Shohei Imamura

I just watched Black Rain today and I was absolutely blown away (no pun intended). It’s a stark, haunting, and yet oddly beautiful film and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his films. I’m not sure where to start though. I want to see The Ballad of Narayama and I think I’ll pick up the Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes set from Criterion, but what else is worth looking at?

But the purpose of this thread isn’t just me asking for recommendations. One thing I noticed about Black Rain, is that even though Imamura was not a fan of Ozu’s films despite working with the master, there’s a strong influence of Ozu on the film from the camera placement to the general themes of family, marriage, etc. But Imamura handles the material differently than Ozu would. It’s more in your face, the emotions are right there in front for the audience to see, rather than tucked away. Just an observation.

I’d start with Vengeance Is Mine (1979): a bloody amazing film; make that: a bloody, amazing film.

Imamura’s opposition to ozu arose as much from what he perceived as ozus mistreatment of his actors as from any ideological position.[in later life imamura semi retracted his negative stance on ozu]

Liamallen, what mistreatment did he perceive? Because I don’t think I’ve heard that about Ozu before.

Dr. Akagi, The Eel, The Pornographers. Gigantic Masterpieces.

ZGDK@ endless retakes to the point of nervous collapse,imamura said that ozu treated his actors like puppets!

Imamura also accused Ozu of lacking empathy. In an interview he recalled: “My mother died of a cerebral haemorrage while I was working on Ozu’s Tokyo Story. When I got back from her funeral, I found Ozu in the sound studio dubbing the scene in which the grandmother [played by Chieko Higashiyama] is dying, also from a cerebral haemorrage. I could not stand watching the scene over and over again – it reminded me so vividly of my mother’s death – and so I ran out of the dubbing theatre… But Ozu followed me… ‘Mr. Imamura,’ he asked, ‘is that what a cerebral haemorrage looks like? Have I got it right?’ At the time I thought him incredibly cruel, but I later realized that a great filmmaker sometimes has to behave like that.”

“vengeance is mine” and “the eel” are my picks, yeah.

what can i say, the dude knew how to make movies about murderers.

Imamura’s opposition to ozu arose as much from what he perceived as ozus mistreatment of his actors as from any ideological position.[in later life imamura semi retracted his negative stance on ozu]

…actors are not real people, just pretentious screen-jockeys.

Imamura is essentially Ozu in reverse; his films are about the dissolution of the family, and the alienating effect of the modern world, but instead of hinting at these real issues Imamura forces our hand. He makes every single audience member confront the horrible parts of human life; how petty, gross, sexual (in a bad way), and mean we all can be… but in the same regard he comes to the same conclusion. Ozu and Imamura both see humanity as equally beautiful and ugly, and in reality both directors seem to see the beauty overrides the ugliness.

Imamura’s best film is Profound Desire of the Gods (with Eijanaika, and Insect Woman being two and three for me), and Imamura is one of the few directors I wish would have made his works even longer; most of his films are above the two hour mark, and only ever seem to get better, crazier, more beautiful, and ugly the longer they are.

At this point I’ve pretty much checked off “I Want to Watch This” for most of his filmography.

This probably the order I’ll watch them in:

Vengance is Mine
The Eel
The Profound Desire of the Gods
Dr. Akagi
Pigs and Battleships
The Insect Woman
Intentions to Murder

I would definitely suggest checking out The Pornographers, Eijanaika (Why Not?) and A Man Vanishes, also… if we’re doling out suggestions.

ZGDK those are the great choice!

In Japan, “Intention of murder” is considered as his best.
I think so too now though I could not appreciate this film much when I was young
as its protagonist was not powerful as his other films.
However, her strong instinc of survival underneath her passiveness is
so animal-like and that’s so Imamura, later I realized.
Being so weak and passive made this character even more real than his other protagonists.

My fovorites are 1) Intention of Murser 2) Insect Women 3) The Profound Desire of God 4) Vengence is Mine 5) Pigs and Battleships 6) Pornograpahers 7) Black Rain 8)Man Vanishes 9) Ballad of Narayama 10) Nippon Sengoshi

Lord Quas, I forgot to add The Pornographers to my list, I’ll probably watch that after Vengance is Mine. For some reason though Netflix doesn’t have the Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes set. In fact they’re missing most of his work. They didn’t add Black Rain until I wrote a review complaining about it’s lack of availability.

And Lord Quas, I like your assessment of how Imamura sees the beauty in the horror. I really got that sense in Black Rain, sure horrible things had happened, but I can’t help but find something beautiful in just the basic human will to survive.

Unfortunately most of Imamura’s work isn’t available in the west (though there are some Japanese DVD’s of his work that work perfectly fine in Region 1 DVD players (check yesasia.com)), but for those that are available always check your local library, and failing that you can try the ILLiad system (Interlibrary Loan), which will conduct a search for the DVD from any library in the nation (I currently have On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate, Shanghai Gesture, and Perfect Blue on hold on ILLiad).

There are plenty of perfectly legal ways to see most of Imamura’s work without paying much of anything for them…

I think you can see Imamura’s work in a number of ways, but I always feel there’s something, even in the darkest moments of his work (the beginning and end of Vengeance is Mine, most of Profound Desire of the Gods, and certainly The Pronographers, all of it), there is always something triumphant, beautiful, humourous, redemptive, or at least bittersweet in pretty much every moment of his films. Even in his condemnations there is usually enough ambiguity to find something deeply, intrinsically human in it.

i have, rather belatedly ,just got round to watching “profound desire of the gods” ,and i(purely on a emotional level )found its pantheistic vision a little too overwhelming! another possible objection i might have towards the film is the rather simplistic dichotomy established between the pragmatic mainlander and the main island family in the film.( the other residents of the island are depicted in a far more balanced way, realistically caught between a traditional belief system and economic reality)

’

anyone?

despite my ambivalent feelings towards the film, the hallucinatory colour of the bluray is impressive!

<img src=“http://api.photoshop.com/home_3caf359d8cb94e5c8ab9cc19661e868c/adobe-px-assets/14a6a9a26f1346609e971070eaf8f188” width=“800” height=“347”/<img src=“http://api.photoshop.com/home_3caf359d8cb94e5c8ab9cc19661e868c/adobe-px-assets/c1513753091540c59fe3b4cd45fd8284” width=“800” height=“345”/

the boredom and inherent feelings of melancholy associated with a oppressive northern afternoon have got to me! that is why i feel drawn to this thread in order to inquire whether anyone has seen the moc bluray pictured above?