part of the village traditions. In this particular village, one needs to turn 70 before being carried to a sacred mountain. Orin, played by Sumiko Sakamoto, is 69, and spends her time readying herself for the one-way trip. She is not afraid to die; tradition condemns refusal of the trip.
- 11/8/2020
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
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