More films like this please: the truth of life, w/o commercial cinema's technical sorcery.

Love that quote.

Like watching my past on the screen. Eerily good.

This movie was released in 1996.

"Hiroshi Inagaki"

"The question is that, in Japan, why do the police not stop their illegal activities? It is because the people are docile. It's not like in Korea, for example, where, if something happens, the people rise up and have demonstrations. Nothing like that has ever happened in Japan. So, even if I make a movie like this, the police won't come after me. It's not like the FBI in the United States would put out a hit on me or anything like that. Nothing like that would happen. And when I applied for documents like filming permits, they came through with no problems from the police. And one more important reason: basically, Japanese society doesn't care for filmmakers - especially for independent filmmakers. They look down on me as an independent filmmaker. Independent filmmakers like me seem to have no influence on society, and whatever I produce doesn't have a large effect on society at large. If it was a large studio like Toho, for example - and it actually happens that last year, they were planning a film similar to mine, and they were probably shut down by the police because, in a large company like Toho, there are former members of the police who have become executives in the corporation. The larger the company, the more likely a project like this is to be shut down."

The movie is a chore, until the last 10 minutes, which finally woke me up.

Completely bizarre, but somehow fun.

It's so mechanical and without surprise or personalization that I can't consider it a work of art.

There's no reason why this film is so bad. Just like the comment below, they had so many good things working materially, but it's like no effort was put into it. I don't understand.

Fucking demented and genius. Denden's performance is the best I've seen in years, and this is the film Sono's always wanted to make.

Great comrade and an important filmmaker. We gotta get Men and War on here!

Better than Bourne.

The swansong. Too many ingredients, but overall, a good dish.

Hey, somebody add Gravity.

Hong is back! Maybe the best yet.

Perfection!

Now, if we could actually find it. I've been wanting to see this for a few years.

aka, "in defense of bourgeois patriarchy"

It's amazing that everyone I follow gave it all fives. One of those unique films that works more like a mirror than a window.

Even with a complete divergence from his usual style, Teshigahara makes a very interesting picture on a zero budget. He works non-pro actors just as fine as an Italian Neorealist, and I dare anyone to find a better anti-war film made under the same conditions.

I feel like there was a rupture between Abe's existentialism, a search for identity and meaning, and Teshigahara's style, which tends to alienate. He broke the line several times, sometimes even has half the frame obscured or out of focus, and on top of that there are those memorable psychedelic scenes. It's the only film in the partnership where I felt that the two didn't make love very well. But still...

I haven't seen so many impactful films one right after the other since Victor Erice. Kumai deserves much more respect.

Two stars only because of Carmen Chaplin.

So intentionally absurd. I love it.

There were pyramids in 10,000 B.C. . . . I seen it!

You cinephiles really need to get on this film. If you liked Breathless, then you'll be blown away. It's everything the 70's should have been.

Best anime of all time. Period.

Every time you think KT is going to take his curious, roving camera away from an uncomfortable scene, he doesn't, and brings you to that next level of depravity, met with more discomfort, and then fascination. A good take on the Sadean philosophy.

As good as In the Realm of the Senses, probably better. Funny how you can get such a different approach from two different directors. I like this version for fleshing out the character of Abe Sada more. Oshima did not do a good job at making compelling characters in Ai no Corrida. I think he was more concerned w/ sex, or at least Anatole Dauman was.